Medical Mayhem of the 60's

In the early 60’s, when I was working part-time in the Department Store, my wife and little baby came in to see me on a Saturday morning.

My son, in his stroller, was the picture of health and good grooming, as all over privileged young Jewish boys in Baltimore at that time would be.

His accessories included, as a foot correcting device, a medical brace. This was a steel bar with holders for his expensive Stride Right shoes, polished beautifully white and gleaming.

This custom device was prescribed by doctors to correct a foot gone outwards.

A co-worker, not from an over privileged background himself, came over to see me after my family had left and all but expressed his condolences. He had watched my wife and son’s visit and was stricken by the scene. He was expressing grave concern over my son’s having polio!

Now, the vaccine, developed in the 1950s, was credited with reducing the global number of polio cases per year from many hundreds of thousands to around a thousand. In North America, I knew of no cases, and even I was young enough to have taken the vaccine.


However, I felt his pain and assured him there was nothing wrong except over privilegeditis, a disease of young people thinking they have money.