Doomed to Fail - BONUS: Real Life Stories - Getting the Polio Vaccine with Taylor's Dad, Mark!

Episode Date: January 7, 2025

Co-Host Taylor interviews her dad, Mark, who was born in 1953! We talk DDT trucks, the Polio Vaccine, and what it was like to just not have to worry about it anymore!  Were you at any of our historical events??? We'd love to interview you too!  Join our Founders Club on Patreon to get ad-free episodes for life! patreon.com/DoomedtoFailPodWe would love to hear from you! Please follow along! Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/doomedtofailpod/  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doomedtofailpod  Youtube:  https://www.youtube.com/@doomedtofailpod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@doomed.to.fail.pod Email: [e-mail] 

Hi friends. Welcome to Doomed to Fail. We're the podcast that brings you historical disasters, life lessons, interesting stories from our human past. And we are trying to figure out what's next for us, how we grow, how we talk with stories we're telling and all of that. But our first episode of 2025 was released on January 6th and it is about the polio vaccine. So I talked a little bit about the history of polio. I talked about obviously our dear FDR and our dear Eleanor. And I also talked about the vaccine. And when thinking about the polio vaccine, I remembered that my dad, Mark, remembers getting the polio vaccine. He got the Sabin oral vaccine in a sugar cube. And he remembers standing in line and getting it. So I thought, why not ask him about it? So I hope you enjoy this short interview that I did was my dad, Mark Sterrick, about polio growing up in a time when vaccines were new. And we also touch on my great aunt, so my grandma's sister, who passed away when she was two years old from measles, which is now a disease, obviously, that we can vaccinate against. And I always think

about how my great grandma told me that she thought about her every day, obviously, for, you know, 70 years. Every day she thought about this daughter that she had lost to a disease that we are so lucky now to be able to vaccinate against. So I wanted to share those stories and maybe we'll do more. Definitely a note to talk to your parents and grandparents and get their stories because it's fun to talk about it, record it, and be able to share it with the next generation. So love you, Dad. Thank you so much. And I hope everyone enjoys this short interview. In a matter of the people of the state of California versus Hortenthall James Simpson, case number B.A.019.

And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country. country. Cool. Hi, Dad. How are you? I'm doing well here in Florida. Good.

I am about to record my show on polio, and I wanted to talk to you because I know you remember getting the vaccine. But first, just love to hear where you grew up when you were born. Sure. I was born in Chicago, Illinois, at Evangelical Hospital, doesn't exist anymore, on July 21, 1953. I grew up in North Riverside. It's the western suburb of Chicago. It goes Chicago, Cicero, Berlin, North Riverside.

So the third small suburb out west of the city limits of Chicago, that's where I grew up. Cool. And it's obviously, like, post-war era, was everyone's dad, like a veteran? everyone's dad was a veteran actually I remember my dad would when he would meet another dad they would say what were he in the service yeah and the guy would say I was in the Navy and my father my father was in the Marines they all were they all were in the service or yes they all were yeah totally what do you what's like what are some of your favorite childhood memories of like being a kid in the in the 50s and 60s well we were free to go wherever we wanted a totally different than today. You'd hop on your bike, go down to the baseball field, and literally play all day. And they had a pump there where you could pump well water when you got thirsty, and that was summertime, and everybody went there. And then in the wintertime, they had, the Salt Creek went near where I lived, and it was flooding all the time. So they built a corridor underground from

Salt Creek to the Displains River to level the water off. And they left a huge mountain of dirt where we, everybody would go tobogging during the wintertime. Yeah. And in those days, we had snow. So yeah, yeah, yeah. In the before days. One thing that I learned about in researching the polio is about how, like, America was in like not in the 50s, but before that, like, getting people to be clean to be like, you know, take a shower. It just like wasn't a thing that people did. And a lot of it was marketing.

So there was like, you know, use Listerine for the first time and like brush your teeth. and things like that. And one thing that came up that I know you remember is the trucks of DDT. Yes. Yes, I did. I do. Remember it very well. And the crazy thing was the truck with DDT would go down the street and our parents let us ride our bikes in the fog. That's so funny. Isn't it crazy? Now everybody would be locking the windows and the doors. And in those days it was like, hey, great. We didn't think of DDT. We thought it was the mosquito truck we call. And you, you know, you've hiding the smog to be like a movie, and it was what we did. Did it stop the mosquitoes? Did it work?

I think the only way it stopped mosquitoes is when the truck hit an actual mosquito. That was about it. That's fair. That's fair. Amazing. Okay, so about the polio vaccine in particular, I'd love to hear just like what you're, what do you remember about polio? Was it something that you thought about or like people were thinking about? Was it a big deal?

To be honest with you, after you mentioned this to me a few weeks ago, I did have one. No, I never knew anybody who had it. Now, our next-star neighbors, my parents' next-door neighbor were Marie and George. They were in their 70s in, you know, in the 50s. They passed away a long time ago. They had a son who was alive. And she had a son also, she had two sons, but one died of polio. And she said that she went to the hospital and the betting was roll up and everything was roll up.

And then she got the news that her son had died. Oh. A few months later, she goes to the hospital to see her other son who was ill. She noticed the betting roll up and she thought, I've lost both sons. It was, he survived. The second one survived. Oh, good. That's terrible.

Yeah. And she was, so they had ended up with one, with one grown. man, it was their son. And so that was really the only person I knew, but it's, I remember that, and that's just how she told it.

She said, when I saw Georgie was the son who survived, when I saw Georgie's betting role, I thought he had passed away too. It was, but she, he did not. So that was it.

That's good. That's crazy. Did it, when, do you remember, so tell me about when you got the vaccine, how old were you? And how were you, like, expecting it?

Because it reminds, me a tiny bit of, I mean, COVID was obviously a very different disease and affected a lot more people, but, you know, when we got the COVID vaccine, like, I cried in relief, like, as a mom, as a parent. I was so happy that we were able to do this. And I'm curious as to, like, if you were expecting it or were you just like, oh, one day we're going to go down and get it. Yeah, I think it's one day we're going to go down and get it. I don't think it was, I don't remember being like a release to my parents or anything like that. No. It was extremely, simple. We would get in line. If somebody is listening now and they know the area, North Riverside, Displanes Avenue goes right through North Riverside. And on the west side of Displanes right now is the North Riverside Library. That was the City Hall at that when I was a kid. So we all lined up in front of the City Hall and they had a doctor and a nurse there and a notebook and they would give you a sugar cube with the vaccine in it. And you would, I think my mind had to bring birth certificates.

I think she did. And we would, they'd fill out the form or fill out to put us in the notebook. And because it was sugar, kids went for it. You didn't get a shot or anything. It was very simple, very quick. But the line was forever because every kid did it. I think you had to do it to go to school. Maybe.

I think you do now. Yeah. Yeah. And then my brother, it was probably, I would say maybe 1950, 60. I mean, excuse me, 60. I was maybe six or seven years old at the time. And my brother would have been two or three. And we both got it. And then we had to do it again. It was a two vaccine system. And we did it twice. And I never knew anyone who got polio. Amazing. Amazing is right. That's super cool. yeah that's fun i feel like everybody in that line with you probably remembers doing it probably does it was a it was kind of an event and yeah it was uh because it wasn't an actual shot it was painless and um yeah and i remember we were all lined up and did it yeah and there

was nothing to it yeah cool and the best parts it worked yeah no the best parts it worked that's so cool yeah that's really fun so that would have been 60 well over 60 years ago. Yeah. Because I'll be 72 in July and probably 65 years ago. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I would think.

Cool. It's very fun. It's wild. The public health things are so crazy. They are. They are. They are. They are.

And like I say, I'm sure that we had to have that in order to go to school. And you probably do not, I would think. Yeah, I think you do too. I'm going to check, but I'm pretty sure that you do. Yeah. Yeah. And the other thing that I know we didn't talk to your Uncle Al about, but I know that my grandma's sister died of a disease that is a vaccinated disease now.

Yeah, I think it was measles. Yeah, I think so too. But I'll have to check with him. And she was two. And my grandmother, your great grandmother, said that she held her, when she died and you just would die from measles. That's awful. And she said she held her and her name was Gloria and said Gloria smiled and then she just

passed away. Oh, that's so sad. Yeah. And that would have been a long time ago. That would have been. That maybe 100 years ago. Yeah, because my mom was born in 30, so my mom would be 93 and it was her older sister. So it was baby 85, 90 years ago, yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Wow. Super. But that's, yeah, I remember that story from Grandma also, yeah. Me too. Me too. Yeah. Well, cool. Well, thank you. I really appreciate you telling me that memory. That's really cool. Oh, you're welcome. I remember it very well. And it was the way it was in those days. Yeah. Totally. This way it was.

Yeah. All right. Cool. Thanks. I love you. Don't hang up. I'm just going to stop recording. I love you too. Okay. All right. Bye-bye. Thank you.