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Sickness

One was not very old when the reality of sickness became a fact of life. For the ordinary family ailments there was always near at hand a supply of the old faithfuls such as aspirin, Minard’s linament, castor oil, salves and mustard poultices. Iodine for cuts and Vicks for chest colds were much used items from the medicine box. As a boost for the long strain of winter, cod liver oil in liquid or capsules was for years a necessary ingredient of our diet. For scalds or burns a slice of raw potato was to be immediately applied and at our house, at least, hot ginger for a cold or sore throat was prescribed in generous quantities.

At school we were gently reminded of the reality of illness by the visit at least once a year of the public health nurse and her pep talk on good eating habits as well as her rudimentary testing of our eyes, ears, teeth and throats. Dr. Keeping’s regular visits to vaccinate all pupils was a blunt reminder of the pre- sence in our midst of some serious communicable diseases. In the early 40s the taking of the TB patch test and later the chest X-rays from the mobile TB unit gave us all a scare since tuber— culosis was so dreaded at the time. Then in 1946 came the dreadful polio outbreak on the Island when schools were kept closed for over a month. Our community escaped but a young grandchild of our near neighbor was badly hit by the enemy bug. Less than ten years later polio struck again and took the lives of two strong young adults not far from our area.

Iona was not overly plagued with sickness but there were