A Manly Pickup

[laen64]

Hey Barton are you and the truck near Gordon? The peanuts are still good in blakely Hooah!

 

[Barton]

I believe, since you are a retired soldier, that when you say/write Gordon, you mean the Fort vice Gordon, Alabama. I'm closer to you than Ft Gordon and the pickup's home is Blakely. But I'm real close to the MARINE CORPS Logistics Base, Albany. HOOORAH!

 

[laen64]

Hey Barton that is normally correct and fits me in both ways. I work on Ft. Gordon and I had the pleasure of being in Gordon Al. on last weekend. I do visit that area often and will relocate soon to Ashford which is only a few miles away for Gordon Al.
I've been in conversation with the Deere dealer in Blakely as that's my normal travel route from Gordon to Ft. Gordon.

Thanks for the reply.

HooAh! & HooRah!

 

[jinman]

I don't recall seeing canned peanuts still in the shell, but I do have some of the Roasted Jumbo Peanuts shown in the lower left corner of the picture. I like peanuts roasted in the shell. They're too messy to eat in the house, but sitting out on the patio with a cold drink and shelling peanuts ain't a bad way to kill time.

Bird, when I was a kid in 4-H Club, we used to sell Fisher salted-in-the-shell peanuts to support the March of Dimes ("Shell Out for Polio" campaign). I remember those as some of the best peanuts I ever ate. I really love roasted peanuts too, but those were delicious.

I guess Polio has been wiped out and the March of Dimes has shifted its focus to infant care and preventing infant mortality. As a polio survivor, those campaigns sure meant a lot to me even as a kid.

 

[Bird]

Jim, I don't remember the Fischer peanuts, but naturally, as a polio survivor myself, I do remember the March of Dimes very well. I actually had polio when I was only 22 months old. The doctors back then didn't know what it was. Dad said the doctor just said, "He's gonna die." But I didn't. However, as I grew, my left leg didn't quite keep up in size with the right one and the left achilles tendon didn't grow right so the left foot was drawing up and I walked on my toes on that foot. So we started visiting what was then called the "Crippled Children's Hospital" (Shrine hospital) in Oklahoma City when I was 5 years old. First was a lot of stretching exercises, then the first couple of years of school, a shoe with a brace up to just below the knee, and finally when I was 9, I spent 6 weeks in the hospital where they took leaders from the top of my left foot, and some goat leaders or tendons, and spliced into the achilles tendon. They also put a silver pin in my big toe to keep it from drooping after they took the leaders or tendons from the top of it. So I can't wiggle the toes on my left foot, can't raise my left foot as far as the right, and my left leg is slightly smaller in diameter than the right leg. Two or three years after that surgery, I broke a toe on my left foot and the x-rays showed that silver pin had moved from the toe up into the foot, so another week in the hospital to have that pin removed.

And as hard a time as I had occasionally when I was a kid, the thing I always remembered best about that hospital was how lucky I was compared to a lot of the other boys there.

But, Jim, I didn't know you were a polio survivor, too.

 

[jinman]

. . . But, Jim, I didn't know you were a polio survivor, too.

Well Bird, that seems to be something else we have in common. I'm glad you made it with so few problems. I was lucky enough to have even less problems.

I was 3 yr old when I came down with polio. Normally, 3 yo kids don't remember much, but I remember having a fever so high my vision started to be reduced to a fuzzy circle in front of me. I don't remember the trip, but I remember the children's ward at John Peter Smith hospital in Fort Worth where Dad rushed me in the middle of the night.

My dad said they put me in ice to break my fever and gave me huge doses of antibiotics. I don't remember the ice or any of that. I do remember playing with the boy in the crib next to mine and my uncle coming to visit and bringing me chewing gum. . . funny how the mind works.

In those days (1950) they thought fluid on the spine would cause paralysis. I'm not sure if it was pressure or the concentration of the polio virus. The solution was to tap and drain the fluids. My father did not want them to do the spinal tap and would not give his permission. With the ice and antibiotics, they broke my fever in 3 days and I was allowed to go home after about a week. They gave me oral penicillin in candy form and I would sleep for a couple of hours and wake up very weak and hungry. The food I consumed the most was . . .drum roll. . . PEANUTS! The energy and protein in peanuts made it the best food I could eat.

For 6 months after I came home, I would not do anything with my right hand unless I was forced to do it. I'm right handed, so that was a obvious effect. Other than that, I don't think there was any other problems. I was very, very lucky. After all, how many kids get to eat all the peanuts they want.

 

[The Dougster]

Another polio survivor here... I got it when I was 13 months old and also spent time in a Shriners hospital in Gonzales Texas... My left leg was left about three inches shorter and without muscles... I grew up wearing a brace and three inch lift on the left shoe.. In '89, I had surgery to "stretch" the leg... an external fixator and about a dozen wires running thru my leg... I stretched the leg the three inches in about six weeks.... I was "out of commission" for almost a year. Was it worth it? I still cannot answer that question but was something I had to do.... Now that I am closing in on age 65, Post Polio Syndrome is catching up with me fast.... Thank God I can play on my tractor using my right leg...

 

[Bird]

Jim, since I was only 22 months old, and that was the year we lived in Baltimore, I don't remember the illness. According to my parents, the doctors just gave me a sulfa drug and sent me home to die. I'm not sure how long it took to get back to "normal". So I was in the hospital in Oklahoma City that 6 weeks in 1949, and I only remember peanuts one time. For supper one night, we had something I'd never seen before and have never seen since, but it was boiled peanuts in the english peas; not good, not bad, but I'll never forget it because I was so sick and vomiting that night. And I really didn't want anymore english peas for 8 to 10 years.

Dougster, I'm sorry to hear you're becoming a victim of PPS. I'm already 69 and sometimes wonder if that's why I feel so darned weak a lot of the time. I've read that it gets about 25% of us and can start as early as the 40s or as late as 75.

 

[Bird]

Jim and Dougster, I thought I'd tell you something funny. I guess some wonder how a polio victim passed the physical to get on the police department and I can tell you my career was an accident.

In the '60s, a Dr. Wharton was #2 man at the city health department, and he was the one who handled the physicals for police and fire applicants. He rejected everyone he could for any reason he could, so in spite of me going to see him 3 times, trying to prove I could do anything anyone else could, he simply was NOT going to pass me. As he said, "Yeah, maybe you're OK now, but you'll want a disability pension before you put in your 20 years."

So, I finally made an early afternoon appointment to see Dr. Bass, who was the head man at the health department. On the way to that appointment, I really wasn't paying any attention to the news on the car radio, but they mentioned that Dr. Bass was being awarded some "Man of the Year" or some such thing by the Lions Club, or Kiawanis, or Odd Fellows (one of those groups anyway) at their noon luncheon. When I got to his office, his secretary said he wasn't back from lunch yet. So I waited, and it dawned on me where he was. So when he arrived, he went straight into his office, and Dr. Wharton went into Dr. Bass's office, and the secretary. When the secretary came out, she said I could go in. So I walked in there, straight to Dr. Bass's desk, reached across the desk to shake hands, and said, "Congratulations, Dr. Bass on (and now I've forgotten exactly what the award was)". The old gentleman beamed from ear to ear.

So he asked if my left foot ever bothered me and I replied in the negative. Then he asked me to take off the shoe and sock so he could see the scars on the top of that foot. And then he turned to Dr. Wharton and said, "Aw, let's give'im a chance." Dr. Wharton glared at me over the top of the little eyeglasses he wore, and said, "Alright, but don't you dare limp going out of here."

So, I'd probably have never been able to get on the police department if Dr. Bass hadn't received that award. I went on to graduate #1 in my recruit class of 29, am the only one from that class to attain the rank of captain, and I retired about 2 months and 5 days short of 25 years, on a "long service" pension; not disability. Darn it, if it had been disability, it sure would have saved me a lot of money in income tax.

 

[The Dougster]

From what I've read, the percentage of polio victims that has PPS is much higher than 20%... I believe it's more like 50% +... but that's neither here nor there... PPS slips up on ya when you least expect it, and quite likely, it is why you feel so darn tired all the time... best thing is to stop and rest before you start feeling tired...
I enjoyed your story about getting qualified... It's pretty tiresome growing up and people think you can't do what others do... One thing I've learned in life is to not sell short those with handicaps.. They'll surprise you every time...