50 years ago this week

Fifty years ago this week, the Salk Polio Vaccine was approved - the same week I was born. Since that time, this yearly terror faded from our collective minds, andalong with it, the spectres of leg braces and iron lungs. Yet, polio came as close as possible to me - a girl the same age as me who lived down the street contracted it, as well as the son of a good family friend. Of the three of us, I was the only one to get the inoculation - thanks to my grandmother winning the debate with my mother. Her fear of polio was greater than my mother's fear of a new vaccine. I've been reading some retrospectives about those years this week, and had forgotten what a frightening thing an iron lung was. You can read some of these articles here:
HoustonChronicle.com - The legacy of the polio vaccine, 50 years later http://www.postgazette.com/pg/05094/482468.stm