I Never Looked Back
By
Gerry Niskern

No Vaccines! Lets take another look at l957 again!

When my five year old daughter dashed out and climbed into the Kindergarten van back in September, l957, I envisioned her bringing home lots of interesting things to show me and her little brothers. I was happy for her. It was going to be a great year.
Well, She brought things home all right. The first thing was Chicken Pox. First, she gave it to Mark her little three year old brother. Three weeks later the baby broke out. Kathy and Matthew, the new baby, only had a few pox, but Mark, the three year old, was totally covered. He became so sick with a 104 degree fever that we rushed him to St. Joes emergency one night and the ER doctor explained: “ when kids get this covered they have as many inside as outside!” Baby aspirin and trips to the doctor became our new lifestyle.
Next Kathy came home with the Red measles. The brothers caught it several days apart. Just as the first child was feeling better, the second one would come down. And so it went, week after week.
Later around Christmas time we took time off from our schedule of having all the childhood diseases to fit in the Asian Flu. In l957 the Asian flu emerged, triggering a pandemic. The whole family had that; me and Ken too. By that time I hadn’t slept for months, at least it seemed that way. Their daddy was trying to help, but still had to get to work every day.
Everybody, baby included, finished up with a case of Strep Throat in time to celebrate Easter. We had the usual Easter egg hunt at the crack of dawn in our yard to see what the Bunny had brought, then church, and afterward a visit to one set of grandparents for lunch. Of course, later we were expected for the rest of the day at the other grandparents.
I had developed a touch of Bronchitis and suddenly that holiday evening I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I started to panic and hyperventilate and managed to partially paralyze myself. Ken hurried me down to Good Sam and they called our family doctor who had been our constant companion thru that winter; so wouldn’t he want to join us on Easter too?
The nurses got me calmed down a little and then I saw Dr. Craig striding quickly down the hallway, the overhead lights glinting off his glasses. I kept saying over and over to him, “tell them what’s been happening!”
He pulled out his Lucky Strike, lit up, and glanced at the chart. He took one look at me and said “ Get her a private room.” Then he turned to Ken and said,
“She’s staying here for a while and getting some rest. Don’t let anyone know she is here, except her mother.”
I stayed five days in my own room in a blissful blanket of quiet and did nothing but sleep. A huge, ‘Mother of all vaporizers’ murmured soft puffs of moist air beside my bed as I slept. When Dr. Craig came to sign me out I remember him muttering to himself, between drags on his cigarette as he slowly studied my chart, “Lets see. How can I word this so the guys in the ivory tower will cover it?”
When my frazzled young husband came to take me home that morning he whispered to me, laughing, “ I’ve got to tell you this. When I was trying to talk to Kathy and Mark about you, and explaining that they should try to not aggravate you, Mark said, “But daddy, she’s the mom and if we want to aggravate her, we can aggravate her.”
I got home just in time for Kathy’s next big surprise. I noticed her jawline looking strange. As time went by I realized she was swelling up with the mumps. And of course, right on schedule, a week or so later Mark started swelling and then Matthew the baby. More sleepless nights with high fevers and lots of baby aspirin all around.
Bit the fevers weren’t going down. Guess what. The German measles had joined the mix. More days and nights of very sick kids.
Then days later as I was giving my very busy mother a “triage” report, I mentioned that everyone’s fever was gone and they were all playing and seemed okay; just a little funny looking with swollen, rash covered faces. “Their daddy says we have three ‘purple-people-eaters’!
I received a surprise call from Mom the next morning, a Friday. “Pack a suitcase. I’m coming over this afternoon and when Ken gets home you two take off and don’t come back till Sunday evening. The kids will be fine with me”.
When she arrived I “hit the door running” and never looked back.

All the books that I was allowed to finish
By
Gerry Niskern
“I read the whole book. It was so good. I liked the little dog best”, I happily announced to my teacher. Surprise! I received an embarrassing scolding for reading ahead of the two pages assigned.
Looking back, I realize we didn’t have any other books in the classroom and Miss Mary Jane Crow was planning on spending a lot of time on that first grade reader.
At home I read the comics in the newspaper, and of course, everything else I could make out too. When we passed the library building down in town I was fascinated to learn that it was full of books and you could borrow them! I was too shy to ask to go in.
I was ten when we moved to Phoenix and I discovered the Carnegie Library on West Washington. It was only ten blocks from our house but Mom was hesitant to let me go alone. I begged my older sister to go with me, but she had just discovered the teenage boy down the street.
Children were not allowed in the main room. I was directed to go around the side of the big red brick building to the entrance to the basement, the children’s department. The red side door welcomed me and I began my adventures of reading every single book in that huge basement. There is no other way to describe the feeling of pure joy each time I looked at those shelves of books.
I staggered home with armloads of books every week. In the summer I walked over in the cool evening. I didn’t realize that I was acquiring knowledge of the world and its traditions. My imagination was developing and creating my own images of the stories. I was developing empathy, creativity and gaining vocabulary too.
I read every book in the girl’s section, and of course my favorite was the “Little House” series. I started on the boys area and finished it too. Then, all I could do was wait; wait until my twelfth birthday. Then I would be allowed to take out a card in the adult section upstairs.
The quiet room was overwhelming. Beautiful polished hardwood floors called for tiptoe. Looking up, “I’m twelve now and I would like to have an adult library card, please.” I whispered to the little while haired lady sitting at the high counter. At last, I could read any book I wanted and I carried several volumes home that day.
I was thirteen when the war was over and many heart wrenching books were written by people who actually experienced the war. I read those books and learned more about history than any movie could have shown.
Of course, later on, after I was married, I was still voraciously reading. I’m a little embarrassed to admit that as a young mother I balanced my current book on my lap along with my babies as I fed them.
My great-great-granddaughter is in first grade and has fallen in love with reading. At Christmas I gave her the complete set of the “Little House” books. I Think the poor kid already knows she is only going to receive books from this grandmother.

(FAVORITE BOOKS: When I started w/c painting my bible was a book on composition and design by Whitney. And as with any class, I learned you need to “Hit the books” if you really want to excel. My go -to book for writing was called “The Elements of Style” by Stroud.