Polio Epidemic, 1936, by Cliff Stokes

From MemoryArchive

Who: Cliff Stokes
What: Polio Epidemic
When: 1936
Where: Toronto Ont Can

It was an unbelievably hot summer, I can't remember any private homes having air conditioning, I don't believe we even had a fan! This was truly the heart of the depression. Possibly some of the "shows" (cinemas) had it, I have memories of going to some shows and coming out to the blast of heat and humidity. That summer the incidences of Polio gradually increased. People were discouraged from getting together in enclosed groups. It wasn't known how the disease was transmitted. I was eleven but I can't remember being in fear of catching Polio. My fifteen year old brother was working as a delivery boy for a small grocery store. He would come home most days with horror stories; neighbourhood children were being kept by themselves in their backyards, yet they would suddenly drop to the ground, Polio victims. Later that summer my brother became ill. The doctor came to the house but didn't seem to know what he had, it didn't appear to be Polio, he was just very weak and lay listlessly in bed. We had a toilet but it was in the cellar. My mother and father were both small people and I can remember them trying to take my brother down our long hall and down the stairs to the toilet. He eventually got his strength back, and with the cooler weather the epidemic ended and the fear left the city.