Polio Epidemic, 1936, by Earl Scott

From MemoryArchive

Who: Earl Scott
What: Polio Epidemic
When: 1936
Where: Toronto, ON

There were signs everywhere of the effects of polio: in newspapers were the pictures of the stricken usually in an iron lung with a mirror so the could see a visitor. There were many of the less afflicted in wheel-chairs or with steel braces to support the shortened and twisted limbs. Some could handle the less arduous tasks such as minding the ice houses where blocks of ice for home ice-boxes were sold for pick-up, to be carried in a canvas bag or set on the bumper of a car or in the back of a horse-drawn wagon. Others sat at busy corners and sold pencils or apples or just begged. There was little social help then and it carried a stigma to accept charity.

The epidemic started in the spring and got worse through summer. I was 6 years of age and confined to our fenced yard about 16'x 24' to keep me from contacting the disease. It wasn't all that bad as I had a garden of radishes I had planted and occasionally after much pleeding a friend or 2 was allowed in to play. It was the height of the depression and my Dad's job had been reduced to 3 or 4 days per week which he found inadequate so he had quit and opened his own repair garage behind our house. As a result I had more toys than most of the other kids in our impoverished neighbourhood. As a result many of my toys disappeared. (That was my first exposure to crime.)

There were many theories as to what caused polio as it didn't fit the usual bacterial source for disease. That year golden rod got a lot of blame and it was irradicated by all manner of means.

There was to be two more polio epidemics. One in 1949 and one in 1954 in various parts of Canada as well a slow steady rate of infections before the Salk vaccine was discovered and became available.