Today

poor georgie’s almanack
December 7, 2021

One of the joys … or curses … of being very old is remembering.

I vividly remember this day in 1941. A day the president, a man in a wheelchair named Franklin Delano Roosevelt, said would live in infamy.

We still had our two-door Chevy, which my dad soon gave up “for the war effort.” Yes, the USA was a united country then.

My family of four had driven from the far north side of Chicago, and then down around the bottom of Lake Michigan, to visit relatives of relatives in Indiana. While there we learned Pearl Harbor had been bombed and bridges were expected to be under attack. It was scary. Especially, because there were several bridges between Indiana and our home many miles to the north. It seemed like I held my breath all the way home.

Yet, WWII was not the scariest time of my young life. The scariest was pre-vaccine Polio. And it was much more daunting than Covid. We were afraid to go to stores, movies and schools. Afraid to breath.

Too many deaths. Too many devastated families.

Then Doctors Sabin and Salk created vaccines that ended the scourge. We couldn’t wait to get our shots.

It is true … Those who do not learn history are doomed to repeat it.