glue is drying, and clothes folding and germ parties

[susandennis]

The place I've been going to for haircuts for a couple of decades is also the place that made me swear off going anywhere but my own bathroom for haircuts. The back of my hair which I butchered is looking a little better. I briefly thought about taking it in to have someone just even out the roughage. But, then decided that nope. I was done with hair cutting places. Then this morning, I got an email from the hair cutting place. They want me back. 20% off. I'm semi tempted...
just so I could say 'see what your loud music did to me????' but, no. No, thanks. At least, not yet.

I'm in another phase of the miniature project where it's glue/wait/glue/wait/glue... So I have a half a bed, a semi lamp, an almost chair, and curtains nearly ready to hang. Plus other stuff in progress. But, I did get the desk done.y.



My bed is covered in clean clothes. I need to go fold everything and put it away.

We have a measles outbreak going on here in Washington state. It's like the olden days but different. We did not have fancy vaccinations back in the day. And there was a bit of a different attitude especially about measles (german and red), chickenpox and mumps.

This sounds totally not real today but, trust me, it was. When a kid got one of the above, that kid's mother would throw a party and all the healthy kids were invited. In hopes they would catch the disease.

I'm serious. Old people, back me up here.

The idea was that kids bounce back from these things way more easily and if you get it as a kid, you were immune for life. Particularly Mumps was thought to make men sterile and German measles did really bad things to unborn children.

We had no vaccines so we made our own. Germ parties.

Hard to believe today. Of course, it's also hard to believe that we have a measles outbreak here. And it's because people won't vaccinate their kids. Maybe they are planning germ parties.

Comments

[lifeinroseland.livejournal.com]

Old people, back me up here.

Hahahaha! Seriously?!! That is CRAZY, but makes sense. What a scary party, but hey. Did the kids know??

[susandennis]

Oh yeah. We all knew and didn't care. A playdate was a playdate (except we didn't call them that cause we were not cool).

[lostincandyrain.livejournal.com]

The background on that computer screen is just too much.

I was pre-chicken pox vaccine, so everyone tried to make sure their kids got chicken pox in a similar sort of way.

[susandennis]

wow. i did not realize the chicken pox vaccine was so young!

[roasted-beets.livejournal.com]

I had chickenpox for my very first Easter vacation in kindergarten. My older sister brought her two kids to the house to play with me and my little brother. So then we all had it.

Later on when there was a vaccine for Rubella, my sister took my then 12 year old niece to the clinic to get it. She was turned away because *Debbie might be pregnant*! My sister called our doctor in outrage. He explained how German measles was dangerous to unborn babies but "Bring Debbie in, I'll give her the vaccine."

The town where my YMCA is has several cases of whooping cough right now. 8^0

[susandennis]

It all seems so surreal and yet ...

[remlap.livejournal.com]

Even when I was a kid, chicken pox at least was still very normal. It was just something you expected to get once and then get over. I'm not sure about measles, I never had it - but it definitely wasn't the big deal it is today.

[susandennis]

They are talking about measles here as if it is BFD for sure. I don't know if they are exaggerating or if its absence has caused it's new impact to be greater. I just heard on the news that immunity gained via having it (as opposed to vaccine) wears off so old people are at risk. ooops.

[remlap.livejournal.com]

Hmmm.. I have a feeling I did have a vaccine, but it would have been the early days of measle vaccines (in Aus anyway) and that it still wasn't a big deal not to have the vaccine or to have measles - in that I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had issues going to school if my Mum hadn't vaccinated, but I guess public health wise it is better not to have sick people in general..

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

Actually it's a good idea to get "booster shots" every twenty years once you are an adult. Particularly of the whooping cough vaccine since it's very much still out there.
(Nice little tidbit of information that I managed to pry out of my doctor.)
Two other shots you should consider getting are the meningitis shot and the pneumonia shot as those will kill you should you get weakened by something else and then catch them.

Yes, these beasties are getting worse. Germs, be they bacterial or viral, evolve just like everything else in this world, so the ones making the rounds today are probably a good bit worse than the ones making the rounds back when we were kids.
:^|

[meowmensteen]

Have you ever been to this place? http://www.5thavebarbers.com/ I was there a few years ago. I can't remember what they charged me, but what I remember most was that it was sooooooooooooo quiet. I also remember that it was Dee Phan that cut my hair. She was nice, but didn't really talk to me much other than about my hair. It was a very peaceful experience. Even though it's a barber, she had no qualms about giving me a full on haircut.... I tend to grow my hair long, and then cut it all off once a year. There was one other customer in there, and it was a business dude getting a trim. She seemed to talk to him like they were old friends.

I remember when I was in kindergarten that some people would have chicken pox parties, but when I got the pox, I just had to stay home alone and not have any friends over. I think that was right around the time they were phasing out that idea. When my daughter was starting school, her doctor offered the chicken pox vaccine. Since it was brand new I held off for a year, but the next year, he highly recommended it mostly because it was becoming so common that it was hard for kids to catch it in "the wild" anymore. I went ahead and had her get the vaccine. This whole measles thing reminded me that it's time for her to have another round of shots. I should hurry up and make the appointment.

[meowmensteen]

Haha, reading around their website it looks like it's marketed just for men, but whatever. She still cut my hair. I really liked their quiet atmosphere.

[ringsandcoffee.livejournal.com]

My bed is also covered in clean clothes, and has been since Wednesday. At least they are mostly sorted/laid out and not in straight-from-the-dryer piles.

[susandennis]

well, i am happy to report that mine are all folded up and put away. .. except for the two pairs of socks i found in the living room that didn't get washed. :(

[goddessdi.livejournal.com]

My goddaughter (who just turned 17) got the vaccine for chicken pox and ended up getting them. Her first week of kindergarten. We had a fun week at home. Mostly. By Friday she was tired of not playing with other kids and over all the games we’d played...

[rhodielady-47.livejournal.com]

I can only hope all the pregnant women out there can manage to stay away from all the germy kids. The thought of what some of those diseases can do to an unborn child is the stuff of horror movies...
:^(

[meathiel]

I guess I'm not old enough because we never had germ parties!
I know I'm vaccinated against most of those like German measles.
I still vividly remember having chicken pox and I must've been younger than 6 because we still lived in the first place I remember. Weird.

[maju01.livejournal.com]

I got the measles when I was about 9. I'd never heard of measles parties until I came to the US, but even without them it spread like wildfire through our community.

My children (born between 1980 and 1986) never had measles or mumps because we had vaccinations for them by then, but they did all get chickenpox in the early 1990s.

Sue from London.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes i am 65 and i totally back you up Susan the same in the East End of London when i was a little girl.

[river57.livejournal.com]

I was the only kid on my street who did not get the mumps in 1955 - it was a lonely two weeks at the school bus stop.

My mother, who was pretty nonchalant about childhood diseases, made an exception for polio. We were the first kids in a town of 30,000 to get the Salk vaccine and had our pictures in the local paper.

[susandennis]

The visual of the little 1955 kid all alone at the bus stop... so lonely!

And, oh yeah polio! We got shots early on, too, but we weren't famous in the newspaper! I remember being really pissed when they quit doing shots and started doing sugar cubes with tasteless stuff on them. I felt like I really got the short end of that stick.

However, there was nothing that terrified my little soul more than the very idea of having to be in an iron lung.

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

I'm in my mid-fifties and I had the measles that you were only supposed to be able to get once twice, plus once with the other one. No germ parties in NZ, though - it was easy enough to pick up the infection as it was. I still recall my mother reading to me in a room darkened to protect my eyes. I heard about your measles outbreak yesterday on the BBC World Service - I'm planning to visit Seattle this September, and given what you say downthread I will look into having the vaccine, so thanks for that.

[susandennis]

oh! I totally forgot about the eye thing with measles. We had dark rooms, too. wow. Hopefully by September this will all be over.

Please do let me know if you have any Seattle questions. I'd be happy to help make your trip as fun as can be if I can. susandennis@gmail.com

[msconduct.livejournal.com]

Thanks so much! I'm all about the intensive research, but I would definitely love to take advantage of your insider knowledge. I'm very excited - there are so many awesome things to do! I will barrage you with questions in due course:).

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

My mother was really disappointed that neither my brother or I caught chicken pox despite everyone else getting it. We still don’t have vaccinations against it here

[susandennis]

wow. i didn't realize that.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm definitely of your generation, and I don't remember these "germ parties" -- maybe it wasn't a thing in New York City or at least my part of it. I had chicken pox when I was about three (I barely remember it), and measles at twelve or so (most of my classmates got it that year as well). Never did have mumps or what was then called German measles (now known only as rubella).

[lenine2.livejournal.com]

My older sister got chicken pox first, then my brother and I got it once she was over it. Same with mumps. I remember a quarantine sign on our front door. Those diseases spread so quickly through school we had no need of germ parties, but I remember my cousins on the other side of town going to them.

[fauxklore]

We did not have germ parties.

If someone got chicken pox or measles or German measles, they were quarantined until there was not a single spot left. Measles was considered particularly dangerous and it was said that encephalitis from measles was what caused Helen Keller to become deaf and blind, though some people said it was scarlet fever.

I never got mumps or measles (though I did get whooping cough, chicken pox, German measles, and scarlatina). Nor did my brother. The MMR vaccine became available when I was about 12 or 13 and my parents took us off to our local doctor right away for it.