Post-pie reflections on polio

Some post polio-pie-in-the-face reflections:

•It was striking during the recent fund-raising event for polio eradication by the Portland Rotary Club at the Jay County Chamber of Commerce Business Expo how many of the people who went by the booth either had experienced polio or knew those who had had the disease. It provided a very visible reminder of the impact polio made on America during the middle of the 20th century and underlined why the local club's efforts have been successful: The cause has a human face.

•So, I have been asked repeatedly, what kind of pie did they use? Answer: Nothing but whipped cream.

But trust me, enough was used to do some damage.

By the time Mayor Bruce Hosier "pied" me on Sunday afternoon, the stuff was getting runny. I not only got pie in my face, I got pie in my lap, and the stuff dripped into my shoes. Now that's messy.

•The second most frequent question is what it's like to get hit with a pie. Beyond the obvious mess, two things occurred to me. The first is a bit of claustrophobia when your entire face is covered with a thick goo, and the second is a complete loss of control. Most of us, as adults, are used to being in control of the situation; that's especially true when we're out in public. A pie in the face takes that away entirely, so there's nothing to do but go with the flow and join the laughter.

•The event prompted some serious reflection on the part of Dr. E.M. Gillum, who came to Jay County in 1954 to practice medicine. For decades, he treated those who still bore the scars of the disease. And the shadow of the polio epidemic of 1949 loomed large over the landscape.

"Between Jay and Randolph counties we had the highest mortality rate in the nation that year," Dr. Gillum told me during a visit to his condo near Jay County Hospital.

"When I got here, it was still a red hot topic," he recalled.

The Salk vaccine had not yet arrived on the scene, and every night Gene's phone would ring by 10 p.m. with frightened parents on the other end of the line. "There was no way you could turn down a kid with a sore throat at 10 o'clock at night," he said.

The Salk vaccine changed all that. "In two weeks (after the arrival of the vaccine in Jay County) that 10 o'clock call thing stopped," he said. "It's hard to argue with the success of the polio vaccine. ... It established in the public mind the value of vaccinations."

•The challenge of worldwide eradication has been underscored in the past week by reports that there was a surge of cases last summer in parts of Africa that had been believed to be polio-free.

Nigeria was the only country left on the continent to be immunized, but borders are so porous that it's enormously difficult to keep a country free of the disease.

•So how much money was raised through the pie-in-the-face silliness? About $4,000. That brings the Portland Rotary Club's total giving for polio eradication up to about $13,000 in two years.

The only club in the northern half of Indiana to raise more is in a little town called Indianapolis.[[In-content Ad]]