During the Great Depression, I remember growing up with the horrors of being quarantined. It seemed kids only caught the measles, whooping cough, mumps and such during the school year. Maybe the problem was the close contact we all had during the school day. If you or someone in your home had an infectious disease, the sign went on the door. There were no vaccines.

I remember when polio was the scourge of childhood. Mother and Dad wouldn't take us to the county fair because that coincided with the beginning of polio season. However, they were not afraid of some of the other childhood diseases such as chicken pox and German measles (rubella).

First grade was the time kids would bring them home, one infectious disease after another. Parents hoped their children would get the chicken pox or mumps or German measles early on and be done with it. Mumps could cause a problem for boys if they didn't have the disease until they were adults. Parents thought that chicken pox and such were part of childhood. They might as well get it over with in the lower grades. They didn't know the relationship of chicken pox with shingles.

I remember the time when my two brothers were quarantined because of the measles. They were really sick. I wasn't. No matter, we were all quarantined together. That was not a happy circumstance. Dad could come and go because he had to work. He brought in the groceries, since Mother was quarantined with us. None of us could leave the house.

A police officer came and tacked a sign on our door. The rules of being quarantined were explained to us. I think it was for a period of about three weeks. We were to have no contact with the outside world. Quarantined!

It wouldn't be so bad being quarantined now. Back them, there was absolutely nothing to do. The only reading material that found its way into our house was the newspaper. We could listen to the radio, but who wanted to? Soap operas ruled the daytime hours. There was an hour of so in late afternoon when Sky King and other pre-teen programs came on. Then came the news and dramas of the evening hours. Other that the Green Hornet, Sky King, Amos and Andy and the Lone Ranger in that short one hour time span, nothing interested us on the radio. There was no television and no video games. No cell phones either. There was absolutely nothing to do for my brothers and me for most of the hours of the day.

Mother did her best to keep peace in the house. She was quarantined with us. It wasn't fun for her either. I couldn't understand why I didn't get sick with my brothers, but I didn't. Years later my husband would catch the chicken pox, but that is another story.