Message Forum

Thanks to everyone for the compliments about the column. It was quite a long time in the making, oh my goodness how hard I worked on that piece, and not the first story, nor the last, that I have had to write about that terrible attack down here. It was such an awful thing and I have never been in the midst of a traumatized community -- I know the owner of the club, I know people who lost loved ones, I live just a few blocks away from where it happened. I was so happy that I could do something, that all the years I have spent working at become a writer could be put to use to ease the suffering somewhat and give people some consolation and some hope.

01/21/17 11:37 AM

#605

oops "becoming" not become. There goes my "A" paper..

01/21/17 02:41 PM

#606

Janie,

I saw the news about COLO. I couldn't help think of a neighbor family that had a daughter about that time and named her Carol. Her brother and sisters nicknmaed her COLO ans so it stuck - we called her that all the time. I had forgotten how big a' deal that once was until this came up.

01/21/17 05:03 PM

#607

OK, here is a question: from what disease did Colo recover when she was just a youngster?

(Hint: humans also can be affected by this ailment and it made the city in which I live famous from the 1880's to the 1940's.)

01/22/17 12:42 AM

#608

Jim, I've been waiting for years, wondering when you were goint to ask us about which illness that baby gorilla had. Damn, I'm so glad we finally got this out in the open!

Tuberculosis?

(I was going to say "cough due to code")

01/22/17 02:24 AM

#609

Dave,

Indeed, it was tuberculosis! In the late '50's and early'60's there was an epidemic of TB among several species of great apes that included those in the Columbus Zoo.

Now, for the TB-Colorado Springs connection:

In the pre-antibiotic era the Springs had the world's highest cure rate for that infection. The city had several sanatoria devoted to those patients alone. Some had individual "huts" which would house one person each. These attracted not only regular Americans but also the rich, the famous and royality from around the globe. Due to its altitude, dry air and 300 days of sunshine per year Colorado Springs was ideal for treating these patients with the regimen of "heliotherapy" - eight hours of sitting in the sunshine - daily (with blankets in the winter) and smoking several Camel cigarettes per day. The cigarette smoke was believed to be tuberculocidal (able to kill the TB germs).

I don't believe any gorillas were among those treated...

Jim

01/22/17 10:26 AM

#610

Anyone remember the incidences of TB in our class in 62-63? We all had to be tested then.

01/22/17 12:49 PM

#611

Jim,

When I went to the U. of Denver I thought they told us that Denver held that distinction. Either way, Denver also became a haven for the treatment of tuberculosis. As I recall, Denver has 320 days of full sunshine per year. But over time those people needed jobs to get by, and they would take easy, non-physical jobs at reduced pay. This carried over for several generations and resulted in Denver being a low wage city for many years.

* If only Fred had some background in Denver or Colorado Springs history - darn!

But back to Columbus and Watterson - I though maybe we had a couple of diseased gorrillas among some of the pastors and assistant passtors who taught us, and it would appear that there is a more recent outbreak in the Washington D.C. area. Gorillas that is - not tuberculosis.

--------------

Since my Broncos are out I just want to say I hope Aaron Rogers is over his flu. Just had to throw that in.

01/22/17 12:58 PM

#612

Linda,

I don't recall anyone in our class who had ACTIVE TB but I may be wrong. Skin testing ("PPD" test) was done routinely to school aged kids back then. A positive test did not necessarily indicate active disease but rather exposure to TB at sometime in that person's lifetime. It is very possible that some in our class could have tested positive.

Dave,

Much research was done on TB in Denver at U of C med center back in those days and, indeed, Denver was also an epicenter for treating the disease. I believe the Springs was more popular due to it being less crowded and was more of a vacation destination for those coming from out of state and out of country.

Jim

01/22/17 01:01 PM

#613

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Mike, congratulations on your excellent article. It must be a good feeling to know that others find comfort for their pain through your creativity and talent.

Dave, thanks for reminding me that fried balogna and Spam even existed. I guess the Mediterranean diet was not a big ticket item in restaurants back then.

Tim, put me down for the road trip! Ok, Dave I will help with the backdrops and I also promise not to let my nephew, a LV law enforcer, know that we will be heading his direction.

01/22/17 01:28 PM

#614

Did you guys know that Spam is considered a delicacy in Hawaii? A young brother in law who lived there told me the groceries all have huge displays of it as you enter the stores.

I guess we could say it's Huuuge!

01/22/17 04:18 PM

#615

We did in fact have TB diagnosed in at leat 2 cases. Two of my besties from grade school had active cases of TB near the end of one of the school years which I think was1962. One was was very active in sports but that summer had to take a rest the whole summer and not play any sports and I suppose medication was involved. She returned to WHS in the Fall.

The other almost died from it. She had a severe case, having part of both lungs removed. She missed all of Sophomore year. I wonder if she had it for awhile because it seems she was puny in 8th grade.

I believe the entire school was tested at that time. I'm also thinking maybe school officials and parents were trying to keep this quiet.

01/22/17 04:44 PM

#616

Linda,

See a private Message Center note on your Classmate Profile.

Jim

01/22/17 06:43 PM

#617

Bonnie Jonas (Jonas-Boggioni)

More like a staple than a delicacy on the spam thing, wasn't it,, Dave? I remember seeing it on the menu from greasy spoons on up to better restaurants. but yep. And yuk, I never partook.

I always assumed it was from the WW2 military presence, that spam figured into k-rations and chow-line fare.

01/23/17 11:07 AM

#618

Joseph Donahue

Jim/Linda, I was one of those who tested positive in our freshman year. It turns out that my father had TB and was confined to a hospital for 6 months. Jim, I think they were called sanitariums back then weren't they?

01/23/17 11:10 AM

#619

Janie Albright (Blank)

My mom made delicious homemade scalloped potatoes and ham for dinner however if we didn't have leftover ham she used Spam. It was good. It's what I was familiar with. It didn't carry any stigma for me until much later.

01/23/17 12:05 PM

#620

RE TB:

I believe Michelle Pendergast was the one who had TB...she had been out of school for a while, so I don't know if it was active or not...WE all had to have the skin tests every 6 months! Over the course of the years, I developed an allergy to the preservative; not a typical "positive" reaction...my entire forearm would become itchy and reddened. Whenever I went to ework in a hospital, I would have to have chest xrays instead! Never any signs of TB!

01/23/17 12:59 PM

#621

Joe D.,

You are correct (mostly) in that your father was in a sanatorium, a TB hospital (or a TB ward in a hospital). Technically a sanitarium is a heath resort, not a hospital. (I just mention this because our class' excellent writer, author and expert in the English language, Mike McLeod, may be reading this .)

Once your skin test is positive it remains so for the rest of your life. If you have not already done so, you should make sure that your current physician makes note on your heath record under "Past Medical History" that you have a positive TB skin test.

Bonnie,

Indeed, chest xray is the screening test used for those who are skin test positive and must be screened for TB. Your reaction may be allergic but it would definitly preclude you being retested in that manner. There is now a blood test that can be done but is expensive and not readily available in many places.

Mike McLeod,

Congrats on your article!

Jim

01/23/17 01:51 PM

#622

Anybody else recall an early chilodhood inclination gravitating towards the vocation you wound up with in life? Looking back at "The Immaculatum" -- I think that is what our 8th grade yearbook was called at I.C. -- I listed my vocabulary as "my pet peeve." I guess I was already intrigued with words and what they meant way back when. Though that didn't stop me from being a lousy student with mediocre grades, I might add, all the way through high school.

01/23/17 02:24 PM

#623

Whoa! I had forgotten that IC had a yearbook and I doubt if I still have a copy. But since Mike brought it up I do recall one thing about it. The eighth grade was asked to come up with a class flower and a bunch of us boys pushed for that being the Venus Flytrap, a carnivorous plant. Mike, what was our official flower?

01/23/17 04:48 PM

#624

Lawrence Foster

Mike and Jim,

The IC 8th grade yearbook may have been a one-of-a-kind item. My brother who graduated the year before us in 1961 did not have one and neither did my sister in 1964 and my younger brother in 1967. We may have been very lucky to have had parents and teachers that supported (and/or tolerated) us and the project. For any IC graduates who would like a copy I have it scanned along with our class graduation picture. It is a total of 36 pages and I will be glad to forward it to you. I will be glad to forward it to any of those from outside of IC who would also like to see.

The class flower was the Venus Fly Trap and if I remember correctly it was Earl Allen who publically suggested it and us boys really got into it.

Mike, I think that the only thing that gravitated me towards an eventual career as a librarian was the fact that I was not a good learner from some books. In time and patience with myself that obstacle was overcome. Occasionally a story with a hero would grab my attention for a while. I started reading Tarzan novels in the summer of 1962. Sophomore year Mrs. Campbell had us read Mutiny on the Bounty. It took me 3 days to complete the whole book which back then was amazing for me. Silas Marner? - never finished reading it. Even picked it up about 4 years ago and tried again. It seemed like the entire first page was only two sentences long and that did it again for me.

I have always been drawn to art, sorry for the pun. In 1961 there was a television show called Learn to Draw with John Gnagy. And there was an art kit that could be purchased. I asked my parents for it that year for my birthday and it was the only gift I got. About 6-8 years ago I found an updated version of the kit with the original instruction book and now it has pastels, water colors and pencils. I have done some of the projects over again. My younger brother remembers my drawings of the covered bridge and Doberman Pincher projects in the book. It may be that for me the adage of a picture being worth a thousand words was a more effective way of communicating. Possible reasons may include A.D.D. but also in those days it included a lot of immaturity. But, I survived!!!

01/23/17 08:27 PM

#625

I My grandfather was diagnosed 1969 with TB at OSU Hospital and was transferred to Columbus TB "Sanitarium" I thought it was called. It closed soon after. In 1969 I believe OSU's TB Hospital (Means Hall?) had closed.

I hope my memories are correct here.

01/23/17 08:45 PM

#626