THINGS YOU DON'T SEE ANYMORE (Part 2)

Explore your roots & tell us your family's history!
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Leodian
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Post by Leodian »

Hi jon.I like your "What will the world be like in another 30 years time? Maybe by then people will be nostalgically reminiscing about when people used the internet and ate in Mcdonalds....?". No doubt it will also be talk of how programmes then are nothing like as good as such as Big Brother and other reality shows are now and that the plots and actors in soaps then are rubbish compared to the 'great' ones now!     
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

Caron
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Post by Caron »

Leodian wrote: Caron wrote: 3) Folk wearing built up shoes due to Polio.     An elderly neighbour used to wear one of those very raised shoes and so did a few other people when I was a child. My recollection is that it always seemed to be just one shoe but I may be wrong as that seems unlikely. I probably never gave it any thought so finding that they were worn due to polio is news to me. Thanks for that information Caron. Hi Leo. Yes, I only remember folk wearing one raised shoe also. Certainly when I was a child in the 60's there were a good few folk who wore one and it was always the older folk. I was always told they were worn due to folk having polio, (probably as children?).

Phill_dvsn
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Post by Phill_dvsn »

Caron asked me to post this link regarding polio for you Leo.How polio has returned to haunt its victims in old age!Doctors are divided about whether this is the result of a sudden reactivation of the dormant virus in their bodies, or a consequence of abnormal re-growth of nerves damaged by the original infection.Whatever the cause, the result is a cruel return of symptoms, meaning that many who battled the effects of withered limbs with leg irons and built-up shoes face the possibility of life in a wheelchair or, in the worst cases, reliance on ventilators to supply oxygen to damaged lungs.Rest of the story herehttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2023 ... d-age.html
My flickr pictures are herehttp://www.flickr.com/photos/phill_dvsn/Because lunacy was the influence for an album. It goes without saying that an album about lunacy will breed a lunatics obsessions with an album - The Dark side of the moon!

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Leodian
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Post by Leodian »

Thanks Caron and Phill for that link to the 2011 news report.I note in the report that the unfortunate lady in question was 61 when the post-polio symptoms emerged and that she "contracted polio at the age of eight — one of dozens of children affected by an outbreak at a municipal paddling pool in Leeds". I wonder if that was the Roundhay Park one as that had a popular paddling pool which I recall (just!) using as a child in the late 1940sIn the report it states "post-polio syndrome is only now starting to emerge because polio victims, like the rest of the population, are surviving to greater ages — long enough for the ravaging effects of the virus to re-assert themselves". That reminds me of my theory that the 'village idiot' expression may have arisen when people did not live that long and so anyone that did may have had signs of dementia, which would have made them seem like an idiot in those times.
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

Caron
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Post by Caron »

Thanks for your help, Philld Yes, Leo, makes you wonder which outdoor pool she was paddling in.Urine infections can also make you "strange" and babbling. Medicine has come a long way really.

jonleeds
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Post by jonleeds »

Yes Leodian, I'm sure 'Big Brother' and all the other brain-numbing [edited for content] like X-Factor etc will be seen as 'classic' television sadly because of everyones shared experience of mass brainwashing. But if you compare shows like these to whats considered classic television now - Rising Damp / Porridge / The Sweeney / Fawlty Towers etc they hardly stack up, although I guess thats down to personal preference.
Have your fun when you're alive - you won't get nothing when you die... have a good time all the time! - Chumbawumba!

And no matter how things end, you should always keep in touch with your friends - Dave Gedge

Johnny39
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Post by Johnny39 »

My mother would never let me play in park sandpits or paddling pools which she considered sources of disease. Back in the 40's polio, diphtheria and scarlet fever were very prevalent and extremely dangerous
Daft I call it - What's for tea Ma?

jonleeds
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Post by jonleeds »

What about 'Rat Catcher's Yellow'? We were always warned about this by old folk who saw us playing around grates or in puddles / ponds etc. Its actually a slang name for Weil's disease which is still a dangerous thing to catch. We used to play around an old swamp near the Japa paper mill in Morley, it was a swamp cum pond which was the classic location as seen on the 'Spirit of Dark and Lonely Waters' public information film that was broadcast on TV around that time, voiced over of course by the eerie tones of Donald Pleasance. This swamp was surrounded by overgrown elder and oak trees and the thick brambles and nettles obscured its existence from the nearest roads. Plus of course it was home to the ubiquitous discarded mattresses and beds etc. If you went in and went under you'd have been done for as the pond weed would have closed in over the place where your body entered the murky depths. One interesting thing about the place was there were leeches there. Revolting things that would latch onto you and we knew nothing about chucking salt on them to remove them, we'd just yank them off, or stick them on the back of one of our mates necks when he wasnt looking. I've never seen them anywhere else.
Have your fun when you're alive - you won't get nothing when you die... have a good time all the time! - Chumbawumba!

And no matter how things end, you should always keep in touch with your friends - Dave Gedge

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Leodian
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Post by Leodian »

Hi JonAh yes, leeches. I seem to recall that they were even found (sometimes on yourself!) in rivers when paddling. Paddling at a shallow side under the bridge at Tadcaster and turning over stones to see eels (hopefully not leeches) was great fun as a child. Simple times!
A rainbow is a ribbon that Nature puts on when she washes her hair.

edlong
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Post by edlong »

@jonleedsAssuming from your description that you went to Victoria Road School? Would the maypole have been up on the "feast ground" - if so then it's sadly covered in houses these days...

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