My Very Beginning

MY VERY BEGINNING

In December of 1947, I was born and weighed 9 lbs, 12 ounces. It appears that from my very day, I was destined to be somewhat of a pioneer from that time forward. I only had one older sibling who was my brother. He was born 2.5 years earlier but had the luxury of being born in a hospital whereas I was born in an old dilapidated farmhouse out in the country and a far distance from any hospital although I did receive assistance from someone they call a midwife. Shortly after being born, I was told that my parents had to take me to a hospital because I had broken out in a rash all over my body. My parents were told that if they wanted me to survive, they would have to move off the old farm because of my many allergies. I caused my family, as a baby to move to a small, very old two story house just over a mile outside the small city of Stanley, Wisconsin. I guess you could say from my very beginning, I was a mover and shaker. The house sat on two acres, had no running water nor did it have any bathroom. We had an old Outhouse. The water pump was about 30 yards from the house. Our living room sofa was that of a car seat sitting up on concrete blocks. We did have a console black and white TV and could get two channels, namely, Channel 7 (Wausau, Wisc) and Channel 13 (Eau Claire, Wisc.) Every Saturday before my brother and I would be allowed to watch cartoons, we had to carry water from the pump to the house so our mother could wash all the clothes. We had to fill up not only the washing machine but two large tubs.

THEN CAME THE MONTH OF SEPTEMBER, 1954

My brother and I were never enrolled in kindergarten because that cost money which we simply did not have and it was not required by law. We were told that only the rich kids could afford to go to kindergarten. I was only in first grade for two weeks when the second obstacle in my life happened. I was told it was a sunny Saturday afternoon and my brother and I were simply running around the house but at one point, I stopped running and simply fell backwards. Every time I would stand up, I would fall backwards to the ground again. This happened over and over and my parents could not explain what could possibly be causing me to do this. That night, my mother came into my bedroom and noticed that something was really, really wrong with me. She noticed that I was completely asleep but my eyes were wide open. My parents took me to the hospital and a doctor ran some tests and diagnosed that I had polio. They then shipped me off to St. Anne's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. This hospital was then and still is a part of the famous and well known Mayo Clinic. I became a full time resident of this hospital for a period of almost 11 months and it was during this time that my memory of my life started. I truly think my first memory of my life was my being in a wheelchair and people trying to pick me up to place me in this very huge metal can like object. I remember fighting because I did not want to be placed in this big "can." I remember a nurse telling me that my head would not be put into this can, that only from my neck on down would be inside this "machine" and it would simply take pictures of me from my neck on down. She told me she would be with me the entire time and nothing nor anybody was going to hurt me. I remember the nurse telling me that I had to keep my hands to my side while being slide into this "can", that she would be sitting right next to me and if I needed to scratch my nose or something, she would do it for me. I remember the little mirror that I could look into directly above my head. I don't think I was in this "can" very long because I do not remember ever being placed into it again nor do I remember anything whatsoever happening to me while laying within it. Many years later, I became aware that this machine was called an "Iron Lung." After that I remember that every morning, at or about 5:30 a.m., a nurse would come into the room to give me a shot in my ass. After breakfast was served, a nurse would came in with a cart filled with ice packs and cover my entire body with them. About a half an hour later, the nurse would come back in, remove the ice packs and another nurse would follow with a cart full of hot packs and completely cover my body with them. About a half an hour later, a nurse would return and take the hot packs off me wherein another nurse had a wheel chair waiting for me. I would then be taken to the basement for my morning exercises. This consisted of getting onto a table with a male nurse placing a heavy sandbag on my stomach and having me do 50 sit ups, then having me stand up and touch my toes fifty times, then back on the table for another 50 sit ups and then another 50 times touching my toes. Finally, I would be told to get into this large metal hot tub. About 20 minutes later, I would be wheeled back to my room to wait for lunch. After lunch, the same routine that was done in the morning was repeated. This routine happened every day, Monday through Friday. I was just a kid and simply thought every kid had to go through this. At the end of each day, I would get another shot in my backside. I became so used to this shot in my ass every morning and evening that as soon as the nurse came into my room, I would just turn over, show my ass and get it over with. Rochester, Minnesota is about 130 miles from Stanley, Wisconsin and like I said, we were very poor but I do remember the one time my parents did come to see me in the hospital. I remember crying for days because I so wanted to go home with them and be with my brother again. I was told many years later that the only way they knew how to fight polio back then was to get every muscle in a persons' body strong enough to fight off the paralyzation. I believe that all this exercise stimulated my growth because my father and brother were both 5'9", my mother was only 5'4" tall but I grew to be 6'2" tall. It was either that or we had a tall milk man as a delivery man. I remember one time during my stay in this hospital, there was another kid in the bed next to the door whereas my bed was by the windows. At those times, if you wanted a nurse, you pushed a button on this cord and the light outside the room as well as the light inside the room would light up and stay on until the nurse came in. I remember one of us challenged the other to see who could hit that light fixture above the door. Neither of us had hit the button but were seeing who could hit this fixture. While sitting in our beds, we would take some paper tissues out of the box by our bed, soak them in water and throw them at the light. Because they were wet, many of them would stick to the light or to the wall next to the light. After we had thrown about twenty balls each at the light, this nurse nun walked in and stopped just inside the door. She wanted to know what all the laughter was about. She just finished asking that question and two of these wet tissue balls fell from this light area until her "habit." (the hat worn by nuns) My friend and I started laughing uncontrollable to a point I actually pissed my pants. Many times during my adult life, I would be standing next to my older brother when he would introduce me to others, saying, "This is my little brother, Ron." Most people would notice my height compared to that of my older brother and say, "Little Brother?" My brother would always then say, "Hey, Let me tell you, he was born with all the brains but I was born with all the looks!" Most people have seen people in wheelchairs and think that polio affected only the legs of a person. In my case, the polio affected my face. I like to tell people that it was Polio that made me so damn handsome! Until I reached the age of about 12, I would always take my hand and cover up my face if I was going to laugh or cry because the right side of my face would pull noticeable upward. At those times, If I didn't cover my face with one of my hands some kids would notice and ask why my face looked so funny.