Readers Remember

To me, Dr. Jonas Salk ranks all the way up there in 20th century history with his Salk vaccine. I remember how in grade school we would go from room to room for the March of Dimes to eradicate polio as we would drop our dimes into large bowls.

Growing up in the ‘50s, especially when we lived in New York City, I knew that summers were a cause for much anxiety and trepidation because there was that pervasive threat of the dreaded polio virus.

SHARON KARP

Los Angeles

Long before Jonas Salk and his vaccine, long before the little sugar cubes with their drops of precious medication, there were the summers of the great polio scare.

During the winter, there was Sister Kenny talking to us from the single movie screen of the Ward theater in the Bronx, New York. We kids dug deep into our pockets for extra pennies. These we carefully placed into the small cardboard boxes passed around in the lighted movie house by white-coated matrons.

Summer or winter, polio loomed large. I feared contracting it as much as I feared that one of my friends would. When one did, we talked in whispers about “What Sheila would look like when she got out of the hospital.” Sheila’s polio bout left her with a slight limp. My friend Marty wasn’t so lucky, and spend most of his 21st year in an iron lung.

BARBARA JOAN GRUBMAN

Woodland Hills

What do you recall most about the 20th century? In 200 words or less, send us your memories, comments or eyewitness accounts. Write to Century, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053, or e-mail century@latimes.com. Letters may be edited for space.