THE VACCINATION

Diphtheria. Jenny recognized it as a big terrible word because “Sonny,” the little neighbor boy, was very sick with diphtheria. He hadn’t been able to swallow anything and had been out of his head with a high fever. Daddy had gone over at night to help. Jenny hoped he hadn’t brought any germs home. She had heard that you got white spots on your throat and had to have it swabbed. Whole families of children used to die from this in the old days and maybe they still could.

Daddy had gone into town that very afternoon to ask the doctor about getting Jenny and Margaret vaccinated tomorrow. He came home with two giant sticks of peppermint. Neither Jenny nor Mother liked the taste of peppermint, but Jenny thought it was very pretty and it made her happy just to look at it. Daddy said that tomorrow they were going to the Doctor’s to be vaccinated.

“I don’t want to,” said Margaret..”Some of the kids at school got diphtheria vaccinations and they said it hurt a whole lot.”

“The reason you must get vaccinated,” Mother told them, “is to keep from getting diphtheria. This would hurt a whole lot worse than a vaccination, and besides, you could die from diphtheria.”

Daddy explained how the vaccination was done. “The doctor will say , ‘let’s roll up your sleeve.’ Then Elsie will put some medicine on your arm with a piece of cotton and the doctor will stick a special needle with serum in it and stick it in your arm. It will sting a little bit and that is all. And you won’t even cry. You’ll both be big and brave and smile and say, “That didn’t hardly hurt at all.’ The doctor will think, “My, what brave girls.’”

The next morning they got ready to go to town. The girls wore their lavender flowered long sleeved dresses that Mother had made for them, as the weather was cold. They wore their winter underwear and long stockings.

All the way to town, they talked about the vaccination. Jenny remembered going to the doctor’s once before when Mother had had an x-ray because she thought she might have cancer. When they got to town they parked right in front of the place were the doctor had his office. They climbed a long dark steep flight of stairs and went around the corner opened a door with a glass window and there was the waiting room. They sat in creaky wicker furniture. There were other people in the waiting room. There was a lady with a little boy, a man with a patch over one eye and a fat lady. The clock on the wall ticked slowly. Jenny went over to the fly specked window above the register and looked down on the street far below where small cars crawled along the street and tiny toy- like people walked along the sidewalk. More people kept coming into the waiting room until it was quite crowded. At last Elsie came to the door and said, “Next,” and it was their turn.

All of them went into the inner office. Jenny liked the iodine and gauze and tape smell, although it was a little frightening. The doctor was a plump red-faced man with a wide nose and snow white hair. Jenny thought that if he had whiskers, he would look just like Santa Clause. She decided she liked him.

“We’ll take the little one first,” said the doctor, in a voice so soft, it was almost a whisper. He looked at Mother. “Do you want to hold her?” he asked.

Jenny was indignant. “I don’t want to be held,” she said. “I’m big and brave.”

Daddy lifted Jenny way up in the air and set her on the high black leather examining table.
Mother stood beside her and helped her get her dress and underwear sleeves rolled up. Elsie, a mere slip of a girl, who was the office girl, put cold stuff high on Jenny’s left arm with cotton. The doctor had a big needle. Just as he stuck it into Jenny’s arm and it started to sting, “Daddy said , “Look at the little birdie on the window sill.” Jenny looked, but didn’t see it. The doctor took the needle away.

“That didn’t hurt a bit,” said Jenny proudly.

Margaret, however, began to cry the minute the doctor approached with the needle. Jenny tried to comfort her by saying, “It won’t hurt,” but Margaret was not convinced. Jenny was glad that for once, she had acted even bigger than Margaret.

After supper that evening, Daddy took out his steel tape measure that rolled up into a little round case and showed them how they could play “vaccinate.” The tape looked as though it went right into your arm. They had such fun playing vaccinate.