Maybe I'll go to my vet instead ...

[Mikkel]

I seem to remember that I got the polio vaccine on a lump of sugar. The smallpox I got with a blunt needle in the shoulder and I got the scar to prove it . The doctor used the same needle for all the children, he just heated it over a spirit flame between injections .

[Ironclad Alibi]

I seem to remember that I got the polio vaccine on a lump of sugar. The smallpox I got with a blunt needle in the shoulder and I got the scar to prove it . The doctor used the same needle for all the children, he just heated it over a spirit flame between injections .

I too got the oral polio vaccine on a sugar cube back in the mid-1950s.

I remember a radio show discussing it and having people call in to the show. One black man called in and asked by they didn't have brown sugar cubes for his people.

[wolfie]

To quote a certain rabbit, What a maroon! AFAIK, brown sugar was never sold in cube form, since the purposes for which you use sugar cubes (hot drinks) don't normally use brown sugar.

[Pixelated]

That would be the Smallpox vaccine. Instead of an injection, they would scratch up the site and apply the vaccine. Sometime between 40 and 50 years ago, scientists decided that smallpox was extinct "in the wild" (U.S. and Russia still have labs with the live virus), so routine smallpox vaccination was discontinued.

Fun fact: Smallpox was the first disease for which a vaccine was created, and is also the source of the name "vaccine". Doctors observed that dairymaids didn't get smallpox - it's closely enough related to cowpox (a "nuisance disease", not life-threatening, in humans) that the antibodies created to fight off a cowpox infection will also protect against smallpox (a deadly disease). Cue the experiment of applying pus from a "live" cowpox case to a (created for the purpose) wound - and the people so treated caught cowpox, and afterward were protected against smallpox. The name "vaccine" is derived from the Latin for "cow".

Thank you.

And as somebody who is fascinated by the history and derivation of words, thank you even more for the background of the word "vaccine." That is fascinating!

[Nunavut Pants]

AFAIK, brown sugar was never sold in cube form...

I've seen lumps of brown sugar, though not cube-shaped. Purpose-made, pretty obviously. In a bowl with white sugar lumps, and a pair of tongs so that you could transfer one or more from the bowl to your coffee or tea.

I think this was in England. Can any of our UK peeps confirm that?

[Racket_Man]

Wait ... your mother had to get a cop to nab you so you'd take your polio shot?

I presume you're suitably grateful that YouTube hadn't been invented yet.

Anybody know which is the vaccine that leaves a large scar? I've got it on my left arm but of course it's been part of my arm for as long as I can remember, so I haven't a clue what caused it (I'm just assuming it was a vaccination shot, of course ...)

I seem to remember that I got the polio vaccine on a lump of sugar. The smallpox I got with a blunt needle in the shoulder and I got the scar to prove it . The doctor used the same needle for all the children, he just heated it over a spirit flame between injections .

50 odd years ago I got the smallpox vaccine like this: the Dr./nurse/whoever spread some green colored "cream" on my shoulder joint and repeatedly "stabbed" that spot (about the size of a dime) with a needle. you can barely see that spot now.

50 od years ago I too got the oral/liquid polio vaccine.

I just got TOOOOO MANY shot type vaccines in my very young years AND the needle were huge (relatively speaking) back then and THEY HURT LIKE HELL!!!!! especially since they LOVED to give shots the butt cheeks. I finally started to get shots in the arm at like age 7 or 8.

Funny story. I was about 4 or 5 and was at the Dr.'s office and a nurse walks into the examining room and out of habit I just dropped trou, bent over, and started to cry cause it seemed to my young mind that the only thing that happened at the Dr.'s office was SHOTS and nothing else.

[greek_jester]

I think this was in England. Can any of our UK peeps confirm that?

Brit here. I've seen mixed brown and white sugar lumps (never cubes) in cafes trying to be posh.

[dalesys]

It's easy to get brown sugar lumps. Just you wait... leave it open and it will lump up on you. Cubes will take a lumpen whisperer.

[Pixelated]

It's easy to get brown sugar lumps. Just you wait... leave it open and it will lump up on you. Cubes will take a lumpen whisperer.

I think they meant small lumps that could be picked up daintily with sugar tongs ... not one giant honkin' mass that requires an industrial-strength drill to chip bits off it. And a blowtorch to reduce it to something that will mix with your tea or coffee.

Pretty sure I've seen cubes of 'raw' (light brown) sugar at some of our slightly-more-upscale grocery stores. I can't see the point, unless you're holding some kind of old-fashioned afternoon tea.