Iannuccilli: We Feared Polio & Ringworm

Iannuccilli: We Feared Polio & Ringworm

As I’ve read and listened to the hundreds of stories about the coronavirus, I am reminded of the days of my youth when we feared the sword of two infections; polio and ringworm.  Yes, the sword because at any moment, the mythical sword of Damocles (of whom I learned in high school) might fall.

The story dates to an ancient parable popularized by Cicero, whose version centers on the unhappy, powerful, tyrannical king, Dionysius II, who once ruled over Syracuse in Sicily during the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.  Because his iron-fisted rule made him many enemies, he was tormented by fears of assassination.

A court sycophant, Damocles, showered him with compliments and remarked how blissful his life must be.  Dionysius replied, “Do you wish to taste my good fortune?”  When Damocles agreed, the king seated him on a golden couch and ordered servants to wait on him.  Just as Damocles was starting to enjoy his life, he noticed that the king had hung a razor-sharp sword from the ceiling, positioned over Damocles’ head, suspended only by a single strand of horsehair. From then on, the courtier’s fear made it impossible for him to savor the opulence of his life.

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It was a blinding, bright day in the summer of my youth.  Steamy waves of heat seeped from the street, the rubber of my sneaker soles was hot, and a rim of sweat mustached my lip.  A black ambulance passed by and absorbed some of that brightness.  It crawled; somber and sad.  A person in white sat next to a small person lying on a stretcher.  The ambulance was transporting a kid with polio to the Chapin Hospital in Providence.

I feared polio and the iron lung, but the problem seemed remote. I feared ringworm even more. “Why is that kid wearing a stocking on his head?”

“He has ringworm. Some bug rots yer hair, and it begins ta fall out and rings form on ya scalp. They shave yer hair, slap gooey medicine on and wrap it with mesh or a stocking.

Hor-ra-bul.”
“How do you get it?”

“From restin’ yer head on the seat in the movies.”  So, that summer, there was no pool, no carnival, and no movies.

I came home one day and turned on the television to hear that Dr. Salk had discovered a vaccine to prevent polio.  We stood in line for hours to get the ‘shot’.  As I walked away holding my arm, I looked back at the windows of the Chapin Hospital and thought of the kids inside for whom the shot came too late; in an iron lung, unable to run, swim or breathe on their own.

The parable of Damocles became a common motif in medieval literature, and the phrase “Sword of Damocles” is used as a term to describe looming danger. Hanging by a thread has become shorthand for a fraught or precarious situation.

We kids feared the thread would be cut by the threat of polio, or ringworm.

And now, the coronavirus.

 

Ed Iannuccilli is the author of "Growing up Italian" and "What Ever Happened to Sunday Dinner?" and "My Story Continues" can be found here.