Growing Up in Williamsport, Ohio

German Measles
 
In 1948, German Measles were going around and Betty and I both got them. It was in the spring around the time that Bob enlisted in the Army. I remember sitting in our dining room looking out the back window over the cistern and emerging flowers. It looks like I got the measles first but I don’t remember anything about Betty having them. Aside from the itchy sores, I had a high fever and am sure that I hallucinated. I remember Mama and Daddy standing at the end of my bed. They must have asked how I was feeling because I told them that one of my feet was heavier than the other.
 
I also lost some of my hearing and my mother got upset because she was in the dining room talking to me while I was lying on the couch in the living room. I didn’t hear her. She came in all upset. Then my nose started to bleed. The blood ran down the back of my throat and coagulated and I couldn’t breathe. She dipped her fingers in cold water and put them on my lips and the shock caused me to cough thereby solving the problem.
 
I don’t know who else was in the house but my mother sent someone to Alonzo and Becky Stonerocks’ house across the street. Alonzo was sick so they had to have a phone. I don’t remember Dr. Gamble coming but he must have, and I survived. I was in Winona Ramsey’s fourth grade and missed a lot of school that year.
 
My sister and I often heard mourning doves in our yard. I knew Alonzo was really ill and I thought the mourning doves were Alonzo moaning. I always told Betty, “it’s just Alonzo”. Even today, when I hear mourning doves, I think of him. 

©Marilyn Francis Ferguson 2020
Photography/graphics by Michele Ferguson Schuck