Thank You Dr. Salk

Yesterday, Google had a banner up saying "Thank you - Dr. Salk". I wonder how many people viewing it even knew who Dr. Salk was. It would have been his 100th birthday. Dr. Salk helped to create the vaccine for polio. Every summer, parents lived in fear that this year polio would strike their young and vibrant child and they would have to watch their child become forever crippled  - or worse.

As a child, I knew about the iron lung machines that children had to be in to be able to breathe. If they were lucky, they could graduate from the machine, but have to wear steel braces to hold up their withered legs. I knew children at school who were permanently disfigured by the disease.

 And then - everything changed. Dr. Salk and his team created a vaccine that prevented children from contracting the disease. Originally, it was given by injection, but was soon improved so that a drop or two on a sugar cube would do the trick.

I remember our whole family going to Northwest Junior High School -not the current school, and waited in line for hours to get our vaccination. There was no going to the doctor. This was a public free distribution of the vaccine to anyone who wanted it - and everyone wanted it. I was only in 3rd or 4th grade at the time, but I still can feel the relief I felt at knowing that Poliomyelitis was not going to get me. I am sure that part of that was sensing the relief my parents felt knowing that now all of their children were safe from the dreaded disease.

Our next door neighbor wanted to be a policeman or a fireman when he grew up. Steve grew up with one leg withered and shorter than the other. The polio case had been mild. He was one of the lucky ones, but he never realized his dream. It was cut short by an unseen killer that could now be prevented by a sugar cube.

There has not been a case of polio in the United States in over thirty years. My grandchildren will probably never even hear the name of the disease. The same could be said for countless other diseases we knew as children - measles - mumps - rubella- chicken pox - diphtheria - pneumonia -shingles. It will likely be the same for Ebola in the future.

I cannot understand the people who believe that vaccines are a bad thing now and refuse to get their kids vaccinated. It is as if now that we need not fear these diseases, we now have to come up with something else to fear - even if that is the very thing that made our current blessed lives possible.

I, for one, am not willing to go back to those fearful days.

Thank you, Dr. Salk

A Helpmeet? or a Cheerleader?

During conference this week, we listened as one of the Seventy from Taiwan gave his talk in Cantonese. He was comparing the story of the sick man who was lifted down through the roof to get to Jesus, to the work of bishops and home teachers and elders. In my mind, he stretched the analogy just a little too far. By the time he got to the part where he said that the part of the Relief Society was there to cheer the men on and admonish the men to "be safe", I cringed at the thought of all the hard working sisters and Relief Society presidents being relegated to mere cheerleaders.

I know that he probably did not mean this to come out this way, and maybe I was the only one who took it this way, but all I could do was think of how hard my bride worked (and how hard two of my girls are working) to fulfill their responsibilities as Relief Society presidents. It brought to mind the work that my Grandmother Morton did to support Grandpa in his photography. Countless incredible photographs feature Grandpa front and center. Just who do you think took those photographs? Grandpa took black and white photographs, yet all of the big murals in the Capitol and the Union Pacific photos were in color. Just who do you think painstakingly hand painted all that color into the photos. Thankfully, the cherished photo I have bears the inscription "By Thelma and Al Morton".

Just as Grandma was an accomplished photographer in her own right, Janene is likewise blessed with artistic ability - plus she has to put up with me when we go out taking pictures. This week, I think I took seven hundred photographs. Four or five of those turned out to be good. Janene took probably about twenty - and got at least four or five good ones. This one was one I took too. Hers was better.

Janene oftentimes sees things I don't see. I didn't see the orange tree that makes this picture pop.

 Janene can really see detail. Maybe she just has better vision, but I am afraid it is something more than that.

I wanted to take the trail out of this picture. Janene's version leaves the trail in and invites the viewer to become part of the picture.

Both of us saw this picture, but while I was fiddling with the camera, Janene was saying "the light is changing fast - just take the picture. And she was right. She is almost always right". I am just grateful that I am blessed with a companion who is willing to put up with me and things I want to do. She is far more than a cheerleader for me. She is a teacher, a helpmeet, and someone who makes me complete.

Have I got it good or what? Again.

Seeds of Grapeness

Holy Bunch of Grapes, Batman! Grape Caesar's Ghost!It seems "some are born grape, some achieve grapeness, and some have grapeness thrust upon them". William Shakespeare  Q. What was purple and conquered the world? A. Alexander the Grape

The saga of the grapes continues in Janene's kitchen. We found more grapes to contend with and they are now being turned into various forms of grapeness for our future use.

But no! That is not all. Now for a limited time only, you can have BEETS too! That's right folks. Two different vegetables known for staining everything they touch. The floor is sticky. The sink is permanently red. For Janene, these just might be the grapes of wrath. But, as Helen Keller said, "Life is either a grape adventure, or nothing".

Grapes, Bread and Dinner

This evening I went to the back yard to get another ladder (as if a full set of scaffolding, two Little Giant ladders, an extension ladder and an 8 foot stepladder weren't enough) to work on the front of the house. As I walked past the grapes, I could smell the ripeness of the grapes. I commented to Janene that it looked (smelled) like the grapes were ripe now. Then I went up front, climbed the scaffolding again and began working under cloudy skies with snow flurries in the distance.

Pretty soon, I could hear rattling from the side of the house, at the same time that I caught a whiff of the aroma of fresh baked bread. That smell always takes me back to the kitchen of my great-grandma Meik. I will have to write about my memories of that kitchen some other time. My Grandma Phillips used to bake bread in her kitchen too. There are few things better than Grandma's fresh baked bread with real melting butter, a no-no in my Mom's kitchen. One of those better things is fresh baked bread from Janene's kitchen - with butter. If Janene is in the kitchen baking bread, who is making all the noise on the side of the house?

 There she is doing two things at once. I guess they must have been ripe enough that they just had to be picked right away. Somewhere in the middle of baking bread, and picking grapes, she was also painting fascia on the ladder I brought around. What a versatile woman.

It wasn't much longer, and I had to come down from the scaffold again because I could smell the best dinner being cooked in the kitchen. I swear that sometimes I can smell Janene's great cooking when I am driving up ValVerda from work. So for dinner tonight, I was treated to homemade bread with dreamy melting butter, fried eggs and veggies from the garden with Janene's famous home grown chili sauce - and a big tall glass of fresh grape juice.

Have I got it good or what?