Quarantined
Template:Rpm In 1949, my Mom contracted poliomyelitis; spending several months in the polio ward at Los Angeles General Hospital. I remember her in an iron lung, laying on her back, looking at the world through a mirror.
At that time, little was known how the disease was spread, and Jonas Salk hadn't yet developed a polio vaccine. The first two months, our entire family was quarantined. Everyday, everything we had worn the previous day was washed in heavy chlorine bleach. While the clothes were being washed, all the floors were scrubbed and waxed. I remember putting on heavy cotton socks and 'ice skating' around the kitchen floor in an attempt to buff the floors to high sheen.
After the floors were clean and sterile, we would open newspapers and lay them on the floor. We would put a couple of boxes of crayons on them and 'go to work'. We would look for stories and articles that were connected. We would do crossword puzzles and what are called rebus puzzles. A rebus is a puzzle where you would add or subtract letters or pictures, trying for a final solution.
To help break the boredom, my father developed what we called the 'Travel Game'. Imagine that yesterday's game found us in, for example, Cairo, Egypt. Today, we spin a globe to find out where today's target will be. Let's say, for example, that today's target is London, England.
We would have to figure out how we would get from Cairo to London; train, plane, or boat. Based on the mode of travel, we would have to plan our itinerary, with a list of each country we would traverse, and each major city we would visit. We would have to compute monetary exchange rates, languages spoken, and what type of clothes to carry, based on the current radio weather reports. We would have to determine what kind of food we might encounter, making up possible menus. We would then try to find recipes for some of the items on 'The Menu' and try to cook them for dinner that evening.
From this game, I learned to cook. I learned how to plan and how to make back up plans. I developed a voracious appetitive for books and puzzles.
As an inventor, engineer or cryptographer, learning to solve puzzles has helped me throughout my life.
I think that it is an important life lesson as well. When given a challenge, do you buckle under, or do you buckle down.
<- Early Days --- Life Lessons ->
Chat rooms • What links here • Copyright info • Contact information • Category:Root