1939 – How I Got Vaccinated for Smallpox
(Written 11-25-2000)
During most of World War II we lived on McFerrin Street in north Waco. Bobby and I shared a bed. He got his smallpox vaccination and it was all puffed up, as was normal. I had a mosquito bite on my upper left arm. As we slept, my mosquito bite rubbed against Bobby’s vaccination and I got infected. Doctor Saddler later said that my vaccination took and that it was probably permanent. I have a very small scar from that, and never since then have I had a vaccination that “took.”