Anna Louise Tittman Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Anna Tittman
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62. You were going to tell IE the story of your smll pox~vaccinatio .
Ip
A. Well, when I was a junior in Springfield Hi& School vp had a
pox scavle and everybody was toAd to get vaccinated and I @drift
to go to a doctor to have that done but I knew a smll poq
supposed to be on its way to ua.
Q. This was in 1905, is that right? Or 1906?
A. No, no. I graduated in 1904 and it was 1903, and er it was in
the fall, or winter or spring, I don't know. Anyhow, to get vaccinated.
And that seemd to be no pat, great problem except t couldnlt go to
the doctorls like the others were going to do, and so about-I don l t
Wow where I got the inforrratim-but I knew about get
would start; the vaccination if arm or wherever I deci put it, would
be satisfactory. I was at home along the time I used th t. I was in
the kitchen near the pail of cold water because we always
a lmge wooden pail on the tabh where you worked up your bals. And so I
took the point in my hand . . .
I
Q. Why did you need a pail of cold water?
A. Oh, I felt I wanted to have sorething to mdve me
because what would I do lying there on the floor. And
In qy right hand and started it over on my left, and I
where to put it just exactly. I how that a lot of th
leg, but it mattered not to me to have it on my amn. I
m with this point. It was a little point thing with
on the bottom of it--it was only about two inches lon
it than it was on the top part, the top part was sh
last too long to operate this thing and so I began
other way. I would peek every once in a while to s
and when it got to that stage well then I hew I
rqy operation over. I scratched and scratched
to mke it as big as w brother Hamy's vacc
took and h e never did. But thak wasn't th
I wanted it to be right and I thou@ his
digging and I would just sneak a little
I thought I had it his size of vaccFnat$on, so I gave it u$ then. The blood
didn't rcrn down ~PJ amn or anything like that, but what did j I know about
sanitation and keeping everything steriile. I hew nothinglabout it. But I
wanted to be a nurse and I said to ~self beforehand that you are going to
be a nurse, you have to be brave. And so it cam out and I had a great
big scab on it, well it wasnl t quite as big as a it was big as
maybe a fifty cent ptece. So it came along until place where
that big scab was just hanging by a little
skh I think
now. So I thought, well I would be pulling
forth, so I decided to go to a octor and
couldn't go through life wlth t $a t thing
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was Dr. Lindsey, the father of Tachel ~ kdse~ the poet, an all the I
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