Co-Host Taylor interviews her dad, Mark, who was born in 1953! We talk DDT trucks, the Polio Vaccine, and what it was like to just not have to worry about it anymore! Were you at any of our historical events??? We'd love to interview you too!
Co-Host Taylor interviews her dad, Mark, who was born in 1953! We talk DDT trucks, the Polio Vaccine, and what it was like to just not have to worry about it anymore!
Were you at any of our historical events??? We'd love to interview you too!
Hi Friends! Our transcripts aren't perfect, but I wanted to make sure you had something - if you'd like an edited transcript, I'd be happy to prioritize one for you - please email doomedtofailpod@gmail.com - Thanks! - Taylor
Doomed to Fail podcast's first episode is about the polio vaccine
>> Taylor: Hi, friends. Welcome to Doomed to Fail, where the podcast that brings you historical disasters, life lessons, interesting stories from our human past, and we are trying to figure out what's next for us, how we grow, how we talk with stories we're telling, and all of that. But our first episode of 2025 was released on January 6th, and it is about the polio vaccine. So I talked a little bit about the history of polio. I talked about, obviously, our dear FDR and our dear Elean. And I also talked about the vaccine. And when thinking about the polio vaccine, I remembered that my dad, Mark remembers getting the polio vaccine. He got the Sabin oral vaccine in a sugar cube, and he remembers standing in line and getting it. So I thought, why not ask him about it? So hope you enjoy this short interview that I did with my dad, Mark Sterek, about polio growing up in a time when vaccines were new. And we also touch on my great aunt. So my grandma's sister, who passed away when she was two years old, from measles, which is now a disease, obviously, that we can vaccinate against. And I always think about how my great grandma told me that she thought about her every day, obviously for 70 years, every day she thought about this daughter that she had lost to a disease that we are so lucky now to be able to vaccinate against. So I wanted to share those stories and maybe we'll do more. Definitely a note to talk to your parents and grandparents and get stories because it's fun to talk about it, record it, and be able to share it with the next generation. So, love you, dad. Thank you so much. And I hope everyone enjoys this short interview.
You were born in Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1953
In the matter of the people of State of California vs. Orenthal James Simpson, case number BA09.
>> Mark Sterek: And so, my fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.
>> Taylor: Cool. Hi, dad. How are you?
>> Mark Sterek: I'm doing well here in Florida.
>> Taylor: Good. I am, about to record my show on polio and I wanted to because I know you remember getting the vaccine. But first, just love to hear where you grew up when you were born. Sure.
>> Mark Sterek: I was born in Chicago, Illinois, at Evangelical Hospital. Doesn't exist anymore, on July 21, 1953. I grew up in North Riverside. It's the western suburb of Chicago. It goes Chicago, Cicero, Berwyn, North Riverside. So the third small suburb out west of, the city limits of Chicago. That's where I grew up.
>> Taylor: Cool. And obviously, like post war era, everyone's everyone's dad, like, a veteran?
>> Mark Sterek: Everyone's dad was a veteran, actually. I remember my dad would. When he would meet another dad, they would say, what, were you in the service?
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Mark Sterek: And the guy would say, I was in the Navy, and my father. My father was in the Marines. They all were. They all were in the service or. Yes, they all were.
>> Taylor: Yeah, totally. What do you. What's, like, your. What are some of your favorite childhood memories of, like, just being a kid in the. In the 50s and 60s?
>> Mark Sterek: Well, we were free to go wherever we wanted. Totally different than today. you'd hop on your bike, go down to the baseball field, and literally play all day. And they had a pump there where, you could pump well water when you got thirsty. And that was summertime, and everybody went there. and then in the wintertime, they had, the Salt creek went near where I lived, and it was flooding all the time, so they built a corridor underground from Salt Creek to, the Des Plaines river to level the water off. And they left a huge mountain of dirt where we. Everybody would go tobogganing during the wintertime. Yeah. And in those days, we had snow, so. Yeah.
>> Taylor: Yeah. One thing that I learned about in researching the polio is about how, like, America was in, like, not in the 50s, but before that, like, getting people to be clean, to be, like, you know, take a shower. It just, like, wasn't a thing that people did. And a lot of us marketing, so there was, like, you know, use Listerine for the first time and, like, brush your teeth and things like that. And, one thing that came up that I know you remember remember is the trucks of ddt.
>> Mark Sterek: Yes, yes, I did. I do remember it very well. And the crazy thing was the. The truck, with ddt, would go down the street, and our parents let us ride our bikes in the fog.
>> Taylor: That's so funny.
>> Mark Sterek: Isn't it crazy?
>> Taylor: Now?
>> Mark Sterek: you'd be. Everybody would be, locking the windows and the doors. And in those days, it was like, hey, great. We didn't think of ddt. We thought it was the mosquito truck. We call. And you. You. You know, you'd hide in the smog. It'd be like a movie. And it was. But we did.
>> Taylor: Did it. Did it, Did it stop the mosquitoes? Did it work?
>> Mark Sterek: I think, the only way to stop mosquitoes is when the truck hit an actual mosquito. That was about it.
>> Taylor: That's fair. That's fair. amazing.
One of your neighbors had two sons who died of polio
okay, so about the polio vaccine in particular, I'd love To hear just like, what your. What do you remember about polio? Was it something that you thought about or like people were thinking about? Was it a big deal?
>> Mark Sterek: To be honest with you, after you mentioned this to me a few weeks ago, I did have one. No, I never knew anybody who had it. now, my. Our next door neighbors, my parents next to neighbor were Marie and George. They were. They were in their 70s, in. You know, in the. In the 50s. They were. Passed away a long time ago. They had a son who was alive, and she had a son also. She had two sons, but one died of polio. And she said that she went to the hospital and the bedding was rolled up and everything was rolled up. And then she got the news that her son had died. Oh, a few months later, she goes to the hospital, see her other son who was ill. She noticed the bedding roll up, and she thought, I've lost both sons. It was. He survived. The second one survived.
>> Taylor: Oh, good. That's terrible.
>> Mark Sterek: Yeah. And, And she was. They. So they ended up with one. With one grown man. M. Was there son. And, so that was really the only. Only person I knew. But it's. I remember that. And that's just how she told it. She said, I. When I saw Georgie was. This was the son who survived. When I saw Georgie's betting role, I thought he had passed away too. It was, but she. He did not. So that was it.
>> Taylor: That's good. That's crazy.
Tell me about when you got the COVID vaccine
Did it. When do you remember? So tell me about when you got the vaccine. How old were you and how were you, like, expecting it? Because it reminds me a tiny bit of. I mean, Covid was obviously a very different disease and affected a lot more people. But, you know, when we got the COVID vaccine, like, I cried in relief. Like, as a mom, as a parent, I was so happy that we were able to. To do this. and I'm curious as to, like, if you were expecting it or were you just like, oh, one day we're gonna go down and get it?
>> Mark Sterek: Yeah, I think it's one day we're gonna go down and get it. I don't think it was, I don't remember being, like, a relief to my parents or anything like that. No. M. It was extremely simple. we would get in line if somebody is listening now and they know the area. North Riverside. Des Plaines Avenue goes right through North Riverside, and on the west side of this plains right now is the North Riverside Library. That was the city hall when I was A kid. So we all lined up in front of the city hall and they had a doctor and a nurse there and a notebook. And they would give you a sugar cube with the vaccine in it. And you would, I think my mom had a. Birth certificates. I think she did. And we would, They fill out the form or fill out to put us in the notebook and we'd. And because it was sugar, kids went for it. You didn't get a shot or anything. It was very simple, very quick. But the line was forever because every kid did it. I think you had to do it to go to school, maybe like you do now.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah.
>> Mark Sterek: And then my brother, my. It was probably, I would say maybe 19, 50, 60. I mean, excuse me, 60. I was maybe 6 or 7 years old at the time and my brother would have been two or three. And we both got it and then we had to do it again.
>> Mark Sterek: It was a 2 vaccine, system and we did it twice. And I never knew anyone who got polio.
>> Taylor: Amazing.
>> Mark Sterek: Amazing is right.
>> Taylor: That's super cool. yeah, that's fine. I feel like everybody in that line with you probably remembers doing it.
>> Mark Sterek: Probably does. It was a. It was, it was kind of an event and it was, Because it wasn't an actual shot, it was painless. And Yeah. And I remember we were all lined up and did it.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Mark Sterek: And there was nothing to it.
>> Taylor: Yeah. Cool.
>> Mark Sterek: And the best part is it worked.
>> Taylor: Yeah, no, the best parts worked. That's so cool. Yeah, that's really fun.
>> Mark Sterek: So that would have been 60. Well over 60 years ago.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Mark Sterek: Because I'll be 72 in. In July and probably 65 years ago.
>> Mark Sterek: I would think.
>> Taylor: Cool. It's very fun. It's wild. The public health things are so crazy. Like everyone has to do it at the same time.
>> Mark Sterek: They are, they are, they are. And, and like I say, I'm. I'm sure that we had to have that in order to go to school. And you probably. You probably do not, I would think.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I think you do too, but you do too. I'm gonna check, but I'm pretty sure that you do. M. Yeah. Yeah.
Your great grandmother says she held your sister when she died of measles
and the other thing that I know we didn't talk to your Uncle Al about, but I know that my grandma's sister died of a disease that is a vaccinated disease now.
>> Mark Sterek: Yeah, I think it. I think it was measles.
>> Taylor: Yeah, I think so too, but I'll.
>> Mark Sterek: Have to check with him. And she was 2 and, my grandmother. Your great grandmother, said that she held her when she died. And, you were just. Would die from measles.
>> Taylor: That's awful.
>> Mark Sterek: And she said she held her, and her name was Gloria. I said gloria smiled. And then she just passed away.
>> Taylor: Oh, that's so sad.
>> Mark Sterek: Yeah. And that would have been a long time ago. That would have been,
>> Taylor: That may be like, 100 years ago.
>> Mark Sterek: Yeah. Because, my mom was born in 30, so my mom would be 93, and it was her older sister, so it was maybe 85, 90 years ago. Yeah.
>> Taylor: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. Super.
>> Mark Sterek: But that's. Yeah, I remember that. I remember that story from Grandma also.
>> Taylor: Yeah, me too. Me too. Yeah. Well, cool. Well, thank you. I really appreciate you telling me that memory. That's really cool.
>> Mark Sterek: Until. Oh, you're welcome. I remember it very well. And it, was, the way it was in those days.
>> Taylor: Yeah, totally.
>> Mark Sterek: That's the way it was.
>> Taylor: Yeah.
>> Mark Sterek: All right, cool.
>> Taylor: Thanks. I love you. Don't hang out. I'm just gonna stop recording. Okay.
>> Mark Sterek: All right, bye.