The idea that people just joyously contracted measles for the immunity in the "good old days" is stupid in itself but there was literally an entire rom-com subgenre that revolved around people locked in quarantine together (enforced by the police at the time) - ThreadSky

moviessilently.bsky.social • 4 days ago

The idea that people just joyously contracted measles for the immunity in the "good old days" is stupid in itself but there was literally an entire rom-com subgenre that revolved around people locked in quarantine together (enforced by the police at the time)

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judirn.bsky.social•4 days ago

The fear of measles was so great when I was a child that we were IMMEDIATELY quarantined. Our family rushed from grandparents house and drove back home in a car with ALL the windows covered and we 3 kids thrown in the back seat. Early 50's. I was too young to really understand but felt the fear!

123blueboy321.bsky.social•4 days ago

i never seen it done for measels, but when i was a kid in the 1960's it was done when chickenpox was going around

macemoneta.bsky.social•4 days ago

Chickenpox parties for kids.

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

Smallpox was often used in place of measles (presumably because it was funnier in title cards).

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

The "movie disease" that we sometimes mock-- the victim gets more beautiful as they die-- was the very real threat of tuberculosis during the silent era.

Much like nurses wearing white dresses well into the scrubs era, movies kept it going without real world context.

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

THE ITALIAN (1915) revolved around an immigrant who is told that his baby must be given pasteurized milk, a more expensive product at the time. He can only afford raw milk and his baby dies from the contamination.

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

(Pointedly stares at the camera.)

Ya know, I've been reviewing silent movies on Al Gore's internet since 2009 and I used to have to explain this stuff to people because they had no modern frame of reference.

Ha. Ha. It is to laugh.

fatapollo.bsky.social•4 days ago

My mom and all her sisters had TB.

My mom spent 18 months in quarantine, and my aunt 4 years.

classicmp.bsky.social•4 days ago

There was no joy in my family. My 13 month old uncle. When I hear people being flippant about their kids getting it I always think of him and how it affected my family the rest of their lives. There were no vaccines in 1937.

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

Yeah, losing a massive number of kids was normal-- but no less traumatic! I don't know how they carried on, really. "The only child who survived into adulthood" is such a common phrase to come across.

classicmp.bsky.social•4 days ago

Fortunately my mother and 3 brothers all grew nice and elderly. But my mother was 4 when he died When they were at the cemetery she was hysterical and tried to jump into his grave to get him out. 4 and she’s 92 now. My grandma was depressed for several years. He was the baby. It’s a sad story 4 me.

liiiiiiira.bsky.social•4 days ago

would you recommend any titles?

tlc18.bsky.social•4 days ago

My mother was a nurse and was coming home early to take us to get the measles vaccine. She took my brothers because it was too late for me. She walked in the door saw me lying on the couch, said oh shit we need to get you boys out NOW. 3 days later the spots started. I’d rather have had the shot

vampwritergrrl.bsky.social•4 days ago

My mother is 77. The measles vaccine wasn't even developed until 1958, and not approved for public use until 1961. She said she and her three siblings all had measles, it was horrible and miserable, kids died from it, and no one deliberately got it. 1/2

vampwritergrrl.bsky.social•4 days ago

I'm 52. As a child, I knew two men who had polio. Both were physically disabled. One did odd jobs for my grandfather. He was deaf. I'm 100% sure I'm not the only person who knew survivors of these deadly diseases. How are people so far gone that they invalidate living witnesses to history?
2/2

billthornbro.bsky.social•4 days ago

Weird.

hookersandwhiskey.bsky.social•4 days ago

Coming soon Hugh Grant and Jenna Ortega in quarantine in trouble and in a whole heap of trouble if they leave in 'Infection love'

vicwolk.bsky.social•4 days ago

Didn't friends have an episode like that in the earlier seasons?

lkjandersen.bsky.social•4 days ago

If I learned anything from The Outbursts Of Everett True, it's that people treating infectious diseases as no biggie was never okay and that they deserve a severe asskicking.

toomuchbrudders.bsky.social•4 days ago

My husband’s grandfather was denied marrying until he built his betrothed a new, tuberculosis-free house: https://toomuchbrudders.com/2023/03/09/the-tuberculosis-house/ The more we researched this family story, the more deaths from TB we found. #blogpost

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

I support the TB-free stipulation wholeheartedly

toomuchbrudders.bsky.social•4 days ago

When we realized how many on the bride’s side of the family had died of TB, it made sense. Poor great-grandpa was trying to break the cycle.

canadiancreed.bsky.social•4 days ago

To think we took quarantine more seriously a century ago then we do now says a lot about modern day, and it's not flattering.

hanni68.bsky.social•4 days ago

And they would go around boarding people in their homes when a case of plague was discovered. Ah, how humanity craves those days!

robadiecomedy.bsky.social•4 days ago

That moment when you both look up from the puke bucket and make eye contact.

moviessilently.bsky.social•4 days ago

Notably, all the quarantine comedies rely on the illness being faked-- nobody wants to romance over oozing pustules and itchy red spots

markr51.bsky.social•4 days ago

Born 1957 or earlier? No need for a measles vaccine. We all got the disease. Everyone. It was a routine part of childhood, a gate we all had to pass through or die trying.

emily68.bsky.social•4 days ago

Back before vax availability, my friend got measles just before HS graduation. Dr told her she couldn’t go, but on the big day, she managed to get dressed. Outside of her house was someone from Public Health who glowered & pointed a finger.

And since she felt so awful, she went back inside.

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