Health
Illness is always with us and our parents had been through their own challenges with it.
In the 1880s there were smallpox outbreaks in Ontario . Polio had surged in 1909 and typhoid cases were up in 1911- even before our parents were born. In 1952 Calgary had 144 cases of infantile paralysis. By the time our parents were born, health authorities realized that drinking out of a common cup at schools or train stations was likely spreading illness so it was discontinued.
Our parents were born right around the time of the Spanish flu of 1917. It killed one sixth of the population in Canada and took 50,000 lives. So our parents had been born at a time with keen awareness of the challenges of epidemics and were able to get vaccines for some of them. The diphtheria, tetanus and smallpox vaccines had been developed when our parents were very young.
The smallpox vaccine developed in 1798 by Edward Jenner was administered to school kids here in the 1940s .
Tuberculosis was another key challenge. Returning world war one soldiers sometimes had it and it was incurable and contagious. In Calgary those who had it were sent to The Baker Sanatorium since 1920. It was a large complex in Bowness, today’s Baker park area. TB was serious business and a neighbor of mine had to be sent there and did not return.
Those with TB were given treatments in iron lungs to save their lives. By the time my cohort came along, in the 1950s, antibiotics had been developed that made treatment much more successful but the Baker Sanatorium did not close until 1980.
Polio was still a killer, often called the crippler’. In 1953 there were 9000 cases of polio in Canada and 500 died. My cohort was lucky because in 1955 the Salk vaccine was developed and in 1962 the Sabin oral vaccine was given against it. I recall getting those in school .We lived at a time when epidemics were still happening and actually in our senior years the Covid 19 pandemic has only reminded us of what was common in earlier times. In 1956 there was still an Asian flu pandemic in China- we were 7.
For my cohort, nearly all of us when young got measles, mumps and sometimes rubella. The 1950s even saw an outbreak of measles in Calgary. A vaccine against those was not developed until 1963 (we were 14) and by that time doctors assumed that those who already had the illness were naturally now protected against getting it again. The vaccine for measles came out in the sixties, the killed virus one in 1966 and the live virus one in 1971. There was a vaccine against mumps in 1967. A vaccine against German measles was available in 1969. We were however past that, already 20.
We also got the DPT combined vaccine against diphtheria, pertussis (whooping cough) and tetanus.
Our parents did the best they could. As with most science in history you only know what your era knows. The medicine cabinet of the 1950s had in it these common medicines:
-For cuts – bandages
-For fever – thermometers
-For pain- Aspirin – often with codeine. The pills were in little metal boxes
-for cuts and scrapes – Mercurochrome – this was an iodine-based antiseptic in a glass bottle with a dipper. It was a red orange color and you put it on a cut to kill germs. Yes it did contain mercury which today we know is not good for people
-For stomach upset – Milk of Magnesia, Bromo- Seltzer, Eno fruit salt
-for coughs and chest congestion – Vicks Vapo Rub, Metholatum ointment and liquid cough syrups
-liver pills – it was common to think that digestive disorders would be helped with things like bile beans, which were laxative. Ingredients often included licorice, rhubarb and cascara . A product called Carter’s Little Liver Pills had been developed to treat headaches, constipation and allegedly liver ailments and in our parents’ generation it was already common. It contained aloe and podophyllum resin and became a common household name but the US government in the 1950s required it to change its name to be less misleading – to make it clear the pills did not contain any liver extract.
We now know that some of the ingredients of earlier medications contained drugs which now are controlled. Early Coca Cola contained cocaine and some cough syrups contained morphine. One product, Paragoric was sold in glass bottles over the counter and contained opium. Legislators eventually changed the rules.
It was known that some diseases such as the common cold were caused by a virus and that others were caused by bacteria. During our childhood and still today, there are few treatments for viral infections. However to kill bacteria some drugs were already known.
1928 – penicillin had been discovered
1944 – streptomycin was effective against tuberculosis
1952 – erythromycin was a new antibiotic
However by the 1950s it was becoming clear that some people had adverse response to antibiotics and a few were allergic to some types. . It was discovered that though powerful to kill some bacteria, if a person took the antibiotics for a long time, the germs themselves became resistant to the treatment. New strains of bacteria were not killed by known antibiotics and doctors were scrambling then to make sure antibiotics were not overused to create this effect. Researchers worked to create new antibiotics. In my cohort we did not have amoxicillin which was only made in 1972 .
1955 – tetracyclines were developed
The fact we are all in a way stuck in the time we were born in, means that we were born before a cure was found for some things – like cancer, MS, arthritis . For some there is still no cure. But we did live after a treatment was found for diabetes. Because at the University of Toronto, Dr. Banting and his student Charles West had discovered insulin in 1922, those who contracted diabetes could still have long full lives.
Over our lives we saw other new medical advances around the world.
1949 – Cortisone is developed
1950 – antihistamines are used to treat allergies
1950 – antihistamines were developed
1950 – first kidney transplant was done
1950 – Geritol
1951 – first heart-lung machine
1952 – first surgical separation of conjoined twins, in Ohio
1952 – it was first noticed that celiac disease was linked to gluten
1952 – streptomycin is developed
1952- hearing aids are made smaller with transistor technology
1954 – first kidney transplant, in Boston
1954 – Rolaids
1955 – Molecular structure of insulin is discovered
1955 – Tylenol
1955 – vitamin B 12 is discovered
1956- Albert Sabin makes oral polio vaccine
1957- conjoined twins were not routinely separated but some did appear in midways, such as two conjoined twins at the Stampede .
1958 – Down’s syndrome was for the first time linked to genetics
1959 – first bone marrow transplant, in France
1960 – first kidney transplant in the world
1960 – first birth control pill was developed. (we were 11) This is noted by many to have changed the whole scene about family planning.
1960 – pituitary hormone is synthesized
1961 – identification of types of bacteria improved. Staphyloccus was identfied.
1962 – first hip replacement, in the UK
1962 – molecular structure of DNA is discovered
1963 – first artificial heart
1963 – first lung transplant and in Colorado the first liver transplant.
1963 – Thalidomide is found to cause birth defects
1965 – portable defibrillator was developed in Belfast
1966 – new treatment for asthma, the salbutamol inhalers was developed in the UK
1967 – first human heart transplant, done by Dr. Christian Barnaard in South Africa
1968 – Norovirus is identified in Ohio
1968- Chewable vitamins – Flintstones
1969 – first MRI
1969- Cyclamates are now banned from foods due to link with cancer
Around the house we also had health care products
Earlier generations in movies at least had used handkerchiefs. Men would hand one to a woman if she was crying. Women would flutter a lace one when feeling faint. However the Kleenex had been invented in 1924, as a soft crepe paper tissue that was clean and disposable. In 1955 ( we were 6) the Scott paper company invented Scotties. Eventually the technology changed and you could buy tissues that were 3 ply and ones that were in boxes carefully folded so the next one just popped up.
Our mothers, in the 50s, had feminine hygiene products, often Kotex Fems or Modems pads with a sanity belt that hooked onto their edges. By the 1960s there was adhesive backing on the pads so they would stay in the panties without a belt. In 1940s tampons had been developed but they did not reach common popularity until our own teen years. Brands like Tampax, Playtex, Kimberly-Clark products tried to perfect the insertable tube, some using cardboard, some plastic with a string to enable a person to remove it after.
Hospitals in Calgary
In our childhood there were a few main hospitals
1890 -The Calgary Cottage Hospital (General) built in 1890 with 8 beds was located on 7 avenue at 9 street Southwest. By 1895 it had relocated to a 35 bed sandstone building and by 1910 in Bridgeland it had 160 beds. In 1953 this hospital was expanded and in 1956 there was even a huge nurses’ residence built.
1891 -The Holy Cross was built beside the Elbow River in 1891. It was operated by nuns.
1919 -The Colonel Belcher had been built in 1919 to help recovering soldiers from world war II.
The Alberta Children’s Hospital was built in 1922, and was called the Junior Red Cross Hospital. At first the facility on 18 avenue SW was to give care to polio victims but later it expanded. In 1952 (my cohort was 3) it moved to the Richmond Road location.
1926 -There were specialty hospitals too. The Salvation Army Grace Hospital opened in 1926 in Hillhurst and it became a major maternity ward for the city until the 1990s.
1949- Most of my cohort who were born in Calgary, had been born at the General or the Holy Cross. The General was a huge hospital in Bridgeland and many of us returned there for surgeries like tonsillectomies which were also common.
1961 -In the 1960s it was decided to have auxiliary hospitals for those with long term and chronic care needs. The Cross Bow in 1961 and the Glenmore Auxiliary in 1964 helped meet those needs.
1966 – The Foothills Hospital was built in northwest Calgary ( we were 17). It became a go-to for many of us, with even its own expanding wings over the next decades, specialty buildings and even a new cancer centre in 2025.
1966 -The Rockyview Hospital was built overlooking the Glenmore Reservoir in 1966.
2012 -A South Health campus was built in 2012 in the deep south of the city. (By then my cohort was 63)
What is odd about hospitals is that our familiarity with them is deeply emotional. My parents had surgeries at the General and I remember its gift shop. It was where I rushed many times when my kids were small, with middle of the night asthma attacks. My father had heart surgery at the Holy Cross in the 1980s and it prolonged his life 20 years. Those steep steps I walked up going to visit him still have so much emotion for me. Looking up at the windows from outside I still can recall seeing him waving big expansive circles to the grandkids to seem happy.
I had my first baby at the Foothills in 1975 and over the years many relatives have been treated there, been in intensive care there, and some were in palliative care. Even I had had treatments there . We become familiar with hospitals oddly. I had eye exams at the Children’s Hospital in the 50s, was there in the 1980s where my daughter was treated after a ski accident, and where my son got ear surgery. My cohort was there again for our covid shots in 2020.
The Lougheed was a site of surgeries for my husband and for many friends. The South Health campus became familiar to us in the 2020s. Hospitals are marker points of key stages in our lives.
Many of my cohort watched when the magnificent structure of the General Hospital was intentionally imploded in 1998. The hospital had been there for 88 years. We were 39. It seemed as often happens when basic structures of your youth are removed, like a part of our own past was being erased. But the implosion process sure was impressive.
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