Vacination Scar
It's Friday night and I'm checking out some Tragically Hip songs on You Tube when I stumble upon Vacination Scar - a single that pretty much flew under the radar but is a kicking tune. This line always struck home with me......
"The one thing I remember is this tear on your bare shoulder
this little silver boulder, this slowly falling star....
the start of enough, a tear dropped in a vacination scar...."
I can remember clearly the gothic(isk) dread of queuing up in the old(now demolished) Bridgewater Elementary school to receive the vacination needle. The fear was palpable and heavy with some kids in tears, fainting and others on the verge of nervous breakdown. I remember seeing the line end at the door to the principal's office where you would wait in abject terror for that stern faced nurse to escort out a crying classmate then beckon you in to your own unavoidable meeting with the syringe.
It was horrific and I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. We five year old kids were still in shock from starting school and being away from home(many for the first time) and now had to cope with the innoculation without even the comfort of our parents. The smell of the alcohol swabs, the discomfort of the fear induced cold sweat, the visual of the vials on the table and the eventual pain associated with the injection. No bloody wonder it took me till age 47 to summon up the courage to give blood and, prior to that, trying to sneak out of tetanus shots after stitches only to voluntarily drop my pants to "take it" in the arse rather than have to see the needle.
Funny thing is the scar(the result of the hideous post vacination scab) marks a dividing line between generations. It is only a matter of time before us shoulder scarred, needle phobic 40+ ers will pass away and the infamous vacination scar will become nothing but a footnote of innoculation history.
"The one thing I remember is this tear on your bare shoulder
this little silver boulder, this slowly falling star....
the start of enough, a tear dropped in a vacination scar...."
I can remember clearly the gothic(isk) dread of queuing up in the old(now demolished) Bridgewater Elementary school to receive the vacination needle. The fear was palpable and heavy with some kids in tears, fainting and others on the verge of nervous breakdown. I remember seeing the line end at the door to the principal's office where you would wait in abject terror for that stern faced nurse to escort out a crying classmate then beckon you in to your own unavoidable meeting with the syringe.
It was horrific and I remember it as clearly as if it happened yesterday. We five year old kids were still in shock from starting school and being away from home(many for the first time) and now had to cope with the innoculation without even the comfort of our parents. The smell of the alcohol swabs, the discomfort of the fear induced cold sweat, the visual of the vials on the table and the eventual pain associated with the injection. No bloody wonder it took me till age 47 to summon up the courage to give blood and, prior to that, trying to sneak out of tetanus shots after stitches only to voluntarily drop my pants to "take it" in the arse rather than have to see the needle.
Funny thing is the scar(the result of the hideous post vacination scab) marks a dividing line between generations. It is only a matter of time before us shoulder scarred, needle phobic 40+ ers will pass away and the infamous vacination scar will become nothing but a footnote of innoculation history.
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