My Mom & Dad were old school when it came to immunity, as were most of the parents in the area where I grew up. We played outside in the dirt, got licked on the face by pets, ate with our unwashed hands (at school), and got into all sort of other stuff that would make some parents shudder these days.

I got the polio, and a couple of other vaccines which were mandatory in grade school, but whenever any kid in our neighborhood got the mumps, measles or chicken pox, most everyone brought their kids over to their house to get infected. Yes the adults knew that we would get sick, but they were building our immune systems naturally.

I got a few flu viruses and few colds as a child, but not much after that. The last flu I had was in 1989, and if I catch a cold, its usually over with in a few days.

With love, Erika