Hi Margie and LaMar, I hope you are doing well during all this craziness. You might find this interesting. Years ago I went to Grandma and Grandpa Norman's house and they let me scan a bunch of photos in their albums. I remember Grandpa telling me about a time when their family was quarantined because they had caught an illness. He remembered being stuck at home for a while and he and his brother weren't allowed outside of their yard. Here is the picture of them during this time. Notice the cross in their window. He said that let people know the family had been quarantined. I think it was most likely the Spanish Flu. It seems like the math works out on the years.
Mom's Response~ Thanks Nikki! Ive never seen the first picture and the explanation of the cross on the door! Yes, on the terrible Spanish Flu in 1918, when Rex would have been about 3 and Gordon 18 months younger. I remember when my Grandma Norman (Louella) told me that she and Herb were too sick to even care for the boys. And that it was the members of the Oddfellows and Rebekahs service organization that stepped in to help and care for them and their two little boys. Grandma said she doesn't know what they would have done without that help. So Grandma and Grandpa became members of the organization their whole life, as I remember, and held offices.
Taken from Herbert Lavar's Autobiography ...
That fall, along in November (1918) I took the flu. There was a terrible amount of flu then. There were many, many people dying with it. They took me home from work. The doctor got there and told the fellow who took me home to get me to bed and take care of me. They fixed me up and asked me if we had any liquor in the house. Mother (Louella) said she didn't know what it was, but I had just purchased a case of something for Fred Rassmussen. He got me part of that, and he rubbed me with it. He then made a "hot toddy" for me. The Odd Fellow's Grand Noble got a nurse who stayed for three hours. Then he got another one, and she stayed for a couple of hours. That is the way it was for two or three days. At least they had someone there to take care of me night and day. I went unconscious, and the doctor asked Mother if we had any relatives around. She said the nearest was in Mt. Pleasant, Utah. He said she had better get them because I couldn't live. That was an awful thing to tell her.
The girl that was at the depot came and got the two boys and took them down to her house to take care of them. They were homesick and lonesome so she brought them back the next morning, and they had the flu. Mother was still up and going. I was unconscious for thirteen days, and when I became conscious I had a hemorrhage. I bled the washbasin nearly full of blood. They got the doctor to our home, and he packed my head in snow (there was snow on the ground because it was just a little before Thanksgiving). He finally got it stopped. Mother asked what she should do if I had another one.He said to get him and get him fast. About an hour and a half later I had another one. They finally got a hold of him, and I was still bleeding when he got there. He finally got it stopped and shook his head. He told Mother she had better get the folks because I could not make it. She asked what she should do if I had another one. He said I couldn't survive another one. That made Mother feel awful bad. I could hear what they were saying, but I couldn't say anything. An hour or two later, I had a third hemorrhage. They got the doctor and he came in a hurry. When he came in and took care of me, he said to Mother, "Mrs. Norman, if he can make blood as fast as he has been making it lately, he will be well." He said I was in better shape than when he first came down. It had turned red instead of black. That was the last hemorrhage I had, but I laid there and couldn't do anything. I got to feeling better so was able to sit up in a chair. We still had the nurses there, and Mother came down with the flu. She was expecting another baby, and it was quite a turmoil.
When I got so I could go out, I went to pay the nurses because I felt they were the first ones who should be paid. I asked each nurse how much we owed them, and each one replied , "Nothing". The Odd Fellow's Lodge had taken care of all the expenses including the coal we had to buy from the lumber yard. I always maintained if it hadn't been for the Lodge, I wouldn't be here today. I paid them back. I couldn't do it all at once, but I did it as fast as I could. I figured if they could do that much good for me, they could do that much good for someone else.
From Grandpa Rex Norman's History (this would have been a later quarantine)...
I was the oldest. I started school at the age of six. I can remember when my brother and sister both came down with Scarlet Fever. We were quarantined for over a month. The kids would bring my schoolwork home and place it on our fence for me. Dad had to live away from home during that period of time. I remember after about four weeks the doctor came and examined them and going over their bodies he found a couple of scales and kept us in for another week. We were sure mad and we called him Dr. Quack. We then had to fumigate the whole house. We had to stuff all the cracks and openings with rags and would do part of the house at a time.
(More from Mom) I remember when we were little kids on Boxelder St. and had measles and mumps, etc., how the county health dept. (?) came and put up a quarantine notice on your front door. I don't know when that practice was discontinued. We'll all have to do some research on those interesting times.
