The Enid Blyton Society

I know a lady who is about 80 now, and she had scarlet fever when she was a child. Her 17 year old sister caught it from her and it weakened her heart and she died. I guess it was like many illnesses at that time, the strong ones survived, the weak ones didn't.

My dad had 'Scarlatina' - the mild form of the disease - when he was in the RAF in Cyprus for his National Service in 1956 - 1958. Many of them on the base caught it, but thankfully its quite mild compared to Scarlet Fever.

My nan had rheumatic fever when she was a child - and didn't even know that was what she'd had - although she remembered being ill for a while and being in bed. She only found out that was what she'd had when she was older and the doctors saw a 'scar on her heart' which indicated she'd had it!

Now you've mentioned rheumatic fever, it might have been that I was thinking of rather than Scarlet Fever. Either way, it still struck me as dreadful that a teenager should have died when her younger sister survived. I would tend to think that if someone managed to survive their first 5 years or so, then they'd have been one of the healthy ones.

I had scarlet fever in 1960. According to my mother, I was very ill and was off school for six weeks. I spent part of that time in an isolation hospital and the remainder being nursed by my mother at home. I can hardly remember anything about it.

When my mother had scarlet fever as a young girl in the 1920s, she had all her hair cut off.

When I went to boarding school in 2000 I had to bring a health certificate who said that I was well.
As I had some problems with blood pressure which I knew and knew how to deal with it, he didn't mention them and the teachers were very unhappy because of this and my mum got a telephone call from them.

My memory is that at the English all-boys boarding school I attended in the 1980s we needed to have a medical exam each year. So just before my second year there I discovered I needed glasses. My mum had taken me to the doctor, and then went off to go shopping, she just assumed that a routine checkup would have no problems. I had to find her and tell her I needed glasses.

Thinking of how health care has changed over the decades. My grandmother was about 10 before it was discovered she needed glasses. Growing up in a 'children are seen and not heard' era, she had never told anyone that she couldn't see the blackboard. She wasn't 'slow' or 'stupid' as had been assumed, she just couldn't see the work she was supposed to be doing!!!

She was also naturally left handed, but had her knuckles rapped if she tried to write using that hand, so had to learn to use her right hand.

Same with my dad. He's had a 'lazy eye' all his life, because his mother didn't realise, and didn't know it could be fixed easily as a child.

Eddie Muir wrote:When my mother had scarlet fever as a young girl in the 1920s, she had all her hair cut off.

If it's not a silly question can I ask why?

Katharine wrote:Thinking of how health care has changed over the decades. My grandmother was about 10 before it was discovered she needed glasses. Growing up in a 'children are seen and not heard' era, she had never told anyone that she couldn't see the blackboard. She wasn't 'slow' or 'stupid' as had been assumed, she just couldn't see the work she was supposed to be doing!!!

She was also naturally left handed, but had her knuckles rapped if she tried to write using that hand, so had to learn to use her right hand.

Ah the 'good old days'

Jack400 wrote:

Eddie Muir wrote:When my mother had scarlet fever as a young girl in the 1920s, she had all her hair cut off.

If it's not a silly question can I ask why?

It's not a silly question, Jack. I recall my mother telling me that her hair was cut off to prevent the spread of the disease. It seems that people thought that germs could be transmitted via the hair. Apparently, some people burned clothes and toys that had come into contact with an infected child, as it was thought that the illness could be caught from such items. The burning of such items was probably done needlessly as cleaning clothes in boiling water and using disinfectant on toys would probably have eliminated any germs.

I mentioned Scarlet Fever to my mother and she said that her father had it as a young man. Apparently he had to be kept in isolation in hospital - my grandmother who he was 'courting' at the time was only allowed to see him through a glass screen. Mum thought the hair cutting might have been because the treatment was regular hot baths to make the skin peel off. As this was before hair dryers, perhaps girls had to have their hair cut short so as to make it easier/quicker to dry. I would imagine in those days there was a fear of someone catching a chill from having wet hair.

Not that I'm disputing what Eddie's mother told him, possibly there was more than one train of thought behind the action.

Thank you so much, Eddie and Katherine- modern science gives us much to be grateful for.

I've read about girls having their long hair cut off because of fevers in several books, including What Katy Did Next by Susan Coolidge. Laura Ingalls Wilder's By the Shores of Silver Lake also talks of Pa having shorn Mary's head when she had scarlet fever. I assumed the hair was removed to help the girls feel cooler but, as Katharine said, there could have been more than one train of thought behind the action.