The Star, the Steps, the smile.

Did they really used to all wash their porches at the same time on that block? And whats wrong with the cute little girl?

Polio, I would think. That's an iron lung, though the portable kind instead of the huge tin can we usually see patients stuck in -- this is the first portable unit I've ever seen though I saw a illustration of one as a child. It changes the air pressure around her chest so that she can breathe. Her diaphragm and chest muscles are paralyzed. An all too common condition before the Salk vaccine.

I recognized it too. I remember my parents being scared. They wouldn't let us play in puddles and that was their excuse for making us take naps.I guess they were washing the steps to try and stop the spread of the virus?What is the star-shaped fort?

double postEdited by Phat, : double post

I found it! Fort McHenrySeeing as how it is in Baltimore, I can see jars fondness for it.

quote:

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We begin with Fort McHenry in Baltimore. The distinctive star-shape of Fort McHenry, with the surrounding trench, was designed to allow effective defense from a land-attack, while the fort served its main purpose of defending Baltimore harbour from a naval attack

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The Fort as Phat found is Fort McHenry. During the War of 1812 in the year 1814 (no, not the big War of 1812 but the small one after Napolean had been defeated) it was the Fort being bombarded while Francis Scott Key was embargoed on a Truce Vessel off shore and that led him to pen the poem that later became the Star Spangled Banner. The fight at the Fort was spectacular but it was actually a series of almost totally forgotten land battles and a strategic fighting retreat to fortified positions that actually stopped the invasion of Baltimore.The steps are marble. solid blocks of marble because marble was a cheap, effective way to build low cost steps for row houses. And Saturday mornings was when the marble steps got washed. Not just on this block but all over the city.The little girl is as mentioned a polio victim, but one of the lucky ones. She might even be able to sit up or walk. But she still needed the respirator to breath and was limited to the length of the hose, so in those ubiquitous pre-TV days the duckies in a bowl of water provided her company and entertainment.