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Title details for Limping through Life by Jerry Apps - Available

Limping through Life

A Farm Boy's Polio Memoir

by Jerry Apps
ebook
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Limping through Life
A Farm Boy's Polio Memoir
Jerry Apps

"Families throughout the United States lived in fear of polio throughout the late 1940s and early 1950s, and now the disease had come to our farm. I can still remember that short winter day and the chilly night when I first showed symptoms. My life would never be the same."
—from the Introduction

Polio was epidemic in the United States starting in 1916. By the 1930s, quarantines and school closings were becoming common, as isolation was one of the only ways to fight the disease. The Sauk vaccine was not available until 1955; in that year, Wisconsin's Fox River valley had more polio cases per capita than anywhere in the United States. In his most personal book, Jerry Apps, who contracted polio at age twelve, reveals how the disease affected him physically and emotionally, profoundly influencing his education, military service, and family life and setting him on the path to becoming a professional writer.
A hardworking farm kid who loved playing softball, young Jerry Apps would have to make many adjustments and meet many challenges after that winter night he was stricken with a debilitating, sometimes fatal illness. In Limping through Life he explores the ways his world changed after polio and pays tribute to those family members, teachers, and friends who helped him along the way.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    April 24, 2013

  • Formats

    • Kindle Book

    • OverDrive Read

      • ISBN: 9780870205873

    • EPUB ebook

      • ISBN: 9780870205873
      • File size: 6202 KB

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      Starred review from May 15, 2013

      Born and raised on a Wisconsin farm, Apps (agricultural & life sciences, emeritus, Univ. Wisconsin-Madison; Horse-Drawn Days: A Century of Farming with Horses) contracted polio at age 12; the debilitating disease would affect him physically and emotionally forever. He tells of his struggles with a "gimpy" leg and feelings of worthlessness that last to this day. Each chapter offers a vignette from Apps's life, including the onset of polio, the recovery period, farm life, his education from grade school through a Ph.D., army life, and working as a writer. More than just a memoir of polio, the book is a tribute to the people who helped Apps along the way to his successes in life. VERDICT Written in plain language intended to inform and not impress, this book is an especially good pick for young readers. It will also be appreciated by anyone interested in rural life, lessons in tenacity, and how to "do the best you can with what you've got." A wonderful story with a great theme.--Julia A. Watson, Marywood Univ. Lib., Scranton, PA

      Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • Kindle Book
  • OverDrive Read
  • EPUB ebook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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