Today is just one of those I have no ambition to do anything days. The house is already clean, the laundry done, the bird feeders filled and the dishes put away. I could make my bed, but I don’t want to and don’t care one way or the other. If I leave it unmade, it is prime for an afternoon nap. Reason enough I think.

When I was a kid, I seldom stayed home from school. The only times I did were for the big diseases like measles and mumps. I remember the room was kept dark when I had the measles so I wouldn’t go blind, one of the accepted notions in those days, and I was driven insane by lying in bed with nothing to do because I couldn’t read or watch TV. I don’t remember the mumps though we all got them from each other. I just remember my neck hurting. We must have gotten colds, but I think it would have taken pneumonia before we stayed home from school.

One of the smells I always associate with childhood and colds is Vicks Vapor Rub. My father for his whole life was a big fan. He even had a grey sweatshirt he wore every time he used Vapor Rub. It had a big greasy looking stain on the front. If we got sick, out came the Vapor Rub. We didn’t have a choice. It was the panacea for the common cold in our house. I remember how awful it smelled, but I also remember it really worked.

Nobody had pediatricians in those days. We did have a family doctor we seldom saw. His name was Dr. Devlin and his giant, beautiful house was right next to the entrance to the schoolyard. His office was on the first floor. I remember all the wood and the ornate staircase as you came in the front door. Dr. Devlin was a huge man who sat behind a huge desk. He wasn’t a fuzzy, warm doctor but he wasn’t mean either. I remember he wasn’t all that gentle. I saw him only twice during my childhood: once when I was ten and had fallen down the stairs and broken open my chin. I still have the scar. When I was twelve, the school detected a heart murmur, and my parents took me to the doctor then I went to the hospital for tests. I remember that test and being nervous because it was the hospital. Luckily, nothing ever came of it and the murmur disappeared when I got older.

I think we were seldom sick because a cold was just a cold. A cough meant cough syrup and there was always the miracle of Vapor Rub.   The doctor was for big things.