Desert Messenger

16 www.DesertMessenger.com May 21, 2014 SEE PICNIC PAGE 19 Quartzsite Transit Services SUMMER SCHEDULE Available to our elderly, elderly disabled and disabled populations. Summer schedule is thru October 31st. Our hours of operation are 8:00 A.M.-4:00 P.M. Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Pickups will begin at 8:20am; scheduling may be done two weeks in advance. An adult must accompany rid- ers under 10 years of age. There is limited occupancy of 8 passengers depend- ing on the size of the van available. To schedule a pickup call Quartzsite Town Hall at 928-927-4333. VAN SCHEDULE & SUGGESTED DONATIONS FOR SERVICE (round trip) Monday Local QUARTZSITE $ 3 Tuesday (1st) BLYTHE $10 Tuesday (2nd & 4th ) PARKER $10 Wednesday (1st, 3rd) YUMA/ALGODONES $15 Wednesday (2nd) LAKE HAVASU CITY $15 Wednesday Local QUARTZSITE $ 3 Thursday PARKER $10 Friday Local QUARTZSITE $ 3 Space donated by Desert Messenger - www.DesertMessenger.com - www.MyQuartzsite.com 1953 Quartzsite's End-of-School-Year Picnic Excerpts from "In the Shadow of Saguaros" by Rosalee Oldham Wheeler "In the Shadow of Saguaros" Vol. I & II are now available exclusively at the Tyson's Well Museum and Reader's Oasis Book Store Voices from The Past in Quartzsite, AZ The summer of 1953 was fast ap- proaching and it was time for the mothers of Quartzsite's schoolchil- dren to begin planning for the annual end-of-school-year picnic. In years past, one of the favorite places to celebrate the end of school was to take the children over to Scott's Plunge in Blythe for a wonderful swim followed by a picnic on the Bermuda grass under their wonderful cottonwood trees. However, we had been told that "the Plunge" could not be our destina- tion in 1953, as the swimming pool would be closed for service during the planned time for our picnic. The children would be disappointed because they always looked forward to a picnic where they could also play in the water. But there was another concern about swimming because swimming pool water had been linked to the 1952 outbreak of over 58,000 new cases of polio in the United States with more than 3,000 people, mostly little children having died as a result of this disabling disease. There was a lot of discussion, pro and con, about whether or not we should continue to look for a picnic site that had a source for swimming and water games. Millie Scott (mother of Merna and Davella) suggested that we should visit with Jimmy Reyno who had property on a secluded inlet of the Colorado River north of Ehrenburg. Mildred Cowell (mother of Clifford and Fred Brown, Jimmy, Helen, and Clara), Jerry Stetler (mother of Carol and Charlie) and myself (mother of Rich- ard, Patty and Hellen), visited with Mr. Reyno who agreed to host the children of the Quartzsite School at his lovely Reyno's Lagoon on the Colorado River. Before accepting Mr. Reyno's gra- cious offer, Millie, Mildred, Jerry, and I wanted to meet with the mothers of the other children attending the Quartzsite School. Jerry had it on her calendar that Miss Berry, the Yuma County School Nurse who visited the Quartzsite School once every two months was scheduled to visit the school the following week. Millie, one of eight households in Quartzsite with a telephone, agreed to call Miss Berry and ask if she would meet with the mothers. When Miss Berry arrived, the mothers greeted her with lots of questions about the safety of our chil- dren swimming in a lagoon of Colo- rado River water. Miss Berry came prepared to share with us the information she had gathered since Millie Scott's telephone call. She explained that there were many research projects and studies being conducted all around the world to fi nd the cause and a cure for polio. Earlier in the year, Dr. Jonas Salk had announced that he was successfully testing a new vaccine against polio. Clinical trials would soon begin on two million American schoolchildren using the Salk vaccine. Miss Berry also said that she believed Dr. Salk's vaccine would be effective and safe and when it becomes available she would be administering it to the children of Quartzsite. Absolutely wonderful news, although we were still concerned about taking our children to a picnic location that included water. Virginia Underwood (mother of Ral- phy) had looked into cases of polio in communities on both sides of the Colo- rado River, including Needles, Parker, Ehrenburg, and Blythe. She was not able to fi nd any data on recent polio cases in these four cities. Virginia shared with us a report from the offi ce of the United States Health, Education, and Welfare in Washington, DC. Pres- ident Eisenhower had recently asked Nelson Rockefeller to be the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare with an emphasis on fi nding the cause and a cure for polio. From the report, Virginia read the list of many possible causes for polio that seemed to be oc- curring in clusters in towns around the world. In the United States places like Houston and Harris County, Texas as well as San Antonio and Corpus Christi, Wytheville Virginia, Moore County North Carolina, and Sioux City Iowa, among others experienced higher than average numbers of reported polio cases. The re- port listed many pos- sible causes including x-ray procedures, exposure to lead and zinc, fallout from the hydrogen bombs dropped on Hiro- shima and Nagasaki, plus the continued H-bomb testing in New Mexico. This latest report seemed to focus more on the nuclear arms buildup and not on water, particularly Colorado River water. One of our mothers said she would not bring her child to the picnic and another mother was out of town and could not be reached. The rest of the mothers agreed to let Mr. Reyno know that we were accepting his gracious of- fer to let the children enjoy his beauti- ful lagoon and its wonderful fl oating barge with a tower and diving board. Teachers Isabel C. Buse and Emily P. Kamp offered to organize games and prizes, Mildred Cowell collected donations for food including the main course, hot dogs and buns. Madeline Young (mother of Mary, Karl, Ruth, Maxine, Paul and David), assisted by her daughters, made several crocks of potato salad. Frances Scott (mother of Barbara) made two Dutch ovens full of her special beans, Millie and Dave Scott brought a variety of chips and condiments for the hot dogs, Quartzsite schoolchildren at Jimmy Reyno's Lagoon on the Colorado River in 1953. L to R - Front: Frank Scott, Carol Stetler, Patricia Walters, Barbara Scott, Jody McDaniels, Jackie Walters, Hellen Oldham, Vickie Scott. Back: Clifford Brown (holding Clara Cowell), Jimmy Cowell, Jim Datig, Richard Oldham, Ruth Young, Davella Scott, Fred Brown, Helen Cowell, Mary Young, Patty Oldham, Merna Scott, and Ralphy Underwood.

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