I recently passed by a Walgreens Pharmacy and noticed a sign for "shingles shots." This struck me as odd since I have never seen shots other than flu shots advertised before. Apparently, those of us who have had chickenpox are susceptible to getting shingles, which is a painful, blistering skin rash. I had no idea, and, no thank you! I did in fact have chickenpox as a child, as did it seem all kids I knew growing up at one time or another. Luckily, my children have been vaccinated. In response to seeing that sign and being reminded of having had the chickenpox, I post below an essay I wrote in February 2011, which I entitled:
Chickenpox & Vegetarianism
For sixth, seventh and eighth grade I attended Horace Mann Middle School. In sixth grade I got the chickenpox during winter break. My younger brother Dave got them first, within days of Christmas, and passed the sickness to Jenny (our younger sister) and me a few days later, just before New Year’s Day 1986.
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| Me in 6th grade. Circa 1985-1986. |
The bumps itched and were everywhere:my scalp, armpits, belly and bum, between my toes and even inside my throat. The latter naturally affected my eating and I therefore consumed a lot of ice cream (Goldrush bars in particular) and popsicles for a few days. At the time, my Mother employed a part-time housekeeper named, Melly. She helped with the laundry and vacuumed and scrubbed floors. She also helped take care of us little kids from time to time and while Dave, Jenny and I were laid up with the chickenpox,she did the most ingenious yet simple thing - she made Jell-O and had us drink it before it settled into its intended form. The warm liquid was so soothing on my itchy throat, it was perfect.
In addition to the chickenpox, the three of us also had a day or two of flu like symptoms, including an upset stomach and vomiting. This fact is what made the timing of my succumbing to this illness a life changing event in some ways. Like most families, mine made traditional meals during the holidays that centered on a specific meat: Easter is baked ham with pineapple, cloves and brown sugar; of course Thanksgiving is turkey; Christmas is a crown pork roast; and New Year’s Eve is steak, shish kabob and lobster tails.
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| Thanksgiving turkey. |
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| Christmas crown pork roast. |
I have memories of liking baked ham, and eating pepperoni pizza and hot dogs and lunch meats. But growing up in the Midwest I wasn’t much for shellfish or seafood in general, and being that the chickenpox hit me two months before I turned 12-years-old, I wasn’t yet much of a steak or crown pork roast eater either. The flu portion of this particular sickness coincided with our traditional New Year’s Eve meal. Normally, I would have eaten a shish kabob, which would have included small pieces of steak, but since I was sick my plate pretty much consisted of plain white rice.
My older sisters, Mary and Paddy, who I believe were 19 and 17, respectively, were also in attendance for the meal. Paddy, who around that time had become involved in Amnesty International and PETA and WWF (the World Wildlife Federation), had recently decided to become a vegetarian. My father, for whatever reason, was very against this, but I looked up to my sisters and thought about giving vegetarianism a try myself. I think my Dad was annoyed since he had begun to cook most of our dinners at this point because my Mom worked from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. generally, and he just wanted us to eat whatever he made. Paddy being 17-years-old was capable of cooking for herself and there was little my father could do to force her to eat meat. Not being quite 12-years-old yet, I did not have that option.
My other sister, Mary, was a self-proclaimed carnivore at this time. She and our Dad used to have “pork fest” at Christmas dinner where they basically ignored all the vegetables on the table and loaded their plates with meat from the crown pork roast and ate until they “started sweating.” (Ironically, Mary became a vegan in 2006.) On this particular New Year’s Even meal (the night it changed from 1985 to 1986), Mary had a big ‘ole steak on her dinner plate, which my Dad cooked medium rare per her specifications. Only, it came out a little pinker than planned and her plate literally filled with blood when she cut into it. My stomach churned and it was the only time during the 10-days or so that I was sick that I actually vomited. An aversion to meat was born at that moment and coupled with my desire to emulate Paddy, I became a vegetarian, much to my father’s chagrin. His initial anger gave way to annoyance, which in turn gave way to teasing at dinner time by always offering me a piece of meat, to eventual acceptance.
Being that I likely was fed no meat during my first year of life, by the time I reached the age of 24, I had lived more years as a vegetarian than I did as a meat eater. Now at the age of 37, I’ve been meat free for 25 years – a quarter of a decade. In that time I tried shrimp twice (did not enjoy the texture or the flavor), lobster (became violently ill within hours of ingestion) and a spicy chicken wing (loved the BBQ sauce but despised the meat). Over the years I’ve had people react with indignation when they learned I don’t eat meat, but mostly it’s not an issue, though I do get a lot of questions either way. “Why” being the number one inquiry, followed by: Do you eat chicken or fish? (No, I eat no meat) and, Do you eat dairy? (Yes, I’m a vegetarian, not a vegan.) Oh, and yes, I do wear leather because I’m a hypocrite for fashion apparently.
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