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atlantis_airlines t1_ity3ozv wrote

Reply to comment by thesagaconts in TIL: The famous Alaskan sled dog "Balto" was preserved in taxidermy and is on display at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History in Ohio. by alex6219

I saw that movie when it came out but the only thing I can remember is that bit where the carpenter is making all those child sized coffins.

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Perpetually_isolated t1_ity4ik5 wrote

I remember a dog sled team that was transporting penicillin? Or was it a polio vaccine? Anyway that dog is a hero.

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atlantis_airlines t1_ity51u7 wrote

It wasn't a vaccine as the kids were already sick but I can't remember from what.

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triggerhappymidget t1_ity5uqp wrote

Diphtheria

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internetdiscocat t1_itzkif6 wrote

And just for people who don’t really know: diphtheria is AWFUL.

It’s nickname is “the strangling angel” because you grow a leathery plaque in your throat that just obstructs your airway and your lymph nodes swell.

I think people thought it was like a flu, but it’s a HORRIBLE illness that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.

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Irlandaise11 t1_itzpksz wrote

My great-aunt died from diphtheria a few years after this. She was only 9, and her younger siblings all survived, but my great-grandparents were devastated.

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Worldly-Respond-4965 t1_itzqe6l wrote

Togo did the major part of the run. Disney has the movie about it. All of the huskies here in the states are decended from him.

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K-Zoro t1_ity4gra wrote

Damn, I think I blocked that out until just now.

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atlantis_airlines t1_ity5eel wrote

It's one of those things that stuck with me. That and all the little headstones in old cemeteries. It's kinda weird thinking just how normal for kids to die. I knew very few people who've lost a child but back then and in some parts of the word, it's not uncommon to loose up to half them.

Really makes me appreciate living when and where I do.

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cranfeckintastic t1_itzdl6x wrote

There's an old cemetary near town here, where the original settlement was. The dates that are still discernible on the gravestones are between 1880-1899 and there's one in particular that has I think three or four children from the same family engraved on it. Back then it was probably pneumonia or TB that did them in as I don't imagine the winters around here in those days were very forgiving.

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Mr_Abe_Froman t1_itzvyyg wrote

Last time I went to the cemetery where my grandfather and his family are buried, I noticed a grave for a 3-year-old child from the 1890s. It was a sculpture of a small sapling tree cut down and the image really stuck with me.

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Mr_Abe_Froman t1_itzwwup wrote

I remember watching it in a movie theater. I mostly remember how cold all the scenes looked, probably because it was the middle of winter outside.

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atlantis_airlines t1_iu003ps wrote

I did some work in such an area and holy crap do things get weird once it drops below -40°C.

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