So, I was just driving to the supermarket to purchase assorted foodstuffs, merrily singing along to the song Mark of Vaccination by Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, when I noticed that I’ve got no bloody clue what it’s about. So I googled up the lyrics, which didn’t help.
So now I turn to you guys – the basic story is two government officials arriving in a plane in some backwater part of the country, apparently with the purpose of vaccinating the people there. We don’t get much more background, though the story seems to be set quite a while ago, since this plane is reportedly ‘the first ever’ to fly about the country. Is there any specific incident this might relate to? Did government officials ever really fly around the countryside to vaccinate people?
Perhaps for some sort of field test, since the subject is addressed as ‘volunteer’:
Perhaps the reference to the ‘fighting’ – which I take to imply some kind of a war, where else does one volunteer to fight – is important, also.
And still, all these years down the line, I listen to this song and wonder whether it refers to some kind of actual incident regarding some sort of nation-wide vaccination drive. Although nowadays, the song has taken on all sorts of new meanings…
So, does anybody have any fresh insight to share here?
WOW! 2008 to just now. Scratching an itch that just won’t go away.
I got nothing much. The only “transportation” related vaccination incident was in Alaska related to a sled dog delivery from Anchorage to Nome.
As far as a fight; “…Despite vaccination’s successes against smallpox, opposition to vaccination continued through the 1920s, particularly against compulsory vaccination. In 1926, a group of health officers visited Georgetown, Delaware, to vaccinate the townspeople. A retired Army lieutenant and a city councilman led an armed mob to force them out, successfully preventing the vaccination attempt.”
I was already preparing to get back to this in 2034… So, thanks for taking pity on me! Also, thanks for sharing that really cool site, that’s worth it on its own! And the town mob driving out the vaccinators may be as close of a hit as there’ll be to this story—it has the right ingredients of government officials arriving to try and vaccinate the townsfolk, and being met with resistance. There’s no airplane, but that may be artistic license. But do you know of anything like an actual ‘mark’ of vaccination?