When I was reading The Jungle a few weeks ago, there was a word that jumped out at me. It was a word my dad sometimes used and I realized it was some ancient vernacular. This was my experience. At the time, I didn’t know it was different than others. My dad was so much older than my friend’s parents. He had been through some gruesome things growing up in war time Europe. He was always full of warnings — usually of certain diseases that I never head mentioned anywhere else. So , I took for granted I knew what Trichinosis was.

It is mentioned in The Jungle, where many unfit conditions in the Chicago meatpacking factories that feature in the book lead to things like Trichinosis – a parasitic disease that pigs may carry.

Trichinosis was a big reason I stayed away from pork, besides wanting to be kind of Jewish. My father always warned me about it, though not as much as he warned me about eating sushi, which I liked more than pork anyway. I realized one doesn’t hear much about Trichinosis much of late. And then realized my father may have been the only one worried about that disease in 1980s Suburban New Jersey.  Were you warned about Trichinosis?  What diseases did your parents warn you about?