I had three boys, and when they were ages 3, 7, and 10, there was a flu bug floating arround the school etc. One day my mother called to check on how things were going and when I told her we still had a problem, her answer was "if you don't get rid of that bug soon, we'll have to send them to the pest house". I asked her what she meant by that. She said back in 1918, when she was a 6 yr. old and lived in Des Moines, her mother took her shopping, and at that time they had pest houses. If you came down with the flu you were forced to go to the house and live. You stayed there until you either got well or died. She said she could remember caskets stacked on the curb two and three high. miroda@netins.net