I was particularly careful about sitting next to people on streetcars. In a place like Fort Wayne, Indiana, you couldn't be too careful about random encounters with lepers. Later, browsing through National Geographic , I discovered elephantiasis. I began a nightly comparison of my legs to see if one of them was growing to elephantine proportions. I could see that roller-skating would be a problem with a leg as thick as a telephone pole.
Elephantiasis comes from the bite of tropical mosquitoes.
I stayed indoors most of that summer and bathed myself in citronella before I went outside. When I was in high school, I had a stubborn case of athlete's foot. I was terrified. Naturally, I imagined it spreading over my entire body. His death was attributed to terminal athlete's foot.