Polio never held Don Jones back

If it weren’t for a noticeable hitch in his gait, no would have an inkling Iolan Don Jones had polio when he was a youngster.
To his credit, Jones, who will retire Friday after more than 36 years with Gates Corporation, never considered himself handicapped.
He goes to work each day, does what is expected of him and for years has spent off time bowhunting for deer. When the deck behind the home he and wife Hazel bought eight years ago needed repairs, he went to work with hammer and saw.
Jones, 61, was diagnosed with polio at age 6 in 1957.
“I was playing on a jungle gym at the old Gas school,” he said. “I was swinging through it like a monkey one day and fell. I couldn’t get back up and the doctor first thought there was something wrong with my spine.”
The correct diagnosis soon was made. Although the Salk polio vaccine, which eradicated polio, had been introduced in 1955, Jones was one of many kids who had yet to be inoculated.
For the next 12 months he rehabilitated in a Wichita hospital.
Family finances — he was one of nine siblings — were such that visits occurred only periodically.
“The nurses became my family,” Jones said.
He was a good patient, and a year later was able to walk, with the aid of braces on each leg and crutches.
He learned to adjust, to the point that he was able to play baseball once he returned to school.
“I could hit the ball, holding the bat with one hand, and one of the other kids would run for me,” he said.
Out of school, he got a job at Thompson Poultry, a chicken processing plant at the east edge of Iola.
“I worked there eight years, a lot of long hours,” Jones said. “My job most of the time was sharpening knives, which meant I had to go in at 5 a.m.,” so the knives would be ready for the day’s work. “I also worked sometimes until 6 to 7 at night.”
Management noticed his dedication.
Soon after Gates Rubber opened at the south edge of town in 1975, Jones’ boss recommended that he apply.
“He told me to get in on the ground floor and that he’d give me a good recommendation,” Jones recalled.

HIS FIRST job with Gates was in production. “I inspected hose and cut out defects,” he said.
Next, he worked with extruders, which had him put the outer rubber cover on wire braid.
“He has strong hands and arms,” said his wife, from that early production work and also from having to make up for lack of muscle strength in his legs. He walks with his left hand in the pocket of his jeans, to steady his legs with each step.
For years Jones has been in quality control, which has evolved from inspection of hose on his part to supervisory duties, making sure that systems are in place to ensure hose that leaves the Iola plant meets all requirements.
His time at Gates-Iola, plus eight years in quality control at a Gates plant in Red Bay, Ala., has seen many changes.
“At the start, we were making 20,000 feet of hose a day here,” said Jones, who was the 76th employee hired and eighth in seniority today. “Now, we make 400,000 feet a day, although it’s slowed down a little lately. It always does this time of year.
“Gates has been good for this area,” Jones added. “Used to be they thought we’d never have more than 300 to 350 employees in Iola, but that was before 12-hour shifts, weekend work and temporaries.
“With the college kids and temporary workers (earlier this year) we were close to 800 employees. Now, we’re less, somewhere over 700.”
Few employees have been more faithful than Jones.
“I doubt if I’ve missed two weeks for illness in 36 years and there was a time I went 13 years without taking a sick day,” he said.
“I never had any of the childhood diseases, either, no mumps or measles,” he said. “I guess God just gave me the one disease,” polio.
“And I never felt that I was handicapped and never asked to be treated any differently than anyone else,” he added.
“When he falls he has to get up on his own,” said his wife. “He doesn’t want any help.”
“I’d never taken any medication until just last week when my doctor gave me some blood pressure pills,” he said. “I don’t know if I want any more,” after his experience with the first. “I took it Friday night. It made me sick and I was up until 2 a.m.”

WITH RETIREMENT the Joneses intend to travel and spend time with children, grandchildren and one great-grandchild, in Montana, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
They also will spend ample time in their comfortable home along U.S. 54 east of Iola.
“He built that,” Hazel said of a roof that covers part of the patio, “and we like to spend time out on the patio, when it’s nice.”
While hunting and fishing aren’t as much a part of his life as they once were, lounging on the patio might rekindle Jones’ desire to return to the woods with bow in hand.
“We saw a fox the other day out here and it isn’t unusual to see deer,” he said.