Mumps is not a character from Sesame Street.

But not too far from that if you happen to be a kid. (For adults things can get a little more serious and first-trimester pregnancies are at risk, which may make the whole thing illegal in South Dakota, I don't know.)

But if you're a kid mumps means you and any brothers or sisters you have get to stay home from school, you stay in bed and listen to the radio (it was a long time ago, when kids got mumps); the doctor comes to see you (see what I mean?) and tells your mom to give you lots of ginger ale and seven-up. Also your little sister tells you how funny you look (your cheeks swell up) until she gets it too.

When I got the mumps half a century ago somebody from the health department came and nailed a quarantine sign on the front door. Quarantines for childhood diseases were common although, it appears now, not terribly effective. And not strictly observed by neighborhood mothers who often brought their own children over to play with the lucky mumpee hoping that they, their own children, would catch it too, the common wisdom being (correctly) it was better to catch it young and get it over with. There was, as yet, no vaccine.

So not only did you get to stay in bed, listen to the radio, and drink ginger ale, you were also the most popular kid on the block for a day or two. All told, of the big three kids' common illnesses (mumps, measles, chicken pox) mumps was the best one to get.

Maybe it still is.