It was an emotional gathering. Nearly all of the 121 former patients who made it to the reunion used leg braces, corsets or wheelchairs. Many, like [Christina Cash], who spent eight months here in 1955, are suffering from post-polio syndrome -- a condition marked by fatigue, weakness, and muscle and joint pain in polio-affected limbs - - that has come upon them like an ugly reminder of the old days. "It's hard, emotionally," she says. "Some people are afraid (the polio) is coming back."

Physician Anne Gawne, director of the institute's post-polio program, says that up to 80% of polio survivors have some symptoms of the syndrome. "It has a timeline," she says. "There's the acute polio illness, recovery and a stable period of 20 to 30 years. Then symptoms of pain, fatigue and weakness begin."

Reunion: [John Steinhauer], 75, left, [George Moore], 74, and [Jim Stubbs], 73, get together for the first time since they were patients at Warm Springs in 1933-34. Young scamps: Steinhauer, left, Moore and Stubbs in a 1933 publicity shot. FDR: The president, also stricken with polio, often swam with the children at the institute. "He put us all at ease," Steinhauer recalls. Back to visit: John Steinhauer, left, George Moore and Jim Stuffs were polio patients at Warm Springs, Ga., nearly 70 years ago.