They wanted us to get the scarlet fever!

This is a sentence spoken to me by my grandma yesterday when I visited my grandparents to deliver some Valentine's candy and flowers. Grandma has a lot of stories, and one of the ones she told me yesterday went something like this:

When we [she and her sisters] were younger, we always made our own valentines. Norma, she could draw real well. We made these valentines where we cut out a little door and put tin foil behind there, so it would look like there was light in the windows. One year, our neighbors all had the scarlet fever. And if you had the scarlet fever, you weren't supposed to send mail, and you had to have your house fumigated. Well, I guess those boys were mad at us that we didn't have the scarlet fever and we got to celebrate Valentine's, and they sent us Valentines in the mail! Now why would they do that?! They wanted us to get the scarlet fever! Well, we put those Valentines real quick in the oven and burned them up. We didn't want to get the scarlet fever!

I know "the scarlet fever" is no laughing matter, but I was trying so hard not to let a huge smile overtake my face. "They wanted us to get the scarlet fever!"