Interesting. We didn't have cooties in Scotland, just
midges, which are of course a different thing altogether.
I don't recall considering girls to be a potential source of infection. But I
do remember that from my very first day at school, they liked to steal my glasses and then demand an obligatory chase around the playground to retrieve them.
Never having been one to take a hint, I didn't chase. Instead, I accepted other boys offers to do the chasing for me.
I retain a healthy suspicion of any woman close to my spectacles case. Early in our relationship I tested Wishstar a number of times by leaving my glasses in plain view, to see if she would give in to temptation. To her credit, she never did steal them.
(There may be a lesson/moral here but I'm far too hungry to work out what it is.)
