How is everyone doing with all the things going on; social distancing, working from home, kids getting bored at home; empty shelves in the stores, etc. etc.
My office is closed, as I think most are. We are all working from home. They even found a way for those with jobs they always said couldn't be done at home, to work at home. There are some people going in for very short periods; mail staff, paper printing etc.
I am old enough to have gone through measles (hard measles), mumps, rubella (German measles, 3 day measles), chicken pox. I had them all and am here to tell about it. I don't know why they were called "hard measles", (more severe) and German or 3 day measles. I remember there were only 8 of 20 kids in my 3rd grade class because of mumps. If you had been out with any of the above, you had to stop in the school nurse office before going back to class. She would check you for a rash and fever and could be sent promptly home if you still had the slightest symptom. I remember begging and begging to go outside and play in the snow with my best friend (3rd grade) who had been home with mumps. I saw she was outside. My mother kept saying no but finally relented, perhaps told me to not get to close. Well, I got the mumps. LOL All of those "childhood" illnesses were a concern for the adults; rubella was dangerous for the moms who were pregnant, could cause birth defects and death of the baby. Mumps was dangerous for the dads; could cause a male to become sterile. I remember my dad got the new mumps vaccine when I got mumps and how miserable he was. More side effects of vaccines back then.
What about all of this having to stay home business? I don't recall having to take these type of measures in my life time. I do remember the story about my dad having had scarlet fever as a child, probably in the 1930's. Their house was quarantined, a sign on the door, my grandpa could not go to work, groceries had to be delivered to the door by neighbors. My great-grandpa who lived with them at the time, went to stay with his sister, because he wanted to be able to go play pool at night. :)
It started making me a little anxious, so I quit watching the news too much. I am not worried about getting the virus surprisingly. I have been blessed, pretty lucky, good genes, whatever you want to call it, and don't get sick very often, but I started ruminating about groceries, paper products, what if this goes on for a year etc. I have been thru "Hong Kong flu", Swine flu, HIV, Sars and worked as a nurse or ancillary staff through most of those. I do not remember the fear and restrictions during those.
I did look up a couple of things to compare and it made feel a little better; we have been through this before and will get through it again. Here are a couple of links for you to peruse.
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/03/16/polio-epidemic-covid-19-coronavirus
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/1918-influenza-pandemic-and-covid-19/
My office is closed, as I think most are. We are all working from home. They even found a way for those with jobs they always said couldn't be done at home, to work at home. There are some people going in for very short periods; mail staff, paper printing etc.
I am old enough to have gone through measles (hard measles), mumps, rubella (German measles, 3 day measles), chicken pox. I had them all and am here to tell about it. I don't know why they were called "hard measles", (more severe) and German or 3 day measles. I remember there were only 8 of 20 kids in my 3rd grade class because of mumps. If you had been out with any of the above, you had to stop in the school nurse office before going back to class. She would check you for a rash and fever and could be sent promptly home if you still had the slightest symptom. I remember begging and begging to go outside and play in the snow with my best friend (3rd grade) who had been home with mumps. I saw she was outside. My mother kept saying no but finally relented, perhaps told me to not get to close. Well, I got the mumps. LOL All of those "childhood" illnesses were a concern for the adults; rubella was dangerous for the moms who were pregnant, could cause birth defects and death of the baby. Mumps was dangerous for the dads; could cause a male to become sterile. I remember my dad got the new mumps vaccine when I got mumps and how miserable he was. More side effects of vaccines back then.
What about all of this having to stay home business? I don't recall having to take these type of measures in my life time. I do remember the story about my dad having had scarlet fever as a child, probably in the 1930's. Their house was quarantined, a sign on the door, my grandpa could not go to work, groceries had to be delivered to the door by neighbors. My great-grandpa who lived with them at the time, went to stay with his sister, because he wanted to be able to go play pool at night. :)
It started making me a little anxious, so I quit watching the news too much. I am not worried about getting the virus surprisingly. I have been blessed, pretty lucky, good genes, whatever you want to call it, and don't get sick very often, but I started ruminating about groceries, paper products, what if this goes on for a year etc. I have been thru "Hong Kong flu", Swine flu, HIV, Sars and worked as a nurse or ancillary staff through most of those. I do not remember the fear and restrictions during those.
I did look up a couple of things to compare and it made feel a little better; we have been through this before and will get through it again. Here are a couple of links for you to peruse.
https://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2020/03/16/polio-epidemic-covid-19-coronavirus
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/1918-influenza-pandemic-and-covid-19/
"So dire was the situation that many cities including Boston, Richmond, St. Louis and others mandated quarantines and social-distancing measures. In San Francisco and Seattle, laws were passed forcing people to wear masks covering their mouths and noses while in public. The public health commissioner in Chicago, told police to arrest anyone seen sneezing without covering their face in public."
On the plus side, many authors are offering free books. There are so many, I couldn't keep up with the offers I was seeing and post them. I would recommend you check on your favorite authors websites, sign up for their newsletters, if you aren't already, and check their Face Book pages. Most are listed in on those sides.
And...
Interesting stuff you shared here, Gayle. I don't remember anything like this or don't think there was such an upheaval as this. Lots of fear in the air and does that mean mothers, grandmothers, and great-grands were tougher. Yes, I think they were in some ways. They were much more used to hardship and just carrying on. My parents grew up in the depression era and were the most frugal, saving people ever. I hated having to re-use paper cups. Ha! You take care and we'll see each other in a few weeks. Hugs to you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Kay. Yes I saw one comment by a man in his 90s who had polio as a child and he said people were more self reliant back then, all had gardens, canned etc and didn't have to rely on grocery stores etc. Take care
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