Loading ...i liked the 1968 pandemic better. they called it the “hong kong flu” it hit in the winter/early spring of 68, eased off in the summer, coming back for a second season (a bit lighter) in the fall. it killed about 100,000 to 150,000 – depending which report you read – in the u. s. population of 200 million. mostly its victims were the elderly and those who were pretty sick already.
nobody closed anything down, nobody wore masks (except at hallow’een) nobody had to stay six feet apart (my girlfriend and i liked that part). no state governors got involved, no “emergencies” were declared, nobody washed their hands more (or less) than they had before. there wasn’t a shortage of toilet paper.
just how did we respond? well, not very much. a bunch of crazies ran wild at the democ rat convention in chicago. (how many of you remember abbie hoffman and the “yippies?”) a lot of young people went to a farm in upstate new york and listened to music about aquarius, and some of them made love in the fields. they called it “woodstock.” my girlfriend and i didn’t go there. instead, we went to california and ingested some interesting recreational chemicals. i had been there the summer (“of love”) before, and liked it.
that was an election year too. nixon was elected. i was underwhelmed.