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| My Bunny in the window. It is very pretty. I made it around Marde Gras time. |
This post may wander around a bit, but I thought that was a pretty catchy title for it. Now that all we hear and read seems to be related to the virus, my mind and imagination has been working overtime. Like I said, I am at risk because of my age which is coming up on 81. I think my overall health is pretty good and I have been following the rules since before the state mandates came out. I am not outraged that our health experts and government officials are asking and even in a lot of cases mandating that we do or don't do certain things. I don't feel like we are in a "Hitler situation". I prefer to think that most people world wide have enough common sense to take the advice of the experts and those countries who have been through this and know the science of epidemics and how the virus works. I also have faith that most people are caring , loving family members and friends. Granted young people many times are more selfish but can be reasoned with. Anyway, I decided to stay home as much as possible, not go to water aerobics and wash my hands, etc. about 3 weeks ago. Danny and Kathi have been getting my mail and groceries, but I still go out for a walk when the weather is nice. I figure it this way, now that I have been doing it this long, why mess it up by not following the guidelines even for 1 excursion to the store and possibly get coughed on, get sick and maybe even die. I would have done all those small inconveniences for nothing! A young person who feels they are immune to this virus may feel differently but I would hope they have enough compassion for family and friends to recognize they may be a carrier and could infect many others without knowing it. So much for my wandering thoughts.
I have been hearing a lot on mental health. It brought up some memories I have of my childhood. I remember when I was around 4-5 years old. There was talk all over the news (we only had radios and newspapers back then) about this new bomb (the atomic bomb) that was so powerful it could kill millions. In my young mind I pictured it as blowing up the whole world. Every night I would lay in bed and try to figure out where I could go to hide from the bomb so I wouldn't blow up. At that same time many cities even in the US had blackouts. We lived kind of out in the country on the edge of Milwaukee. We didn't do anything special for it but when we visited my aunts in Pittsburgh they had blackout curtains and we would sneak peeks out the windows at night to "see the blackout". I think our obsession with the War was similar to what kids are going through today only it is a lot closer to home for them nowadays.
As far as quarantines and social distancing go, this is nothing new. When I was young whenever a family member caught a contagious disease (like when my brother got Scarlet Fever) we were quarantined. I remember big red signs on all our doors with big black letters saying QUARANTINED. My sister and I were not allowed to even go upstairs where Tip's room was. And guess what? We never got it! Then, one summer when I was around 10, I kept stubbing my toes when we played night games, running around our neighborhood (another post about a time gone by). Our parents were sitting around a fire at a neighborhood cookout and Mom noticed it and asked what was the problem. It ended up that I had a very mild case of Polio (Infantile Paralysis) and had lost muscle control in my feet. That whole summer I was quarantined to our yard. this was not a problem for us kids as there were no fences or shrubbery so the property lines were very vague. I would set up my lounge chair somewhere along the line between our yard and Sue's yard (my best friend who was year older than me). All the neighborhood kids around our age would play at Sue's so I could be included. So much for quarantines! I recovered in time for school and I still kind of drag my feet when I get tired. Nobody else in the neighborhood got Polio. The visiting nurse who came to check on me every week was great. We heard she died of Polio several years later.
Fast forward to my sophomore year in high school. For years, every summer our parents never let us go swimming at public swimming pools or go to State Fair, which was only a few miles from our house, or even go shopping down town. It was Polio season and although it was never mandated, many families practiced social distancing even back then. Anyway, that summer a senior in my high school died from Polio. I think school didn't start for a week or two that fall and then when we did go, we all had to get a gamma globulin shot in our butts. They administered it at the nurses office as we came to school. It really hurt and we all sat at our desks in the "Gamma Globulin Tilt" for several days! My brother remembers it differently. He thinks he got it in his arm, but it still hurt. I know I got it in my butt! A year or two later the Sabin vaccine came out and Polio was practically wiped out.
Well I guess I've reminisced long enough! Now back to sewing face masks for family and friends! The governor and President Trump are recommending that everyone wear a face mask when they leave their houses, which we aren't supposed to leave unless it is for groceries or other essential things. Oh, and for walks if you can keep a 6 foot distance from others. Since Danny and Kathi are keeping the Bowling Alley open for take out, they and their employees need face masks. I made six yesterday and then a friend wants 2 and I'm sending a couple to my grandson, Paul, in LA and another one to my friend, Annie, in a group home in Phoenix.
My next post will be more about how my family and my life have changed in the last month!
(Hint: as I am a retired teacher in a very small isolated community, with no confirmed cases of covid-19, you might be able to guess that it hasn't changed that much. HA! But that is not true of the rest of my family)
How I spent my Saturday. I made 6 face masks
for the Bowling Alley employees. I'm still working on 5 more
for friends and family.
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