Stories we tell..

Recently I ran across two terms that were used to relate to our past what the world is currently experiencing. One was "societal shocks" and the other "historical convulsions". Both might well be used in the future to accurately describe what happened as the COVID-19 Pandemic continued to spread across the globe. My generation is now old enough to have witnessed or actually participated in more than one of  these events. I remember some of them.

WORLD WAR II  (Historical Convulsion)

One of my earliest childhood memories left me with a vivid picture in my mind. It is nighttime and moonlight shines down on the street and the taxi at the curb. My grandfather held me in his arms, with my grandmother and mother standing beside us. I sensed that everyone was sad as my dad was saying goodbye, standing there with a duffel bag on his back. He was leaving for his second tour of duty with the U.S. Army to serve in World War II, which was well under way. I was about three years old at the time. Dad was a paratrooper during this deployment. More about this here: WWII

I have other memories from those war years. I remember my mother used to keep a "ration book" on top of our refrigerator. I wanted that book for some reason. That prompted her to put it out of my reach. I later learned what rationing meant. (We are being "rationed" today by some stores limiting the number of certain items purchased.) Tires and gasoline were luxuries back then that were definitely rationed. Many a car trip I spent on the floor of the back seat, with my head on the "hump". The car was always crowded, especially on long trips, as we always picked up hitchhikers - usually young soldiers, who were welcomed as they would always take turns driving. Everyone shared in the gas ration.

When I was six years old, we had a "familial shock". The apartment building, which was a former mansion in San Antonio converted to one- and two-room apartments during the war that my grandmother managed, suffered a tremendous fire. Many residents lost most of their belongings by going in and out trying to save them, thus fanning the flames. Due to a flashback, one elderly woman was killed when she went back into her apartment. 

My mother was considered a heroine for waking so many of the residents that early morning. There was a write-up on the front page of the newspaper about her courage as well as a photo of my little sister standing on the sidewalk, head down, and several coats someone had wrapped around her tiny body. Our apartment was the only one with no fire damage (only lots of smoke and water damage) because Mother shut all windows and our door before exiting with my young sister and knocking on other doors waking and telling people to get out. 

(L.A. Times)

I was in school when a classmate arrived late and told me my house was on fire! I immediately ran the several blocks to home. Stumbling over huge fire hoses and crying, I saw so many fire trucks towering over me that it was terrifying. When I found my mother, she scolded me and made me return to school. Though frightened, I got a lot of attention and questions from the other students that day. I think I liked that.

The building was unliveable for quite some time, so my sister and I were sent to relatives while repairs were made. I went to stay with my great-grandmother who lived in San Antonio as well. While there, I stored another shocking memory.

POLIO IN THE U.S. (Societal Shock)

I had my seventh birthday while at my MawMaw's. One of my gifts was a scrapbook. I had been - as a lot of young children in those years were - looking at the newspapers. (After all, there were no televisions.) Mostly at the comics section. Particularly on Sunday mornings when I lay on the floor in front of our radio listening to someone read the Sunday funnies to an enthralled audience of kids. I must have heard more than the funnies on the news, as well as looking at the paper, because on the first page of my new scrapbook was a photo jaggedly cut from a newspaper of a woman with polio in an iron lung. Perhaps it was on the front page because there was an uptake in the paralyzing disease in 1946.

Polio patients were dependent on the iron lungs to breathe. The old iron lungs were gradually replaced with modern ventilators. Ventilators are being used today in intensive care units and emergency wards. They are especially needed for the victims of COVID-19. The drastic shortage today of these ventilators will increase and result in many unnecessary deaths unless more can be produced quickly.

"The fight against infantile paralysis (polio) cannot be a local war," Truman declared in a speech broadcast from the White House. "It must be nationwide. It must be total war in every city, town and village throughout the land. For only with a united front can we ever hope to win any war."  Wiping Out Polio  Sound familiar?

When Jonas Salk had his polio vaccine approved in 1955, we all breathed a sigh of relief and eagerly let ourselves be injected. We finally could do the things young people loved to do without the fear we had been infused with. We could now swim all summer. My parents took us to the opening of Disneyland that year  - no longer fearful of crowds as in the past. 

Polio was a terrible disease, as it left crippling limbs behind. Thousands died before the vaccines were introduced, but quarantines were never enforced. Some patients were destined to spend the rest of their lives in an iron lung. Polio was also highly communicable. Even our President Roosevelt was afflicted and crippled forever. It is yet to be discovered the lasting effects of COVID-19 on one's health other than lingering damage to lungs. The severity is yet to be known.  

CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS (Historical Convulsion)
"On October 14, a U-2 spy plane overflight confirmed the presence of Soviet missiles on Cuba. For thirteen days, October 16 - 28, 1962, the U.S. and Soviet Union faced each other down in a confrontation that would be the closest the world came to nuclear annihilation during the Cold War."Offensive Missile Sites in Cuba

Everyone who heard the news that day in 1962 was scared that "this is it", nuclear war, and most of us were not prepared to survive an attack. I was married with two small children at home in Roswell, New Mexico when this happened. 

Imagine my shock when my next-door neighbor called me almost hysterical. She and her husband had two infants still in diapers. Her husband was an engineer working in one of the Nike missile sites protecting Walker Air Force Base near Roswell. Against all regulations, he managed to call her at home from one of the silos. He told her to load the car with as much food, water, and baby supplies as she could as fast as she could, and be ready to leave at a moment's notice. Walker AFB and the sites protecting it would be one of the first targets if we were attacked by Soviet missiles in Cuba. He thought it was imminent - as apparently much of the government did. Until that time, I didn't know how close we lived to the Nike sites. (I immediately called my husband, who wisely assured me that there was nothing to worry about. Turns out there wasn't.)

We dodged the bullet that time, but I doubt most Americans really knew or believe how close we came to an all-out nuclear war.

Although afterwards, there was a feverish surge in building "bomb shelters" in many homes. When my family moved to Houston in 1970, the house we bought had one in our back yard. It reminded me of the old-time root cellars, but I never ventured into it to view the interior. I vowed to myself I would never go down those steps no matter what! I am a victim of severe claustrophobia. 

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What so many of us are going through today with self-isolation or quarantines, limited food supplies and items we need to protect ourselves like hand sanitizers, disinfectants, face masks, etc. is very stressful. However humor and laughter are known stress relievers. So many funny stories and memes are being bounced around it's hard not to laugh! Particularly the toilet paper shortages.

I worked for an international company in Dallas during the mid-70s. Our District Manager really didn't like to be tied down to an office, and put off many things the home office asked of him as much as he could. I remember once he was being pressured to turn in his annual budgetary needs for our office. Now this office only had 10-people onsite regularly, counting warehouse personnel. When Dennis (not his real name) got to the end of his budget, he found he still had $2,000 available to our office he had not requisitioned. He finally entered "toilet paper". $2,000 a year for toilet paper for our ten employees! Shortly after he submitted this, he got the following communication regarding this from the home office. "I always knew that Texans were full of s***, but this is ridiculous!"

I've pondered over the current lack of toilet paper on the shelves of stores and found myself wondering what was used in its place in years past. What did the pioneers going West use? Even when they settled in their log homes? I had two elderly relatives who had outdoor privies. I was staying with great-grandparents in Missouri when I was 5-years old. Not only did they still have a water pump in the kitchen sink, they had the outdoor facility. They forbid me to use it. Of course, that's the wrong thing to tell a little headstrong 5-year old. I discovered they did not have toilet paper. In its place, was a Sears catalogue with pages missing. Now what do the natives in the jungles of South America use? 

I've always loved the FDR quote, "You have nothing to fear but fear itself." However the following seems more apropos to our time:

"Fear has only two causes: the thought of losing what you have or the thought of not getting what you want." – Byron Katie

I keep thinking of quotes for our current situation. One last one before I close. We keep hearing newscasters speak of the "chaos" we are experiencing as a country. My favorite definition of  chaos:
"A system rearranging itself to attain a higher sense of order." Chaos, a result of the pandemic, such as we are currently experiencing. Now we wait for the higher sense of order to appear.

Take care of yourself, and the vulnerable ones you love.
Marilyn