The big news was that Germany agreed to the US peace proposal.  Coverage of the pandemic moved to the front page of the paper.  It was now recommended that everyone was to wear a mask to prevent the spread of the epidemic. This was in part because of an acute shortage of doctors and nurses. So the call was to not overwhelm the health system.

In Rochester, there were 471 news cases with a total of 1,119 cases, which was thought to the about one-third of the true cases.  There were 5 more deaths bringing the total to 22 in October.

All churches, saloons, hotel bars, club rooms, soda fountains, and ice cream parlors were now ordered closed as of midnight on 10/12/1918.

Considerable interest was expressed in Rochester over the “cure” offered from Dr. Roby in Pittsburgh.  Camphor was in high demand as there was a belief that strong odor could ward off the disease.

Bishop Thomas F. Hickey endorsed the closing of the churches and encouraged social distancing.

© words by Dan DeMarle 4/24/2020

On page 1 of the paper is a Pittsburgher claiming to have found a cure for the Influenza.  Dr. Herman Biggs, State Commissioner of Health was given charge of the epidemic which was noted to be worse upstate than in NY City.  It was now a crime to cough or sneeze in a public place anywhere in the State without covering the mouth or nose and punishment will be $500 or one year in prison or both.  The paper reports three hundred new cases and six more deaths bringing the total for the month to 17 deaths.

© words by Dan DeMarle 4/22/2020

The ongoing World War I takes up much of the paper with information on the influenza epidemic in the back pages of the paper. The Surgeon General recommends what we now refer to as social distancing from the ill to the extent possible in overcrowded houses and recommends lots of fresh air. Nurses and patients are recommended to wear gauze masks. Women in Rochester are asked to sign up to help treat the ill. In the courts, one member of a jury became sick during jury deliberations and went home after leaving their vote for the judge. In another case, it was noted that “The rest of the case will be tried at some future date because the plaintiff as well as the members of her family are in the hospital suffering with pneumonia.” For the first time the “disease yesterday was classed as reportable and it became possible for the first time to obtain a fairly accurate idea of the number of cases in the city.” About 2,500 people in Rochester were ill. There were 25 deaths since the start of the month. Doctors were not shocked as there were normally 40 or more deaths for pneumonia in a month. Nonproven remedies were offered. Deaths from the War and from the pandemic were both reported in the paper.

© by Daniel DeMarle 4/22/2020

On 10/9/1918 the Common Council gave Commissioner of Safety power to fix working hours in Factories and Stores, that crowding in Trolley Cars, and Streets may be prevented They then ordered all public, parochial and private schools closed until May 21st. There were an estimated more than a thousand cases in the City. Six individuals including 4 that day had already died including one physician. There were now special wards for influenza patients at General Hospital and they were now full. Nineteen nurses were ill.

© words by Dan DeMarle 10/9/1918

October 4th, 1918 Oswego is a flu hot spot in NY with between 2,500 and 3,000 cases. No NY mandatory orders as quarantining felt to be impracticable. Special corps of Nurses formed. 113,737 cases in the US with 2,479 deaths.

© words by Daniel DeMarle 4/2020

There are so many reasons we must have a change in the Presidency and in the Senate in November.  Let me be clear, this is not about Politics in general, but it is about Politics right now.  That means we have had competent Presidents on the Democrat and on the Republican side.  However right not we do not. Right now we have a President and a Senate Majority Leader who are putting all of us, and much of Earth in significant danger.  This is really about those two people.  Unfortunately the Senate is very unlikely to remove Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell from office.  He could possibly lose his upcoming election.  Things might be somewhat better even if the Republicans kept the Senate and had a different Majority Leader, but that is unclear. So frankly it would be best if the Republicans lost the Senate and the Democrats kept the house.

So why must these two individuals lose, because if not we will pass multiple points of no return.  We might still pass those if Democrats win the Presidency and the Senate and keep the House, but we have less of a change of that if they are out of there.

The number 1 reason, is not COVID-19 or the coming Great Recession or possibly Great Depression. Those are on this list, but they are not number 1.

The number 1 reason is Climate Change.  In 2019 we had 11 years left until we are past a significant not return Climate tipping point.  Trump and the Republicans have pretty much done everything humanely possible to make Climate Change almost inevitable.  On 1/2021 when a new President is sworn in, we will 9 years left for drastic action.  If Trump wins reelection and he continues his current policies, when he leaves four years later we will only have 5 years left.  To have any chance of mitigating the worse impacts of Climate Change we need different leadership in Washington.

Number 2 COVID-19.  Some estimates say we may still be dealing with his for another 4 years.  The 1918 flu became deadlier over time.  It is unknown if this will happen with this virus.  We are at mile 1 of an ultra marathon and already over 40,000 Americans have died. We need absolutely clear leadership not just in America but in the World, and Trump and McConnell have proven themselves completely unable of providing that leadership.

Number 3 the great recession or depression we are now facing.  It will take tremendous leadership at all levels of the US Government to fight that fight and get America and the World through this coming disaster.  We need a different team at the Top and not the team that got us into this mess.  As Vice President, Biden has already been there for this ride.  Having Democrats and Progressive Democrats pushing an agenda can give a wide range of hope of addressing issues 1 and 2 above. Imagine a new green deals that emerges from all of this this to fight climate change and return America out of a great recession.

Number 4 the Supreme Court.  This is totally political. How did the Supreme Court become political? Well the answer is thank the Republicans.  Remember Mitch McConnell stole a Supreme Court seat.  That made this totally political. Ruth Bader Ginsburg, will possible not make it 4 more years. Enough said.

© words by Dan DeMarle 4/21/2020

Flowers collected in my childhood at my family home stored
in one of my father’s college textbooks

Tomorrow, when tomorrow arrives,

I will go out and pick flowers.

I will place them carefully,

oh so carefully,

between the pages of an old book.

In that way years from now,

On some nice future day,

when grandchildren or great-grandchildren,

ask, as they inevitably will,

Ask about lives lost and changes,

and about all the whys and wherefores,

I will have them open the book,

probably a book of poetry,

those thick long words can dry anything quickly,

and turn the leaves and say,

Yes, but even among the graves, there was always beauty.

© words and picture by Daniel DeMarle 4/20/2020 written during the COVID-19 Pandemic

There is only one true thing in this story. What is it? On my ride to work today, it started to snow. No big deal as it is the end of March. What made it hard was I took too sharp of a corner and wiped out on my bike. It was a big deal because I had not fully closed my coffee mug. Coffee spilled everywhere. Including all over my bike bag. When I got to work, I discovered it had leaked over my lap top. So it wouldn’t start. Luckily there is always paper and pen, which is what I wrote this on. My day got worse from there. So then I wrote to you to see and to say April fools.

Recently at a visit to our local zoo with my daughter and grandchildren, I ran straight into both gender and racial issues.  I am white and my daughter and grandchildren are African American.   I have walked this line for a few decades now, so there is not a lot in these dynamics that confuses me on a day to day basis. I am very used to seeing how people of different races treat her versus how they treat my white son, or myself. I am very used to the questioning looks when people try to figure out who we are. I am used to the fear and anxiety that someone will look at us and presume I am approaching this younger African American woman for illicit purposes.  When they were little and we had to cross a border, the fear that the border officers would presume something bad, and yes we sometimes had more questions than others.  However recently at the zoo, the racial/sexual dynamics hit me in my face on a piece of play equipment.

The children involved were under 4.  They were clueless.  I, the grandfather, was supervising my almost-three-year-old granddaughter.  There were young white families all over the zoo and few nonwhite faces. This is not unusual for a number of institutional reasons in these settings.

At this moment a young white boy was on a piece of climbing equipment and my granddaughter headed right for it.  So now we had two young bodies – one white, one African American, – one male, one female, both vying to use the same piece of equipment.  The other child’s parents were uninvolved.

The question that momentarily threw me was would I step in and have my granddaughter defer to the male child? Would I have my African American grandchild defer and wait for the white child?  Do I subtly reinforce that girls defer to boys or that African Americans defer to whites?  What message would I send by my action or inaction?  I, of course, being an older white grandfather, was very unlikely to be accused of pulling the race card in this setting. It would, of course, be an entirely different situation with many more dynamics, if I was a young African American male father or mother. I being who I was, was likely generally seen as safe.

So what did I do, I stepped back and doing that, the little boy found something more interesting to do.  Of course, a few minutes later the same instance reoccurred and reoccurred again, and again. So about a third of the time, I helped my granddaughter find something else to do or had her wait, but about two-thirds of the time, I did not. Even that third felt like too much.  After all, what would I do, if my grandchild was a white male?  I would likely be taking selfies or sitting on a bench like most other parents were doing.  Because of course from that position of white privilege, there was nothing to be intervened with.  There would have been very few reasons for me to even be concerned.

This is not the first time, this has happened in play spaces.  It will not be the last.   Raising strong girls, and strong African American children requires balance, but it does not mean teaching them to defer to boys or to whites.

© words by Dan DeMarle 3/2020