Stovebolt.com Forums The Front Office The Greasy Spoon A Perspective -

Maybe we don't have it that bad?

It’s a mess out there now. Hard to discern between what’s a real threat and what is just simple panic and hysteria. For a small amount of perspective at this moment, imagine you were born in 1900.

On your 14th birthday, World War I starts, and ends on your 18th birthday. 22 million people perish in that war. Later in the year, a Spanish Flu epidemic hits the planet and runs until your 20th birthday. 50 million people die from it in those two years. Yes, 50 million.

On your 29th birthday, the Great Depression begins. Unemployment hits 25%, the World GDP drops 27%. That runs until you are 33. The country nearly collapses along with the world economy.

When you turn 39, World War II starts. You aren’t even over the hill yet. And don’t try to catch your breath. On your 41st birthday, the United States is fully pulled into WWII. Between your 39th and 45th birthday, 75 million people perish in the war.

Smallpox was epidemic until you were in your 40’s, as it killed 300 million people during your lifetime.

At 50, the Korean War starts. 5 million perish. From your birth, until you are 55 you dealt with the fear of Polio epidemics each summer. You experience friends and family contracting polio and being paralyzed and/or die.

At 55 the Vietnam War begins and doesn’t end for 20 years. 4 million people perish in that conflict. During the Cold War, you lived each day with the fear of nuclear annihilation. On your 62nd birthday you have the Cuban Missile Crisis, a tipping point in the Cold War. Life on our planet, as we know it, almost ended. When you turn 75, the Vietnam War finally ends.

Think of everyone on the planet born in 1900. How did they endure all of that? When you were a kid in 1985 and didn’t think your 85 year old grandparent understood how hard school was. And how mean that kid in your class was. Yet they survived through everything listed above. Perspective is an amazing art. Refined and enlightening as time goes on. Let’s try and keep things in perspective. Your parents and/or grandparents were called to endure all of the above – you are called to stay home and sit on your couch.

At 77 I went threw most of that but was not really aware of the ramifications. I and a pragmatist not that I am not fearful but mostly fearful for my son and his family.

Yes, when you think about all of that, this is nothing. But to the people who are now jobless, it's still bad for them.

I do recall the polio epidemic, and knew a neighbor who contracted it. I also remember getting the shots, which were a big deal for us kids, but the whole thing didn't sink in as to the seriousness. I also recall the duck and cover drills during the cold war, and the bomb shelter craze during those times.

I got polio the year before the shots became available. When they did they gave me the shots anyway.

My Uncle Carl was paralyzed from polio. He was a NASA engineer during the 50’s 60’s and early 70’s. Worked on Apollo missions and designed/ built a car at that time that received a lot of press because it had a side hydraulic door/ramp for his wheelchair and hand throttle and brake controls.. He never complained - and always was warm and inviting. Wish I got to know him more -

Ah yes, the "good ole days."

Very good Tom, very good.