I don't have any grandchildren, and most likely never will, but my parents lived thru the Spanish flu, and I wish I had asked them to tell me about it. Especially my mother.

This is going around on social media.

✨✨ Just so I NEVER forget..... April 3, 2020......

This is the Novel Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, declared March 11th, 2020.

-neighbors checking in with one another. By text, phone or email.

-Teddy bears in windows to give children something to “hunt” for from the sidewalk

-As of today, “Stay at Home” has been extended until at least May 1 as we await to see when the peak will happen

-Gas price a mile from home was $1.55

-Schools closed - going to online learning - since 3/23

-The teachers from school drove in a caravan of cars honking at all the kids in the neighborhood to remind them they are loved and missed.

-Social distancing and self quarantining measures on the rise.

-Non-essential stores and businesses mandated closed.

-Parks, trails, entire cities locked up.

-Entire sports seasons cancelled.

-Concerts, tours, festivals, entertainment events - cancelled.

-Weddings, family celebrations, holiday gatherings have been cancelled.

-No masses, churches are closed. Held online instead.

-No gatherings of 50 or more, then 20 or more, now 10.

-Don't socialize with anyone outside of your home.

-Children's outdoor play parks are closed.

-Shortage of masks, gowns, gloves for our front-line workers.

-Shortage of ventilators for the critically ill. Car manufacturers have been commissioned to build them. Quickly.

-Panic buying sets in and we have no toilet paper, no disinfecting supplies, no paper towels, no laundry soap, no hand sanitizer.

-Grocery store Shelves are bare.

-Manufacturers, distilleries and other businesses switch their lines to help make visors, masks, hand sanitizer and PPE.

-Government closes the border to all non-essential travel.

-Fines are established for breaking the rules.

-Stadiums, cruise ships,recreation facilities, college dorms open up for the overflow of Covid-19 patients.

-Press conferences daily from the President and Governors. Daily updates on new cases, recoveries, and deaths.

-Barely anyone on the roads.

-Medical field workers are afraid to go home to their families.

-recommended to wear faces masks when in public

-people making masks and sharing them with those in need

Arcy - I agree about the sheets, when a set nice Italian sheets cost > $800 I'm not going to chop mine up. Last year I found a real bargain - a fitted sheet from Frontgate for $160, nope not chopping those up either.

Well, my grands and two great grands are living it themselves and I doubt that I'll live long enough to see gggrands. One g grand is a gamer and has been playing pandemic games for years. Now he's in a real-life "game".

When I lived in TN this was the most expensive time gas-wise, I mowed 3-4 acres of grass plus gas for the car. Now I have no grass to mow and no place to go! I too want to buy plants. If there are any garden centers left when this is over I'll do my part to get them back on their feet LOL.

I would tell the great, great , great grands that the numbers of people said to have had it are much lower than have been said. Why, because a great number of people had it but were not tested and some that were tested had tests that said they did not.

I have no grands that are not old enough to not know what is happening but I was thinking of starting a private blog about day to day activities. If I live though this I suspect that looking back I will find several things to chuckle about along with others that make me tear. If I don't so what.

7 of my 8 Grands (aged 7, 9, 17, 17, 19, 19, 22) are living it. The just turned 1 yr. old recently figured out putting a metal bowl over her head and then taking it off and laughing at Dad and repeating and repeating is LIVING LIFE too!

My Grand daughters are living it and so are my Great Grandsons. My granddaughters are very far apart in age. One is about 41 years old and has moved for the time being to Arkansas to be with her Mother and stepdad and has taken her two little boys with her. My other granddaughter, Alyssa, is keeping a journal about her time off because of the virus. She is 9 years old.

Sue

DH does nice work!

Grandgirls are 1 month 4,5, &7. Aside from not having school, eating at McDonalds, or two of them spending every weekend with us they like having their parents home. As far as I'm concerned I hope they forget about this time of their lives. I sure ain't going to remind them with a journal.

My dad was young during the Spanish flu. All he told me was that of his family of 10 not one got sick. He said it was because they ate well. He did remember the wagons coming up the street to collect the dead. They were German and owned a bar and lived upstairs of the bar in an Irish neighborhood in the city. He said the Irish use to say "you can't even kill the Germans with disease". Lol.

No grandkids and not sure I will be seeing them if there were any in the future. Came to work tonight with 4 people working in our area from other places. They have closed some areas and are reassigning people to answer calls now so some of us are training them. We were crammed in here like sardines...so much for social distancing. Also found out that one of our nightshift coworker's wives is positive for the virus and because he has no symptoms he was told to work.

I feel even more that healthcare workers are just expendable and don't matter.

This is really hard on my parents, who live next door to us.

My mom watches my brother's 2 kids M-F and the oldest (4 yrs old) keeps seeing my girls in our backyard and wanting to play.

We have been strictly complying with social distancing for the past 3 weeks so, even though we live next door, we don't.

To make matters worse, one of our closest friends have 2 children and both of their jobs are considered essential so they HAVE to go to work. They didn't want to put their kids in a daycare so I've agreed to watch their kids.

Their jobs aren't public facing/medical so it is a lower risk and I would much prefer for my pseudo niece and nephew to NOT be in a daycare environment, especially considering a kid at a local daycare tested positive.

Only the kids come inside, and they change clothes and wash hands immediately. Then I sterilize anything they touched.

When my mom saw that I had other children over when I wouldn't let my nephew come over, she got very upset.

I explained the situation and she understands but it is still hard on her, and REALLY hard on these kids who don't understand why it is they aren't allowed to play with the kid they can see next door, or walking down the street.

As for me, school @ home for 4 has become school @ home for 6 so...at least I'm kept busy!!

My grand kids are old enough to understand what's going on but probably young enough that they will not remember much about it later. They are 5 and 7. DD and DSIL are doing an excellent job of keeping them active, educated and engaged. They will most likely remember these days of the time we couldn't go do school.

I don't know what we will say when they are older. I know what I would like to say. I would like to remind them how easy it is for a government to use fear to gain control over people, justified or not. Then I will share the history of their great grandparents who who along with their parents fled what some want for this country.

My youngest grand is a Sr in High School. I wish he wasn't old enough to

remember anything about it! He is missing every important ending to

High School. None of his Spring Sport, No Spending time with Friends, No School Trip, No Graduation ceremonies...etc. His Sr. Yr is being finished via computer,

hiding in his home.

Today's World will be engraved in his and his generation's mind forever...I

hope he remembers that I felt great shame for the way my generation

handled it. My apology of sorts to him.

One thing has me wondering - we are hearing so much about "not having enough ventilators" but are these authorizes taking into account how many possible patients have no desire to be ventilated? For younger people I can see why they would want heroics but at my age (baby boomer) I don't see any reason to demand heroics.

I don't know. I'm the family historian. My experience is that some things are so hard that no one wants to talk about them. I can talk about what has happened so far. So far, I'm just inconvenienced. My grandparents got married in 1936. A few years later, they almost starved to death. They didn't ever talk about that to me. I knew my 81 year old aunt was only four pounds when she was born and wasn't expected to live. I found out why about a week ago. I think my grandparents used the experience to do better. Most of haven't lived that part of history and have never had to survive like that.

About "surviving"?? Umm...no not sure why I would. Clearly I survived.

I have no grandchildren. I doubt I would tell them anything at all really - I expect the history books will cover it.