Monday 31 January 2022

If Covid Had Arrived in 1971?

 I grew up in a highly rural environment of Alabama in the late 1960s/early 1970s.  If you had approached me in the 7th grade....saying this terrible virus was threatening everyone, and you wanted me to attend school wearing a mask....I would have sat there for a while and contemplated the landscape.

We had an awful lot of farting that would occur in the winter months, with windows closed and a serious fume problem brewing between 9 AM and 10 AM.  I might have welcomed the mask mandate to some degree....lessening the fart 'fog' effect.

We had comedian or two in the class....who would have worn the mask for a full hour and collapsed on the floor a few minutes before 'break'....claiming a lack of oxygen.  After forty of these fainting spells....this would have gotten onto the nerves of teachers.

We would have had sound problems when teachers quizzed Karl or Marvin, and their muffled response (intentionally done) would have sounded like South Park's Kenny McCormick.  After five or six back-and-forths with the teacher telling Karl that his response is not understood....the teacher would moved onto Marvin, and repeated the same game.

Kids mask-kissing in the hall at break-time?  That would have been a quick rule creation....that mask-kissing was forbidden.

We would have had a sub bus-driver every couple of months.  It would have been some farmer....with minimum patience for kids, and a heavy foot for the braking. 

Sub-teachers would have appeared, with minimum background or experience.  

Within six months, the school would have admitted the whole thing is a failure and virus ban-rules be discarded.