Camp Custer, October 1918 The future is like the sun. Stare at it and your eyes go bad. Now well into the sixth week, Day 46, and Americans are looking forward, sizing up the shapes and objects ahead. They hope to see an edge sharpen to an end and a line drawn for a beginning. But it's hard to really see much. The only thing visible is a blinding light. And looking longer doesn't help. In … [Read more...]
April 27, 2020 by
April 26, 2020 by
A truckload of coffins for influenza fatalities Through the gray cloud of influenza a flash of light is seen on October 22, 1918, Day 45 of the pandemic. Dr. Edward Rosenow is 43 years old and has for some time been regarded as brilliant in his field of medical research, a producer of "monumental work" as one person put it. A few weeks before influenza's outbreak at Fort Devens, … [Read more...]
April 25, 2020 by
Sanitation workers, Chicago Climb the ladder, from bottom to top. Influenza waits at every rung. From one family. A Polish family lives in Winona, Minnesota. A doctor visits their home and is shocked at the sight—both parents and all ten of their children suffer from influenza today. The doctor looks around the house and sees next to nothing of anything. Little food, few household goods, … [Read more...]
April 24, 2020 by
Joseph Fuccy belonged to this team All sorts of horse races were up in the air on the forty-third day since hell bolted free at Fort Devens, Massachusetts. There was the natural kind. The horses expected to run at Pimlico Race Track near Baltimore, Maryland were still in their stalls. Race officials in Maryland and at Pimlico were going back-and-forth about holding races. For now, they had … [Read more...]
April 23, 2020 by
Dr. White's workplace When can it become just too much? One of the too-much times can be when a bad thing you didn't expect joins the bad thing you're already coping with. And the more sudden, the more jolting the second bad thing is...well, it can be very hard to absorb. That's the start of Day 42 in the home called Place. He is Homer. She is Bertha. They're the Places, Mr and Mrs … [Read more...]
April 22, 2020 by
Navy Building, Washington DC In their locations, they were a half-mile apart at most. In their hierarchies of work, they were a universe apart at least. Nonetheless, on the 41st day since influenza began to rip apart Fort Devens, Massachusetts, they were joined in a life of pandemic whether they knew it or not. October 18, 1918. The Native American typist named Lutiant Van Wert or Luciant … [Read more...]
April 21, 2020 by
Through The Looking Glass A hand held a pen. Ink on the tip. A few dashing strokes crossed out a word here, inserted a word there. The writer stared at the sheet, then stopped for the day. Almost ready as a book, almost finished as a story, almost born as a warning that, sadly, will never need to die. "I'll believe in you, if you'll believe in me. Is that a bargain?" In 1871 so said the … [Read more...]
April 20, 2020 by
Mail carrier In New York City, on the 39th day since the outbreak at Fort Devens, Massachusetts, begins October 16, 1918. A mail carrier walks down the street with a mask on his face. An office worker sits at her desk, typing a letter and wearing a mask on her face. Across the city, if the reports are accurate, more than 400 people die today of influenza or a related illness. And the hard … [Read more...]
April 19, 2020 by
On Day 38, October 15, 1918, the heat turns up. Inside the pot, steam rises, water boils, and something turns over and over. At the town of Verdun on the banks of the Meuse River, a group of boys-boiled-men follows Captain Harry Truman back into combat. They've been away from the fighting Germans for a bit. Their enemy for some days was the sickness, influenza, that is killing as many as the … [Read more...]
April 17, 2020 by
Fatalaties per 100,000 due to influenza, Minneapolis and St. Paul, to October 13, 1918 Far north. Far south. A young couple in love and a couple of perspectives on the day. Let's take them in turn and a few others in between. Day 36, October 13, 1918. Minneapolis and St. Paul are side-by-side in Minnesota. Together, today, the two cities reel from the misery of influenza. It's the … [Read more...]
