I was visiting with my uncle George of Valliant, Oklahoma back in 1977 and we were talking about the great flu epidemic of 1918. I asked him, “When did you know it was really bad?”

“Well, we knew it was bad when the undertakers ran out of coffins and they could not order any more by rail freight. It got to where you could not find an undertaker since they were all sick or dead or scared to death themselves. But I knew it was bad when my section hand railroad boss told all of us to not come in to work. No more trains would be running and there will be no more freight and passengers,” Uncle George said. “I thought this is really the end. The boss told us to go help build coffins and dig graves and we did.”

“Then my whole family got the flu. None of us could help one another and no one could come help. I fixed the baby a bottle and a pan of water so she could maybe survive ‘till help came. We were like that for over a week without help but none of us died, not even our little girl.”

Grandpa George Boyd (Dora’s dad) did die and my other grandpa J. T. Bullard and a neighbor built him a casket, prepared his body and took it to Maxie Cemetery at Victor and buried him. This was courageous. The flu was very contagious. By the time it quit, the little cemetery over at Maxie was filled with fresh graves—mostly with gravestones marked in March, 1918.

I spoke with my brother, Jim, up in Tulsa today and he said American Airlines had airplanes parked all over at Tulsa International airport. Not flying. Uncle George knew the trains not running in 1918 was bad—now we know planes grounded are also bad. We may wonder, what next? I have been “ordered” by my doctor to “stay in ‘till this is over.” No school, no church, no shopping at all. No travel!

Is all this necessary? A question many are asking. Well, I suppose we could have done like President Woodrow Wilson did in 1918. He forbad the press from printing flu stories. He ordered theatres, public places, schools and the like to stay open. To do otherwise, he reasoned, would lend aid and comfort to our enemy (the Germans) during a time of war. Everything was open and ran along like normal in 1918 until suddenly, they were not. Millions died. Would millions more die in another Corona flu surge if the limits were ended on “public gatherings” in 2020?

Those who asked the same questions in 1918 were answered loud and clear and it is a consensus that if the powers that be in 2020 do not shut it down now there will be millions more die. We might never know exactly. As a man said to me last week as I sat waiting in a line up at the Oklahoma City VA, “Trump is trying to kill us all.” I looked at the old vet wondering how I might respond when he said, “He didn’t need to shut the whole country down just so he could get re-elected, did he?”

I told the old black gentleman that I didn’t know. “It’s way beyond my paygrade.” I studied my shoes good as he squeaked away in his old wheelchair.

People in the Allen area were saddened to learn last Sunday that our beloved Doctor Oglesbee had passed away, a victim of corona. John Oglesbee was a good friend of mine and he came to Allen in a time of dire need—when the town (and area) was totally without a doctor. He was much loved by all of us here and even though he had moved away, he will be missed. Doctor Oglesbee was well known, not only as an outstanding MD, but as a writer, artist, poet, Indian literature expert, sportsman, public speaker and preacher. He was well known among sportsmen for his exploits as a “noodler” and one of his (mine) favorite stories published in the New England Journal of Medicine, “How to Treat Noodler’s Thumb.” People of Allen loved this guy.

And let me say, church may be shut down as we know it, but you can still be faithful to your church family. And let me also say, I love hearing from you.

Wayne Bullard, DPh

cwaynebullard@gmail.com