Spanish Flu memories

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In March of 2020, life in the United States, and the world, was changed by the COVID virus.

COVID was a global worldwide pandemic that was everywhere! Note that some people do not like overly repetitive and redundant phrases said over and over in the same way.

A century earlier, the Spanish Flu had taken a large toll on the population of the United States (over 500,000 dead of a population of just over 100,000,000, 1 in 200) and the world (50,000,000 dead in 18 months).

In just over four years of fighting in World War I, about 10 million soldiers died fighting. In 18 months at the end of the war, about 60 million people died from the Spanish Influenza, or Spanish flu, due to the underlying virus.

More: Viral origins of the word virus

Something is said to go viral if it spreads quickly (as in the Spanish flu).

Note: These notes were written before COVID-19 in 2020. More people may be familiar with the spread of COVID-19 than the Spanish flu.

More: Social media post gone viral

During the flu epidemic of 1918 a lot of people died. None of our family got the flu. My mother made some kind of a home remedy for us. I think she used sulfur, molasses, and lemon juice, and I think we took a tablespoonful morning and evening. Long, Blaine. (1978). Memories of Huntington County. Unpublished manuscript. Typed by Elsie Long..
Aside: It is not clear that the home remedy had any effect. Being aware, keeping a separation distance, etc., probably had more of an effect.

Some of us young fellows were kept busy digging graves. There was a family named Powell that lived near us. One of their boys named Isaac died and his older brother, Jim, went along with us out to Cherry Grove Cemetery to show us where to dig the grave. The next week we dug another grave next to Isaac and put Jim in it. Long, Blaine. (1978). Memories of Huntington County. Unpublished manuscript. Typed by Elsie Long..

My cousin Richard Walker and his wife both got the flu, and they took them to an emergency hospital in Robertsdale, where they both died only hours apart. They brought their bodies down to Saltillo by train one night and we buried them both in one grave about nine o'clock at night. Their small daughter died the next week, so the whole family died in one week's time. Long, Blaine. (1978). Memories of Huntington County. Unpublished manuscript. Typed by Elsie Long..