Amen! Working non stop! I was reading about Hong Kong Flu 1968-69. I was a senior in high school, graduated May 1969 and went off to college. I never really heard anything about that flu epidemic. I vaguely remember hearing that name Hong Kong flu, but no one I knew had it, so it didn’t really affect me. Woodstock was that summer. They didn’t shut Woodstock down for Hong Kong flu... Moon launch was that year. And I was getting everything ready for heading off to college, working that summer at a glass plant in OK with no AC. 110F indoors, 106F outdoors.
I did get sick the next school year, my sophomore year. Mono plus the doctor gave me penicillin which almost killed me. That summer I was working at glass plant again, got laid off and brought back online over and over. They had a rough year. And I worked in Tulsa, 10 miles from my hometown, on days when the glass plant didn’t call me in.
Then my sister’s baby sitter didn’t show up so I watched her infant son some days too. That is when I ended up with mono, I was physically exhausted.
Working non-stop is a killer. That is the only time I have been in a hospital for a serious illness. THere is just so much a body can take.
But I was thinking maybe this is why I didn’t get Hong Kong flu, I wasn’t over doing it. Then the next year I was over doing it and ended up in hospital for a whole week, on IV fluids, swollen up twice my size, covered with huge red and purple hives.
I was thinking that is when you catch these viruses, when you are run down, sick, old, fat... That’s me old and fat!
Interesting history. Thanks for sharing!
Many years ago, it wasnt uncommon for me to work for days without sleep. I eventually made it a point to get daily rest once I learned the heart pays a price otherwise.