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Why American life went on as normal during the killer pandemic of 1969
NY Post ^ | May 16 2020 | Eric Spitznagel

Posted on 05/16/2020 9:05:10 AM PDT by knighthawk

Patti Mulhearn Lydon, 68, doesn’t have rose-colored memories of attending Woodstock in August 1969. The rock festival, which took place over four days in Bethel, NY, mostly reminds her of being covered in mud and daydreaming about a hot shower.

She was a 17-year-old high-school student from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, when she made the trek to Max Yasgur’s farm with her boyfriend Rod. For three nights, she shared an outdoor bedroom with 300,000 other rock fans from around the country, most of whom were probably not washing their hands for the length of “Happy Birthday” — or at all.

“There was no food or water, but one of our guys cut an apple into twenty-seven slices and we all shared it,” she said. At some point, a garden hose from one of the farm’s neighbors was passed around and strangers used it as a communal source for bathing and drinking, she said.

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1969; h3n2; pandemic
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To: ronniesgal

It was a concert. Nobody ever expected it to attract that many people. Nobody else went to concerts before?


61 posted on 05/16/2020 10:56:46 AM PDT by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: Luke21

Memories. I thought it would never end. Every night the TV news showed this destruction you describe. The cops were called “pigs”. And in movie theatres if a cop was shown on screen, the audience would yell out: pigs pigs pigs. It was horrible.


62 posted on 05/16/2020 11:19:01 AM PDT by ncpatriot
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To: gcparent

probably only the Everly Brothers.
i suspect the acts that performed at Woodstock were not the OP cup of tea.


63 posted on 05/16/2020 11:25:07 AM PDT by ronniesgal (so I wonder what his FR handle is???? and let's get back to living!!!)
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To: Bonemaker

Back when most children were actually raised by a married husband wife couple.


64 posted on 05/16/2020 11:36:05 AM PDT by Morpheus2009
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To: DugwayDuke

Maybe you werent watching much TV in ‘69. I was 10 and the CONSTANT public service messages about the Hong Kong flu had me wishing I could catch the damn thing and finally die already.


65 posted on 05/16/2020 11:36:16 AM PDT by TalBlack
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To: ncpatriot

I forgot about the “pigs.” Good memory.


66 posted on 05/16/2020 11:49:52 AM PDT by Luke21
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To: knighthawk

Rules for Radicals hadn’t been published yet.


67 posted on 05/16/2020 11:54:58 AM PDT by Rastus
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To: Rastus

That’s a really good point. Alinsky brought them out of the streets and into regular politics. They went from tearing up the 1968 Democrat convention to running the next one, and removing the president that kicked their ass.


68 posted on 05/16/2020 11:57:45 AM PDT by Luke21
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To: TianaHighrider
President Trump is battling and trying to save us from Communism and all sort so evils. He is fighting all measures of monsters in many realms. I pray for him and his family daily. And all who support him.

So do I.

69 posted on 05/16/2020 12:07:22 PM PDT by thecodont
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To: TalBlack

In 1968, the GI, or Greatest, Generation was running everything. We were only 23 years away from V-J Day and the veterans had lived through the Depression, fought Germany and Japan to victory, and faced a nuclear-armed and belligerent Communist bloc after that war. Such people regarded the Hong Kong flu as trivial. Additionally, there were still millions around who remembered the Spanish Flu of 1918. Too many Americans, even conservatives, are wimps.


70 posted on 05/16/2020 12:11:25 PM PDT by Wallace T.
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To: knighthawk

That’s easy. Late 60’s music was much better!


71 posted on 05/16/2020 12:25:44 PM PDT by A44MAGNUT
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To: knighthawk

I had the Hong Kong flu OMG thought I was going to die really sick for 2 weeks another week to feel halfway human again, I have NEVER had another flu or cold since then, NEVER had a flu shot either I often wonder if my system built up an immunity after that virus!! I have owned and worked in restaurants my entire life and NEVER got sick again really wired!! Yes this was a very bad virus YET the country went on as normal of course we didn’t have a 24 hour news propaganda source scaring the hell out of people with daily death counts, daily case counts, constant hysteria day after day so there’s that!!


72 posted on 05/16/2020 12:36:42 PM PDT by Trump Girl Kit Cat (Yosemite Sam raising hell)
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To: knighthawk

Thank you very much for posting this.


73 posted on 05/16/2020 12:49:23 PM PDT by grundle
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To: TalBlack

TalBlack wrote: “Maybe you werent watching much TV in ‘69. I was 10 and the CONSTANT public service messages about the Hong Kong flu had me wishing I could catch the damn thing and finally die already.”

Very possible. I was in my last year of Aerospace Engineering. I was supporting myself with a part time job at a grocery store. Any spare time after homework, I was chasing coeds. There wasn’t a lot of time for watching TV.

The moral of this might be to drink beer, chase coeds, and don’t worry so much.


74 posted on 05/16/2020 12:57:43 PM PDT by DugwayDuke ("A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest")
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To: knighthawk

Some of the comparisons are apples and oranges. Keep in mind the population was smaller then. 70% of America was infected by the Flu, the death rate may have been as high as 200,000 people. Adjust the deaths in the US then for today and what is that?

Adjust the total infections and death rate worldwide then for today and what is that?

Whatever Vaccine was invented came pretty late to help as the it was pretty much over with. Today’s Flu vaccines are only partially helpful, depending on what strain of the Flu they think will be dominant in a given flu season.


75 posted on 05/16/2020 1:22:19 PM PDT by Captain Peter Blood (https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3804407/posts?q=1&;page=61)
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To: knighthawk

I was born in ‘69. Hell of a time to be born. America had some of the most magnificent things happen and some of her worst.


76 posted on 05/16/2020 2:03:00 PM PDT by shanover (...To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them.-S.Adams)
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To: Luke21

Boomer here. Sex, not so much, but I would have done it if I could have I suppose, back then.

Drugs, no never did. Not even pot.

Rock and roll? Hell YES!


77 posted on 05/16/2020 2:05:48 PM PDT by John Milner (Marching for Peace is like breathing for food.)
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To: John Milner

Good observation. I’m from the Marshall Tucker wing of boomers, myself. All Coors. No drugs. Had a blast. My kids appreciated me not trying to hide it.


78 posted on 05/16/2020 2:14:46 PM PDT by Luke21
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To: Luke21

Boomer here. Summer of 69 I was entering my senior year of high school. No sex. Went steady. No drugs. You could drink legal at 18. So drinking was no big deal. Discos, dancing, rock &roll. Protests at lef wing colleves affected my college choice. Viet Nam on TV. Dont remember any Hong Kong flu.


79 posted on 05/16/2020 3:28:21 PM PDT by gcparent (Justice Brett Kavanaugh)
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To: gcparent

The music was amazing. A lot of our generation has sanitized the events, films, etc...so it falls to us to set things straight. We are the elders and teachers now. Seems crazy.


80 posted on 05/16/2020 3:46:06 PM PDT by Luke21
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