One certainty… there will be death
Grand Haven is ghostly quiet. Few cars on the street. Besides the walkers on the boardwalk… emptiness. The small children guarded by their parents at home, or in distant patches of grass in a lonely park. But what about older teenagers? Watch long enough and you see, and hear, an occasional carload pass by. Many more out of sight. Partying somewhere. You know they are. Some parents have little or no control. And are oblivious. The question is how many are still out there. Grouped together. Enjoying their lives, while endangering others.
My Back pages
When I was a junior in high school, basketball was everything. Played perhaps 360 days a year. My two basketball compatriots in my car, going from pick up game to game, when we were not in season. If Covid-19 had hit New York and Washington back in my days, we would have played on. Absolutely. Not until the virus hit within a few counties from us would we have considered sheltering. Even then, the three of us would have shot together for hours a day. Tying every member of our families together in one codependent viral knot.
We didn’t drink in high school. Too dedicated to basketball. But our classmates did. Easily 95% of them. We would often stop by the parties. They were every weekend, endless, always moving… an empty house, by the river, in the woods. Always somewhere. They would not have stopped for a virus. Slowed down with fewer and fewer attendees most probably, but not stopped. Each attendee tying each of their families in a web of potential viral spread.
My senior year in high school, there was still basketball, but something else. A serious girlfriend. It would have been much easier to “shelter in place”. Her place, or my place. We would have been able to talk our parents into it. As by far the youngest child in each our houses, our siblings were long gone. So the viral web would have only been the six of us. Parents, and us. Limited risk.
Every small town in America today
Looking down on Grand Haven, I can’t help but wonder. Has every single teenage party been shut down? I doubt it. Then there are the occasional carloads still seen. Even the safer ones. Do they still hang out with a couple buddies? Do the high school couples still see each other?
Families with multiple kids at home. That just have one or two “exceptions” for their kids to see. The web builds. One parent gets the virus. Then it spreads thru the house, and the “exceptions”, and their houses… and further.
There will be death
No one wants to kill their parents or grandparents. But, it will happen. A lot of guilt to live with. Unfair guilt. But the virus doesn’t care. Lets hope it doesn’t happen too much, but I couldn’t shake the thought as I flew over Grand Haven yesterday.