bjgreen
By Betsy J. Green
Five Things to be Thankful for This Thanksgiving
1. We can drink beer and wine and we don’t have to sneak around as folks did 100 years ago. (Prohibition in California had started in July 1919.)
2. We don’t have a scary disease running rampant here like the Spanish Flu did in January 1919. Most public places in the city were closed for weeks.
3. They don’t make cars like they used to – and that’s a good thing! In February 1919, a man was driving on Sola and made a sharp turn onto Chapala, when, oops! A wheel flew off his car!
4. We don’t have to climb on a chair to plug in electrical appliances. Most homes here in 1919 did not have baseboard outlets. The electrical outlets were up on the ceiling in the lightbulb sockets.
5. We don’t have to worry about the end of the world. A pseudo-scientist alarmed folks 100 years ago because he said that sunspots showed that the world would end on December 17, 1919. Ministers in local churches discussed the prediction in their sermons. [Spoiler alert – the world did not end in 1919!]
We’re looking at a 3 degrees Celcius increase in average global temperature by 2100 … and it’s not pseudoscience this time (those who deny it are the ones who subscribe to pseudoscience). Also, diseases even more deadly than the Spanish flu are still a threat, and more so than in 1919 because of rapid air travel. It would be unwise to be complacent.