Are we heading for ‘Roaring Twenties’ redux?

Oh, to be able to have meal again at the Palmdale Woman’s Club

Is it time for the famous Churchill quote about COVID-19? Wait, you’re saying, Churchill died in 1965, decades before COVID-19 — how could he have a quote about it?

Let me put it another way: Is it time to apply a famous Churchill quote about the Second World War to our present status with the virus?

Yes, I think it is:

“It is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning.”

The virus will be with us for a while — we probably won’t be back to 2019 levels of normalcy this year — but the tide definitely feels like it is turning in our favor.

Cases down 91% in Los Angeles County since Jan. 12, vaccinations slowly but surely taking place, more new vaccines on the way.

There are still some hurdles to clear such as new variants, but let’s just say we’re in better shape looking forward than we were last year at this time.

Another stumbling block could be a simultaneous release of pent-up exuberance — everybody overconfident that it’s over and letting down their guard too soon.

As my friend Dennis Anderson said in his column Wednesday, if you’ve come this far, don’t let it get you now.

Stay prudent, my friends. But just between us, don’t tell Churchill, but I think we might be at the beginning of the end.

For many years, this would be the time of year we would be gearing up for the annual St. Patrick’s Day corned beef and cabbage lunch at the Palmdale Woman’s Club.

By “we” I mean the ladies of Palmdale Woman’s Club and your humble correspondent.

For several years beginning in the ’90s, I was a big ticketseller for that event and for the Palmdale Woman’s Club Soup Kitchen, which was, as I called it in my sales pitch all through the Valley Press office, “the social event of the season.”

Valley Press retiree Dee Berkholz Munoz (one of the many unofficial “moms” who looked out for me when I was just out of college back in the day) would deliver me a stack of three dozen tickets, and I would sell them all. It was a Valley Press tradition.

It was such a great event. Terrific homemade soup and desserts, but better still the feeling of community; seeing people you know, sharing a meal.

All those memories came back when I read that the Palmdale Woman’s Club is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Wow. Let’s see, 1921 was the year Warren G. Harding became president. Things did not go as well for him as they did for the Palmdale Woman’s Club.

Babe Ruth led the Yankees to the pennant and socked 59 homers in 1921. Oh, and the world was coming out of the Spanish Influenza pandemic, ready to take off on the “Roaring Twenties.”

We may be in for the Roaring Twenties again soon. Or at the very least some great community events at the Palmdale Woman’s Club.

Happy anniversary, ladies.