Bluebirds over Dover

IT HAS been only a year, going on a millennium. Last March, a virus popped up on our radar, highly contagious and devastatingly lethal. The President said it would be gone before we knew it. He was wrong. There was no vaccine, a few ICU beds, an urgent run on ventilators. Caregivers were already exhausted. As of Mar. 15, 2020, there were 3,250 cases in the U.S.; 61 deaths. A year later, 500,000 have died. Following is from a column I wrote and published Mar. 20, 2020. We had no idea what was coming next.

“THIS got real in a hurry. It changes by the minute. I am sheltered in place, as are you, I assume. At my age, they didn’t have to tell me twice. Some people never got the memo; they act as if it’s another day at the beach. Last week, which feels like last year, I made a trip to Costco and got caught up in a convoy of overloaded shopping carts. Shoppers were stocking up for a likely lockdown, but it all looked like supplies for a flight to Mars. Emerging from the panic was one cart and one shopper with nothing more in her basket than three kites. TP madness is already an old story. You’d think we planned to pummel the virus senseless with rolls of loo paper. Shoppers line up early. When doors open, they surge and strip shelves. Workers handling shopper stampedes should be awarded Presidential medals.

ANOTHER medal for local fooderies still cooking, and offering takeouts. We enjoyed St. Pat’s corned beef at Pietro’s. For $5, La Borgata deli will deliver $20-plus orders. BackDoor Bistro, Rice Barn, Wren’s Café and a lot more are joining in. City Hall is coming up with a menu of choices. If you go that route, TIP BIG!

“COAST to coast, events cancelled, but not all were disasters. Example: The Vacaville Police Activities League (PAL) postponed its 16th Annual Crab Feed at C. Center last Saturday. It was too late to cancel the crab. So what to do with 1,450 lbs. of crustaceans? Vacaville PD Officer Danny Over, president of PAL’s nonprofit board, decided to bag and sell the crab for $15 ea. at the C. Center. They posted it. People came early. They sold out in an hour. People who earlier bought a feed ticket will be served on a new date, May 9. If the virus flames on, all bets are off.

“FLASHBACK to Dec. 7, 1941: My uncle pressed his ear against his Philco radio, every word by President Franklin D. Roosevelt burning into his mind. He looked up at me and said, “America is at war; we are all at war!” I was 7, but the words burned into my mind, too. They’re still there, and occasionally surface. Like now. For four years, we were all of one mind, to support the young who went off to fight, to back them up at home by buying war bonds; living with rationing and saving old tires. Volunteers took turns at an aircraft spotting shack on Vine. It was equipped with a phone, and a chart of enemy planes. If a spotter had a match, it would be called in to Defense Command.

“CORONA WWIII is being compared to World War II. Some, maybe, but this is different. The enemy is here and now, its stormtroopers outside the door. A thing that isn’t different is the resolve to beat back a threat and never quit. We’ve been here before. We are locked down. As if in the spotting shack on Vine with charts of virus cells, I’m scanning for the enemy.”

* * *

AFTER four brutal years of sacrifice and struggle in WWII, we sensed the end was near. We read news from The Front in The Reporter. We saw Pathe’ News at Vaca Theatre of enemy planes plunging into the sea. We heard the latest from Edward R. Murrow. And we felt it in the music written by Nat Burton and Walter Kent during the Battle of Britain. “White Cliffs of Dover” was an anthem of hope. I’m hoping we are getting close to that place again. I’m thinking we need a song about how COVID-19 robbed us of loved ones and filled us with resolve, as Dover did 75 years ago. We would gather at a pub, hoist a glass and sing: “There’ll be bluebirds over… the White Cliffs of Dover… tomorrow, just you wait and see...”

Paradise Valley Women’s Golf Club

Jackie Smith won first flight with a net 69, followed by Linda Grace (72), Kathy Pascal (74) and Darlene

Goodman (78).

Second flight went to Trish Boldt (73), followed by Vicky Flandi (76), Jody Knight (77) and Maria Quaintance (77).

Rita May took third flight with a net 72, followed by Katie Nguyen (74), Nanci Stevenson (76) and Joan Dominquez (77).

Karen Moore and Debbie Dahl both carded 71s in the fourth flight. They were followed by Kelyne Maertz (76) and Margie Miller (83).

On hole No. 8, P.J. Lowrey

came closest to the pin at 28 feet and Jackie Herbert was next closest at 76 feet. May was nearest on No. 12 at four feet, while Goodman was next closest at six feet, four inches.

Nguyen chipped in on hole No. 9.