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COVID-1983 : What the hell would we do if this happened 30+ years ago (1 Viewer)

Koya

Koya

Footballguy
So, somewhat tongue in cheek, but also open to serious discussion here. 

Let's be honest, from the fact that all of us are on this internet message board to cell phones (that are actually computers) to LYFT, Uber, Delivery Apps, Amazon, the COVID epidemic and quarantine are able to be lived through and dealt with COMPLETELY differently than had this occurred prior to 1990. 

Let's hear your stories, postulations, theories, and jokies (allowed in THIS thread. I hope) here...

The scene is 1983.  It's like Stranger Things, except just the scenes with them biking around and acting like fools.  COVID hits the U.S. - We hear about it on the TV news, including those of us who have this relatively new thing called cable.  Toss in a hungryman, head outside, and turn on the radio to stay tuned...

 
Just imagine how different it would be day to day.  We wouldn't have a message board or internet to get information (and disinformation, and just TOO MUCH information).  Would rely only on institutionally run channels... along with the subterranean world of CB radio.  Which, mind you, might have seen a boom in usage, one of the few arenas for business growth.

Dealing with shortages would be really difficult.  For one, I don't think there were nearly as many outlets for the consumer back then. Second, no delivery services, no order online or by phone and pick it up. Nothing close to real time inventory to know if TP is in stock, because I'm down to my last 3,000 rolls. 

Heck, other than Atari, which was hardly in every house, no unlimited number of video games.  No streaming movies... is Blockbuster an essential business (and you think grocery store shelves were bare?)

Would be a completely different experience.  In other tragedies or crises we could come together as communities.  Play sports, hang in the village square (or mall), just walk the neighborhood and group up.  Yard and gold course parties (if you could find lixx... I guess we'd get inventive somehow). But with the need for social distancing, the very opportunity to connect would be gone. To the world. To your friends. To information. To entertainment. To socializing.

 
I dont get it. The premise is that people 30 years ago wouldnt know what to do with a large amount of down time because everyone is internet addicted today that automatically fills the time?

 
tonydead said:
I dont get it. The premise is that people 30 years ago wouldnt know what to do with a large amount of down time because everyone is internet addicted today that automatically fills the time?
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Not sure it's about that. It's about how we'd receive information, how we'd process it, what measures would be taken, etc.

Personally, I think 30+ years ago we had a different idea about death. Back then, death was inevitable to most, nowadays, it just seems like a far-away fever dream. Nobody really grapples with its finality anymore. Or, put differently, people seem to want to cure the inevitable, postpone the facts of life. That's not a judgment. I'm one of them. But I think more pragmatic measures would be taken. Plus, things would inherently be more local. Entire towns would be wiped out or saved depending upon local measures taken. Our federal government and federalist system are so geared towards federal centrality and primacy that I can't imagine a similar widespread response like we have now.

 
The stock market wouldn't have crashed, because we weren't as heavily dependent upon the service industry back then. And there wouldn't be a shortage of medical supplies, because all that stuff was made in the USA back then. And since international travel was still a bit of a luxury back then, it would have been easier for us to isolate people who had the virus.

Nonetheless, I'm sure that thousands more people would have died. But we would have just accepted it as a fact of life.

 
Joe Summer said:
The stock market wouldn't have crashed, because we weren't as heavily dependent upon the service industry back then. And there wouldn't be a shortage of medical supplies, because all that stuff was made in the USA back then. And since international travel was still a bit of a luxury back then, it would have been easier for us to isolate people who had the virus.

Nonetheless, I'm sure that thousands more people would have died. But we would have just accepted it as a fact of life.
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This is exactly what I was failing to explain in my above post. Well put. 

 
rockaction said:
Not sure it's about that. It's about how we'd receive information, how we'd process it, what measures would be taken, etc.

Personally, I think 30+ years ago we had a different idea about death. Back then, death was inevitable to most, nowadays, it just seems like a far-away fever dream. Nobody really grapples with its finality anymore. Or, put differently, people seem to want to cure the inevitable, postpone the facts of life. That's not a judgment. I'm one of them. But I think more pragmatic measures would be taken. Plus, things would inherently be more local. Entire towns would be wiped out or saved depending upon local measures taken. Our federal government and federalist system are so geared towards federal centrality and primacy that I can't imagine a similar widespread response like we have now.
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Well in that cast we'd be better off.  We'd get real news from one of the 3 TV channels available, minus all the social media disinformation, and we'd probably listen and do what they say. 

The dungeon and dragon talk had me convinced we wouldn't know how to keep ourselves entertained. 

 
tonydead said:
The dungeon and dragon talk had me convinced we wouldn't know how to keep ourselves entertained. 
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I agree with you that the dungeon and dragon element of the original post was about how we'd keep entertained without going nuts about the news.  That I'm not sure of.  But I don't think that was the entire point of the OP. That's all, really. 

 
rockaction said:
I agree with you that the dungeon and dragon element of the original post was about how we'd keep entertained without going nuts about the news.  That I'm not sure of.  But I don't think that was the entire point of the OP. That's all, really. 
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(The OP didn't mention D&D?)

:confused:

 
rockaction said:
I agree with you that the dungeon and dragon element of the original post was about how we'd keep entertained without going nuts about the news.  That I'm not sure of.  But I don't think that was the entire point of the OP. That's all, really. 
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Cool. The part that struck me is I can never wrap my head around people having too much time or what to replace my screen time with when I hear it. 

 
Koya said:
(The OP didn't mention D&D?)

:confused:
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Which is why I said "element." I was actually defending your OP, which I read. There was an element of "how would we kill time?" if I read it correctly. But that was only an element and not the crux of what you're going for, I think. 

 
Koya said:
Just imagine how different it would be day to day.  We wouldn't have a message board or internet to get information (and disinformation, and just TOO MUCH information).  Would rely only on institutionally run channels... along with the subterranean world of CB radio.  Which, mind you, might have seen a boom in usage, one of the few arenas for business growth.

Dealing with shortages would be really difficult.  For one, I don't think there were nearly as many outlets for the consumer back then. Second, no delivery services, no order online or by phone and pick it up. Nothing close to real time inventory to know if TP is in stock, because I'm down to my last 3,000 rolls. 

Heck, other than Atari, which was hardly in every house, no unlimited number of video games.  No streaming movies... is Blockbuster an essential business (and you think grocery store shelves were bare?)

Would be a completely different experience.  In other tragedies or crises we could come together as communities.  Play sports, hang in the village square (or mall), just walk the neighborhood and group up.  Yard and gold course parties (if you could find lixx... I guess we'd get inventive somehow). But with the need for social distancing, the very opportunity to connect would be gone. To the world. To your friends. To information. To entertainment. To socializing.
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The first Blockbuster opened in 1985.

 
Koya said:
Dealing with shortages would be really difficult.  For one, I don't think there were nearly as many outlets for the consumer back then. Second, no delivery services, no order online or by phone and pick it up. Nothing close to real time inventory to know if TP is in stock, because I'm down to my last 3,000 rolls. 
Click to expand...
I don't think there would be a shortage like there is today.  Social media was largely responsible for people panicking about toilet paper last week.

 
rockaction said:
Which is why I said "element." I was actually defending your OP, which I read. There was an element of "how would we kill time?" if I read it correctly. But that was only an element and not the crux of what you're going for, I think. 
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:thumbup:

I was not trying to be snarky. Was legit confused.

Two edi's and some nice flower later, moreso.

 
Most people probably wouldn't even know it was a thing 

it would probably be billed as a "very bad flu season"

 
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The biggest differences would be:

- how would Dad/Mom work? - .... and they’d have to go in.

- how would you finish the school year? - Well, you wouldn’t. 

I’m not sure what I would’ve done but I likely would’ve been thrilled to the gills that I got outta school early. Belated a lot of backyard football, baseball, basketball so would’ve started earlier, that’s all.

***
Nola lost 1/3rd of its population to one yellow fever epidemic, either from people dying or leaving. And there were regular yellow fever and cholera outbreaks. Stunning to think of what humans can survive and beat.

 
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SaintsInDome2006 said:
The biggest differences would be:

- how would Dad/Mom work? - .... and they’d have to go in.
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Holy cow, how'd I miss that.  Yeah, as terrible as commerce is right now, imagine if you could barely telecommute.  Phone only. Phew conference lines even.  No computer or video interface at all, no email, no chats... are we faxing a hundred pages a day? (That would likely be the answer... someone would have to be in the office to send faxes and make copies to send. As faxes)

 
You know there was another killer virus in 1983.  HIV wasn't confirmed the cause until 1984 but the early days of AIDS was a scary time to be in San Francisco. 

 
tonydead said:
I dont get it. The premise is that people 30 years ago wouldnt know what to do with a large amount of down time because everyone is internet addicted today that automatically fills the time?
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Talking now about what we'd be doing at that time doesn't imply that we wouldn't know then what to do with our time.

The premise is that 30 years ago, we would be filling our time - and otherwise reacting to a similar pandemic - differently. Let's talk about how it would be different.

(At least that's how I understood it.)

 
jhib said:
Talking now about what we'd be doing at that time doesn't imply that we wouldn't know then what to do with our time.

The premise is that 30 years ago, we would be filling our time - and otherwise reacting to a similar pandemic - differently. Let's talk about how it would be different.

(At least that's how I understood it.)
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Then the answer is obvious. Kickball. 

 
George Lucas and 20th Century has announced that the 3rd installment of Star Wars titled "Return of the Jedi" will be pushed back from May to a Christmas time release date. 

 
I was thinking about this earlier today (last night? - I work 3rd shift, I don't know what time it is).  As a kid, I lived in a very rural area and other than going to school, or weekends when my dad had me, I was rarely outside of the homestead.  My only neighbors were family members and they basically worked on a farm.   We had hunting and fishing available to us. We had a satellite dish (one of those huge ones) because we only received one channel OTA.  It was miles before you'd find the next person. We went weeks without leaving the homestead many times.  Even without grocery access, I think we would've had a steady source of food to last us at least a bit.  It would've been a little different, but I think it would've worked out for us.  

 
Ministry of Pain said:
George Lucas and 20th Century has announced that the 3rd installment of Star Wars titled "Return of the Jedi" will be pushed back from May to a Christmas time release date. 
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"...the delay will allow Lucas to reshoot the 2nd half of the movie so that he can remove certain characters which were intensely hated by test audiences over the age of 5..."

 
Probably would have gas shortages & price increase like the late 70's......especially since OPEC had more control back then and less fuel efficient cars

 
Eephus said:
You know there was another killer virus in 1983.  HIV wasn't confirmed the cause until 1984 but the early days of AIDS was a scary time to be in San Francisco. 
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RIP Eazy-E

March 26 is the 25 year anniversary of his death from AIDS.

 
In the spring, we were outside from sun up to sun down. For 5 year old me this would change very little except that I wouldn’t be in Kindergarten in the morning. So play all day, kind of like my youngest child’s outlook on all of this. 

 
Koya said:
Holy cow, how'd I miss that.  Yeah, as terrible as commerce is right now, imagine if you could barely telecommute.  Phone only. Phew conference lines even.  No computer or video interface at all, no email, no chats... are we faxing a hundred pages a day? (That would likely be the answer... someone would have to be in the office to send faxes and make copies to send. As faxes)
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OK, I was only 10 in 1983, so not exactly up on what was going on in the professional world, but I'm fairly certain faxes were not yet widespread. That came later in the '80s/early '90s. Certainly, the vast majority of people wouldn't have had access to them from their homes, and while Kinko's was founded in 1970, I don't think there were a ton of franchises yet. The only people faxing stuff were those in offices where they had a machine.

So yeah, most people would have either had to go into the office or they wouldn't have worked. No idea how significant of an impact that would have had on the economy.

 
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