Treasures from the Pandemic

Seems like a lifetime of lockdowns, brief respites, and resurgence during the pandemic. Like many folks, we read, baked, binged watched movies and worked on our home. And we cleaned up clutter, went through files, scrapbooks, cookbooks, greeting cards and photos. Some treasures have been discovered!

Dave Tracy is the son of Jim Tracy, (who was active in the Holy Rosary choir and served on the church committee). Dave was going through boxes his mother saved and found this poster advertising the 1949 Carnival for Holy Rosary Church. FOUR DAYS of rides, games and thrills AND a chance to win a new 1949 Chevrolet Fleetline Special! Oh my!

This was quite a prize! It took awhile for factories to switch from war to domestic production and new cars were still hard to come by in 1949. Like most auto dealers of that era, Capital Chevrolet was located on Broadway.

In the lower right hand of the poster is a Union Label - Label 5, of the Egan Printing Company. Does anyone today know the significance of a Union Label?

So many stories in one poster. Have you uncovered any treasures?

1949 poster

Capital Chevrolet

1949 Fleetliner, courtesy of Wiki Commons

Pandemic in Globeville - Again

CHURCHES ALL SHUT THRU ENTIRE STATE DUE TO ‘FLU’

“There will he no public Catholic services of any type in Colorado next Sunday, due to the Spanish influenza epidemic. The state government, in order to protect the people, has placed a ban on every type of meetings, indoors or out, and has even prohibited socials and visiting in private houses.”

The October 17th issue of the Denver Catholic Register voiced the growing panic of Colorado’s citizens during the pandemic of 1918. Following the state’s regulations, Bishop Tihen closed all Catholic churches in the state and urged the faithful to pray.

“During this lonely exile, let us all say the prayers of the Mass at our homes, not forgetting spiritual Communion, and let us appreciate the value and wonderful treasures of the Rosary remembered in the month of October, and, above all, pray for the stricken
and for a speedy change in present conditions, the prevalence of the Spanish influenza.”

The predominant method of dealing with the disease was to quarantine those who had been exposed and to limit human contact. Just as people needed the support of others, houses of worship were shuttered, businesses closed, and families were expected to stay apart.

Today, employees can work from home, meetings can be held remotely and families can keep in touch through Facetime and Skype. Churches in Globeville have also adapted. 

Holy Rosary is livestreaming Masses through their Facebook page,
Holy Rosary Church, Denver

Our Lady of Grace is livestreaming Sunday Mass at 11:00 am on Father Felix's Facebook

Félix Zermeño-Martín

St.Joseph Polish Catholic Church  and Holy Transfiguration of Christ Orthodox Cathedral stream services from their Facebook pages.

To echo Bishop Tihen, this is a “lonely exile” and until we can hold hands, hug, and visit after Mass, let watch the liturgy on Facebook. Let us also check on our friends, make a phonecall and see who needs help. And remember to send monetary support to your parish so it will not be a casualty of this virus. 

1918 Spanish Influenza

In 1918, the nation was at war and people were on the move. So too was a mysterious and lethal illness that first appeared in the spring in Fort Funston, Kansas and then traveled with soldiers going to Europe. There the virus mutated into a more deadly form before returning to the United States in the late summer of 1918, carried by men returning from the battlefields. 
At first the virus targeted military camps on the East Coast, but rapidly spread to civilians and to inland cities and rural areas. By the time influenza was reported in Denver in September, it had already killed over 1000 people in Boston and 100 in Chicago.
Denver's manager of health, Dr. William H. Sharpley, hoped to avoid a panic and gave newspapers rules for combating the disease..."breathe deeply when the air is pure" and to remember the three C's: "clean mouth, clean heart and clean clothes." As the epidemic progressed, Denver's Board of Health ordered all schools, churches, and theaters to close and indoor gatherings banned. Dairys and grocers stopped delivering to homes. 
In Globeville, it seemed that every family had at least one member who was ill. Steve Machuga remembered two of the men who were boarding in their home. “John Stashenko and John Pastor both worked at the Globe Smelter and shared a room at our house. Stasienko got the flu in the morning and died that night and Pastor died the next week.” Records from St. Joseph Polish Church show a burial nearly every day, and sometimes two or three a day from September 1918 to the spring of 1919. Parishioner Tony Mandich lamented that he had served as a pallbearer eighteen times in four months. 
Gradually, the occurrences of the flu subsided. Like the rest of the nation, Globeville lost fewer of its citizens in the World War than to the Spanish Influenza.* 


* Globeville's two casualties in World War I were John Wysowatcky and Martin Clement. Numbers of people lost to the flu have not been compiled, but could be surmised from church burial records. 
Statistics on the epidemic are not entirely reliable, but it is estimated that between September 1918 and June 1919, the lethal virus known as "Spanish Influenza" and its complications, particularly pneumonia, killed nearly 1,500 Denverites.


**The 1918 influenza outbreak: An unforgettable legacy by By Stephen J. Leonard, The Denver Post, May 5, 2009


Photo of Joseph Chintala's headstone, one of many graves at Riverside Cemetery with a story to tell. Photo by Mary Lou Egan