Wearing a mask while trying to smoke a cigar during the flu epidemic of 1918, in Phoenix, Arizona


Although most of the people that I talk to have never even heard of the flu epidemic of 1918, which killed about 500 million people worldwide, it's something that history buffs know about, and think about. This morning I was pondering how difficult it would be for people in Phoenix to follow the new regulations, not only without air conditioning in buildings, but wanting to smoke, like a cigar.

Time-travel with me to 1918 in Phoenix, Arizona. I'll be a prominent businessman, like the owner of a bank, and I'll like to smoke cigars. By the way, even though smoking is fairly rare nowadays, back then it was very common - most people smoked. My parents were heavy smokers up until the Surgeon General's Report came out in the mid-sixties. Smoking may have gotten some prudish looks back then, but mostly it was seen as an innocent thing to do, to help you relax. Even doctors smoked. My mom tells that when she was pregnant with me that her doctor recommended that she keep her "usual habits", including smoking. Maybe that's why I'm not 6' 4"!

Anyway, even though I've never been a smoker I know how addictive it is. I've always been a "live and let live" person, and I sympathize with people who have gotten addicted to this particular drug, which is nicotine. From what I've read the withdrawal symptoms are horrible, and people who have tried to "kick the habit" tend to go back to it, over and over.

Anyway, as a prominent businessman in Phoenix in 1918 I'd have, in addition to a big mustache, and a bowler hat, a nice Havana. I'd have to go into the city to sit at my desk, and sign papers for loans, and I'd hang my mask over my ear as long as I was in my private office. If I went over to, say, the Adams Hotel for lunch, I'd take a few puffs, put on the mask, and walk a few blocks.


People who cut a hole in their mask so they could smoke cigarettes through it were people who were anxious not to be hassled by the police, but didn't quite understand the concept of how a mask works. Still, you have to give them at least partial credit.

I enjoy learning about how people used to live, and I especially like seeing original documents. This goofy cartoon tells me a lot about how ordinary people dealt with the new mask regulation in Phoenix in 1918, and then as now, people are people!

From the Library of Congress

If you like pictures of old-time Phoenix, please become a member of History Adventuring on Patreon. I share a LOT of cool old photos there, copyright-free, with no advertising. Your support makes it happen! Thank you!

Click here to become a Patron!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why cars in the future won't need stop signs, red lights, or stripes on the road

Image
Time-travel with me into the future. Where we're going, we'll still need roads, but our cars won't need the kind of stuff that human drivers need, like stop signs, or stuff painted on the road. And if you're already panicking that computers will take over, don't worry, they already have. The fact that you're reading this right now combines so much amazing computing power that it would have been unthinkable to anyone in the 1960s, or '70s, when I was a kid. Speaking of being in the geriatric age group, if you're like me or older, you took a lot of pride in knowing the rules of the road, such as what to do at a stop sign if four cars approach at the same time, the difference between a "yield" sign and a "merge" sign, or maybe how to parallel park. But calm down there old-timer, that type of knowledge will just be as quaint as how to use a horse and buggy is nowadays. Sorry! The best way to picture how traffic will flow in the future is ...
Read more

Watching a neighborhood grow and change in Phoenix, Arizona

Image
I stopped to take a closer look yesterday at where the old Circle K had been in my neighborhood, which is a suburb of Phoenix. And it's got me to thinking about how much Phoenix grows and changes over the years, and how people feel about it. This particular neighborhood was built in the mid 1980s, when there had been only a smattering of houses and a community college (Glendale Community College, built in 1965). There are some houses that I can tell are from the 1970s, and a few even older, but what happened here is that the neighborhood suddenly appeared in 1985 or thereabouts. There are three shopping centers on the corner of 67th Avenue and Peoria - the one in the photo is called "Peoria Station", and it was designed to kinda look like a train station. The other three are called Westporte Village, Brittany Square, and Crossroads Plaza. I've lived in this neighborhood for a very long time, and no one ever uses those names, even though the signs are still up. But the...
Read more

Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?

Image
As someone who has been interested in history since I was a little kid, I've always asked the most childish questions, and quite often never got an answer. As a kid, I was told to run along and play, and don't bother the grownups, so I set my questions aside to work on when I myself became a grownup. But some questions I really haven't found a satisfactory answer for, and get thrown away as I find myself learning the more important stuff. I now understand the grownups, but the kid in me still has childish questions like "Why did Adolf Hitler always have such a bad haircut?" The first question to ask is whether a particular style (whether hair, clothing, etc.) was in style at the time. The moustache was, and you can Google a photo of Charlie Chaplin, who wore the same style of moustache at the time, and quite stylishly. The wide lapels were in style in the 1930s, as was were the tall shirt collars and small ties. But the haircut wasn't - it's just awful. Me...
Read more