patrick.net

You can't read all of this without a subscription, but it's worth trying to find a weekend WSJ at the library to read the whole article. It makes the point that people mid 20th century weren't nearly so risk averse as people today. It also explains that neither the county or schools were shut down. I was I was in junior high at the time and wasn't even aware of it although it seems young people were its particular target. People of course couldn't work from home because of the lack of such technology and the government didn't drop helicopters full of money on the population. It also tells how people who had lived through a Depression and world war were not exactly bowled over by something like this. Also, the institutions of family, community and church had not been atomized to the extent they are today, giving people in need a network of comfort and help that is currently lacking.