Pencil Storm returns today to our Covid Thoughts series, partially to mark the one-year anniversary of Ohio’s first reported cases of Covid-19 (which actually backdated to January). Let’s face facts: one part of our brains is saying, “It’s been an ENTIRE YEAR since we started not leaving the house?” and the other part says, “It’s only been ONE YEAR since we’ve seen a live band or eaten out at a restaurant?” Here to launch our new Covid Thoughts: Year Two series is Ricki C.
It’s been awhile since we’ve run a Covid Thoughts segment on Pencil Storm, and I’ve never contributed one, so here’s my two cents:
I won the Covid Vaccine Lottery last week and had my first dose administered Tuesday. I come by the immunization honestly: I’m 68 years old, I’m on my third cardiac pacemaker, I have prostate cancer, so it’s not like I can’t tick off some “high-risk patient” statistics. (i.e. I didn’t get moved to the head of the Covid-19 Vaccine line just because I’m a roadie for Watershed, though that was one of the “essential worker” classifications here in Ohio; right behind front-line medical workers and just before funeral home embalmers.)
So here is the Fundamental Flaw/Best Promise/Greatest Aspect of A Life In Rock & Roll: as I sat for my 15-minute post-injection "recovery period" in a fairly sizable waiting area, looking around me at the maybe 50 other people who got the vaccine in that half-hour, reading my "They Just Seem A Little Weird" library book, I found my only thought to be, "MAN, these people are OLD!" when at least some of them were quite likely three years my junior.
Such is the Illusion of Rock & Roll. Simply because I have managed to stay in the Rock & Roll Universe since I joined my first band in 1968 (FIFTY-THREE YEARS AGO? HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?) some small part of my brain has managed to convince me that I’m still 19 YEARS OLD, though the calendar and the numerous mirrors scattered about my home tell me a vastly different and sadder story. (Incidentally, my boss in Watershed – Colin Gawel, the publisher of this blog – was NOT BORN YET when I joined that first band.)
Anyway, by far the best thing about the Covid Lottery Vaccine Experience* at the Ohio Health site by Riverside Hospital was the soundtrack playing in the recovery waiting area: a loop of 1960’s hits ranging from pretty well-known (The Beach Boys’ “Little Deuce Coupe,” but also their “Dance Dance Dance” that you don’t hear every day) to the truly and undeservedly obscure (The Five Americans’ “Western Union”); all expertly tailored to Ohio Health’s 65-plus vaccine recipients. Kudos. - Ricki C. / March 5th, 2021
*I’m terming it the “Covid Lottery Vaccine Experience” because it’s a total accident and crapshoot that I GOT an appointment for the vaccine injection. The hoops that Ohioans over the age of 65 are expected to jump through to secure a dose of the vaccine are ridiculous. I myself possess maybe 1/10th of the computer abilities necessary to score a shot; if it wasn’t for my lovely wife Debbie and a stroke of luck that I still appear on the Ohio Health rolls, I never would have received the vaccine. That is criminal in this day & age in a nation like the United States.
bonus video / The Five Americans “Western Union” (including typically clueless long-winded 1960’s pseudo-hip intro by Steve Allen)