Who’d a thunk it

Published 4:52 pm Tuesday, May 19, 2020

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With all that’s going on these days, a good question would be, “Who’d a Thunk It?” Sounds like something a dummy would say. Actually a real dummy did come up with the question. Sort of.

One of my favorite radio stations on satellite radio is the one that plays the old radio shows that were popular before television took over. It’s hosted by a fellow named Greg Bell and the entire day is filled with radio classics.

The comedies include old-timers like Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly, The Life of Riley, and the Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy Show. I realize that everyone doesn’t listen to satellite radio, but if you’re an old-timer, yourself, like many of my readers, you’ll remember all those names.

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Charlie McCarthy was a wooden dummy whose voice and quick wit were results of the very talented ventriloquist, Edgar Bergen. There was another dummy of Bergen’s named Mortimer Snerd and he is the character who first asked the question, “Who’d a thunk it?”

I could ask that question when thinking about all that has gone on during these last two months. Who’d a thunk it that at the time our nation was going through such a difficulties, the very sanctuaries that we need, those of the church, would be closed. But liquor stores would be open.

Or who’d a thunk that one day mall parking lots would be filled with cars and stores bustling with customers and the next day, not a car in the parking lot or a store open.

And how about those beautiful beaches for which Florida and California are famous. In the middle of a beautiful, sunny day in May, not a body on them.

Let’s not forget our graduating seniors during one of the most traditional rites of passage, graduation from high school. I remember my walk across the stage. How about you? Who would have imagined that in the Class of 2020, not one graduating senior received a diploma while sitting and congregating with those friends known for so many years.

Who would ever have thought that the Great White Way, that unique stretch of New York City where Broadway Theatres are located, would be empty for half a year? Times Square, perhaps, the most famous New Year’s Eve place in any city in the world, who’d a thunk that it would be absent of people? At any time of the day or night?

I would never have thought that a 77 year old barber in Michigan or a salon owner in Dallas would be arrested simply because they wanted to work. Or that there would be such controversy all over the nation for legitimate businesses that wanted to open.

Here’s a head scratcher. Who’d a thunk that, in 2020, gasoline in some parts of the country would be less than $1.50 a gallon? And toilet paper couldn’t be bought at any price!

How many of you would have guessed that, by this time of the year, not a Major League Baseball game has been played. There was no Masters Golf Tournament. Not only that, but there’s been no sports of any kind. Who’d a thunk that in this nation that loves its sports like no other nation, that we would go NO Sports, cold turkey?

It really is amazing how much we have given up these last two months. What’s amazing about it? That we still have any kind of sanity.

No church. No vacations. No usual shopping. No eating out. No theatres or movies. No live sports. No weddings or funerals as we have known them. No visiting in hospitals or nursing homes.

If I had said all this would be the case three months ago, you wouldn’t have believed it. Who’d a thunk it?