Page 53 - ActsCOVID-19_and_Me

In 2019 the United States economy was at its greatest, the longest bull market in the history of the stock market. When President Trump announced the coronavirus in March the economy and the stock market plunged into a bear market, dropping 8% a day in one stretch. The American workers were quarantined at home and told to apply for unemployment. The unemployment offices could not handle millions people at once; it took four to ten weeks before some workers received their checks. Charity food banks opened and families sat in their cars waiting for a bag of groceries to feed their children.
This occurrence resembled the 1929 stock market crash and the Great Depression that followed. President Hoover was president at that time and he had no idea what to do. President Trump thought he could ward off a depression by announcing that each person in America would receive a stimulus check of $1,200. Of course, that required sending 330 million checks. As they waited, some families were running out of food, the grocery store shelves were emptied
of milk, eggs, and toilet paper. Declan and Ari, your Grandmother was well cared for by Heron Point staff, so I gave my $1,200 to the food bank.
Because we were sheltering in our apartments and cottages, we cleaned out the kitchen drawers and cabinets and rearranged our shelves and closets. Heron Point residents love to play bridge, and the staff taught us how to use Trickster on the computer and we now could play with friends without anyone leaving their house. The staff also taught residents to use Zoom for video conference calls and our essential community meetings. We as retirees have always exercised our bodies and now we were exercising our brain, learning to operate new technology.
New Ways of Doing Things
This new way of doing things had a positive side to it. People stopped commuting as businesses were closed. The highways
and streets were empty, causing the air quality to improve. Wild animals came out of the woods and walked the empty streets. Even the crime rate went down.
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