I walked off the trading floor for the last time on this day in 2020. I thought I’d be back in three weeks, four at the latest.
I never returned.
I never had a proper farewell.
March 13th will always be MY China Flu Day.
And I don’t care if some of my LibLab friends are pissed right now at my term for March 13th.
I have determined that I am going to live the remainder of my life in Archie Bunker/George Jefferson mode.
China Flu, China Flu, China Flu!
March 13th set my life into a different trajectory. I no longer get on a train and head into the city. I drive Betty out to the suburbs. I no longer work in an art deco skyscraper completed in 1929. I work in a brown cookie cutter building slapped together in 1991.
That’s alright…. They had been talking for years about shutting down the trading pits. China Flu finally forced them to get off the shitter.
Another life changer was the loss of my father during China Flu. The Oldman was crumbling for several years prior to the pandemic. That unaccountable cold was what packed his bag and stamped his ticket to heaven.
The last thing he said to me on a Zoom call…. “Oh you magnificent son of a bitch…..”
I lost my trading floor and my dad during that period, that era that changed the face of mankind.
I’m not sure that I ever defined a closing date for the end of China Flu. I’ll let the history books determine that date.
Happy China Flu Day all you Chalkheads and yes, my tone is bitter.
Ah fuck it… I still have a great job at the OakBrook Terrace Board of Trade and my Oldman still busts my balls. Remember, heaven is closer than we think.
Go out and celebrate freedom and the survival of a stay in our own personal zoo. A zoo that gave us a mask to wear.
I’d like to quote the great Melle Mel, “Survival, only the strong can survive.
It's called survival, only the strong can survive.
It's called survival, in order to stay alive.
It's called survival, survival, survival, survival.”
Go out today and celebrate China Flu Day. Go to a bar, a restaurant, a concert, go to school, to the office or the gym. Go do something that you couldn’t do for a year or two.
We are all standing on the edge, so no pushing.
