Many of us are “hunkered down” at home
because of COVID-19, aka: Coronavirus. Amy’s and my ages and physical
conditions put us in the “severe danger zone” of this scourge.
We’ve risked going outside only a handful
of times for specific reasons – chiropractor appointments (he and his staff are
very cleanliness conscious), getting food from a drive-thru or carry out, and
quick grocery shopping. Thankfully, planning-ahead is one of Amy’s many
strengths. She has made sure we have plenty of food, water, medical emergency
supplies and toilet paper for any lockdown. I fully admit over the past 13
years I’ve felt and stated that Amy’s prepping was extreme. I am Eating Crow
today, and, I assure you, crow does not taste like chicken.
It is impossible to not notice how weird it
is outside. Streets and shelves are barren and businesses and schools are
closed. We are all taking this very seriously. The weirdness on streets and in stores
in Prescott Valley, Arizona is nothing like the sights of Las Vegas, Nevada.
Coronavirus has, amazingly, shut down Vegas.
All casinos, resorts and businesses are closed. Vegas has been a
24-hours-per-day/7-days-per-week/365-days-per-year city for more than 80 years.
Amy and I have been to Vegas numerous times
for entertainment and family. Amy’s father and mother, up to the time of her
passing in 2019, live in a Vegas suburb. We’re very familiar with the throngs
of people and cars, bright lights, and sounds of bells and whistles from slot
machines and cheers and groans of gamblers.
Vegas has not stopped … until now.
My friend, Eric, who has lived in
Henderson, Nevada for many years, posted photos of “the Vegas Strip,” Las Vegas
Blvd., on Facebook. Not a person to be seen. No vehicles on the streets or
parking lots. Barricades prevent access to the casino entrances and the main
doors are blocked by thick plywood boards. The lights, fountains, roller
coasters and other attractions have been turned off.
Las Vegas is a Ghost Town.
Eric wrote “We’ve entered the Twilight
Zone.”
On October 2, 1959, CBS aired the first episode
of a sci-fi, drama anthology known as the Twilight Zone. Each episode began and ended
with its writer, Rod Serling, looking sternly and emotionless into the camera, directly
giving the audience an introduction or epilogue that was as dramatic and
intense as the show itself.
“There is a fifth dimension, beyond that
which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as
infinity. It is in the middle ground between light and shadow, between science
and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man’s fears and the summit of
his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call
the Twilight Zone.”
The pilot episode was titled “Where is Everybody?"
Actor Earl Holliman portrayed Mike Ferris who is in a town with no
people. He finds signs of life – a discarded cigarette still smoking and
running faucets – but the only humanoids he meets are all mannequins. As he
continues to explore his loneliness and desperation grows to his breaking point,
which is when the audience learns that Mike Ferris is an astronaut confined to
an isolation chamber to test his ability to withstand being alone for his trip
to the moon and back.
“Up there, up there in the vastness of
space, in the void that is sky, up there is an enemy known as isolation. It
sits there in the stars waiting, waiting with the patience of eons, forever
waiting … in the Twilight Zone.”
Eric’s pictures showed previous signs of
life – large buildings, paved roads and sidewalks, street and stop lights – but
no people. Where is everybody?
While researching this piece, I learned “Where
is Everybody?” was not Serling’s choice for the pilot. Serling wanted an episode
entitled “The Happy Place,” which focused on a society whose citizens are
euthanized at the age of 60. The executives at CBS felt the story was too grim
for the pilot, so Serling turned to “Where is Everybody?”
Then I read about Texas Lt. Governor Dan
Patrick suggesting that senior citizens should risk, and potentially sacrifice,
their own lives for the betterment of the economy.
We really are in the Twilight Zone.
“You’re traveling through another
dimension, a dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind. A journey into
a wonderous land whose boundaries are that of imagination. That’s the signpost
up ahead. Your next stop, the Twilight Zone.”
