Back then, everyone seemed to know someone with the disease, and when the vaccine became available Loennig remembers people eagerly lining up to get it.
It’s the opposite of what she remembers as a little girl when families had to lock down often during polio.
So taking precautions and living carefully throughout 2020 until the COVID vaccines became available was not a big deal, Loennig says.
For now, Baker City seniors like Loennig are kind of on an island, still moving cautiously, avoiding the unvaccinated as much as they can.
This mirrors a trend across rural America where overall COVID vaccination rates continue to lag about 10% lower than in cities.
Sipping tea, Danae Simonski, 84, says she recently learned that some of the ladies in her card group aren’t vaccinated.
A few tables over, a 73-year-old man introduces himself as Bob Brown.
Still, local health leaders aren’t sure what more they can do to convince the remaining holdouts to get the shots at this point.
She says she recently all but gave up trying to talk to her neighbors about why they should get the COVID vaccine.
At 64, Miller is eager to get a booster shot.
Fellow regular Randy Tracy and his wife Joanie are also traveling again, some, though they still take the same precautions they did before they were vaccinated.
Her husband Randy, a 72-year-old Marine veteran, sees today as a very different time than polio, when the country had gone through a Depression and World War II.