Churches, schools and many businesses were shuttered and the streets were mostly empty. People were asked to avoid crowds. Hospitals started to fill up, slowly at first, and then to the point where temporary facilities had to be set up to handle the ill.

That was life in the fall of 1918 in Oklahoma City — and plenty other places across the country — as what became known as the Spanish flu moved took its toll.

Though there are plenty of differences with the current coronavirus pandemic and the Spanish flu pandemic more than a century ago, plenty of similarities exist.

Then, as now, there was a back-and-forth discussion over the closing of businesses and schools and, once they were closed, disagreements arose over how long the closings should last.