To the editor:

My wife and I drove into John Day last Tuesday to get our coronavirus vaccine booster. I was disappointed to see what I considered a fairly small turnout.

After leaving the pavilion, we stopped by Chester’s. We parked where I could see how many people were disregarding our governor’s orders to put on a mask before entering the store. Most people were fishing out a mask and putting it on. However, there were entirely too many deliberately disregarding the sign telling them to mask up.

If these individuals don’t hold any regard for their own health, don’t they have any consideration for vulnerable people? This seems so positively arrogant and low class to me. I wanted to go stand by the door and say, “Mask up, you selfish people!”

I was still steaming by the time we got to where we gas up in Mount Vernon. The gas station attendant came out and immediately started telling us how he just spent the last 14 days sicker than a dog with COVID. I said to him, “You were vaccinated, weren’t you?” To which he replied something to the effect of, “I’m not into that crap!” I lost it and let him know how stupid I thought that was.

As we departed, he and I were vigorously flipping one another the bird. On reflection, that seemed a rather appropriate way to end a visit to civilization Grant County style.

Terry Steele

Ritter