The pandemic has launched a thousand stories and it will spring many more.

One of the amusing, and boy did we need it, stories from the early days back in March of 2020

came from Denver city hall.

We were told on March 23 the crack leaders in city government had included pot shops and liquor stores on the list of lockdown closures.

The next three hours brought chaos and mobs to pot shops and liquor stores in the city until the decision was made to rescind that part of the closures and let pot and booze join grocery stores as essentials.

5280 Magazine this month had a story about the three hours of madness talking to people directly involved.

Denver Mayor Hancock’s chief of staff Alan Salazar said no one pointed out to the mayor that pot and booze were included in the shutdown, before he went out to face the press to announce closures.

My favorite quote. You ready.

Salazar: “It just didn’t occur to me that some of these places would feel so essential.”

The rest of the story has frontline quotes from overrun pot shops and liquor stores, including the point that it created up close crowds at a time when social distancing was crucial. That isn’t funny.

And while Hancock now downplays it as a brief yuck yuck, it also has its serious side on how unsettled those days were.

Now that we look back, it does have at least a smile with the tee shirt that was made and is selling.

It says”

“I survived the denver prohibition March 23,2020, 3-5 p.m.”

(The story never reconciles the two hour, three hour discrepancy but welcome to the new world of journalism.}