Margaret Cassinelli, who was ten years old and living in Pennsylvania at the time of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1919, remembered “families hanging colored crepe around their front doors to announce the grim news, black for the elderly, white for babies, and purple for those in between.” Why might people have chosen this method to spread news about the well-being of their families? Do people still display signs such as these to inform others of family news?
