Covid-19. The Pandemic. The Trump Flu.
Call it what you want.
In early 2020, the world was hit with this dreaded disease. We were rather oblivious to it initially. We had just moved to Northampton a few short months earlier, and we were still in the early phases of getting to know our new home town. We weren’t really paying attention to the news other than the local news. There were passing news stories about there being a few cases, and that those were under control and would be gone any day. The then president even made the statements. I wasn’t a fan, but this seemed like an official notification.
Whew. Good news, for sure.
No. This was not the case.
One day, we were seeing news reports about people stocking up on things like toilet paper, paper towels, and things like that. We laughed, thinking about how silly it was that people were going crazy like that.
We thought they were fools.
WE were the fools.
We had believed the misinformation coming out from our own government.
There was talk about a shut down. We weren’t prepared at all.
We ran out of toilet paper and other necessities. In all seriousness, I had two Bibles that i was considering using once it got to that point.
There was talk of masks, to use them or not to use them. Again, confusing information coming from all directions, and no clear, definitive information. I had no real fabric stash to speak of other than a few novelty prints I had on hand. I found a pattern online for personal use and set out to make a few masks to use, just in case we needed them.
On April 4, 2020, the grocery store opened early for “Senior Hours”. Heh, that meant me, I guess. I had turned 61 a few months before. Bryan drove us to the market, and I was gloved, masked and ready to enter.
I was terrified. Not going to lie.
This was me, April 4, 2020, as I was trying my best to grocery shop alone during a pandemic.
While I was trying to find things we needed, I turned the corner to the frozen food section. It was there that I caught my own reflection and saw the terror in my own eyes, the same look I had seen on the other seniors shopping at the same time. I started to cry, right there in the frozen food section. (I’m tearing up now remembering…) How could I have been so fooled, so misinformed, so stupid to have believed that our then-president actually knew what he was doing.
That was the moment, April 4, 2020, 7:15AM, in the frozen food aisle of the Big Y in Northampton, that I decided to get to the bottom of the information I was getting. And I also chose to become political and do what I could to get this moron out of office.
There was no toilet paper that day. It would be a long time before we would find any.
My mask-making took an upswing and I started making them for friends, family and co-workers. Even strangers. I made some in a cannabis print and wore and brought a few to the dispensary down the street.
Garden centers were allowed to reopen and that was what really saved my sanity: plants.
I began using up all my novelty scraps and started making my own pattern. It became a fun past-time since we were house-bound at this point. Bryan even took a leave of absence to keep me/us safe. In the end, they let him go. We were fine, I got hired on full-time from the temp agency I had been working for the year prior.
We would go for drives just as something to do. We would wear our masks just for fun.
Rainbow paw print with grommets and thin elastic. This thin elastic helped because of my having to wear glasses.
Each morning, I would head out to the Post Office at 6AM to avoid folks.
We became regulars at Wanczyk Nursery and were even recognized from Instagram!
On the Fourth of July, I picked up a few of those cheap nylon flags to use for masks.
Early Saturday mornings we would travel to the Amherst Farmer’s Market all decked out in our corn fabric masks. I took to stitching in pipe cleaners to add support to the nose bridge.
We had heard that there was a restaurant nearby that had reopened and they had FRIED CLAMS! The Williamsburg Snack Bar had a pickup window. We would sit in our car and order over the phone and then go to the window to get our food. I had to make a lobster mask for the occasion. This is also where I had my October birthday breakfast this past October. They made me a lobster omelet with swiss cheese, onions and scallions.
Masks. Lots of masks. I’ve got piles of supplies now and I’m still making them in between quilts and other projects.