Now that a few years have passed, we can look back on the COVID-19 pandemic with some perspective. It may take another 20 years for historians to come up with conclusions about it, but I think I can give it a go now.
Let me start by saying I’m not trying to stir up political vitriol – which I realize in this day and age is virtually impossible.
What I want to talk about is the shared experience of living through a period of history that changed virtually everyone daily. We started hearing about COVID in late 2019 and by spring 2020, it was in full swing, affecting people all around the world.
Those who lived through it will be talking about it for years to come, similar to how people from the World War II era often talk about sugar, coffee and gasoline rationing. I heard about those from my grandparents.
The COVID pandemic was also life-altering, except, perhaps, for those people who live off the grid. For the rest of us, we had to greatly rearrange our lives.
First off, many of us had to work from home. My wife, a special education teacher, set up a place in a corner of our kitchen and held classes over the internet from there. Meanwhile, I worked in the back of the house at a desk doing phone interviews, typing up stories and putting them into the Leader computer system.
Once when I wandered into the kitchen to grab a drink, one of my wife’s students saw me pass by and, in an alarmed voice, asked my wife “Who is that man?” She told the student not to worry because it was only her husband. It was nice to see a student concerned about my wife’s well-being.
Next, there was no dining inside restaurants for quite a while, but drive-thru service became extremely popular. I recall waiting in long lines, even at fast food joints because of all the cars ahead of me. And, even if you went to a more expensive place for curbside service, you may have had to wait for long stretches because of the public demand for grub.
As for entertainment, my family spent a great deal of time going for walks in parks. We enjoy those walks and would have gone on some anyway, but it became almost an every-weekend kind of event for us. Our dog certainly got to take more walks in the park during that time.
I also remember the highways being eerily empty. I did not do much driving back then, but my credit union closed its branch in my town and I had to drive to south St. Louis County every couple of weeks on Saturday mornings to take care of banking needs.
I’d hop on I-55 north and go for long stretches without seeing another vehicle. It was nice in a way to not fight traffic, but later, I gladly accepted the return of driving headaches when people starting hitting the road again. You felt like life was returning to normal when the traffic increased.
Finally, there were the great searches for everyday products. With my wife working as a teacher, even remotely, she had to print out tons of papers from home. Just about anytime I left the house to go to a department store, she instructed me to search for the specific type of ink cartridges needed for our printer.
These quests could be maddening. I’d go to a store and look for the ink cartridge she needed, and the locked display case invariably would not have the right one for us. I would flag down an employee and ask if he had any more in back – an absolute shot in the dark that never panned out. Failing that, I’d ask when they expected a new shipment of the ink cartridges. I would return on the date I was told and sometimes got the cartridge, but there were no guarantees. Plenty of other people were in search of the same item I wanted.
The meat shortage started early in the pandemic. I remember covering a city meeting one night and my wife texting me to check a smaller grocery store in town because she had been to the bigger stores where she normally shopped and the meat was gone.
I went to the grocery store and all it had were two packs of corned beef. My wife was not interested since I’m the only corned beef fan in our home.
The situation improved pretty quickly, but at the beginning you wondered if there ever would be an influx of beef, chicken, pork, lunch meat or any other kind of meat. You could barely even find frozen pizzas with meat.
But, what I’m going to remember most about the struggle to find supplies during the COVID pandemic was the ridiculous hoarding of toilet paper.
It was irritating and infuriating. I don’t know where the run on toilet paper began, but it led to stores limiting how much you could buy at one time, if you could locate any on the shelves.
Did survivalists come down from their bunkers and buy hundreds of packs of TP? Did it begin with profiteers who tried to corner the market? Did ordinary citizens buy multiple carts full of it in one visit out of fear?
Concern over toilet paper availability led to terrible circumstances for many people and unending searches for the vital product. I was put on alert to be on the lookout for toilet paper availability if sent to the store for anything from batteries to birthday candles. If the store had it, I was to get the maximum amount allowed.
You never know when the next major life-affecting problem is on the horizon. I just hope it doesn’t bring another toilet paper shortage with it.