Reflecting on life during the pandemic

Earlier this month marked the three-year anniversary of the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Kentucky. My-oh-my, how life has changed since that time…

When I think back on the early days of the pandemic, a few things immediately come to mind. If you remember, we were about to get a brand new Ollie’s Bargain Outlet in Corbin right when people first started getting sick in our area. There was supposed to be a big grand opening event, and I believe NASCAR legend Tony Stewart was being advertised to appear.

Well, plans changed, but there WAS a grand opening. It just wasn’t the one that everyone was looking forward to. I remember going to the scaled down event along with News Journal advertising manager Melissa Hudson and thinking to myself, “This is it. I’m going to be in a crowd of people, and I’m going to get sick.”

Luckily, everything turned out fine.

I also remember the first time that I put on a mask while out in public. I was delivering our papers every week at the time, and my wife and mother began suggesting that I put one on while I did that considering the fact that I was going in several different buildings, touching all kinds of surfaces, coming into close contact with folks, etc.

When I finally put one on it was April 8, 2020. I know that because I took a photo to show them that I was being safe, and I still have that photo on my phone. Little did I know that mask wearing would become such a big part of everyday life for months and months after that.

I could go on and on about how crazy life got between March and December of 2020. I could talk about adjusting to distance learning as a parent of an elementary school student. I could talk about virtual church meetings and the mayor urging everyone to stay strong as she rode around town with a giant stuffed chicken in the passenger’s seat.

I could write a book, as I’m sure many of you out there could, but oddly enough, the one memory that is seared into my brain that I think perfectly encapsulates the entire ordeal was one spring day when the Cumberland Valley Cruisers were supposed to be cruising past a house in Tattersall Subdivision in order to wish a young classic car enthusiast a happy birthday. Remember, we called these “wave parades?”

Well, I live next to Tattersall, so I was standing out in my yard with my camera, readying myself to get some shots of the cars for the next week’s paper. Right about that time a friend of mine, Keysha Hammons, drove by with her kids in the car. She saw me, and slowed to a momentary stop.

“Hey Trevor!” she shouted. “What’re you doing?”

“Waiting on a wave parade to go by,” I replied. “You?”

“Oh, we’re on a teddy bear hunt,” she said, which was another temporary COVID pastime that involved driving around town and searching for teddy bears that had been strategically placed in windows of homes and businesses.

Now, under normal circumstances this brief conversation would have sounded like utter madness, but considering the situation that we were all in at the time, it made perfect sense. I don’t know, but hearing us talk about these things out loud in that moment just made me realize, “Wow, we have really gone off the rails here.”

I’m glad that many of us can look back on things and laugh about them now, but I know that many people were not so lucky. As silly as many situations may have seemed, the fact of the matter is it was a very, very serious ordeal for all of those who got sick, lost loved ones, lost businesses, or were separated from friends and family in times of need.

Here’s to hoping that we never have to deal with another pandemic like that again.