Tag: crowds

One Good Thing About COVID-19

Author Sue William Silverman had waited 3 ½ hours to get into the concert, and now she was seated in the third row, within touching distance of a chatty young man and a snarly older woman in a wheelchair. All around her, people were shouting, screaming, and waving pictures. She sailed away on the sea of love and adoration for rocker Adam Lambert, once of American Idol Fame.

Silverman, who is in her 70s, went to this shindig alone. She tells about it in her new book How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences.

I would never in a million years do this. I go to lots of things alone in our small coastal towns, but the idea of being elbow to elbow with over a thousand out-of-control fans terrifies me. I am Ms. Anxious in social situations. I get nervous mailing a package at the post office. Plus I am such a goody two-shoes I would be sitting in my seat trying to listen and hating all the loud people around me. I’d also be checking for my purse every two seconds.

Thanks to COVID-19, nobody can make me sit in a crowd now. That’s a huge relief. I get nervous, I have restless legs, I always have to go to the bathroom, and I struggle to hear. In some situations, like a loud concert, my hearing aids make the sounds painfully loud but not any easier to understand.

Now, in the midst of the COVID crisis, which hit suddenly but looks like it’s never going to end, the idea of being so close with so many people . . . no way. I know there are folks out there congregating for protests, parties, or summer vacation at the beach, all close up, many without masks. Not me.

Our COVID numbers here in Lincoln County have suddenly gone crazy. For the first couple months, we held steady at eight people who tested positive for the virus. Then 10. Only one person had been hospitalized. Nobody had died. We were doing super well at sheltering in place. Then everything changed. On May 15, we went into Oregon’s Phase One reopening. Hotels, restaurants and beaches reopened—with serious restrictions, but they opened–and tourists poured in. Many of them ignored pleas to stay home, wear a mask when out, and keep six feet apart. We don’t need to wear no stinkin’ masks, and you all are fools for wearing them, seemed to be the attitude of many. Most locals decided to just keep staying home.

The numbers went up a bit, to 30, several from a Memorial Day weekend family party where one of the people was sick.

At the same time, the fish processing plants on Newport’s Bayfront geared up for their big season, bringing in their usual local crews and seasonal workers.

On June 7, authorities announced that 124 out of 376 workers tested at Pacific Seafood, the company that processes, packages and sells our fishermen’s catches, had the virus. Most of them had no symptoms, but they did have COVID-19 and had exposed everyone around them, including their families and friends and people at the stores, restaurants, and other places they visited. Our total went to 154, then 164, then 206 as of this morning. Three more locals went to the hospital.

State and county officials have decided not to take us back to pre-Phase I restrictions, although numerous restaurants and other businesses have closed on their own to be safe. We’re nervous. Phase II is not happening any time soon, and that’s just fine with most of us.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the second Sunday of the month, it was time for our monthly open mic/jam session in South Beach. Would we still do it? We met in May, nervously and without masks. But now . . .

Seven of us met. We opened all the windows and doors at the South Beach community center, sat six feet apart and wore masks. It’s hard to sing with masks on. You can’t understand the words, and the masks move around or plaster themselves to your lips. Your glasses fog up so you can’t read sheet music. But we wore our masks. We sanitized our chairs. And we sang and played our butts off. It felt good. For once, we weren’t looking at our friends in little boxes on a computer screen.

Was I anxious? A little. But on a computer, can I make up harmony with other singers, watch a friend’s fingers to follow the chords on the guitar, or try out a mandolin song I’ve never played for anybody before, make mistakes and laugh behind my mask?

Like all musicians, I’ve been feeling desperate to play my own music for someone, anyone, and this helped. But I have to admit sheltering in place takes a lot of pressure off those of us who get panicky in crowds.

I don’t know why Silverman attended the concert alone. Were her friends all busy? Did she have a partner who wasn’t interested in Adam Lambert? I certainly dragged Fred to a lot of folk and bluegrass concerts that may not have been his favorite. And open mics. And all those choir concerts I sang in. Poor guy. Then again, I had to listen to his jazz and his Keely Smith albums.

In a crowd like the one that went to hear Adam Lambert, I’d need someone to hang on to, someone it was legal to touch, pandemic or not, someone who would understand my uneasiness and maybe hold my hand. We’d form our own little bubble of safety.

Does it seem like forever since life was normal? Why did we not appreciate how much easier everything was before?

It’s your turn. How are you doing? Do you like being in a crowd, or is it a relief not to have to do that these days? Would you go to an Adam Lambert concert? Do you know who he is? If not him, who would you wait for hours to see?

 

 

Unleashed 19 Years and Counting

Nineteen years ago, Fred and I moved from San Jose, California to the Oregon Coast. Literally driving off into the sunset, we caravaned north with a rented truck carrying most of our possessions and a Honda Accord carrying me, the dog and my instruments. We had some problems along the way. You can read about it in Shoes Full of Sand. (Only $2.99 for the Kindle version.)

I have been here almost a third of my life. When we arrived, I was only 44, had all black hair and no arthritis. Fred was a youthful 59, and our dog Sadie was only a year old, full of energy.

So much has changed over the years. Fred and Sadie are gone. It’s just me and a dog named Annie, who is already 7 ½ years old. Both of Fred’s parents and my mother have died. So have both my uncles and all of the older generation of my family, except my father, who by some miracle is still going on his own in San Jose at age 93. My brother, who started as a recreation leader the kids called Mr. Mike, became a lawyer and then a judge in Mariposa County Superior Court. His kids are adults now.

I have often thought about going back to California. If I were on my own that first winter, I would have. The rain and wind never stopped. I was cold, miserable and homesick. But Fred loved it here, and we stayed. Now, in this unusually dry summer, I crave the rain. When the temperature gets over 65 degrees, it’s too hot for me. But when it’s in the low 60s, I lie out on the deck and soak in the sun. Come December, the days will be short and sunshine will be only a memory.

Much has happened since we sold our house in San Jose and moved to Oregon. In the U.S., we’ve gone from President Clinton to Bush to Obama. The attacks on 9/11 made terrorism a household word and led to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as undeclared conflicts in other parts of the Middle East. We started a new century. The Internet took over our lives. We got e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. We bought Kindles, Smart phones and iPads. TV screens became flat and wall-sized. Gluten-free became a thing. Saying “a thing” became a thing.

Back in San Jose, the population zoomed to over a million people, crime soared, and traffic became an impenetrable wall. The house where I grew up, a three bedroom, one-bath house with no dishwasher, no central heating and no WiFi, is valued at more than $700,000. Studio apartments there cost more than my mortgage here. Santa Clara Valley became “Silicon Valley.” It’s too crowded, and more people keep coming.

I have kept busy over the years: Five books, an MFA, transitioning from writing articles for newspapers and magazines to writing essays, poems and blogs, something no one had dreamed of in 1996. A job playing, singing and leading church choirs. More new friends than I can count, friends who feel like family. I co-founded the coast branch of Willamette Writers and am now president of Writers on the Edge.

Did it turn out the way we planned? Not all of it. I wanted to write, play music and walk on the beach. We wanted to live in a small town with no crowds where people get to know each other. We got all that. I am blessed. But I never expected to do it alone. With Fred gone, maybe I should have gone home. But to what? To who? The Oregon coast is my home now.

What will happen in the next 19 years? I don’t know. I don’t think I want to know. Today the trees are standing tall, there’s blue in the sky, I have a meat loaf sandwich waiting for lunch, and Annie’s asleep on the couch. Later today, I’m going to jam with other musicians, and later still, I’ll watch the finale of the Bachelorette. Will she choose Nick or Shawn?

What were you doing 19 years ago? Where did you live? What has changed for you since then? Please share in the comments.

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