I am writing this a bit late. Usually, I have my idea then draft. By Thursday night I am ready to post. Just one of those weeks I guess.
Catchy title, don’t you think? It has been two years since our world changed from how it used to be, to how it is now. What changed our lives?—COVID. It is still hard to believe that a pandemic could take place in this modern world.
Growing up in the fifties, I remember the polio epidemic. The late President Franklin D. Roosevelt had polio. He didn’t let this disability hold him down, and went on to become President of the United States. The Great Depression and World War II were two major events that he steered the country through.
I remember going to the high school and getting in a line for a polio “sugar cube”. A vaccine had been discovered, and was passed out to the public. I often wonder if this vaccine was questioned like the COVID vaccine? The polio vaccine was a remarkable discovery. I hope in fifty years people will look back and say the same thing about the COVID vaccine.
How has life changed?
Many places of worship closed their doors, but a window opened for them — live online. People could tune in on their day of worship by connecting to the internet.
Air travel was adjusted to meet guidelines—wear your mask and there is a seat in between passengers. It is a bit scary to think about flying anywhere with COVID still lurking. Cruise ships stopped cruising, too. Countries closed their borders.
All restaurants suffered, and many closed. One of the restaurants in my area called, “The Lazy Dog”, went into survival mode. People were spaced out, servers wore their masks, and they really promoted curbside service. You can order online, pickup your meal, and never get out of your vehicle. Now that is service. They also reinvented the TV Dinner. The meals look great, and are made on site. You take an old idea and just revitalize it. I am not sure when this original TV Dinner idea was born, but I would bet it was in the 1950’s. Mothers were getting out into the work force and needed a quick way to have dinner on the table or the family.
For those of you that don’t know what a TV Dinner is let me explain. It was a supposedly a balanced meal served in various sections of an aluminum tray. You would put it in the oven, warm it up, rip off the aluminum foil and then eat! Easy peezy! Dinners can still be found in the frozen food section of your local grocer. I always liked the turkey!
Schools had to adapt to children learning outside of a classroom. I remember the first day of online learning for my granddaughter, who was in second grade. The teachers did a great job in such a short amount of time. My hat goes off to them.
Zoom was introduced to the students, parents, and grandparents. It amazed this grandma. The teacher and students could be online together and see and hear each other. Who would have thought this could ever happen? Video classrooms! Wow! Student work was submitted online, too.
Our first year of Digital Learning involved the granddaughter doing the work, and grandma scanning and submitting it. I got good at scanning. Since that time, things have been tweaked, and the scanning has gone by the wayside. Work is submitted as it is completed.
The program that amazed me was called Flip Grid. Students could video and narrate their answers to questions, then submit them to the teacher. These students found all the bells and whistles in the program. Soon there were emojis on their presentation.
I still cannot believe that my granddaughter and other kids in her class go to school with a laptop everyday! I asked her what students do that don’t have a computer, and she replied the schools supply them. Growing up, the closest thing we had to technology was a filmstrip projector that you flipped to the next frame when the bell dinged during the narrated script on a cassette tape. Oh, and we had records. There was one tv in the whole school that we watched John Glenn go into space.
When I was a media specialist, this cute, six year old boy named Luis, came into the library to check out a book. I had some 33 rpm records laying on the desk. Luis proceeded to ask: “Ms. Vicki, where did you get such big CDs?” Too funny.
There is so much that one can say about how COVID changed our lives. I think it may have brought families closer together. Let’s face it, you were like stuck with your family in the house or backyard. Many outside activities were stopped.
Even my favorite, NASCAR, was suspended for six weeks. They would have virtual racing with a program called IRacing. Believe me, it looked real until you saw the cars drive through each other in the pits. There would be wrecks, but the driver could restart and revitalize their car. On the road again. When NASCAR finally did resume, there were no fans in the stands. This has since passed, and they are filled each week.
As I mentioned before, it is hard to believe that a pandemic could occur in our world. I guess I had this idea that people were too knowledgeable for this to occur. Wrong.
So life goes on. We hope we don’t encounter another pandemic. Society makes adjustments to keep life flowing as we know it. It hasn’t been an easy task. Hats off to the human race. They always find a way to keep on going.
Till next time! The Blogging Grandma