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Collected Item: “Dayna Bowker-Lee Oral History, 2021/02/17”

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Mini oral history with Dayna Bowker-Lee, 02/17/2021

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oral history

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Transcript of Interview with Dayne Bowker-Lee by Monica Ruth

Interviewee: Dayna Bowker-Lee
Interviewer: Monica Ruth
Date of Interview: 02/17/2021
Location of Interviewee: New Orleans, Louisiana
Location of Interviewer: Sacramento, California
Transcriber: Monica Ruth

Abstract: This is a mini oral history of Dayna Bowker-Lee by Monica Ruth, about the silver lining of the pandemic experience.

MR: Hi, my name is Monica Ruth and I'm a graduate student intern with the COVID-19 archive at Arizona State University. Today's date is February 17th, 2021 and the time is 9:04 am Pacific Standard Time where I'm sitting and I'm speaking with Dayna Bowker-Lee. Bowker-Lee, excuse me.

DBL: That’s alright.

MR: I want to ask you a question about your pandemic experience. But before I do, I'd like to ask for your consent to record this response for the COVID-19 archive. The COVID-19

DBL: Yes

MR: Oh, kay

DBL: Oh sorry

MR: no that’s okay. The COVID-19 archive is a digital archive at ASU that is collecting pandemic experiences. Do I have your consent to record your response and add it to the archive with your name?

DBL: Yes, you do.

MR: K, thank you so much, Dayna. First, can you tell me your name, age, race and where you live?

DBL: Okay, my name is Dayna Bowker-Lee. I live in New Orleans, Louisiana, I am Caucasian for the most part. And, what else was, was I supposed to ans… answer?

MR: And your age?

DBL: Oh, see, and I'm 68 years old.

MR: Thank you very much. Now, I would like to ask you a quick question about the pandemic. So we've experienced a lot of a lot of changes in 2020. And many have been negative and disruptive. But maybe it's not all that bad. What is one positive thing you've experienced during the pandemic?

DBL: A positive?

MR: Yeah. Something you might say is like a silver lining… to this experience…we're all going through.

DBL: Uh, it, I'll be honest with you, it really hasn't changed my life all that much. In that I work from my house, I am pretty self-contained. My grandkids who live around the corner still come over every Friday night, because they quarantined as well, so I'm trying to think in terms I guess, just basically, it's made me appreciate, I I assume, that the the things that that we don't have, it's made me I I never really go out a whole lot anyway. But I do eat out a lot. I do go to you know, open air concerts, I go to the park. I’ll walk, I go swimming, you know. And so I think it's made me appreciate the things that I take for granted a little bit more. So I guess that's a positive. I hate to be evasive or vague. But it really hasn't changed my personal life that much. It's changed the way that I look at my city. Things that happened in New Orleans that have been really disruptive towards the overall culture of the city. And I I know I digress. But, you know, but personally, myself, it hasn't really changed my day to day life that much. My husband doesn't live here. He comes in on weekends. That really hasn't changed. So it really hasn't changed my life that much.

MR: Well, that can be

DBL: personally

MR: Yeah, that could, that could be taken as a positive. I'm sure, if it

DBL: Ok

MR: hasn't been very disruptive. Well, I appreciate

DBL: No, it hasn’t

MR: I appreciate your response. Thank you for your time, Dana.

DBL: You're welcome. That's it?

MR: That's it.

DBL: Okay, well! [laughs]

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ASU, silverJOTPY, New Orleans, Louisiana

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Monica Ruth

Give this story a date.

2021-02-17
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