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Collected Item: “Hawaiian party at home!”

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Hawaiian party at home!

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Photograph

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.


Triggers Hawaiian Party
Our experience through Covid and the lockdowns have greatly affected every aspect of social life from 2020 through 2021, this is a photo of Alan Montgomery (left) and Jake Montgomery (right) getting ready to celebrate Triggers (the dog) adoption and birthday via Hawaiian theme.
Usually, we invite lots of friends and their pets to Trigger’s birthday/adoption day, but due to the virus, we kept it very small with just three other people and 2 of Trigger’s favorite playmates. Due to the severity and potential for spreading the virus we all wore masks at least until the drinks and food were delivered, needless to say, this pandemic has been very difficult for everyone, and having a small social gathering like this felt very good and in someways reminded me of how things were before Covid-19 created such chaos in peoples lives. The devastation of life and liberties at the time of this party greatly increased, and many small parties or gatherings were looked down on by not just friends and neighbors but the federal government and media as a whole. Parties like this were very difficult to metastasize due to the lockdown and extreme potential for spreading the deadly virus. This little Hawaiian party for Trigger might at first seem silly but it was our way of coping and normalizing during the lockdown and in some ways, it helped my friends and family feel a strong sense that things would eventually return to normal. This party was pre-vaccine so the risks were high but everyone tried to be very careful, washing their hands and face with soap and water and wearing masks through the duration of Triggers birthday. In many ways, this photo represents the determination and willpower my friends and family were willing to go to in order to carry on life as usual and to never surrender their liberties even when such a deadly and contagious virus was hurting so many, all while facing obscurity by others at the time.




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#REL101

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

Jake Montgomery

Give this story a date.

2020-06-04
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