Items

• 
  2021-02-21

  Mini Oral History with Michele Lebsack

  On 02-21-2021, I sat down with my mother-in-law to ask about the positive experiences she had since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
• 
  2020-09-17

  Life in the Time of Coronavirus

  From March through August, I walked through the environs of downtown Tucson to make images capturing the effect of the pandemic.
• 
  2020-09-16

  After George Floyd

  From March through August, I walked through the environs of downtown Tucson to make images capturing the effect of the pandemic. After the murder of George Floyd, I also documented the aftermath of the resultant demonstrations during the end of May and June.
• 
  2020-10-20

  An Unexpected Visit by the Wienermobile

  After 7+ months of isolation and with our museum closed to the public for most of this year, my coworker and I - archivists at the Arizona Historical Society in Tucson - were delighted to look out the library window and see the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile parked in front of the newly-opened hotel across the street. And to preface this story - this hotel just opened during a pandemic after construction delays all year, and working across the street we've been subjected to the horribly annoying sounds, smells, and dust of construction ALL DAY LONG for this entire year. But as soon as our last researchers left the museum, we raced outside to take pictures with some of the other museum staff. The amount that the unexpected visitor has made us laugh this week has really brought out how tough this year has been on us all mentally, so much so that the tiniest thing has made us smile more than we have in months (and despite the fact that we're all die-hard opponents of capitalism and I'm a vegetarian).
• 
  2020-08-07

  More outdoor time

  We had to find ways to beat cabin fever, and that was hard because it was the hottest summer on record in Arizona. We took mini trips to Sedona, Tucson, and Camp Verde. We hiked and did as much outside as we could on cooler days. The kids enjoyed taking trips, because they couldn't see their friends or play with them during the lockdown.
• 2020-07-18

  A Trip to a Silent Hospital

  On July 18th 2020 in the late afternoon, I started experiencing some concerning not Covid-related symptoms and I made the decision to go to the Emergency Room. I’ve had chronic health issues all my life, so this wasn’t an unfamiliar experience. However, I’d been isolating since March and I was terrified of having to potentially go into a situation that was unknown in the middle of the pandemic. The things I remember most about the visit are how utterly desolate the places in the hospital felt, and how silent it was. I’m used to packed waiting rooms and constant noise. This visit was very different. After a brief screening in a large, mostly empty lobby with large barriers and protective measures in place, they assessed that I was not a potential COVID patient and sent me to a waiting room that I was alone in for most of my visit. There was no real chatter, mostly just silence, broken by the TV. The silence continued even back into the ER, where it seemed that the staff was spread thin. The most notable sounds were occasional low conversations and the sounds of medical equipment being moved around and the beeps and pulses. Even when evaluating me, while warm, the conversations sounded more terse and to the point. Everything moved more quickly. In some ways, it felt like being in an abandoned building. Everything was dark, silent, and empty in the areas where I was.
• 
  2020-10-13

  Possibly Fake Cards To Get Out of Wearing a Mask

  Both my mother and my brother suffer from asthma. Before mask-wearing became mandatory by law, they attempted to use a card they had found on the Internet. The card looked legitimate, but we've since found out it may have been fake. Both of them printed it out and had it laminated so they could keep it in their wallets and bags. It stated they did not have to wear a mask due to health issues. Over time, my mother kept having experiences where people in public places such as grocery stores would get upset with her and “call her out” for not wearing a mask. She still stayed six feet away from people, but this was apparently not enough to reassure some. They would become angry and verbally abusive even after she showed them the card and explained that she had asthma. Because of these incidents, she looked for alternatives to masks, including a clear plastic screen which she tied around her forehead and it covered her entire face. But this was very inconvenient and difficult to wear. At the height of the quarantine, stores would not accept the card (as I mentioned earlier, it may have even been fake). As the quarantine began winding down (right around the time restaurants started opening), she was able to wear masks for short periods of time, as long as she could take it off soon after. *My parents got it through a third party, hence why I think it may have been fake.
• 
  2020-07-20

  Private prison contracts complicates COVID-19 precautions

  The contracts for Arizona's private prisons require nearly all of the beds to be filled. This story articulates the difficult balance between keeping inmates safe during a pandemic and satisfying the contracts.