Items

• 
  2020-06-01

  Tastes like Home

  The pandemic changed so many things about everyday life, and even our food wasn't spared. Not only did the effects of COVID-19 attack our sense of taste, but it even affected those who hadn't contracted it. Going out to restaurants was completely out of the question, and to avoid spending too much money on take-out, my family continued to brave the grocery stores. There was a silver lining, though, because it started to change the way we felt about meals. I spent more time cooking with them back home in Vienna, VA, and now that I live here in Tempe I find a lot of those habits have stuck with me. I'm especially glad that I started baking more before I left home. Baking was a way to get the whole family together and give each of us something to look forward to that day, in a time when days kind of blended together and none of us knew what to expect. What's more, we'd all heard stories about how early COVID symptoms included loss of smell and taste, so I think there was a small part of me that was reassured by actually being able to taste what we'd all worked on together. I included a brownie recipe that I use a lot with this post, so you can try it if you like and get a taste for how it still offers me some comfort.
• 
  2022-04-29

  Social Drought

  Social Drought is a text story about how the pandemic erased all hopes of maintaining an active social life and how I had to find ways to fulfill my need for social interaction.
• 
  2022-02-02

  The Luxury of Eating at Restaurants

  My wife and I really like going out to eat at the local restaurants. Of course, when the pandemic first hit the Los Angeles area everything closed due to the stay at home order that was issued in Los Angeles county. Naturally we believed that this would just be a temporary situation and looked forward to the day that the order would be lifted, and we could go back to our regular way of life. I decided to use the time sequestered at home productively and to resume my education and I enrolled in Arizona State University to finish my degree while my wife was able to continue working remotely. Ten months later we were able to begin the long journey that was the return to “normal” as the stay at home order was lifted. Much to our surprise, many of the small restaurants that we like to frequent were now closed, out of business due to their loss of clientele and the fact that many were only staying open on a month to month basis when operating regularly. It is a sad thing that the collateral damage from this Covid virus impacted small businesses all over the world in a manner that would not allow them to continue to stay open. Even now, a year after the end of the stay at home order, mandates and medical rules are still limiting the amount of people that are able to enjoy eating good food at their local eateries and it is affecting those businesses that are struggling to continue to provide services. I recorded the interior of one of our favorite restaurants one morning as my wife and I went out to breakfast, but there were still plenty of empty tables.
• 
  2020-08

  Serving/Bartending in the Pandemic

  In the summer of 2020 I was able to go back to work. I have been a server and bartender for a few years now, and knew there were going to be some changes going back to work. For one, masks were required, and half or less capacity was the new normal. Every other booth or barstools were closed to promote social distancing. There would be many problems with customers not wanted to wear masks and social distance, making it difficult for the employees to deal with. Some restaurants only allowed take-out, due to not wanting customers to be hanging out in the restaurant too long. The restaurant scene in Feb 2022 so far has mostly gone back to normal besides mask wearing.
• 
  12/09/2020

  Reed Engle Oral History, 2020/12/09

  C19OH
• 
  11/24/2020

  Amy Burgoyne Oral History, 2020/11/24

  C19OH
• 
  12/01/2020

  Brooke Dusk Oral History, 2020/12/01

  Brooke Dusk is a Senior Business Loan Officer at WESTconsin Credit Union. Her job is to help businesses in their time of need. That being said, her whole world has gotten flipped upside-down. She worked first hand with helping businesses apply for the Federal Grant known as the Paycheck Protection Plan, as well as other state grants and loans that businesses could take out. Brooke also has a science background and gives some amazing insight into the pandemic and what she foresees for the future.
• 
  12/12/2020

  Shawn Berg Oral History, 2020/12/10

  Shawn Berg was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and raised in La Crosse Wisconsin. Recently he moved to Altoona Wisconsin to begin his job as a service manager at Texas Roadhouse in Eau Claire. In this interview, Shawn discusses how COVID – 19 has affected his life personally along with how it has effected the local Texas Roadhouse regarding their employees as well as their guests that come in. Not only does he discuss the consequences for the employees, but he also talks about how the guests have reacted to the mask mandate and how the restaurant has handled it all.
• 
  12/05/2020

  Chloe Ylitalo Oral History, 2020/12/05

  C19OH
• 
  2020

  Social Media Interactions

  I thought this interaction represented a common argument nowadays between people who are not as sympathetic to how the world has changed, and someone else who is trying to counter those negative ideas.
• 
  2021

  Essential Workers

  While the pandemic is still going strong, this type of post reflects some of the aftermath of the pandemic. Restrictions have loosened in enough places that people are able to return to restaurants, but there are still so many challenges and obstacles these essential workers are having to face. This picture left an impression on me because it is enforcing that sense of community and having to stick together to make it through these strange times.
• 
  2020

  Going Out of Business

  This was one of my favorite places to go in college, and they were unfortunately unable to make it through the closures. It was especially upsetting because they were always busy every night and the continued restrictions in California were too much for them to afford to hold out until people could return.
• 
  2021-10-05

  Life During a Pandemic

  This is a brief look into life during the pandemic and how society has changed as well as what I have learned about the world and myself throughout the last two years. This is important to me because history is a great way to learn more about where we are today, if I am able to contribute to giving an insight to future generations about how our lives were affected by the global pandemic, I would be happy to do so.
• 2021-10-04

  Restaurant Employees' Experience during COVID-19

  Restaurant Employees’ Experience during COVID-19 The norms of life pre-COVID are not the norms we are experiencing now. We all get accustomed to our ways of living, and then our lives have changed in a blink of an eye. I am a server in a restaurant and walk out each shift with cash in my hands. March 19, 2020, my life changed. I was a college student that lived day today when it came to my income, and for six weeks, I did not have an income to help with the bare necessities of living. However, I was very fortunate that my parents were the lucky ones that still had jobs, and they were able to help me until the restaurants opened back up. I have learned the importance of saving money. The experience of working in a restaurant during COVID-19 was unlike any experience I had in the past. Everyone was required to wear a mask, and the interaction with the guests was unnatural. The guests not being able to see our expressions and not hearing us clearly, I felt we lost the customer service our guests expected. It was challenging to breathe with the masks as the restaurant industry is fast-paced, and at times we would get overheated, nauseous, and did not feel well. I was always ready to go home so I could take off my mask. To-go sales now are a much more significant part of the restaurant business. The challenge with the increase in to-go orders is the design of the kitchens. They are designed to handle the projected sales based on experience, and when to-go sales became unlimited, the time to prepare meals doubled in time, and guests were unhappy. Many did not understand that the kitchen can only produce some much product per hour. It eventually got to the point that the restaurant would have to turn off their phones because the kitchen was at the maximum number of orders that they could produce. Trying to keep the guests happy was a challenge. If we took unlimited to-go orders, then the cook times were doubled. However, if we limited the number of to-go orders, the guests would also be unhappy. It will be interesting to see if the restaurant industry gets back to the norms of pre-COVID.
• 2020-04-22

  Enjoy Every Second Life Presents to You

  I remember when the pandemic first started just like it was yesterday. It was a very frightening time to be alive. A couple months before the pandemic, I got my license. I couldn’t have done it without my driving instructor. He was a family friend that we’ve known for a very long time. He was full of charisma and always energetic. When he found out that I passed my driving test, he promised to take me out to a local restaurant and celebrate. Everytime we would schedule a time to go to the restaurant, something would either come up on my end or his end. We were always cancelling on each other. March came around, and I went to his driving school site to pick up some paperwork. We were talking about the pandemic not knowing how serious it really was. We scheduled our lunch towards the end of March. Everything was cancelled due to quarantine. I didn’t hear from him or see him for about a month. We found out that he had passed from Covid-19. That changed my whole perspective on the virus. I began taking it very seriously and took every precaution I could take against the virus. What they say is true about people not taking the virus seriously unless someone close to you gets affected by it. You wouldn’t expect someone with such a good heart to be taken off this earth so sudden.
• 
  2020-05-30

  The Dashathon

  When the pandemic quarantine was initially imposed, I found myself with lots of free time on my hands. After weeks of low motivation and extreme boredom, I decided to sign up as a food delivery driver for Doordash, a job that was in high demand at the time. By this point in quarantine, all restaurants were closed for indoor dining, but many were still offering carryout and delivery services, largely through food delivery apps such as Doordash. Some of my friends and I started driving Doordash as frequently as 5-6 nights a week. We strategically prioritized the 4 to 8 PM time-slot in order to cover the majority of the dinner shift. Although it was quite mindless work, it was one of the few things that I had to look forward to as a daily break from the monotonous isolation of quarantine. Orders were frequent and because of the high demand for delivery drivers and very light traffic, tips were generous and reflective of the community’s appreciation for service provided by “frontline workers” like ourselves. After about a month of driving, my friends and I decided to put together a fundraiser called “Dashathon” to support some of our favorite local restaurants and small businesses that were struggling during the pandemic. Because many smaller restaurants did not have the financial resources to operate at a loss during periods of the pandemic, many were forced to shut their doors. Our idea was to reach out to all of our family and friends and designate one night where all of our income and tips from Doordash would be donated to these struggling restaurants and other local charities in need. With lots of outreach, we secured underwriting from 10 different sponsors as well as a dollar-for-dollar match pledge from Doordash itself. Our Dashathon was even highlighted in a television news segment broadcast on the local Denver NBC-affiliate newscast (linked above). We were successful in recruiting over 40 drivers to participate in our event. Through a competition-style format that rewarded the highest earners with gift cards from our sponsors, we were able to raise $15,000 dollars in just four hours. The proceeds were distributed in their entirety to designated local restaurants and charities.
• 
  2020-03

  Carla Dollar Oral History, 2020/03

  I was given the assignment to share a recipe I made during quarantine that started March 2020. However, the reality was that as an essential worker, I had no time to cook. And in my tiny, conservative town, we rallied together to support local business. We ordered more take-out foods during that time, to support our friends and family who owned restaurants, but also, just didn't have time to cook.
• 
  2021-08-07

  Diane Ramirez Oral History, 2021/08/07

  How one Hispanic female dealt with the cooking challenges that took place in the early months of the pandemic. In particular, one meal she prepared on September 26, 2020.
• 
  2020-03

  How to lighten the mood? Homemade brunch!

  Before the pandemic, one of my favorite ways to celebrate a special occasion was by going to brunch in New York City. Understandably, once the pandemic began, I knew that it would be a long, long time before I would see those city lights again. Rather than get down in the dumps, I decided to improvise and bring the brunch experience to my family home as a way to lighten the rather grim mood. A few weeks into the lockdown mandate in March 2020 I told my family to stay away from the kitchen. I organized a brunch with avocado toast, bacon, fried potatoes, and the centerpiece, a meal I had never made on my own, and a brunch staple, eggs benedict. I learned how to poach an egg for the first time with a few failed attempts. I then decorated the plates with the hollondaise sauce as if it were at a 5 star city restaurant. I made menus with drink options ranging from mimosas to bloody Mary’s and served my family, pretending I was out in the city for a celebratory brunch, despite the lack of celebrating going on in the world at the moment. Even if for an hour, this experience eating brunch lightened our moods and reminded us that despite what was going on outside our home, we at least had each other.
• 
  2021-07-29

  Restaurant That Probably Spits in People’s Food Says It’ll Only Serve Unvaccinated Customers

  This colorful article by Vanity Fair explores the anti-vax, anti-government Huntington Beach restaurant Basilico’s Pasta e Vino. The writer urges its readers to avoid this restaurant and its "anti science" owner.
• 
  2021-07-29

  Basilico’s Pasta e Vino in Huntington Beach

  After submitting a restaurant's sign promoting their anti-vax stance I was curious as to whether or not they were still in business. It turns out this restaurant has made quite a buzz in California. They unapologetically promote misinformation and publically prefer their customers to be unvaccinated but happily took thousands in PPP funds. They have spent money on controversial billboards and are not at risk of losing their liquor license. I'm so interested to see where else this story goes. The last sentence of this article sums up the ignorance of the restaurant owner - “Our stand is for all Americans,” wrote Roman. “They can thank us later.”
• 
  2021-07-28

  Restaurant bans vaccinated customers

  As the Delta variant continues to surge across the country and the world, I am amazed at how many people remain ignorant of the threat. We are quickly approaching our year and a half mark since the first quarantine and at this point, it is very hard for me to believe that there can be people out there that have not been affected in one way or another by this virus. I simply cannot believe that there are people out there that haven't lost a loved one because of this virus. I came across this photo on my Instagram, it was shared by one of my acquaintances. The sign makes fun of vaccination cards, asking patrons to show proof of UNvaccination, it states that they have "zero tolerance for treasonous, anti-American stupidity". I'm not sure how a life-saving vaccine could be treasonous or anti-American. With people still dying, and now children being admitted in record numbers, I wish we could once and for all take politics out of this medical emergency.
• 
  2020

  Memes About Quarantine and Life With Covid

  During quarantine I collected many humorous memes about staying at home and the problems that brought. All sorts of subjects were covered: cooking, getting along with your spouse/roommates, homeschooling the kids, learning to bake bread, being stuck at home, sanitizing, people hoarding toilet paper, boredome, effects of isolation, etc. Here are a few of those memes.
• 
  2021-03-16

  Safety at Teriyaki Ha Ha

  At Teriayaki Ha Ha on Route 1, just across from Nease High School, staff erected a wooden frame with plastic sheeting hung from it to create a protective barrier. When you walk in the front door, your order is waiting on the table. Cash is put into an envelope or credit card taken in advance on the phone. Everything is no contact. Next door is a Papa Johns where staff had masks pulled down around their necks and I observed several people walk in without masks, revealing how widely safety protocol differs from one business to the next.
• 
  2021-04-09

  money

  During the pandemic many business had to close down because people were not allowed to go to social gatherings like restaurants.
• 
  2021-04-05

  Two Shots of Guilt

  Being an older adult, I qualified for vaccines before those who work. I am overwhlemed with gratitude and guilt that I am safe from COVID and others are not.
• 
  2021-03-21

  #JOTPYFuture from chellenguyenwilson

  Post vaccinations, I hope to be able to travel more this summer and escape the brutal AZ heat! 🔥🔥🔥 dreaming of a day where I can eat inside restaurants with friends and family! Looking forward to volunteering more in the public, looking at ways to help out Azscend in the Chandler community #jotpyfuture
• 
  2021-04-12

  Vancouver Island's Food Service Industry

  In this podcast, Philip Wolf discusses how COVID-19 has impacted the food service industry with restaurant owners Oura and Kymon Giakoumakis. Their restaurant resides at a golf course, so during the winter they saw a drop in patronage and are hoping to start patio service soon so business can pick up again. They did adapt to take-out service and a "parking lot patio" in order to provide service in safe ways, but they still struggled with the requirements and monetary challenges that the pandemic has caused. In this podcast they also discuss other local restaurants, layoffs, and closures, giving a clear view of how Vancouver Island, and specifically the district of Saanich, has adapted during this time.
• 
  2021-04-09

  San Antonio Service Workers Receive Vaccines

  Heard, a local organization in San Antonio, Texas, set up a COVID-19 vaccine clinic specifically for service industry workers. This is absolutely essential, as Texas has opened restaurants to full capacity, putting servers at an extreme risk of exposure. While spaces for the April 15th clinic were limited, by only allowing service industry employees to reserve a vaccine, they allowed individuals to protect themselves sooner by getting vaccinated.
• 
  2021-03-09

  #JOTPYSilver from Mark and Michelle Wilson

  wanderlust_wilsons #jotpysilver fun budget has been $$$. Saved so much money this year, looking forward to taking more trips in the last half of 2021. Also, love supporting and discovering local business with takeout/curbside pickup
• 
  2020

  Thrillest Serves

  Because of the struggle the pandemic has put on small businesses and restaurants, Thrillest has created a webpage that lists a variety of businesses with links to merchandise, donation pages, and places to buy gift cards. By providing this support, Thrillest is trying to prevent any small businesses from closing due to the pandemic, and are spreading the word about small businesses that need support to encourage people to support them rather than large companies that aren't necessarily struggling during this time. They hope to serve the service industry, providing direct support for businesses in many major cities across the U.S.
• 2021-03-30

  My Post-Covid Hopes

  I hope I will be able to attend virtual school. I hope I can visit my friends. I hope my friends can visit me. I hope we can eat at restaurants. I hope the olympics will happen soon. I hope I can travel all over the world again. I hope we can go to amusement parks. I hope I can make new friends. I hope I don’t get lost on campus.
• 
  2021-03-13

  Eddy County(NM) government and business leaders relieved COVID-19 restrictions lessened

  This article discusses recent easing of the New Mexico state government's business restrictions in Eddy County. Businesses have been struggling to remain open and viable for the past year, and these lessened restrictions may help some restauranteurs avoid shuttering their businesses and permanently laying off their employees. The restrictions there, like many states, have specifically targeted the food and beverage industries while mega-stores are seldom impacted. During the previous year, the mid-sized community of Carlsbad lost 2 of its 3 grocery stores to temporary shutdown mandates over the holiday season. This community and its county have been especially hard-hit by economic impacts of President Biden's new Executive Orders on oil and gas production on federal lands, and the pandemic's additional business restrictions have made this a very difficult place to operate and patronize businesses.
• 2021-03-19

  I hope

  I hope that life can go back to “normal” I hope that I can spend endless days with my friends. I hope that I can go eat at amazing restaurants. I hope I can spend birthdays with those I love. I hope that I can see a movie with my dad on a rainy day. I hope I can shop at malls with my mom. I hope I can see the teachers that have given me a great education. I hope I can safely travel with my family. I hope I can win a volleyball tournament with my teammates. I hope I can dance on the biggest stage. I hope I can sing at concerts with my choir. I hope and I wish that one day I can do all these things.
• 
  2020-08-21

  Living in Wrigleyville during a pandemic

  Wrigleyville home of the Chicago Cubs is known to be a neighborhood of Chicago that revolves around the Cubs. During a non pandemic year when there is a game at Wrigley Field there is people all around Wrigleyville. The neighborhood is bustling with Cubs fans everywhere. The restaurants are filled and the bars too. The cubs apparel shops are getting business and people are just happy. Now during the pandemic the neighborhood has a feeling of emptiness. No fans have been allowed in the stadium in over a year and a lot of the restaurants, bars, and apparel shops have been closed or temporarily closed until the pandemic is over. Things just aren't the same living in Wrigleyville during the pandemic.
• 
  2021-02-25

  Longing to go Outside

  Like people, my dog seems to miss going out to public spaces (like an out door mall, hiking, the patio of a restaurant, even the Pima Air and Space Museum) and getting attention from all the humans that pass by. He too is missing out on the social experiences that he used to enjoy before the pandemic.
• 
  2020-02-18

  Green Mill Once Again, in Winter

  An image of this bar front was shared on this archive almost a year ago, on March 31, 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic: https://covid-19archive.org/s/archive/item/11917. On February 10, 2021, I passed by this bar on my way home from an errand and remembered it being shared on this archive. It looks different now, so I wanted to document it. Aside from the weather depicting a more solemn image, the next noticeable difference is in the fact that in this posting, the bar's front window is boarded up, with a most likely spray-painted tag in green ink. The boarding up is most likely a remnant from 2020's late spring/early summer protests that took place around the country in response to racial violence, which was kickstarted by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, MN. In addition, Green Mill also has posted a flyer in the circular window of their front door. In March 2020, the pandemic was still so new that many didn't know what to do besides close their doors for the time being. Now, in 2021, with more understanding of COVID-19's severity, many businesses have some sort of signage indicating that they are closed and encouraging readers to follow the social distancing guidelines set forth by local, state, and/or federal governments. This is most likely the sign posted in window. Hopefully, in another year's time, we'll get to see Green Mill open and lively with the sounds of jazz music, the coronavirus pandemic only a memory of the recent past.
• 
  2021-02-18

  Learning a passion

  During covid, like most people life was isolating for a reasonable amount of time. The people one did stay around managed to get on our nerves anyway. I am however luckier that most because we’re some 11 months in now and I have my health as does my family, and I have discovered a new passion. Since many restaurants were fully closed the only way to eat the food I was craving was to cook it. In this simple activity I found a passion that very quickly turned into something relevant to me as I found a job at a restaurant cooking, and getting paid for that passion.
• 2021-02-07

  Italy's Coming Out

  Two links to news articles talking about how businesses in some Italian cities and provinces are defying the lockdown orders. This document shows that the questioning of COVID-19 restrictions in a worldwide phenomenon.
• 
  2020-07-20

  They Survived: Beating COVID-19 After 70

  When Covid-19 cases began making the news in America, the stories were centered around nursing homes, where the population seemed especially susceptible. Day after day more reports of Covid-19 infecting and killing numerous patients and residents within these facilities painted a dire picture. And it is still dire. However, there are individuals who, despite their advanced age, survived Covid-19. This article from the AARP highlights four individuals in their 70s and 80s who suffered through serious cases involving long hospital stays and ventilators that made it through this virus. An interesting aspect of this article is every person interviewed ends their section by chastising people going out to restaurants, bars, and not wearing masks. Though they survived, they used this platform to try and convey the severity of the situation. As an 80-year-old female survivor from New York stated “This is not the flu. This is something that wants to kill you. It saps your strength and makes you feel like you prefer to die. This disease is such an unknown quantity. I cannot understand why anyone would refuse to wear a mask. It's a pandemic!” Hopefully, people reading survivor stories such as these will make people reflect on the choices, they are making for themselves and their communities.
• 
  2021-01-24

  Grabbing for Groceries

  Grocery shopping is part of nearly everyone’s life. We’re used to going into a store at most hours of the day and night and finding what we need. Many of us eat out quite often so don’t stockpile food supplies at home and don’t cook at home very often. So grocery shopping pre-pandemic was a relatively easy and boring task. With the pandemic came restaurant closures and restrictions and people started eating at home more often. People started buying greater quantities of food and other grocery items (particularly toilet paper!), which led to shortages and quotas on the purchase of particular items. The grocery store became somewhat of a combat zone, with people battling each other for items and viewing others as the enemies who either were going to steal their food or give them the virus. The entire grocery shopping experience changed precipitously for most individuals and reflected a major shift in how society acquires and shares its food.
• 2020

  Rules and Procedures in 2020

  Some of the rules we have to follow are we have to stay six feet apart from everyone. We also had a curfew sometimes. We were not allowed outside of our houses (except for taking walks or anything necessary) and restauraunts were closed.
• 2021-01-19

  feelings about rules

  During corona there have been many many rules, when it started we were quarantined and no one could go out, now we can but there are still many rules. The one i hate most is the mask rule, any mask will cause high humidity and its very uncomfortable. There were also the six feet rule, how do you have conversations or chat when so far from the other person, and the schools don't sell lunches anymore either AND the restaurants are mostly closed and we can really go to markets, so whats there to eat?
• 
  2021-01-13

  The Scent of a Deli

  If you've ever set foot in a deli - a real life, New York style deli or in my case a real life Texas deli, then you know about the powerful and delightful smells that can attack your senses upon entry. In my restaurant, the traditional odors of hot corned beef and pastrami mixed with sauerkraut, bacon and horseradish combine with the popular fragrance of Texas brisket layered in a spicy bar-b-que sauce and the undeniable fragrance of apple and pecan pie. Homemade beef stew, French Onion soup and Texas chili are reducing in the kitchen while the entire restaurant fills with the aroma of good food. There is nothing quite like a deli kitchen prepping, baking, grilling and cooking in the morning. These are the distinctive smells of my life before COVID-19. Shortly after March of last year, the city of San Antonio shut down all dine-in operations throughout the city and instantly took away our morning routines and systems, forcing our restaurant to evolve just to survive. Overnight, we became a grocery store with a curbside service selling raw products like eggs, tomatoes, cold cuts and sliced cheeses. The great morning aromas of the deli were replaced with the stale, cold odors of bleach and sanitizer. Sales dipped by seventy percent and even when dine-in was reopened to fifty percent capacity, we were forced to cut our menu by half. Now, as we keep paying for our holiday gatherings, the business has come back by half but it just doesn't seem the same or at least the smells do not. We are more of a to-go business now with items packaged and tagged in sugar cane boxes and biodegradable containers. The sweet mixture of multiple savory recipes and meats cooking side by side has been replaced by vacuum sealed soups and cold cuts prepared in a sanitized and disinfected central kitchen.
• 
  2021-05

  Smelly Hands Are Clean Hands

  I welcomed my first child into the world at the very beginning of the COVID-19 crisis in the United States, leaving my fiancé and me isolated at home with a newborn. After three months, we desperately needed a night away from our precious bundle of joy. The only restaurant open was a sketchy looking German beer garden blasting accordion music, but we were just thrilled to be spending some adult time together while our son was with my mother for the evening. Upon walking into the restaurant, I readily pumped some off-brand hand sanitizer into my hand, and nudged my fiancé to do the same. I rubbed my hands together as we were seated, and breathed a sigh of relief that we were free from the colicky cries of our beloved child for the night. Suddenly my nostrils filled with the stench of bottom shelf tequila. The hand sanitizer wasn’t simply off-brand, it had been homemade by the restaurant. It was as if whomever had concocted the sanitizer was convinced that the best way to ward off the COVID-19 virus (and the fear attributed to it), was to completely bombard the olfactory system with the smell of alcohol. My fiancé remarked that because the sanitizer smelled so horribly, it must be killing all of the germs; unknowingly, he became a perfect example of how individuals have come to associate certain scents, like alcohol, with the illusion of cleanliness. Thinking back on that experience, I find myself pondering just how effective their homemade hand sanitizer really was. Or, more than likely, was it a last ditch effort (forced into action by society’s panic buying of cleansers), to provide their customers a sense of security through unconscious sensory associations.
• 2021-01-07

  My 2020 Christmas

  This Christmas in the year 2020 was not much different as I expected than other years. The only really change was that my grandparents couldn't come. For as long as I remember I have spent every christmas with my grandparents. Also, because of the pandemic, all restaurant seating is closed. My family and I usually go out to dinner every christmas eve. But this year, we had it at home, which was not really odd since we only started going out for dinner christmas eve a few years ago. Other than those changes, we still did everything the same, we decorated, made cookies, got christmas pajamas, and more. However, it did not feel like christmas. Even though everything we did was the same pretty much, it did not feel like christmas. Listening to christmas music did not even make me feel like it was christmas. To sum up, my 2020 christmas was still pretty much the same.
• 
  2020-11-15

  Senior Year in NYC: The Monumental Moments - After A Night Out

  Imagine...after a nice socially-distanced night out on the town, walking to your favorite late night snack joint with all your pals. **Fordham University, SOCI2200
• 
  12/14/2020

  Ted Epstein Oral History, 2020/12/14

  I interviewed my boss, Ted, who is the owner of Loretta in Newburyport. I asked him a few questions of what he had to change since the pandemic began. Before I started asking him questions, I made sure he was okay with me recording and then posting this on the Covid-19 archive. Ted was given guidelines from the CDC and the government for what he had to change, and he was the one who had to implement them, which was challenging. This will benefit people looking back at 2020 because they will hear how we had to change from the perspective of a small business owner, which doesn’t happen very often. Small businesses are often silenced by larger chain companies since they are more well known. From this interview though, people will see how Ted really cares about the restaurant and keeping it open for the guests.
• 
  2020-12-06

  Scan Me!

  Instead of using reusable menus, to limit what people are touching, Loretta created scannable and paper menus for guests to use. Guests can scan the code on the paper provided, and a link pops up to bring people to the restaurants menu. This is an important part of the pandemic, because people are encouraged not to touch everything they see, so by limiting what people are touching, Loretta has limited the spread of potential germs. When future historians look back on restaurants during the pandemic, they will see how a lot of establishments created scannable menus for their guests. Some people have a difficult time with the snanable menus, which is why the paper menu is offered. People are typically eager to learn how to use the scan menus though, sometimes out of frustration for it not working, but also because of the growing popularity of scanning items with phones.
• 
  2020-09-20

  Coronacation

  In September 2020, myself and three friends took a mini-vacation to Derry, New Hampshire in order to get out of our small town of Middleboro, MA. We rented this house and mainly did our homework and hung around playing games. From this trip, it was interesting to see the difference between Massachuttes and New Hampshire as we saw people leaving restaurants without masks and it felt more “laissez-faire” in a way. This picture connects to “the needs and considerations of an ethical archival collection”. This is because I wanted to show that I, like most people, was not a saint during quarantine and broke the rules at some points. We made sure the house was safe by disinfecting when we got there and other safety measures in order to not get sick. By acknowledging this moment, I wanted to show what I was really like during this time period, not an idealized version of myself that could do no wrong. I know that I haven’t always been the safest and it will help with my credibility.