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Collected Item: “Nelson Gifford Oral History, 2022/05/02”

Title

Nelson Gifford

Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.

Kit Heintzman

Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.

Nelson Gifford

Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.

kheintzman@gmail.com

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

#athletics, #birth, #Black, #California, #children, #coach, #educator, #empathy, #family, #fatherhood, #football, #GeorgeFloyd, #hair, #highschool, #isolation, #masking, #newborn, #online, #optimism, #PaloAlto, #parenthood, #police, #polio, #protests, #restaurants, #SanJosé, #SantaClara, #school, #selfcare, #socialization, #sports, #therapy, #Trump, #vaccine

What is the format of your recording?

Video

In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.

San José, California

What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*

He/Him

What is the age of the interviewee?

35 to 44

How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*

Black/AA

Describe the oral history.

Some of the things we spoke about include:
First hearing about COVID in Feb 2020
Supply chain disruptions
Working in K-12 education
Coaching football
Athletics and adolescent developments
Polarized positions around high school sports and pandemic safety
Harm reduction and pandemic safety in team sports; online coaching
Differences between indoor and outdoor sport safety
Having young children during the pandemic, one child born March 2020
Living close to family and having anticipated having a lot of support with the newborn
Living in a highly vaccinated county; prompt COVID vaccination access
Changes in masking recommendations
Watching infection rates to try and predict schools reopening and sports returning to normal
Enrolling daughter in gymnastics, masking during athletics
Wife and daughter testing COVID positive post-vaccination; isolating in a hotel with son away from them
Students losing key aspects of the high school experience
Pandemic hygiene/hair and being confused for being homeless
Supporting small businesses and restaurants
Protests after the murder of George Floyd, and social upheaval
Empathy in parenting, teaching, and everyday interactions
Churches closing during the pandemic and spiritual health
Safety, growth, and taking risks
Comparisons between COVID and Polio, COVID and the flu
The lifting of mask-mandates
The wars in Ukraine and Syria
The Trump presidency as a stress-test on democracy
Public education in the USA and poor distribution of educational resources to vulnerable people
The failure of the nuclear family
Having a brother who is a police officer in NYC

Other cultural references: Zoom, FaceTime, Sara Cody of the Santa Clara Public Health Department

See also:
https://hsnews.org/viking-podcast-episode-3-interviewing-nelson-gifford/
https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/06/25/palo-alto-60-white-is-100-black-in-head-football-coaches-heres-what-theyre-saying-about-racial-justice/

On what date did you record this oral history?

2022-05-02T10:16
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