It's been two years to the day since Gov. Charlie Baker made the state’s COVID-19 emergency declaration, and Boston Public Radio hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan wanted to hear some of the odd experiences listeners have had during the pandemic.
“This is a tough one, but I think we deserve a little bit of a break: it has not all been about loss or pain,” Braude said. “There’ve been many odd, sometimes even amusing moments, particularly in the early days of this and continuing in the months ahead.”
Braude and Eagan pointed to early pandemic-era activities like toilet paper hoarding, washing groceries and takeout containers with cleaning solution and attending a slew of Zoom happy hours.
“Remember people were fighting about toilet paper? You know, they had drag-down fights at BJ’s or wherever,” Eagan said.
Listeners called and wrote in with their own pandemic memories, like running into neighbors on walks in the early pandemic, when few other activities seemed safe. Some “regrettable” at-home haircuts. And “drinking bleach,” one joked.
After recalling the public officials who warned Americans not to touch their faces to keep from getting sick — only to touch their own faces minutes later — Andie from New Hampshire remembered the early days of pandemic grocery shopping.
“I remember going into the grocery store, and we were all so afraid, running around like little squirrels,” Andie said. “It was horrible! It was horrible. We’ve come so far.”
Another caller, Al, told Braude and Eagan that while the past two years had been tough, there were still moments of joy.
“The past two years were odd, to say the least. Today’s actually my daughter’s 12th birthday,” Al said. “I spent a lot more time with my kids, and I really enjoyed it. And we ended up with two COVID puppies that have turned out to be two of the biggest blessings in our family in quite some time. So it hasn’t been too bad, knock on wood.”
Mary Lou, a nurse calling in from Duxbury, wanted to talk about “the nicer part of humanity” during the first COVID surge in April.
“It had been horrible — we were working all the time, and I stopped on the way home from work, went to Trader Joe’s, went through that gauntlet and waited in line,” Mary Lou said. “I used to make conversation with the woman who was bagging and checking, and talked about something about work, and she said, ‘Oh, what do you do?’ And I said, ‘I’m a nurse up in Boston.’
“And she just leaned over onto the windowsill, picked up a hyacinth plant, put it in front of me and said, ‘I know it’s not much, but thanks for everything you do,’” Mary Lou went on. “And I had been really stoic, and I felt terrible because I just burst into tears. ... And I was so horrified at what I did that I just burst into laughter, because I couldn’t believe how much I lost it at Trader Joe’s.”
