We're starting to hear more rumors about the Delta variant, and more news about its spread throughout the united states. But whatever happens, we'll get through it. We got through it before, and we'll get through it again. And this time we have the benefit of hindsight. Today's stories hearken back to the first lockdown and the days when we didn't understand how to use Zoom:
Eleanor Kazdan
09.24.2020
Zoom
Years ago I used to use Zoom for classes but 5 years ago before anybody really knew anything about it. I don't think we even realized that other people could see us. Because once I came on and a woman was just getting out of bed. And I'm like, “What? Doesn't she realize that we can see her?” You know, nobody knew much about Zoom 5 years ago.
Norman Cain
08.20.2020
My Life During the Pandemic
For 4 months due to the pandemic I have, like countless others, been homebound. That is a situation that is alien to me. This is the first time in my life that I have not been active.
The first two months of being deactivated were the hardest. It lead me to periodically think about those who were and have been incarcerated in state facilities for long periods of time. How they were cramped two to a cell and only allowed outside each day for a minimal amount of time. I counted in spite of the pandemic my blessings. I was not surrounded by hundreds of men. I could cook what I wanted to, had no curfew, had books, had to ability to access the internet, and constantly receive calls from friends, and I had several Zoom programs.
During the last 2 months of the pandemic I have become accustomed to becoming a forced homebody; couch potato if you will. Sometimes I prolong my need to venture outside to take care of business and I have never slept so much. Going outside affords me, when its not too hot, fresh air and becomes quite the adventure. One that leaves me exhausted and to the couch.
I tell myself that I am finally getting well needed rest, one for being active all of my life. However, I will be happy when the pandemic is over with so I can become super active again.
Frances Bryce
06.18.2020
Pass It Forward
The COVID-19 virus that has us now on Zoom instead of in a classroom with many other Best Day writers in the Senior Center. The good news is technology allows the class to continue. During this period at home, I have spent several hours looking at photo albums. I began thinking about my childhood with my siblings and the influence we had on each other. Early education and the influence the teacher had that encouraged us, and especially me, to do my best. After high school, I went to college to continue the process that began earlier. One brother also had finished a stint in the service and was a pharmacist, but I learned that he really wanted to be a med doctor. He helped me financially as well as my oldest brother, who had stated that our education was the answer to opportunities from the segregated South with limited future achievements and a poor outcome. To put the plan in action, we had what is now called “pass it forward” as each one was in a position to help the next one in line, and this is how we managed that everyone went to school or to do something that they really wanted to do. This worked for our family and each of us succeeded in achieving an independent lifestyle. I followed my brother who became a pharmacist. I majored in chemistry and math and became a research assistant and then other opportunities to learn and participated in other unrelated activities. One of the ones I enjoyed most was as a parent educator who was sort of a coach for parents with kids from 0 to 5 years old, and we reminded them how important their role was because the parent is the child’s first teacher. And English second was the thing that I liked and reading most. Donating to my alumni and selected charities was my effort to pass it forward.
If you want to transcribe for Best Day, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. You can also share our older buds' adventures by donating to Best Day, subscribing to our newsletter, sending a note to our older buds, or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you or the older buds have stories about new tech or new lockdowns, then you or they can submit stories through our portal right here. We're especially interested to stories from Black older buds, but we're always looking for stories from older buds of color, older buds with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ older buds, older buds of any gender or sex, older buds of any religion, and older buds who just plain break the mold.
And don't forget to maintain contact with the older buds in your life. If you can't be there in person, please call them, email them, or message them on social media. And if they're using teleconferencing or remote events for the first time, give them a call and help them set things up. Check in on them to see how well they're getting used to these programs. Buy them a computer or an internet package if they don't have one of their own. It's a human right, after all.
Curated by Caitlin Cieri