By Eric Schoen
The big news on Tuesday morning? Sales of personal care items are on the increase. We are taking off our masks and buying cosmetics, perfumes, colognes, deodorants, toothbrushes, whitening strips for our teeth, shaving creams and gels, products for our hair and things to make us look good again. The report I heard said even condom sales are on the rise.
Maybe this year and a half nightmare we have been going through is finally if not coming to an end getting pretty close! Gas prices are up but with the pipeline affair over should be coming down pretty soon. Gas and charcoal grills which were in short supply last summer as people were staying home are plentiful though anyone who goes to the grocery stores will tell you prices are higher.
When I pass someone on the street or when exercising in the park they are not quickly reaching for their mask to put it on even if we may be 20 feet away. Of anything during this pandemic that was the most troubling thing for me on a personal level. Were they afraid even at a twenty foot distance that they were going to catch something from me? We weren’t communicating even though I might gaze and smile or say a quick hello.
People seeing other people and throwing on their masks like The person they were seeing was some kind of leper. Walking in the other direction even though they would never come close. Walking a dog and having its owner pull the dog away before it got close to you. If you tried to pet someone’s dog they would pull it away in fear that you would make the dog sick.
What’s more comforting then petting a dog or having a cat curl up with you in bed? One of the only good things about the pandemic (though really nothing can be good) is that it emptied out our overfilled animal shelters. People wanted dogs and cats to keep them company at home as they stayed in the house hibernating or working from home or Zooming with others. Though some people dislike busy offices with people walking around and not minding their business, the sudden isolation in an apartment or a big house was quite disconcerting.
Taking care of a dog or a cat entails a lot of responsibility. As more and more people leave the house to go outside or return to work don’t forget the responsibility you took on when you adopted Fido or whiskers. The animals have become members of the family and just like you wouldn’t neglect your children, don’t neglect your pooch or pussycat!
Speaking about children, they belong in classrooms surrounded by Teachers and Principals and Aides and custodians and civil service workers including the secretaries in the office who often act as surrogate mothers when they are not feeling up to par waiting to be picked up by their parents. Let’s give a big shout out to the custodians in our schools who kept buildings sparkling clean and germ free. And the nurses who suddenly were thrust into the position of keeping everyone healthy and sane instead of just putting bandaids on fingers or taking temperatures. The custodians and nurses are definitely the heroes of what went on in school buildings the last year and a half.
Let’s not forget our school cafeteria staff who provided food for school children through grab and go programs even when they weren’t learning in the classroom. For many students these meals were the only nourishment they would have during the day or until their parents, often nurses and hospital aides finished up long shifts to prepare dinner.
Our great school technology people who scoured the planet trying to find devices for students to stay in touch with their teachers and fellow students. And keeping those devices up and running when touched by hands hardly familiar with how they worked. Bus Drivers and Monitors charged with socially distancing students making sure even our littlest ones were masked up and scrubbing their tiny fingers with soap and water topped off with Purrell.
It’s good to hear that in many of our school districts there will be no distance learning options in September. Study after study has shown that our schools are the safest places for our students. Even the heads of the two largest teachers unions agree that all children should be back in classrooms come September.
How did students learn looking at a computer screen over the last year? I’m not just talking about grade school students. For College students it was a difficult proposition too. And the affect of a year with no socialization for grade school students and their college counterparts will be measured by psychologists and other professionals for years to come.
I truly hope that the plexiglass ‘cages’ built around classroom desks will disappear come September. Can you imagine when you were a child learning in such an environment. Hopefully the worse that we will need are masks for our students. But the person who advocated putting masks on 2-5 year olds really doesn’t understand human behavior. Did they really think that 2-5 year olds were going to keep their masks on in school or when outdoors playing? It must have been someone sans children who came up with that brilliant idea.
People are buying personal care items as well as new clothes and bathing suits as they try feverishly to lose those pandemic pounds they gained during the last year and a half. You know what to eat to lose weight. We spend millions of dollars a year on diet programs when all we need is a high protein, low carbohydrate diet to shed those pounds. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize you are not going to lose weight eating an Entenmann’s crumb cake or a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.
No one is telling you to eat grass for dinner. But a balanced diet including plenty of vegetables and some fresh summer fruit will certainly assist you to fit in those new, slightly tight clothes you are out their buying.
Discounters like T.J. MAXX and Marshall’s and Burlington have lines that make it look like several days before Christmas. And believe me it’s not all social distancing. People went a year and a half without spending money on themselves, and now they want to look good again. I was shaving the other day, looked at my clean shaven face and I was white as a ghost. Until I get some sun I guess I will have to resort to putting on a touch of bronzer to get that glow.
Remember, you can feel like crap psychologically and physically but if you make yourself look good, no one will know whats going on inside you. And when people tell you you look good it makes you feel good.
If you feel more comfortable wearing a mask and socially distancing please do so. No one should tell you not to wear a mask or how to lead your life. If you haven’t gotten your Covid-19 vaccination what are you waiting for? It’s readily available and will allow you to get back to normal this summer. If you haven’t gotten vaccinated it is your obligation to tell those you come in contact with. Coronavirus is still out there. A friend’s niece’s mother went onto a ventilator last week. Haven’t heard that happening in a while, but it just goes to show you for the unvaccinated the pandemic is not over.
I went to my first picnic with family and friends a week ago. Everyone was vaccinated. It was a small group, all outdoors, healthy foods with hot dogs and hamburgers on the menu. More important than the food was to shake the hands of friends who had come in from Massachusetts and Texas, not wear a mask and give a little hug to those I haven’t seen in a year and a half!
Say a prayer this Memorial Day for the veterans who made the ultimate sacrifice for this country. And a special prayer that things will not only get better here at home but around the world!
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric Schoen and Dan Murphy on the Westchester Rising Radio Show Thursday’s from 10-11 a.m. On WVOX 1460 AM, go to WVOX.com and click the arrow to listen to the live stream or download the WVOX app from the App Store free of charge.
