By Eric Schoen
As I write this column, a week has gone by since Governor Cuomo announced that COVID-19 Restrictions were lifted as 70% of adult New Yorkers had received the first dose of the COVID-19 Vaccine. New Yorkers who had been vaccinated did not have to wear masks anymore unless the venue they were visiting required it.
It was no longer a requirement for the vaccinated to mask up at Retail, Food Services, Offices, Gyms and Fitness Centers, Amusement and Family Entertainment, Hair Salons, Barber Shops, and Personal Care Services unless the owner of that institution requested that you do so.
Unvaccinated individuals still had to mask up as did individuals in settings including Large-Scale Indoor Events Venues, Pre-K to 12 Schools, Public Transit, Homeless Shelters, Correctional Facilities, Nursing Homes and Health Care Settings. These facilities must adhere to COVID-19 Health Protocols Per Center for Disease Control (CDC) Guidelines.
We’ve spent over a year complaining about the harsh mask requirements our government has imposed on us. Let’s face it. No matter what type of mask you wore on your face, whether it be a blue medical mask distributed widely or a mask you made at home with 3-ply material it’s no fun having something on your face. Except for Halloween. Putting the mask on when you went into a store or were around a group of people, taking it off when you were alone or in the house, always making sure you had a mask with you! All of this no fun.
I spent the first few days after the mask requirements were lifted looking in store windows to see the mask policy for the particular venue making sure that when I entered I was following their guidelines. Many stores that didn’t require masks were slow to take down their signs. I laughed when I went to a TJMAXX store, meticulously looked at the windows for the stores protocols, saw a friend who manages the store fixing a display and asked her just to be sure what the mask protocol was in that particular branch of their chain.
So a week later, Monday of this week I had to return something to TJMAXX . When I entered the store I noticed I was probably the only person in the store not wearing a mask. The person at the door who would normally enforce the mask policy was gone, no stations were set up for customers to get a squirt of Purell or a mask. The separate station for employees to get screened, temperature checked and masked was long gone.
But over 90% of people were still wearing masks. This after the cries of people across the country to relax mask requirements. No one was telling them to put them on, but people were still masked up. I wondered why?
Could it be that all these masked people were not vaccinated? If that was the case, as they say, ‘Houston, We Have a Problem!’ It would probably be the end of my shopping if I found out so many people were unvaccinated. So I took an elevator ride up to Marshalls to see if people were wearing masks there at the same percentages as TJMAXX. And you know what? They were.
As I walked around the store, people were often looking at me and giving me strange looks without my mask on. I wondered, had someone changed the rules and not told me? Could it be that people are not trusting the government and don’t believe the worse is over. Have we just become so accustomed to wearing facial coverings that it is a hard habit, like cigarettes to break?
All the screaming and moaning from adults and children for over a year. Finally the Governor lifts the mask mandate and we are still wearing them. Are we too lazy to take them off and put them on when needed?
Now driving around town I still see people driving alone in their cars wearing masks. There’s no one in the car with you. Unless you are an Uber or Lyft driver going for the next pickup or one of the food delivery services heading to McDonald’s to pick up a Big Mac and fries or to 7- Eleven to pick up a Slurpee (don’t think they travel too well in the heat!) to deliver to a hungry or lazy customer, what are you sitting alone in the car wearing a mask for?
Exercising at Tibbetts Brook Park over the weekend, I see park goers in the fresh air wearing masks. People exercising as I was wearing masks. Individuals eating ice cream pushing their masks up and down to enjoy their frosty treat!
I can’t figure what’s going on here. Even in situations where people were not required by the state to wear masks they are wearing them. Can you shed some light on this for me. You can find my email address at the bottom of this column.
There are many things we have learned from this pandemic. Some we should have learned when we were two years old. Like washing your hands with soap and water. Cleaning the grocery cart with a wipe before you put your child in the seat of the cart with his or her legs hanging out. Way before the pandemic hit us we were wiping off the handles of the grocery carts before we would push them around the store.
Restaurants, especially fast food or quick service chains should not only have a dispenser for napkins on the table but should also have a dispenser for disinfecting wipes so you can clean the table and chairs before you sit down (I want the patent on that!). If you have a busy restaurant with heavy table turnover, it’s still hard for staff particularly in fast food to clean every table as fast as customers turn over. Leave a dispenser for sanitizing wipes on the table this way we know we are sitting someplace clean.
All stores need to make sure the disinfecting wipes and Purell dispensers are full. Many local companies and realtors, lawyers, cleaning services, etc. sponsor those dispensers. If they are not full do yourself and the company a favor and first, notify the store it’s in that’s it’s empty and if still not filled notify the merchant sponsoring the dispenser.
Fitting rooms are finally reopened so people like my poor sister need not bring home over a $1000 in swims suits to pick out the $300 worth she likes and fit her properly. The closure of fitting rooms in stores was probably the stupidest thing most retailers did during the pandemic. Did it really make sense to have people bring items they wanted to try on home to a house where Covid could have been spreading or maybe was not the cleanest home in America!
I had a treat last weekend. Something I haven’t been able to do for 15 months. Go to the theater. It was Off Broadway not On Broadway. Broadway theaters for the most part will not open until mid September.
REOPENING – “Judy Garland LIVE: In Concert! As If We Never Said Goodbye” the Award-winning and critically-acclaimed Tribute Artist Peter Mac returned as Judy Garland in his first show since closing for COVID-19 has reopened at the Producer’s Club, 358 West 44th Street in Manhattan. Shows are selling out quickly not only because it is so well done but people are dying to get back to see LIVE theater and there are so few options.
Call 1-978-818-5571 for reservations and further information. You will have a wonderful night enjoying the great Judy Garland portrayed by Peter Mac in a live show. You truly will be ‘Over the Rainbow!’
Reach Eric Schoen at thistooisyonkers@aol.com. Follow him on Twitter @ericyonkers. Listen to Eric 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.
