Not the Before Times, the first few weeks and months after they ended. Before the bodies started piling up, when we were all stuck at home staring at the world like cats in a window.
That brief, stunned interlude before we figured out how we were going to fight over covid. A flash of bonhomie as we all asked ourselves what the fuck is going to happen. Felt like of an echo of that sense of common cause that followed 9/11, and abated even quicker.
It's fascinating to me how when the situation seems dire people can pull together but as soon as circumstances or the perception of them changes our ability to cooperate seems to evaporate.
There's a moral here but it slipped my mind. Was going through some photos from that time and had to edit a few and see if I could capture something of the mood of that period.
Can't serve all with no booze or change in the building. I'm curious, did anyone else have places putting up 'nothing good to steal here' signs where you live?
Went wandering downtown at the end of March in 2020 and it was slightly eerie how deserted it was. Only slightly though, when I lived downtown a decade before it got like that most weekends.
Things had apparently changed with the new arena but covid was like a nice injection of bleach, put a stop to that rather quickly. Just as things were starting to open back up the city came down with a bad case of the protests, all the buildings grew a plywood shell, and the white people got even more scared of downtown.
"Closed temporarily until further notice" just makes me cringe and hope Professor Mackey never sees it. As long as you weren't hungry it was kind of nice, you could almost imagine you had the city to yourself for a bit.
Not ordinarily one for self portraits but strange times call for stranger measures. Or strange mirrors.
We had more of a lockdown over Breonna Taylor than we did covid-19, downtown was deserted voluntarily that March. Then again most people here don't go downtown voluntarily so it wasn't really much of an ask.
"We will reopening after the pandemic." Are we there yet?
When the luxury hotel throws in the sheet, you know shit's getting serious. On a totally unrelated note, this was also the location of some strategically located construction supplies when the protests broke out eight weeks later.
Alright, enough reminiscing.
