2020: The Potential of Possibility

If there is a year that began with the highest of expectations for me, it was 2020. At least that’s how I remember it on January 31st?of 2019. As often, I do not remember the day I worked. I do remember the excitement of getting ready in the evening. I don’t remember what I or my (now) wife wore. I do remember them being somewhat nicer than the average going out clothes. The plan was to visit Mohegan Sun, as we often did on the weekend. We pre-gamed as we waited for our Uber, a German Lager known as Spaten. By that time, we had assembled a small group of friends and acquaintances that were little more than fellow revelers. It did not matter to us that the Casino was inauthentic. That could only be keenly felt on days it was empty. This would not be one of those days. We ate at Chik-Fil-a. We went to the New Belgium bar in the Racebook and talked to our favorite bartender, Ian. We wandered through the throngs of crowds, lovers and our own alcohol addled minds. We went to sing karaoke at the Game On’s Karaoke room. We danced our hearts content at the Vista Lounge. At midnight we went to the waterfall by Tuscany. We did not stop to experience it; we were attempting to navigate through it. I held on to my fiancée tightly and kissed her. I got the passing scent of lavender as I did so.

A little background to explain my place in life. On October 30th, 2019, I left Hawaii on terminal leave from the Navy. I was flying home to the dwelling I had just bought in Norwich, CT on July 3rd, 2019. I worked in Newport, RI on the PCS Contract. 2020 was for me, as it would have been for many others, the year where I finally was free of an oppressive and toxic work environment. I was afforded the freedom to travel at my leisure, by New Year’s Day, my wife and I had flown back from HI, driven to WV to visit my family, flown to FL to visit her family, drove to revisit Portsmouth, and developed our house in Norwich to our liking. My job was exciting, as all new jobs are. I was making a substantial sum. I had made effort to save. I had tasted travel and wanted to share that with the woman I desired to spend my life with. For the first time in five years, I didn’t find a stranger in the mirror, clean shaven and in a uniform. I saw a beard that had been such a large part of my identity. I had restarted school at SNHU, studying my first love, history. I had survived five years in one of the most intense and stressful fields in the world.

?January was quiet mostly. I drove to work, listening to audible on my 3-hour roundtrip commute. When I did listen to the news, frequently the discussions focused on the impeachment of Donald Trump, Australian bushfires, drones flying in Colorado, and ostensibly the most important that everyone needed to talk about for some reason, the death of Kobe Bryant in a helicopter crash. I personally remember planning my wedding, honeymoon, bachelor party, and a random 70-degree day that I wore shorts and walked around town. To those not from New England, this was an exceedingly rare temperature, akin to getting a full say of sunshine in London or Seattle during the rainiest time of the year.

2020 was not the first time I’d had a discussion with someone about what would eventually become known as COVID-19. The earliest I remember being more than passing joke or indifferent reference was a discussion with my father on December 27th, 2019. My father is a respiratory therapist at the VA in Martinsburg WV, so certainly he would have an opinion on the matter. I doubt if prompted he would remember the conversation, but he discussed the low mortality rate and the similarity to the previous scares in the past two decades such as Swine Flu, Avian Flu, and the SARS epidemic. He was particularly animated on the latter, as he had just entered the profession at that point, and it had left an imprint on him.[1]?Nonetheless, he concluded it was likely not something to worry about, just like the aforementioned cases. My own independent analysis had come to the same conclusion.

The consensus was not shared by the wider scientific community.?Li Wenliang, a Chinese pathologist, was growing increasingly leery of the sickness he had been studying. He is widely credited with being one of the first if not the first whistleblowers. Whether or not that is true, the events in Wuhan were being covered with greater interest by news outlets, journals, podcasts and many other flows of information.

I chose to ignore much of this. I remember being sick and in very poor condition through most of December. I would be fine if another sickness came my way. February was a great month. I felt more acclimated to the civilian world. My bachelor party was in the final weekend of February and enjoyed ourselves in true hedonistic fashion: debauchery in Vegas. It was during that trip I noticed a tension in the airports and airplanes that had not been present. There was still no shortage of people who were willing to be on the flight. The dates were the 20th?through the 23rd, after Presidents Day weekend, a relatively slow period. The clubs were packed. The strip clubs were packed. The bars and streets choked with throngs of people. It was the last “normal” trip I was able to do.

My wife and I were in the midst of this were doing schoolwork and saving up our vacation time. We had a honeymoon planned for Geneva, Genoa and Nice. Our savings were swollen from the income increase from my new job. Making more than double what I had while I was in, we mostly used that income as savings. Thus, it is to my great sorrow that we did not get the chance to travel more frequently in this period of my life defined by transition.

People began discussing the information we had received at work. By early March, there existed some level of concern that this could be spread from the sites in the US. Some, including myself, believed this to be an overreaction similar to what was seen with the aforementioned scares. To be perfectly frank, I still believe this to be the case. Some were concerned with catching the virus. There seemed to exist a consensus early on that elderly persons were particularly at risk, with it decreasing in vigour and potency as one decreased in age from 55 onward. Later, people with underlying health conditions were added to the list. I was none of these, and I did not particularly care to hear much. People would later recall feeling justified that they had begun wearing masks before it was cool. Forebodingly, I remember discussing methods of working from home and who could support doing so.

My wife worked for the state legislature, so I was much more in-sync with the state than national measures. When I got home on March 8th, she informed me the governor had a press release discussing the first COVID case in CT.[2]?By the 11th, the WHO declared this was a pandemic. The 24th?would birth appeals that we are “all in this together.” Or that we needed to ban together to “flatten the curve,” a reference to a mathematical model that would prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed by the high initial volume seen in a pandemic.

Throughout 2020, if this had been a novel, one would have noticed eerie foreshadowing. The American Journal of Medical Care released a timeline of events.[3]?However, the nuance that this source cannot truly display how this affected contemporary life lacks gravity. Its apt enough, but a few notes are necessary for future understanding. Like all timelines, it lacks personal gravitas. Despite contrary belief, history is much more than can be narrowly displayed in a timeline. It is nonetheless, a useful tool that I will be referring to frequently.?I am not a historian yet, but I aspire to be one. In this anthology you will read a large array of opinions, biases, and stories. They are all to some degree, true. The?Zeitgeist?of this timeframe cannot be quantitatively measured or simplified into two camps.

Regions were affected disproportionately. New York City was one of the worst affected areas in the world from March to May. Yet in Eastern CT, approximately 2-3 hours from the city, the affects were less severe. I lived in CT during the timeframe and would see the following images that were updated bi-weekly. This was state-sponsored, readily accessible, and gave a snapshot in time. This particular snapshot displays data from October 18th?though October 31st.[4]

Typical Snapshot of CT Counties

I did not have a particular worry during this timeframe. I remember traveling to Portsmouth NH for Halloween in this reported timeframe. As one can see, the “Red” regions were collected in the Southern and Central parts of the state, while the North remained relatively unscathed.

One of the issues of measuring in Eastern CT was the number of travelers and commuters into the area and the small population. These are per 100,000 persons. cases. Groton had a population of 45,000. Thus, it would take 7 persons with COVID reported in the city. For Preston, a town of 4726 persons, it would take but 1 case to be more than double the Red range. We will discuss some of the methodology of statistics, using the CDC as the primary mention. I would not necessarily call these inconsistencies, but rather inefficiency in measuring the data as urban areas sought to superimpose their standard on suburban and rural areas. Urban areas were profoundly affected by COVID. Statistics are similarly biased on measures that befit a city more than Preston CT. An exodus of Urban dwellers to the furthest reaches of the country would be among the many consequences, but it is important to note that the statistics are not perfect. It is also unlikely their methodology is malicious. They are subject to bias and interpretation, adding to the maxim, “Statistics don’t lie; but liars use statistics.” North Canaan, the only red county in the northwest corner of the state, only had 3254 residents, was likely not affected to the same degree New York City was in the same timeframe, yet they still had the same level of “Red” measures seen below:[5]

Statistics and timelines do not tell inherently accurate stories. They may add to an analysis, but they are not perfect. Nonetheless, there is not one definable “average” 2020 experience. This varied dramatically even for those within the same geographic superimposition. I did not lose my job, house, or health in this timeframe. In fact, I got a raise getting a new job closer to home, bought a new house in the middle of a housing boom, became a landlord, started my education, and made efforts to reverse the dramatic post-military weight gain by eating healthier and resuming exercise. The bartender who served us at the New Belgium bar in Mohegan Sun, a gentleman named Ian, lost his job, was forced to move, lived with his parents, hiked the Appalachian trail, and other things he did not share with us. A relative of mine lost her Father to COVID and got sick from caring for him. When COVID did affect my workplace in two separate instances in November and December, I reveled in the quarantine. No one died, but two of my co-workers got sick to varying degrees while I enjoyed sleeping in and working on the house.

There is a temptation to demonize 2020 and portray this as a monolithic time period where everyone was affected. I want to disabuse that notion. Everyone will have a different experience. Perhaps just as importantly, everyone will have access to different information and a bias on how they process it. For some, this was an era of social and racial reckoning. For some this was a time of tyranny against the individual. It could be the workers revolution against the office. It could be the digital revolution. It could be the time where someone made money. It could be the time where money was lost. These trends existed before COVID and will continue to exist once the matter is adjudicated. Nonetheless, they were exacerbated quite jarringly by the disease. It is too early for a truly impartial analysis on the matter. Nonetheless, in an effort to collect primary sources, this anthology will be created to serve as a repository of them that can be readily accessed and freely. I make no pretense of being unbiased; these are memoirs of persons who lived in the period. Truthfully, there was no universal 2020. There may be some similar themes in many of these persons lives among different perspectives, but the experience should not be portrayed as an “age of lockdowns.” The following discussions will be my emphasis points, and I request if anyone wishes to share their viewpoints, they forward an article to [email protected]?

·??????The Year of COVID-19?

(Covid-19 was likely the catalyst for the year and one of (if not the most) the most profound aspects of the Zeitgesit.)

·??????Statistics (Veracity & Accuracy)

(This is a section for a collection of statistics that the average person would have had available in 2020.)

·??????The Year of Memes?

(This is a section for a collection of memes that the average person would have had available in 2020.)

·??????The Year of Social Reckoning?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts of persons who remembered 2020 as a year for the advancement of social justice movements.)

·??????The Year of Social Distancing & Lockdowns?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that play heavily upon Lockdowns, Quarantines, and Social Distancing.)

·??????The Year of Masks, Face-Shields & Other Muzzles?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that feature the use of face coverings and the discussions surrounding them.)

·??????The Year of Urban Exodus?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that feature the Urban Exodus and the consequences of this movement of persons.)

·??????The Year of Legislation?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that involved political movements or persons of note.)

·??????The Year of Divorce?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that discuss the increase in divorces.)

·??????The Year of Netflix & Chill?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that feature increasing dependence on non-traditional mediums of media such as, but not exclusively, Netflix.)

·??????The Year of Social Media?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that discusses the increasing role of social media.)

·??????The Year of Distance-Learning?

(This is a section for a collection of accounts that feature the shift to distance learning that occurred for students as a result of COVID-19.)

The Quarantine exacerbated trends that had existed. What I will remember is that society stole years of my life. Of my wife’s. Some of the most potential filled moments of my life. But 2020 also saw me begin my path towards higher education. It was also the year I married my wife. This was a year of extremes, where our collective reaction was an overreaction at best.

As a result, I have endeavored to create a collection of primary accounts. I only need those who are willing to write. To any who are interested in writing in any of those topics, or wish to share their personal experience of 2020, please reach out to me. This is not a collection of facts, but of perspectives. For any who are interested in writing about any of these topics, or knows someone who is, please reach out or visit:

https://2020primarysources.org/

Thank you for your time,

Sincerely,

Ryan C Walker

Aspiring Historian

References Cited:

[1]?My father will be among the anthology of primary sources. He will explain his viewpoint and what he personally saw.

[2]?Ned Lamont. “Governor Lamont Announces First Positive Case of Novel Coronavirus Involving a Connecticut Resident.” https://portal.ct.gov/Office-of-the-Governor/News/Press-Releases/2020/03-2020/Governor-Lamont-Announces-First-Positive-Case-of-Novel-Coronavirus-Involving-a-Connecticut-Resident#:~:text=The%20Office%20of%20Governor%20Ned%20Lamont&text=(HARTFORD%2C%20CT)%20%E2%80%93%20Governor,19)%20involving%20a%20Connecticut%20resident.

[3]?AJMC. “A Timeline of COVID-19 Developments in 2020.”?https://www.ajmc.com/view/a-timeline-of-covid19-developments-in-2020

[4]?State of Connecticut. “CT COVID-19 Municipal Level Alert.”?https://portal.ct.gov/DPH/Communications/Disease-Preparedness/CT-COVID-19-Municipal-Level-Alert

[5]?Ibid.

.