No One Was Wearing a Mask.
Tomorrow is the election, but I won’t write about it today.
Instead, I am going back to Halloween. My sons have loved Halloween for their entire lives. They love the scare factor of creepy creatures, haunted houses, and horror films. They love the feel of the air at the fall festivals, and the sheer joy in family hayrides. They even admire the leaves as they turn.
For the Hawkins family, it has been a time of great – and traditional – fun every year. And then came the pandemic.
So when September started to wane and all the days still looked the same, I made a list of things we could do. We’d never been apple picking before, but we could do that. The drive-in was two hours away, but if we got our tickets early, we could do that. I made the list and the family voted on what they most wanted to do, and we did those things.
The only thing they chose to skip was a kitschy online “festival” of monster movie shorts. The boys wanted to do everything. So we did.
Halloween movie night at home came complete with trick-or-treat sized candy bars. We found a drive-through haunted house, which was truly creepy and wonderful. We went to our favorite festival (which was closed) just for the drive-through hayride. We apple-picked; we had Halloween Jackbox Night. And thanks to a generous neighbor, we decorated our yard like never before.
Then, on Halloween night, we went to the nearest drive-in and watched Hocus Pocus and Goosebumps, even though Halloween was playing on the other screen. It’s what the kids picked.
All the movies were sold out, because it was a most brilliant idea for Halloween night. Trick-or-treating was canceled, so Shane’s usual clown antics were also canceled. No one even mentioned it; we had fun with our untraditional new Halloween activity. We even took the dog.
Bill drove home, so I browsed through Instagram. New photos popped up from many of my sons’ friends: Halloween parties – big and small. So many teenagers and young adults, hanging out in large and small groups, smiling from ear to ear, hugging and posing for the camera.
Hugging. In groups. Indoors. And smiling – which I could see easily, because no one was wearing a mask.
It didn’t matter which state they were in, or what time of life. They had all seemingly decided that Halloween was a good time to forget all the rules and risk getting COVID-19.
Having gone to a ton of trouble to make sure we had other fun things to do, it was mind-blowing to see that other people didn’t bother. Sure, everywhere we went was frequented by other people – but we didn’t interact with those people, let alone go mask-less or hug them. We sure didn’t invite along a handful of friends – because unlike my sons’ friends, we knew we had to be meticulous because of the virus.
So again, I wait. In addition to waiting for election results, I will wait for two weeks, to see if the friends are okay. And then it will be Thanksgiving, and then Christmas, and I will wait to see who is able to get through those holidays without illness.
Waiting for a vaccine is hard enough. I wish there were more people who could wait to see their friends or who, like my boys, will see one friend at a time, wearing a mask, staying outdoors. They don’t do it often, but they do it safely.
I just don’t see a lot of “safe” behavior out there. I know it’s hard; in fact, it’s agonizing. But it is worthwhile. It’s so worthwhile.
Just. Wait.