Spring 2020: Germs & Hugs

Tales from Story Rock, as shared by Story Scouts
"We learned a new word on March 12, 2020 on the last day of school—real school. It is “Pandemic”. It means “sick everywhere”. After that, there were lots of new words to learn: Quarantine. Virus. Sanitize. Zoom. Test—a new kind they stick up your nose, not one for spelling or math."
"When people ask us how we feel about the pandemic and no school, and not seeing friends, we know right away and have the word ready: Bad, bad, bad, bad."
"Pandemic means that everywhere there is this COVID-19 germ. Everywhere people are sick. Or they will be. Everyone? Some people, maybe a lot of people, maybe people we know, or people we are, die from the pandemic. Even our pets might get sick or die."
"Every kid we know wonders sometimes: Will I die before I even get my new big bike or a phone? ​"
"It is so scary to think about the virus. Sometimes some of us just cry and hug things or hold hands. We hug our moms, or dads, and other family members, or our dogs or cats, or blankets and cuddly stuffed animals, or ourselves. Some kids never cry. They play video games all the time and that’s all they talk about. Like the characters are real people they hang out with every day. Some of us draw pictures of beautiful places we’ve been, and fun things to do, and of things that make us feel safe and happy. When we were supposed to draw viruses, we turned them into jewel stars in a night sky. We made a rainbow that can hug you. It fits on you like a cape. That makes us feel safe AND happy."
"We are not supposed to hug friends or teachers or paras* anymore, or people we don’t live with. If you don’t live with both your parents, you shouldn’t hug the one you don’t see every day. You might get the COVID germ, but you won’t know right away because you can’t see it."
*paras is a short term for “paraprofessional”, the paid classroom aides that are regular adult assistants in many Cook County schools.
"Our Moms and Dads and families and friends and teachers all say we will be OK because there are things we can do to protect ourselves from the pandemic to keep us safe and happy."
"Here’s another thing. One mom said that when she was little and afraid of something, her grandma said they should kneel together by her bed every night before sleep and pray with their eyes closed—no looking around. But the mom said she opened one eye and watched her grandma pray, and that her grandma kept both eyes shut the whole time!"
"Then another girl wanted to do the prayers, and her mom found a prayer on Pinterest with angels in it. She read it to the girl from her phone, and the girl said the prayer worked! In the morning when she woke up, she forgot there was a pandemic—at first."
"The Last Day of Normal Life: March 12, 2020. For all of our lives, masks were just for Halloween. After this day, that changed. This was the last day of our normal life. There was no more school to go to. Now we go to Pandemic every day."
"At the Story Scouts Publishing Club workshop held in the Cook County YMCA we learned after school on March 12, 2020, that schools would close the next day. We didn’t know for how long. At the time it seemed fun and something to look forward to. There was still snow! We could ski and sled and snowmobile! More Spring Vacation! We didn’t know about wearing masks or even really how this germ was different than colds or flu or other sicknesses. Our parents and teachers didn’t either. This was before people knew about mask wearing in America. If we saw anyone with a mask, it was on TV of people in China. We thought it was just one more weird thing people did somewhere else where there were a lot of crowds and people and smog or air pollution. We would never be like that. We had big open spaces and tons of fresh air everywhere. Forests and Lake Superior. Why would we need to wear masks? Well, in a few months, we were all supposed to wear them inside and most of us did—even outside. It’s weird to look at these pictures now and remember that we didn’t even know what a cloth face covering mask looked like. This is a picture of us not knowing something, something that was about to change our whole lives. We were in the middle of writing and illustrating a book, Snowy Day Dog."