Items

• 
  05/17/2020

  Urban Front Yard Victory Garden

  As worry about the food supply grows and money is more of a worry for the average person, unemployment is at rates so high it is hard for the average person to comprehend, many people have resurrected the World War II tradition of the Victory Garden. This is the garden my partner has started in the front of our home, the sunniest patch on the whole property. My partner lost his job as a direct result of the pandemic and so finds himself with less money and more time. He decided it was a perfect opportunity to try to grow our own food especially since we have already experienced shortages of various items and have no reason to believe that will change any time soon. He is planning on adding several more buckets and though the buckets themselves come from the Home Depot we are endeavoring to shop for plants, soil etc at local nurseries whenever possible so that we keep what money we are spending circulating within our own community. Photo by Ash Macnamara, Garden by David Herrick
• 
  2020-05-16

  Flowers in front of a closed real estate agency

  On a trip through Pickens, SC my partner and I happened to pull into the parking lot of what appeared to be a very closed real estate agent with beautiful flowering garden running wild in front of it. I don't know if the business is closed because of the Coronavirus or just because it is Saturday but this picture made me think about how little nature cares about our business, even the nature we think we control. Even though we might have planted them there those flowers will keep growing beautifully with or without us.
• 
  2020-05-16

  Heritage Elementary School honors staff and students

  Signs outside of Heritage Elementary School in Traveler's Rest, SC honoring their faculty and expressing love for their missing students.
• 
  2020-05-16

  Traveler's Rest High School celebrates the Class of 2020

  Across the country and the world graduating students have missed the rite of passage that is their graduation ceremony due to the need for social distancing canceling all large gatherings. Communities have looked for ways to honor them and make this time feel special. In Traveler's Rest, SC the main street is lined with signs which feature the senior photos and names of the graduates. These pictures show only a small selection, the signs run the length of the small town's main strip.
• 
  05/16/2020

  Event sight left half constructed when Covid-19 hit

  This is an event sight in Pickens, SC, a place to hold weddings etc. The parts which are finished are absolutely beautiful but work stopped on the rest of the grounds when the pandemic began and one has to wonder if the need for social distancing and the economic downturn will make it impossible for the owners to continue the project. The piece of land is beautiful if scarred up at the moment and if it doesn't end up an event space it should become a park. My partner and I stumbled across it looking for a place to turn around because Table Rock State Park was at capacity. We could always use more beautiful places to spend time in nature, especially now.
• 
  2020-05-16

  Chalk Heart Drawing

  I found this chalk heart on the sidewalk outside of Heritage Elementary School in Traveler's Rest, SC. It made me smile and gave me hope to see it and it just felt important to pass along. So much of what ends up documented here is how life has changed. This reminded me that the important things haven't: joy and love and play are all still happening.
• 
  2020-05-16

  Town Spirit Stone with masks

  This is the town Spirit Stone in Traveler's Rest, SC. It is in front of Heritage Elementary School and people decorate it to celebrate special events, birthdays etc. Here someone has altered the a's in an ordinary birthday message so they are "wearing" masks. Neither the original artists nor the person who added the masks left a signature.
• 
  2020-05-15

  Quarantine buzz cut selfie

  A selfie of my fresh quarantine buzz cut. I decided to shave my hair off when it became overgrown as a very potent sign that I will not be going to get a hair cut until it is actually safe to do so, not just safe for me as the consumer but safe for people whose job it is to cut hair. There is a lot of tension in the US at this time between people who feel that we need to open up the economy in order to facilitate a speedy return of the status quo and those who argue that it is not worth losing more lives to save the economy. I wanted it to be visually clear that I do not intend to endanger someone else or be part of their having to choose between financial ruin and physical illness simply for the sake of my own vanity.
• 
  2020-05-07

  Local coffee shop selling face masks

  A sign at a local coffee shop advertising that they are now selling face masks for $8 a piece. In the background a barista prepares drinks without a mask.
• 
  05/06/2020

  Email exchange between my mother and I

  This is an email exchange between my mother in Randolph NJ and myself in Taylors, SC. My mother and I have a strained relationship and have only started to communicate again recently in light of the Coronavirus, the fear and uncertainty it has caused, tho I still do not speak with my father or brother. The strained nature of our relationship makes this read almost like a cross between a brief note and a newsletter of current events. It covers so many of the current pressing issues. My mother mentions the schools being closed, being unable to babysit for fear of the virus, fostering cats from the shelter because most animal shelters have closed or severely reduced their indoor kennels and seeking food for those animals from a pet food bank. She also references my son who is in a long term hospital and whom we have been unable to visit since the outbreak. In my reply I talk about being supported in our need for a substantial plumbing repair by our church community but needing patience because there are just so many people in need right now and express similar about our need to go to a food bank at the moment, stating that I want to make sure that people who really can't get food at the moment are able to and expressing fear that we could be exposed to the virus by interacting with the volunteers who are working on overburdened lines. Additionally I tell her that I have donated money to a local domestic violence agency in her name for Mother's day as they helped me years ago and are suffering from a lack of ability to fundraise at the moment. The entire exchange covers so many of the ways that our lives have changed and been affected by the pandemic.
• 
  05/06/2020

  Picking up litter on our neighborhood walks

  Photos of my partner and I picking up litter in our Taylors, SC neighborhood during our walk. We wear masks to go out and walk in the neighborhood no matter what but add gloves if we plan to pick up litter. It's hard to feel useful or any sense of control during this time. Doing this while we get out for a little exercise gives us a small feeling of control over our immediate environment and a sense that we are doing something positive for ourselves and our neighbors. It feels better than staying entirely isolated and feeling helpless in the face of all of this fear, grief and loss.
• 
  05/04/2020

  And I looked and behold a pale horse...

  A fuzzy, through the trees picture of my neighbor's white pick up truck the day after he was finally arrested for something ; the police are called there a lot. This truck is a dingy white and the springs squeak loudly when it bounces across the gravel driveway. The property has 2 trailers and 2 RV's and people come and go all day long. There is an 85 year old woman who lives in one of the trailers. The owner of this white truck is doing renovations on the property. He goes back and forth as if it is still an ordinary time, leaving the property 6,7,8 times a day, those springs squeaking down the drive. In Albert Camus' the Plague the Dr feels that he can hear the sound of the plague rats in the labored breathing of one of his patients. That truck's springs sound like the wheezing of the Coronavirus to me. I call it the Pale Horse. And he who rode upon it was Death.
• 
  2020-05-04

  Face Soup anyone?

  This is a picture of me boiling our face masks after they have been worn. We boil them for 10 minutes after every time they have been worn then hang them up to dry. Every member of the household has three masks so there are always dry ones. We call the process of boiling them making Face Soup and joke that if we run out of food we can always make a broth out of it. Our statue of the Food-a looks on with a Zen like patience.
• 
  2020-05-04

  Covid-19 procedures/We don't offer Coronavirus testing Signs on doctors office door

  Signs on the front door of my doctor's office explaining that they do not offer Coronavirus testing and explaining new procedures for entering the building including calling to check in, waiting in the car until the office calls to come into the building and checking temperatures upon entering.
• 
  2020-05-03

  Our mask station by the door

  This is the mask station we have created near the door. It has everything we need to streamline the process of PPE both leaving and coming back in the house. There is a bag with coffee filters to use as mask filters plus a pair of scissors to cut them and medical tape for the bridge of our noses ; my partner and I wear glasses and this prevents fogging. There are hangers for drying masks when they have been boiled and a reclaimed cell phone holder we call "The Mask-ed Man" that holds masks which are ready to be worn. We have already collected several different styles of mask from homemade to bought on Etsy to made by a large swimwear company to a scarf repurposed for emergencies. It still takes at least 5 minutes to get out the door now and 15 to come back in but this little station has made it a bit more convenient.
• 
  2020-05-03

  Selfie in my mask making area

  This is my makeshift mask making area. I can take credit for only about 10 of them but as of today the mask sewing group I am a part of has sewn 675 masks for people in 4 different states, for elder care facilities, homeless people and a juvenile psychiatric facility. The group is made up of members of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spartanburg. You can see pipe cleaners and floral wire for nose pieces and elastic for ear bands plus my ever present Mio energy drink to keep going! Our group trades material like fabric, wires and elastic as shortages of these items affect one member or another.
• 
  2020-04-30

  Two down, infinite thousands to go!

  These are the first two masks I sewed. I am part of a "virtual sewing circle" that has made almost 500 in total. I have personally made 8 so far but I got a late start. We have given them out in the neighborhood, sent them to hospitals and my partner and I carry them in individual bags when we go to the store to offer people who look like they might need one.
• 
  2020-04-30

  A text message to my Minister about my anger at the US government

  A text message to the Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship I attend describing my anger at the government for encouraging fear rather than alleviating it and for leaving the sick and the poor with no good choices.
• 
  2020-04-25

  We already have favorite masks!

  My partner and I bought these masks off Etsy and accessorized them from our own collection. Kids especially love my partner's mask and yell "Pitbull! Pitbull!" when they see him. He makes claws with his hands and goes "GRRRRRRR!" and he always gets a giggle. We lose so much communication without being able to smile at one another. These masks are fun and invite a little social interaction (at a safe distance of course)
• 
  2006-04-22

  Covid-19 pop, Simpsonville, SC

  This is a "Covid-19 Pop" handed out by a co-worker of my partner and a virus skeptic as a "joke" a few weeks ago. I am uncertain where the humor was supposed to lie. I do think it is an interesting record of what people were thinking and how they were processing this moment. The company laid off half of the workforce due to the virus a few days later.