Wow Grandma! You grew up in the ‘pre-mask’?

The stories won’t just be about cancelled weddings

Along with hundreds of thousands of other would-be brides and grooms, my son and future daughter-in-law postponed their May wedding. First, they rescheduled it for August 2020. Now September 2021. They want a traditional Jewish wedding, with no holding back on hugs, dancing and the celebratory Hora complete with chair lifts. They are willing to wait.

Originally, I thought about the stories they’ll tell their children and grandchildren — about living through the 2020 pandemic — so many cancellations, adjustments and disappointments.

This morning I woke with a different perspective. It is just as likely to hear from the next generation their shock over a pre-mask time. “You had never worn a mask EVER, not even to hold a new baby, not to a crowded grocery store or to a pharmacy where there could be a lot of sick people?”

It’s difficult to imagine the cultural shift. Handshakes and hugs? Eating meals with colleagues and friends? Large extended family gatherings?

Even once a vaccine is available, many of our most risky germ-spreading habits may have forever wained. We’ll be more accustomed to self-protection, even from the common cold and the many flus that cross our path each season.

Some of my fondest childhood memories involve sleepovers and baking chocolate chip cookies with friends. Yes, I would hope my grandkids will experience the pleasure of overnight birthday parties and baking cookies, birthday cakes and the iconic American brownie with classmates. But half the pleasure was our fingers in the raw dough sneaking a pre-bake taste. Our heightened awareness of germs and the unintended consequences of our sharing may change all sorts of behaviors — the good, the bad and the not so wise.

Eventually schools will go live again. Some elementary schools opened up in England this week. Will they wear masks? No. Will they distance the children attempting to keep them six or more feet apart? Yes. But if you have ever been a kid or had a child you will understand that it won’t always be possible.

Kids aren’t so good at standing still, they don’t measure space and physical limits the same way as (most) adults. Staying apart and never touching does not seem sustainable, not on the playground or in line to be picked up for home — whether a half day or full.

Will we usher in an era sans contact sports — no football, basketball, hockey, rugby? What about concerts where young people are shoulder to shoulder screaming and cheering, crowd surfing? Will there be an expectation of some sort of face covering?

For now, the CDC guidelines suggest children not change classrooms or teachers, keeping the same small group of kids together to avoid more interactions and the resulting increased risk of virus transmission. Ultimately, will children of a certain age, teachers and other school employees find themselves required to wear masks at specific times, if not during part of the school day then for close social activities? Or will there simply be none?

Not owning a mask? Not ever having worn a mask? Hugging and shaking hands with near strangers? School-sponsored dances in a packed gym with 200 teens or a club with mask-less 20-something-year-olds breathing and sweating inches from each other? Maybe gone with our generation.