Emerging from the cocoon to a very changed world
KEVIN MULLIGAN REFLECTS ON THE END OF LOCKDOWN
How naive we all can become, even at our age.
When Leo first told us over70’s about the lockdown, way back in midMarch we all thought, what a cheek.
This whippersnapper, still wet behind the ears, tells us, yes - us, with a lifetime of experience - that we can’t leave our homes for weeks on end.
We moaned a lot, and then moaned again.
Sometimes we kicked the TV when we could find nothing to watch, and the dog was lucky that he’s still agile on his feet and had the sense to get out of the way.
We were kept going by the promise that it was for our own good, and it would soon be all over.
But it wasn’t, for Leo, with Dr. Tony whispering in his ear, extended our term of incarceration, repeatedly telling us, ‘it’s for your own good’, just as our mothers told us when putting senna pods in our morning tea and not revealing why the tea tasted different on a Saturday.
Had the weather not been so good we would have shot ourselves, as a friend joked this week.
Never mind, the promise of yesterday coming, when we are actually allowed out to shop for some of the unmentionables that one couldn’t ask the neighbour or daughter to buy, sustained us in the last few days.
Whoopee imagine, we’re allowed out again, free from awful status, social isolation.
It’s going to be like the day your mother let you go to the corner shop on your own - while all the time she kept watch from the door.
This time don’t be surprised to see Dr. Tony watching from that drone in the sky.
The thing that Leo and Dr. Tony didn’t tell us when they locked us away from the big bad world last March is that they went about changing our world when they got us out of the way.
The town centre, so familiar, that we hankered to see during lockdown, they went and changed it all once they put us to bed.
Signs everywhere. Don’t walk there - did you not see the sign - this is a one-way street for pedestrians . . you old fool.
Excuse me, it was not like that in March or for the seventy years of my life.
Sorry sir, you can’t come in here - did you not see the sign, only two people allowed in here at a time.
Excuse me, no problem, I’ll wait outside in the rain.
But no . . . haven’t they given us an allocated time to shop.
Yes but they didn’t tell you . . . it’s at seven in the morning.
But wait I can now buy the new pair of trousers I promised myself after the lockdown finished.
I’ll have the money ok, that’s the one good thing about the lockdown, it has also placed a lock on the wallet.
But will I have the patience to queue, and even if I do, will I be able to fit them on in the shop with all those new regulations, written on that awful yellow background.
Ya, I meant to ask, why have all the Covid signs a yellow background - I thought yellow was meant to symbolise happiness and optimism - not much of that around.
Mind you, if I do take my courage in my hands, and splash out for those promised trousers I might need a bigger size thanks to all the lack of exercise from cocooning - Leo’s favourite word - and those great scones the wife has been baking.
They should have warned us that they changed our world . . . even the people are different, I won’t recognise anyone, they’re all behind masks.
Those who are not are wearing lockdown beards, or their hair is suddenly a whiter shade of grey.
Somehow it will never be the same again.
Perhaps we were all very naive to think that such a dreadful disease that has taken so many lives, and destroyed so many jobs, would not change our world forever.
Nor have we seen all the changes yet.
According to Leo’s timetable for exiting the lockdown we have the best part of eight weeks to go and many more hurdles to clear.
Even then we’ll have all those restrictions . . . don’t walk there . . don’t come in here. . queue here . . .
And there’s another thing, they got rid of cash when they got us away, now it’s all credit cards.
‘Sorry sir’ we’ll be told ‘ we don’t take cash any longer. But I always used cash when I shopped here for 50 years, and besides I don’t have a credit card’.
‘ Too bad sir, you’ll have to go to the cash machine’.
‘But there’s a queue there, it’s raining and my knee is killing me’. ‘Sorry sir’ this is the new world. What happened to the old one - I liked it better.