Reopening? It was a wonderful week
I guess you can say I feel like a new person.
About two weeks ago, I was walking down Whalley Avenue in New Haven feeling pretty good.
It was a beautiful day, but there were more reasons to be outside than simply the bright sun and warm weather. After 14 months of social isolation and uncertainty, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had given the OK for people to lose the masks when outside and, once again, safely mingle together.
As I walked, I observed residents of Chapel New Haven picking up trash off the streets, people heading into Pistachio Cafe for coffee and pastries and others waiting to get inside Bella’s Cafe for breakfast.
It was as though the CDC had unlocked a door and freed those locked inside.
Suddenly, the streets were crowded and there was bumper-to-bumper traffic and music blaring from boomboxes. Activity was everywhere as if people were coming out of a long hibernation.
I decided to eat at the Temple Grill in downtown New Haven.
And as I made my way downtown, I noted the streets were crowded with people. I saw more runners jogging and more people riding bikes. I saw familiar staples like Clarence Scott’s fried dough food cart on Dixwell Avenue and Johnny “Guitar” Carr outside the Good Nature Market on Broadway strumming his guitar and singing for passersby.
If I needed any proof that people were glad things were returning to normal, I only had to look at the drivers sitting patiently behind yellow school buses as students got on and off.
Usually, they sit drumming their fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, but, today, they were bobbing their heads to music rather than ranting at the delay.
When I arrived on the Green, there were throngs of people waiting to board buses and the benches once again were full. Most people still had masks strapped around their mouths and noses but there seemed to be a different attitude in wearing them.
I don’t know how anyone else felt as things began to reopen, but as I was walking around and stores, restaurants, movie theaters and public buildings threw open their doors, I could only say to myself, I was so happy to be alive.
And all I wanted to do was revisit familiar haunts. I spent the next week doing very ordinary things that I had been unable to do with confidence during the past 14 months.
I went back to Planet Fitness and jumped on the treadmill.
I got pastrami on rye from Katz’s Deli in Woodbridge.
I had ribs and chopped barbecue at Bear’s Smokehouse in Hartford.
I went to the Connecticut Post Mall, where people strolled with kids and shopping bags, and I dove into a large order of pretzel bites from Cinnabon.
I ate lunch at Funchal Americana in Bridgeport and then sat on the Green where familiar faces were setting up a game of chess and some people opened up paper-bag lunches.
But, of course, getting back to normal means getting
back with friends, and I ended my week of returning to normal with my buddy Steve Kobak at The Blue Rhino in Norwalk.
It was there that we ran into state Rep. Travis Simms, D-Norwalk, and a city employee who introduced himself as Antonio. We drank beer and ate wings. And we were there for the best reason of all: The New York Knicks had returned to the playoffs, giving its basketball fans a reason to return to sports bars and scream themselves into a frenzy.
The Knicks lost in a nail-biter, but it was a winning week for me.
As I said, I am so happy to be alive — but more than happy, I am grateful.
I am so grateful that my family remains intact when I know thousands of families in Connecticut and hundreds of thousands around the nation have been torn asunder.
I am so grateful that rather than tear us apart, it brought us closer.
I am grateful that most of my friends are still here with me.
And despite being out of the 9-to-5 workflow, I am grateful that the people I work with are still the same people from 14 months ago.
I am grateful it is back to hugs, kisses and warm embraces because COVID-19 reminded us how important those things are.
And I am grateful that I am still corny enough to say these things matter to me.
Yes, we are all breathing a little easier but there are many questions as to what comes next in a world that is demanding more but offering less.
But those are questions to explore another day in another column.
Right now, I am just glad to be getting back to normal and once again, not be afraid to breathe.
Reopening? It was a wonderful week.
But, of course, getting back to normal means getting back with friends, and I ended my week of returning to normal with my buddy Steve Kobak at The Blue Rhino in Norwalk.