Readers share what they miss most during shelter-in-place
Susannah Greenwood concedes she’s not much of a hugger and is absolutely on board with wearing masks. But she misses seeing other people’s smiles. “I’ve never been more thankful for my smile lines and feeling like I get my smiles across without folks seeing my own smile,” she wrote. “I pass people on my walks and I nod, smile and say hi, but I think I rely on the reciprocal smile more than I thought.” Darlene Tenes misses having people over for dinner, and if you’ve seen some of her dishes, you know it’s the guests who are really missing out. And behind seeing their 18-month old grandson in Corte Madera, David and Barbara Cohen miss going out to dinner and seeing their friends, the servers and owners at their favorite restaurants.
Moira Simunovich looks back fondly at having a dozen oysters with her husband, Jim, while sitting at the bar at Forthright in Campbell with Jim Stump manning the kitchen. Like me, Moira also is missing baseball as she and her husband are passionate Giants fans. “We share season tickets with my sister and it’s almost sad to see our credit card balance go down as the refunds come in,” she wrote. Meanwhile, Steve Dini‘s passion is soccer, whether it’s the English Premier League, Earthquakes or even international friendlies. He also misses refereeing games and, most of all, watching his grandsons play. “Their spring season got canceled, but every Saturday I get a little down when I realize there will be no match today and I realize how much I looked forward to seeing the boys compete on the pitch,” he said. Bonnie Home misses singing in her choir, and she’s saddened that right now she can’t imagine wanting to stand so close to other singers. “Will we ever sing together again with confidence?” she wonders. “Not until there is a vaccine, that’s for sure.” Karen Altree Piemme misses personal interaction with the actors and participants in Red Ladder Theatre Co.’s workshops for marginalized and vulnerable members of the community, whether they’re youth in the foster system, seniors in Japantown or men and women in prisons. “We’ve pivoted quickly to provide distance learning programming, but the kind of creative connection — the sparks that fly — aren’t the same through a screen,” she said. Carlos Velasquez also has taken his popular Drink and Draw events from San Jose’s Art Boutiki to the virtual world, but he misses the everyday pleasures like “digging for records at the local shop, garage sales and the pulga, mini road trips to S.F. and Oakland to see friends or explore,” he said. “But really, just being able to walk down the street, and smile at someone without having to worry about 6 feet.” Ann Castrogiovanni has a different perspective, however. Instead of what she misses, she’s putting the focus on the good things she’s seeing, like families riding bikes, walking and playing in their front yards without tablets or phones. That’s not all. “Because there is less pollution, I enjoy walking every day and looking up and seeing a clear, blue sky with marshmallow-like puffy clouds, pretty much how the sky looked when we moved here 50plus years ago,” she said. “I love spending more time in my yard and tending to my beautiful roses, which this year are larger and more fragrant and bring me so much joy.” That’s not a bad way to look at things. And for everyone who is still missing hugs — including Dev Davis, Helen Chapman, Alida Bray and Charlie Mccollum — I owe you one the next time I see you.
CELEBRATING MEMORIAL DAY >>
With the shelter-inplace order still in effect, San Jose’s Oak Hill Memorial Park will have its commemoration event posted — a tradition that dates back more than a century — on its website, oakhillfuneral.com, starting Monday. The cemetery will be open for visitation from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and American flags for grave markers will be available at the reception desk. Santa Clara County Supervisor Dave Cortese will provide the keynote for a ceremony at Los Gatos Memorial Park, which will be livestreamed on the Campbell Veterans Memorial Facebook page starting at 11 a.m. and includes a 21-gun rifle salute. South Bay and Peninsula residents should be able to see a Memorial Day flyover by the 129th Rescue Wing of the California Air National Guard out of Moffett Field on Monday. The aerial formation saluting front-line medical workers will include a big HC-130J Combat King II and two HH60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopters. It will fly over medical facilities starting in Milpitas at approximately 12:30 p.m. and then head west through San Jose. It will be visible over Palo Alto just before 1 p.m. as it makes a 15-minute flight north to San Francisco.