Time stood still: Remembering when the pandemic days of things not happening began

We all have dates that mark a spot in our memories, that answer the question “Where was I when?”

For me, the beginning of the pandemic that may be winding down (knock on wood) was March 13, 2020, two years ago Sunday.

I remember that day for what didn’t happen, which is not surprising as for months, then years, what didn’t happen was our new normal.

What didn’t happen on Friday, March 13, 2020, was an annual basketball game. It was to take place at Geneseo Central School between a team made up of faculty and staff against a team composed of village residents.

There would be a crowd at the game, maybe a few hundred people, young and old. There would be laughter, and applause, and even surprise when a shot was made by an out-of-practice shooter.

Al Bruno, “Buzzo” to all and a Geneseo icon, might blow his trumpet from the bench. He might enter the game to take a foul shot. Each miss – he could shoot until he made a bucket – would be greeted by the chant, “Buzzo, Buzzo, Buzzo.”

The money from the event would go to the game’s sponsor, the Geneseo Central Education Fund, which supports special projects at the school.

I’m on the board of the fund and, after talking with Cindy Flowers, the school superintendent, we called off the 2020 game just a day before it was to happen. Concern about the coronavirus was heating up, talk of social distancing and remote learning was in the air. It was better to be cautious.

We thought then that we would be back to normal by mid-April, that the virus would fade away, that all might be well. That, of course, didn’t happen, and as time went on, as we all remained socially distant, so much else didn’t happen.

Dining in restaurants, vacations, and weddings didn’t happen. As COVID intensified, more and more people died, but even funerals didn’t happen, mourning was put on hold.

Many people lost their jobs, though nurses, doctors, firefighters, store clerks, teachers, lots of people, had to do their jobs, risking their health to keep things going.

So where are we now after two years?

We’re vaccinated and safer than we were, but we know enough to be wary, know enough not to take anything for granted. And exhaustion and anger, too, are in the air. Where there seemed to be unity at the beginning of the pandemic – society held together by worry and fear – there’s disunity, every thing a subject of debate.

Still, we are tiptoeing back. At the beginning of February, I returned to in-person teaching at the University of Rochester. Masked, I walked across the quad for the first time in nearly two years.

The same stuff was on my office desk – the syllabus from 2020, the AP Style Book, some paper clips, a water bottle. Time had stood still. A few weeks later, I got my first UR parking ticket of the semester. All was as it ever was. Or not.

Out of caution again, we aren’t having our basketball game this year, just as we didn’t have it in 2021 and 2020.

Who knows, maybe in March 2023, the game will come off.

Buzzo will walk to the line. On his third shot, the ball will swish through the hoop, nothing but net. The chant of “Buzzo, Buzzo, Buzzo,” will ring through the air. With luck, we will be back to where we were, just as if we never left.

Remarkable Rochesterians

As suggested by Nancy Kennedy, who grew up in Greece and is the author of several books including “Women Win the Vote! 19 for the 19th Amendment,” let’s add the name of this advocate for women’s rights to the list of Remarkable Rochesterians that can be found at: https://data.democratandchronicle.com/remarkable-rochesterians/

Mary Stafford Anthony (1827-1907): A teacher, school principal and suffragist in Rochester, the youngest sibling and active supporter of Susan B. Anthony was involved in the New York Woman Suffrage Association, the Women's Christian Temperance Union and the National Suffrage Association and founded the Women's Political Club in Rochester. She attended the 1848 Rochester Women's Rights Convention, and, with her sister, she and other women were arrested in 1872 for voting illegally. She abhorred paying taxes to a government in which she had no voice. Thus, she paid by check, noting on the checks that the taxes were "paid under protest."

From his home in Geneseo, Livingston County, retired senior editor Jim Memmott, writes Remarkable Rochester, who we were, who we are. He can be reached at jmemmott@gannett.com or write Box 274, Geneseo, NY 14454

Link to the Nancy Kennedy book, “Women Win the Vote”: https://www.nancybkennedy.com/women-win-the-vote/

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: COVID pandemic: Jim Memmott reflects on the past 2 years