There were some enjoyable moments this past weekend, and they showed me that maybe there is a glimmer of hope that end may be nigh to all of the restrictions that are in place.
After a few weeks of nothing happening, literally nothing, I ended up with three events to take in on Saturday and Sunday.
Parades are the “new normal”, I suppose, since private and public gatherings aren’t really possible right now, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and they won’t be possible for a little while yet.
With this in mind, the Dance Zone had a parade of their dance students to help celebrate their 15th anniversary; then, the Weyburn Car Club had a cruise throughout the city on Saturday; and then another dance studio, Marley’s Dance Effex, also had a parade because their annual recital would have been held this weekend.
The parades worked, because each family group or driver was in their own vehicle, and for the dancers at least, the vehicles were dressed up with signs and balloons.
The Car Club cruise had way more vehicles take part than they thought would, but it worked because they were driving all over the city, and made sure to drive by most of the care homes and the hospital. The residents of these homes hopefully got a view of the vehicles as they paraded by, plus the parade by Marley’s made a point of going around the loop at the Tatagwa View long-term care centre.
These were physically distant events, as the public health orders say they should be, and provided an outlet for the dancers and for classic vehicle owners to be out without really being together.
And, this doesn’t even include another parade held on Thursday evening, where administrators and teachers from St. Michael School got a parade together, and drove by the homes of all 61 Grade 2 students.
This included not only the students who live in Weyburn, but those living on farms in the area, so they weren’t left out — a very cool idea, letting the students know their teachers miss them and are thinking of them.
I think that this is a creative way for us to help make it through this challenging time. The Zoom meetings too are a way to connect without being physically present — and really, if this pandemic had happened five or 10 years ago, none of this would have been possible.
I guess in the end, we are doing what we need to do to survive, to connect, and to help each other make it through. Of course, it helps to have Netflix available, and to have movies like Star Wars to enjoy “May the Fourth” properly (I watched “Return of the Jedi”, trying not to say all the lines, but not quite succeeding.)
