Share Your Story About the Coronavirus
John Hmurovic
April 2020
We are living in a moment of history. Years from now, the youngest among us will tell their grandchildren what it was like in 2020, when the coronavirus spread across the world. But we should not wait to tell that story. Right now, this moment, is precisely the time to start documenting the history of what it was like in Whiting-Robertsdale during the coronavirus pandemic. And the Whiting-Robertsdale Historical Society wants to collect your stories for future generations to see, hear, and read.
The Historical Society is inviting you, encouraging you, to send your photos, stories, and videos to us. We will preserve them, so that someday they can be used to tell the story of this moment of history. In keeping with the spirit of the time, you can do this without leaving home. Just send them to us by email, at whitingrobertsdale.history@gmail.com
Send us photos of how your family is adjusting. Some of the little moments are the best to record. In 2014, when I worked on a history of the Whiting Refinery explosion and fire, one of the people we interviewed told us that for her, as a child, getting evacuated from her home and being forced to live with relatives, was a happy time. Her cousins were also there, so she had plenty of playmates. I was reminded of that story on a recent day when the weather warmed up enough to bring people outside, and I saw a mother in front of her house, playing with her young child. The child, and mother, seemed to be loving it. That would have been a great photo to show how parents are spending more time to help their children through this.
During the early days of the pandemic, grocery stores were hit with panic buying. The banana rack at the Strack & Van Til grocery in Whiting-Robertsdale was quickly emptied by buyers. The demand for bananas seemed to stabilize in the weeks that followed, but nearly a month later it is still difficult to find toilet paper, due to consumer panic.
Send us your stories. In fact, writing stories of this time is a good exercise for children and young adults who are home from school. What can they, or you, write about?
You could write about what it is like to be home this much, and what are you doing with your time. Are you working a job that requires you to be out? Are you frightened? If you run a business, how is it being affected? What was it like to celebrate Easter or Passover during this time? Do you know someone who has been infected by the virus? If you lost someone to the virus, what are your memories of that person? What are you doing to protect yourself? What is like to go to the grocery store? Did you stock up on toilet paper? Why? The possibilities are almost endless, and everyone either has a different story, or a different way of telling it.
Some adjustments were made in the lobby of the Whiting Post Office to protect workers and customers. The “x’s” on the ground indicate where customers should stand when transacting business at the window. A plastic sheet covers the upper part of the window, to help prevent the virus from passing between the customer and the clerk. A stack of boxes serve as the table on which the credit card readers sit. They would normally sit on the counter. Many stores, during the pandemic, are only accepting credit cards, due to the fear that the virus could be transmitted via coins and paper bills.
A photo can often tell the story. Show us what life is like in these times. Maybe, just write a few lines. Or, if you like to write more, send us what you have. When the Whiting Refinery explosion shook the town in 1955, a young woman wrote a poem about it. Years later, she shared that poem with us. It was published in One Minute After Sunrise, the Historical Society’s book about the fire, and was featured in the accompanying video we produced.
Why is this important? When I worked on a story for the Historical Society website about the impact of the 1918 flu epidemic on Whiting-Robertsdale (click here to read that story), I discovered that there were very few first-person accounts of what it was like in our community. So, we don’t really know how the people who lived here felt about their pandemic, or how they adapted. That’s a shame. History isn’t just a collection of facts and dates. History consists of stories, of people telling their own histories. When we read their stories and see the photos they took, we have a much richer idea of what an historical moment was like. We also get a better understanding and, maybe, we might even learn something from it.
The line to get into the Wal-Mart in Robertsdale is long at the start of the day, but it appears even longer, wrapping around the corner and down the street, because people in it are practicing proper social distancing. The advice is to remain at least six feet apart. You may also be able to see that many of the customers are wearing face masks as they wait in line, protecting themselves and others from the airborne transmission of the virus.
I am glad that in 2014, the Historical Society found people who remembered the Whiting Refinery explosion. Six years later, some of those we spoke with, who were adults at that time and who told us their stories, have passed away. They include a man who told us what it was like to work at the refinery that day; a woman who worried about how she would evacuate her children; another woman who talked about how frightened she was to see giant flames hovering over her neighborhood; the Whiting city nurse who treated some of those injured by the blast; and a boy who was in bed in his Schrage Avenue home when a giant piece of metal crashed through the wall and killed his brother, and sliced off his leg. From all of these, and others, we heard numerous fascinating stories of what it was like on August 27, 1955, when the refinery blew up. Those stories would have been lost forever if they had not shared their memories with us, and if we had not preserved them.
The oldest among us still remember where they were when they heard the news that the Japanese had attacked Pearl Harbor. Later generations talk about how they remember the day President Kennedy was assassinated. An even younger generation clearly remembers when the Twin Towers collapsed on September 11, 2001. We are in one of those moments. Now is the time to start recording and collecting our experiences. Send your photos, stories, and videos to whitingrobertsdale.history@gmail.com