Who is that masked man?

Some of the hundreds of 2020 Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival
postcard-sized flyers in the recycle bin March 2020.

One year ago today I had met with my YoungTales storytelling group at Armuchee Elementary for an hour at 8 am then had driven to Arrowhead for an animal (I've forgotten which animal) and out to Garden Lakes Elementary for a kindergarten lesson, then to Johnson Elementary to talk with the YT sponsor there. Coming back through town I decided I'd drive down to Cave Spring to touch base with my YT group there. They were the first group which had finished all six sessions, and I felt I needed to check in one last time to see how they were preparing for the competition. But, I decided to stop by the house and call Arrowhead to let Vivian know what I was up to. 

That's when I got the word: Vivian said, "You don't want to go to Cave Spring today. There is at least one Coronavirus case there and parents are taking their kids home." I would soon find out that one of the Covid cases there was the principal -- an enthusiastic supporter of the YoungTales program and a great principal!

That's when I knew the world had changed. Sheila and I talked about it and it was plain to us that with Covid in one of the schools where our Big Fibbers headliners were scheduled to perform later that month, it likely was elsewhere among the schools of Rome and Floyd County and there was no way we could have a storytelling festival in just a couple of weeks. We spent that evening and the next few days sending e-mails and news releases to share the sad news that the sixth annual Big Fibbers Storytelling Festival and all our events were cancelled for 2020. That principal was seriously ill and his wife was fighting for her life in an ICU in Atlanta. 

I feared it might be weeks before I'd be able to see my YoungTales kids again. 

At 72 (now 73) I certainly wanted to be careful. 

Still I planned to try to schedule a scaled down YoungTales competition at the end of the school year so the kids could get some cloture to their hard work and enthusiasm. 

That was a pipe dream. 

Soon I began to hear of friends who were dealing with the illness, or the deaths of their parent or friend who had contracted it.  One young friend was struck by the disease with her husband and children and theirs turned into the "long-haul" variety. 

Things really hit home the first week of July when I got the crushing, bewildering, horrifying news that a beloved former student, only 23 years old, had contracted Covid and died after only a few days. As I stood at his graveside service I grew angry at the asinine response of a federal executive branch crippled by incompetence, ignorance, and mental illness and at the incredible selfishness and seemingly willful blindness of the anti-maskers.  

We have now cancelled the 2021 YoungTales and Big Fibbers activities entirely. Except for the several groups of masked Darlington students I spoke to at the Clocktower a few days ago I have not faced an in-person group of school children in 12 months. 

Shoot, I've only had one professional haircut in that time and that was last week! I have been a part of many ZOOM meetings and performances; I have recorded a couple of dozen reading/storytelling sessions to share online with school groups and children stuck at home. Masked and/or face-shielded and distanced I have performed in person for a very few folks -- (I can think of three events: Haunted on Broad, New Romans Club, and the Clocktower Tours.

Here we are a full year later and only now, after over a half-million American deaths, with an ethical and professional executive branch finally restored,  are we seeing a light at the end of the Covid tunnel.

I have now had both of my Moderna vaccine pokes and am dedicated to wearing double-masks, or singer's mask, or face-shield. 

So I hope some Floyd County teachers will begin to have me for indoor or outdoor (distanced and masked/shielded) lessons during the rest of March and early in May*. 

I am ready to lead some hikes, show off some animals, and tell some stories.

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* I will not be available in April.