CityView Magazine

6 | May 2020 M M C F A D Y E N ' S M U S I N G S Paper Products BY BILL MCFADYEN M ost of society, me included, shares an acute awareness of the negative medical and financial effects of the COVID pandemic. Many have lost or at least have had suspended their employment. Landlords have lost their rents. Businesses have shuttered. Worse still, and most significantly, people are dying. Many more are locked away in their homes, apartment buildings and assisted care facilities with no physical contact to family. e world has turned inside-out. If you are glass-half-full type, then there are parts of the forced slowdown that can be viewed as positive. For instance, one person said it seemed that there were more birds this spring. Surely, that is perception, not fact. It has to be the result of sitting on the back stoop and noticing the birds whereas in the past we have hustled past those same birds to the next commitment. I caught myself telling someone that I thought it was the prettiest spring in my hometown that I ever remember. Was it? Or did I just expose my own experience of heightened observation, there being less that had to be done and more time to absorb the bloomings? e primary goal in this frightening time is to stay healthy – to adhere with obedience to Dr. Fauci's recommendations. Secondly, we are called to master the art of zoom.us such that we can connect with people on our computer screens. At our house, that has been the primary method of keeping an adult Sunday School class connected, of catching up in real time with our travel companions, and of even having a "first-date" date night with a couple here in town with whom we have wanted to play for a long time. In this time of COVID lockdown, there has arisen one phenomenon across the country that frankly I cannot positively explain, though I have given it much thought. Where and why is all the toilet paper being stashed? I am not the primary shopper for our family. Susanna is. Still, I end up in the grocery store by her request for those things that she missed on her regular trips. Sometimes I visit for lunch. Since the time that the country went into lockdown, I have been in the grocery stores maybe five times. Each time, I wander nonchalantly to the paper products aisle. I have yet to see toilet paper on the shelves. Susanna has a reserved parking spot at several grocery stores, due to the regularity of her visits. She too reports that she has never seen toilet paper since all this started. I was at a friend's farm walking last week. Another visitor showed up. Under his arm, he had a 24-pack of high-grade, name-brand toilet paper. When we who visit the farm show up, there is an unwritten rule that we bring something with us to help sustain the lodge. For instance, I took four quarts of Brunswick stew on my visit. Staples that we contribute include paper towels, soap, washing powder, bottles of liquid

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