Photo by Erin Nelson.
Jim Langley sits in a lawn chair as he speaks with Jim Baxter during a “milkshake party” with Langley’s wife, Ann, as they visit with HankWhitehead on May 7. The Langleys have been visiting Whitehead weekly during COVID-19 restrictions.
The facts, figures and statistics that tell about the COVID-19 pandemic surely will be available from official sources in the history books of the future, but what about the stories of individuals and communities?
The Hoover Historical Society wants to capture those stories while they are still fresh in people’s minds and preserve them for future generations.
The group is asking Hoover residents and business people to document how this new coronavirus has impacted their lives. They want people to share the dramatic, humorous or even tragic events that have happened to them as a result of the COVID-19 disease, stay-at-home orders, quarantines and business and school shutdowns.
The group is asking people to write their stories down or create audio or video recordings. Another option is to contact a member of the Hoover Historical Society, give an oral account of the impact on their lives and let that person document it for the storyteller by writing it down or recording it.
These are unique times, and they need to be documented, said Jim Langley, president of the Hoover Historical Society.
He has seen and heard about some creative ways that people made their quarantine times more bearable for themselves and others, he said. Some people have painted rocks with encouraging words and put them out in various places in the community for people to see.
Others have put up unusual decorations in their yards to spread neighborhood cheer or engaged in drive-by birthday celebrations, drive-by Easter bunny visits and community drive-through scavenger hunts. Some people held “social distancing” get-togethers with neighbors by inviting everyone to set out lawn chairs at the end of their driveways at a certain time.
Other people may want to share about loved ones who battled with the COVID-19 disease, how the inability to continue in their jobs impacted their family or how they dealt with the in-home education of their children.
Everyone has a story to tell, Langley said. He and his wife, Ann, had to cancel a trip to New York City and another trip to Atlanta to see the play “Hamilton,” which his wife had wanted to see for a long time.
While they had some disappointments, they also enjoyed some respite from the toils and worries of some of life’s regular activities by staying safe at home, he said.
He and his wife have been unable to visit her 96-year-old father at the Galleria Woods assisted living facility because of visitation restrictions, and he was confined to his room. So to help cheer him up, they occasionally delivered milkshakes from Steak ’n Shake to him through the facility’s staff. He would walk outside on his second-floor balcony, and they would set up folding chairs in the parking lot and talk to him from down below.
Other people have visited loved ones in nursing homes or assisted living facilities by standing outside their closed windows to spend a few moments with them and brighten one another’s days.
Personal stories often help bring history to life better than official records, Langley said.
People who want to share their stories can email them to info@hooverhistoricalsociety.org,mail it to the Hoover Historical Society at P.O.Box 360233, Hoover, AL 35236-0233, or call 205-980-1827 to arrange to give an oral history account.
Others may want to share photos, emails, letters, texts, social media posts, journals or scrapbooks.
The Historical Society asks people to tell what they have done to cope with quarantine life, what has changed in their lives, and other thoughts and impressions.
For the sake of future historians, the group asks people to include as much of the following as people feel comfortable sharing: full name, date of birth, place of birth and home address, but people’s identities will be protected if requested. Items collected will be added to the archives of the Hoover Historical Society.
