Eugene Update #5

Sign of the Times

As things slowly let up from the restrictive Corona virus lockdown, I’m beginning to see signs of life.

But before, as I rode my bike to work, going up Willamette, I’d pass the Veteran Memorial Hall with a kind of ironic sign on the side of the building. A sign that reminded me that there was a Before and, hopefully, an After. It read: Live Music Here, Tuesday – Saturday.

Obviously, there was no live music right now. It was closed up tight. The grassy lawn a little worse from none-wear. The white structure appeared dingy and sad in the winter and early spring rain, the neglected sign emblematic of the lockdown orders that suddenly stopped life—as we know it. The pause, the interruption—if we’re lucky to have survived. The sign a reminder of all that had happened and would eventually come back again.

Even the word “live” had a kind of sardonic resonance, Pointedly pointing to the very act of living. The letters just hung there, waiting—either to be taken down or altered when a real person came back to take interest in the future.

For now, the sign: Live Music, was a placeholder.

And, so it was. A few weeks ago the sign didn’t change, but became true. I noticed that the grounds looked a bit cleaner and kept. Tables appeared to indicate outdoor seating. The rain stopped (for a bit). The sun came out (most of the time). And people began to gather. I rode past the Veteran Memorial building on a Friday night and indeed, there was Live Music. The sound wafted up and down the street as people sat out on the lawn or ordered drinks and sat socially distanced at café tables. Folks out for a walk, getting ice cream at Mandy’s or a craft beer at The Bier Stein could stop and listen, ask themselves, Is that live music?

 

Yes,                 we’re back.