© 2024 Aspen Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
People from around the Roaring Fork Valley have all been impacted in some way by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now many are sharing their experiences to collect and memorialize the valley’s COVID-19 pandemic history.“Quarantine Stories: Recording History" is a community oral history project from Aspen Public Radio and Aspen Historical Society, featuring self-recorded interviews from individuals and families during these historic times.You can participate by interviewing your family or telling us your story. What are you feeling and seeing? What motivates you? What scares you? What is the day like outside your window?00000176-6d2a-dc2f-ad76-6d2a4f990001Record and send in an audio clip to be preserved in perpetuity in the Aspen Historical Society archive. The future may be uncertain, but together we can capture history happening in real time.There are two easy ways to submit your recording:1. Record it as voice memo on your smartphone and email it to aspenpublicradio@gmail.com.2. Call 970-812-3726 and leave your story as a voicemail00000176-6d2a-dc2f-ad76-6d2a4f9b0000Support for “Quarantine Stories: Recording History" comes from Aspen Center for Environmental Studies educating for environmental responsibility since 1968.*By submitting your story, you agree to it being aired on Aspen Public Radio and archived for future use by Aspen Historical Society for educational and archival purposes as set forth here.

Katherine McMillan: 'Wondering'

Katherine McMillan

Katherine McMillan said she's never experienced anything like the COVID-19 pandemic. She wrote the following poem “to get out some of the feelings that were turning around inside me.”

 
"Wondering" 

Wondering if the grocery store worker sneezing in aisle 3 was infected

Wondering why the kid stocking the shelves isn’t wearing a mask or gloves and keeps getting in my space

Wondering if I should eat breakfast as soon as I get home from senior early-bird shopping hour

Or wipe down all the groceries with disinfectant first

Wondering if washing the thin wool gloves I wore to the store and my face muff with other clothes

Will infect everything because it was only a cold wash

Wondering if the article someone sent me today saying that vigorous exercise creates a vortex of exhaled droplets that travel as far as 35 feet is real or fake news

Wondering why the store manager says he can’t make his workers wear masks, only encourage it

Wondering why I can find any place to get a test to see if the cold I had six weeks ago was actually a mild case and now I’m okay

Wondering why our president isn’t giving us plans that reassure us rather than make us even more nervous

Wondering what the summer will look like

Wondering, if I just go back to bed, will I wake up to find it was all a bad dream?

Contributor Christin Kay is passionate about the rich variety of arts, cultural experiences and stories in the Roaring Fork Valley. She has been a devotee of public radio her whole life. Christin is a veteran of Aspen Public Radio, serving as producer, reporter and interim news director.