Some stages of masks

[UTUSN]

So in the olde days I (and I daresay many in our U.S. culture) thought that masks were for operating rooms and a little bit weird for tourists from other cultures.

When our current unpleasantness started it took getting used to, but the hardcore daily media curriculum in plague prevention worked its way past my filters and in the few venturings out I made the big successful jump into adjusting to the mask.

Then the mask wearing got into political polarization, with the wingnuts throwing hissy fits to not wear them and some of Us being accusatory, with almost everybody throwing dirty looks.

When most people got used to them, the fashion statements began on a spectrum from haute to utilitarian. It was endearing that a large slice of males, the ones in the trades who were used to protection, really took fun with their own improvisations, such as the bandana triangles (who knows how effective) - like bandits or Westerns.

Then there was the recurring nusisance of *forgetting* them in the car and having to go back. But before the mask thing, leaving the house I used to forget my partials and had to drive back a couple of blocks, but when the mask started and I forgot the partials and started to go back I realized, I don't *need* those because I'm wearing a MASK!1

*******So the big stores are beginning to loosen up, and today when I was inside I told the employee I had forgotten the mask in the car, and he said that it wasn't required any more. Hmm. As I went through the store almost everybody was wearing them, and I felt on the other side of things from when it started - feeling that I was being judged to be a wingnut and guilty. I even apologized to an employee I had to ask for something saying, "I'm sorry I don't have a mask on but I forgot it and the other one said I didn't have to have it."

I'm still going to wear it. But places like the VFW, those crusty wingnuts *never* wore them, first because they were "tough" and then because the place closed down for 3-4 months and then because almost everybody got the shots and claimed the shots meant not needed anymore.

[dweller]

1. When the stores were requiring masks

I noticed about a 90% compliance, and anyone without one was shunned and avoided like literally masked ppl stopping and waiting for unmasked ass to move on …
Now stores here have signs that say ‘if you are vaxxed you don’t need masks, and if not please wear one’ and still maybe 75% of shoppers are masked including my vaxxed self … how many others are just wary, or not vaxxed is impossible to tell

✌🏻

[UTUSN]

2. Yip. Today without it I felt like I had "wingnut" on my forehead!1

[Hoyt]

3. Actually got to like masks, especially in stores, large crowds, etc.

[UTUSN]

4. Me, too - miss it like wallet, phone ...