By Dennis Richardson, Magic Valley Publishing
Where did the summer of 2020 go?
This weekend is the official end of summer and offers most workers a three-day weekend.
Labor Day was set up in the late 1800s to celebrate the American worker. Many workers back then worked for low wages under harsh conditions and a movement began to honor them with their day. Labor Day comes a little later this year than in most. It is always the first Monday in September, which will be Sept. 7, 2020.
I went to grade school in the mid-state, and our school years always started after Labor Day. Football season began a little later, too, which traditionally meant cooler weather to play the games.
After Monday the mindset turns to fall: football, county fairs, Halloween, national elections, Thanksgiving, Fall festivals and Christmas shopping and planning.
This year has been a whirlwind, blurred with self-quarantines, social distancing, working from home, face masks, washing hands dozens of times each day, curbside delivery at restaurants, curbside delivery of groceries, flooding the post office workers with packages ordered online, loss of jobs, limited seating on airlines, cancellations of cruise line voyages and very limited travel.
Wouldn’t it be nice if COVID-19 took a break as well?
The virus does not seem to be slowing. While I admit I was one of those who laughed at first, I now believe the virus is real and different.
Wearing a mask in public is also different but not fatal. We can do this!
The newspaper industry has been hit especially hard. Closed businesses can’t advertise. Advertising is 85 percent of a newspaper’s income.
No one is more ready for this virus to leave than me.
Be safe. Social distance. Wear the masks. Read more newspapers. Studies indicate that COVID-19 does not exist (for whatever reason) on newspapers.
Dennis Richardson is the CEO of Magic Valley Publishing, Inc., which owns the Chester County Independent
