Lines on a grocery store floor

Step right up
London, ON
July 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Do you ever stop and wonder what certain periods in history might look like? What would it feel like to walk the streets the day Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon, or when the Allies declared victory to end the Second World War, or when the Iron Curtain came tumbling down?

I suspect the current pandemic will be added to a list of major turning points in history that are worthy of such memories. Which brings me to this shot of a simple line of tape on a grocery store floor.

One of the first visual indicators of the crisis came in the form of signage - taped-on circles, lines, arrows, and other guidance - hastily added to every public space imaginable. Stores were given no time at all to rework traffic flows and re-teach age-old habits to keep us all the requisite 6 feet apart from each other. None of this was planned or methodical, and the fraying strips of tape betray the temporary nature of it all.

We'll be dealing with physical or social distancing for quite some time, so scenes like this beg the question: What next? What will these spaces look like? Will grocery stores continue to tape up letter-sized signs printed on the store manager's ink jet printer or will we begin to see a more permanent shift in messaging?

However this all plays out, I can't ignore what it all looks like now. And I want to be able to look back at this someday and remember not only what it looked and felt like to experience it, but better understand how it changed us all as people.

Because make no mistake: The signage may be temporary. But the change will be permanent. And I can't imagine not having a few visuals from the here-and-now to remind me - and us - what it felt like to be in the middle of it all.

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