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How is the coronavirus pandemic affecting your life right now? Tell us about your experiences, feelings, and thoughts.

<strong>Christmas Eve 2019 was such fun!</strong> <strong>I’d traveled across center city Philadelphia and attended an aqua aerobics class</strong> @ the Logan Hotel on the Parkway.<strong> I met my friend Liz there </strong>and we traveled back through town together. I don’t ’t recall whether we ate lunch together as we often did on Tuesdays and Thursdays after class; probably not, as it was Christmas Eve & lots to accomplish. We parted @ city Hall and she took a subway south to get to her home. <strong>I walked back </strong>to check out a cloak for my daughter and purchase leggings from a Christmas Village vendor outside of city Hall. <strong>A young black woman tapped me in my shoulder </strong>& I turned to see her. <strong>We laughed: we were wearing the same furry coat. “You’re my sister from another mother,” I said. We laughed and parted. </strong>I rounded city hall and cut through <strong>the former John Wanamaker store </strong>& took this photo. <strong>The store was a fixture in Philadelphia. </strong>John Wanamaker started the department store. He was a devout Christian-I have a hymnal he wrote and a mug from its last days as Wanamakers. He installed a large organ and sometimes there are concerts. <strong>In the center of the first floor is a giant sculpture of a bronze eagle. “meet me @ the eagle” were directions for meeting up in the days before cellphones, </strong>days when you needed a fix point and some estimate of a timeto meet. The mayor, Ed Rendell had signed my shopping bag “ a day that will live in infamy” with the date as I was one of the last to exit it as Wanamakers. He had a special affection for Wanamakers -he and wife Midge got their first credit cards there when they were students @ Penn in the 60’s. It closed & became a Lord and Taylor, then a Macy’s. <strong>It was the store my mother would take us to on an annual visit to the city sometime close to Christmas. </strong>We’d make a pilgrimage into town from Bucks County, driving to Olney and riding on the subway, a real novelty for my brother and I. We’d see the store windows of Snellenbergs, Lits, Strawbridges and Gimbels department stores. We’d stuff nickels into the automat and retrieve a slice of lemon meringue pie from a little window of available pies. We’d meet my dad @ the eagle when he left work in town & visit the toy department and Santa @ Wanamakers, riding a little train around the ceiling of the 8 th floor before riding the subway and then driving home. This was an annual ritual. <strong>How is this different?</strong> The stores we visited are gone, Macy continues to operate Wanamakers building but there is no way that I was assembling indoors or meeting anyone. The Aqua classes resumed but were shut down. I never attempted to return. I knew @ some basic level that I would be crushed to resume and lose my freedom a gain. <strong>I’ve quarantined since 3/21/29 Would the black woman feel free to tap me on my shoulder this year after all the racial strife? I’m a 75 yo white-haired White woman</strong> The streets are full of unrest. <strong>When Congress finally hammered out a deal to provide some support for people Trump nixed it and played golf several times over the Christmas holiday.</strong> <strong>Christmas Eve was a joyous time to be out and about in the city, meeting and interacting with strangers, in and out of crowds and stores, casualty using public transportation.</strong> Most shopping was done online with packages delivered to your home. I don’t know if Macy’s will survive. Lord and Taylor is closing by year’s. end. Their store is on city avenue/@ the western suburban edge of the city. <strong>I’ve been in for 9 months. I’m trying to use the internet to shop. I sent my Philadelphia daughter’s gift to CA accidentally, Good Luck Macy’s -and me</strong>