“It was an exhilarating feeling to see this happen,” said Medford, who is also the president of the state’s association of bars and taverns. “It was really the first time in a year that I got out of bed and I was excited, I had something to look forward to.”
After some counties in Washington state allowed movie theaters to reopen, Nick Butcher, 36, made up for lost time by watching the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy for three nights in a row. He bought M&M at the concession stand, sat away from the others in the audience and said he felt like things were almost back to normal.
“In fact, I’m generally optimistic,” said Butcher, a Microsoft software engineer who recently recovered from a Covid-19 case, as well as several relatives. “This week is one of the first times that I went to my office almost since the pandemic began.”
A return to crowded office spaces and schools left other Americans excited and uneasy.
Amanda Sewell, a teacher at Tates Creek High School in Lexington, Ky., Will welcome students to her classroom next Monday for the first time in a year. Decorations for last year’s Mardi Gras celebration are still hanging in the class. The date on her whiteboard still shows March 13, 2020 – the day school closed and she went home, confident that it would be only a few weeks before she and her students returned to the classroom.
Ms. Sewell is fully vaccinated against the virus now and said she is thrilled to see her students in person after teaching squares that have not responded on Zoom for months. But she knows that things will not be the same as before.
“I’m still a little suspicious because I feel that some people feel that, because we have a vaccine, the pandemic is over, and definitely not,” said Sewell. “I feel like we’re still several months away from being anywhere near where it was normal.”
Dave Montgomery contributed reports.