Canceled: A Southern Portrait Pt. IV — Soda Citizen

Photos and words by Sean Rayford

“I miss the smiles. I miss the joy,” says Julia Jones on Wednesday around noon . “It’s a dopamine release when you can see what I call, 'the mirror moments.’ When a child looks at their face that I've just painted and their eyes are, ‘Aaahhh!’ And it’s wonderful, and they just light up and… I miss that.” she says as tears roll down her cheeks in an alley off Main St. in Columbia, SC.

Julia, who operates Emerald’s Artistry, Face Painting and Balloon Fun, just finished her final balloon delivery for who knows how long. This last one, celebrating a fifth birthday.

“We went a little overboard. We gave her lots and lots of fun princess items. And she had a little brother and they were celebrating alone at home,” she says, “I sanitized everything, wore gloves — a mask. I made sure everything was done yesterday, so there would be adequate time between me creating the balloons and me delivering them. I had an extra large sized garbage bag full of every princess design from Elsa to Tiana, fairy wings, and Mickey Mouse rattles with rice in them.”

“I gave them everything I could think of. A unicorn wand and flowers and swords. Lots of swords. Because everybody like swords, mom and dad included.

Julia Jones busks on Main St. March 23, 2019 in Columbia, SC.

The night before Julia sewed masks for the Department of Juvenile Justice until one a.m. “The issue with the DJJ is that they have monies that they can procure these things, but they have to go through a hospital vendor and hospital vendors right now are only releasing their masks through heath care workers, so DJJ doesn't qualify.” So Julia donates them to the organization.

“I have so many mask orders right now because that recommendation just came out. And I have a backlog of masks that I'm donating. I also sell them to individuals who are still making a paycheck and can afford it, so I can money to buy materials. But I have a four day waiting list on the donations right now.”

Kelsey Sumter, senior class president and anchor leg of the 4x100 meter relay at Lower Richland High, probably won’t compete again with the track & field friends she’s known since middle school. Three weeks ago, the first day of school cancellations axed team picture day.

She doesn’t expect to wear the sparkly golden rose colored dress she got for prom and she won’t attend one of her best friend’s 18th birthday party on Monday. Her senior trip to Europe is in limbo. She’s not sure about a yearbook.

But such is the case, during a pandemic with a still looming cancelation of the remaining school year.

“Graduation is supposed to be June first, 12 o'clock at the Coliseum. And now, we don’t know when that will be either,” she says from the porch of her home in Hopkins, SC. Kelsey wants to major in Biology and attend medical school to become a surgeon. She’s still looking at Claflin, Furman, Columbia College and Clemson. She also runs the 100 and 200 meters, competes in the long jump and still works part time at Chik-fil-a.

Not a fan of E-learning, Kelsey describes school as “terrible,” when compared to pre-pandemic days. “I've been trying to wake up at 9 am so I can start my work early in the day. Trying to get in a habit, get in a rhythm, so I can get everything done on time. I've been managing to keep up on everything but it’s still a lot of work.”

Kelsey says she has taken the relationships with her classmates and teachers for granted over the years. “At school, you don't think about being able to see everybody everyday and the interactions that you have all the time, till it's all taken away and now you’re at home and you can't see anyone,” she says, “It's a lot different and very boring being at home all the time by yourself all day.”

Kelsey has been combating that by painting. She likes abstract stuff.

Morning drives into work for West Columbia Assistant Police Chief Scott Morrison now remind him of Sunday mornings from his youth. “The only thing open back then was Grandma's house. And you’d be lucky if a gas station was open,” he says Wednesday morning, April 8, 2020 at city hall. A statewide “Stay at Home or Go to Work Order,” went into effect the night before.

Morrison, who grew up in Irmo and graduated from the University of South Carolina in 1994, has been with the West Columbia department for 25 years — where he has shaken thousands of hands on the job.

”I'd had shaken your hand when we walked up,” he says when asked about the changes in policing, “That's quite a change for people down here in the South because usually you greet people when you see them. Our investigators here in the building, we're not taking anyone back behind our secured doors anymore. We are interviewing prisoners at the county jail. And we don’t bring them here like we used to — we interview people in a large room here and we don’t take them behind our secure doors.”

He says officers are also being extra cautious maintaining distance between themselves and members of the public. Morrison no longer works the same schedule, as shifts have been rearranged to limit the number of people in the building at one time.

“Our road patrols have also started doing phone reports. We did not do that before and that's something new,” he says, “If we can do a report over the phone, we'll do it over the phone. If it's a situation where we have to go out and collect evidence, or have to have someone on the scene, obviously we will go to the scene like we normally would.”

Morrison, married to a teacher, use to start his workday at the gym. He now fulfills that need at home. “I'm working out in my garage and just making up things that I do,” he says, “I’m doing push-ups. I'm doing dips on chairs. I set up a ladder last night to do pull ups. You name it, I just make it up as I go.”

“It's like watching an avalanche roll down a mountain. You know that it's coming — and what do you do in the mean time to brace yourself?” asks realtor Tamara Robinson on a Monday morning in Lexington, SC, more than three weeks after the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic.

Early in 2020, the real estate industry enjoyed a humming economy and the beginning of what was expected to be a historic Spring season. “The last couple months were really busy,” says Tamara, “So it looks good statistically, but in the maybe next two to three months it's going to be getting real.” Tamara entered the field in 2017 and recently added real estate photography to her services to supplement her income. And even though sellers and buyers are becoming scarce, realtor services are considered essential.

“Naturally the people who aren't in a position to wait, they can't do that,” she says about some of her clients, “I have two people right now who have to move forward. One is a person who already sold their home and they are in limbo right now. I have another person who is newly divorced and who really needs to be able to get into a new home.” “Everyone is afraid. And no one knows whether it's the right thing to do, is it responsible for me to put a home on the market, knowing that people will be coming in and out of a house? Is it responsible for me, to even be walking in somebody's house looking for a home? Those are the major questions that I'm getting.” she says about clients’ concerns. “Is that something I should still do right now? Should we wait?”

With the highly anticipated Spring season just underway, many folks were preparing their homes for sale. “People are now second guessing that. The one's that are still going forward with it, we've just had to figure out ways to be more innovative, more creative in the way that we are doing things. We're doing a lot of our own walk-throughs and taking pictures — taking videos for those people.”

River Bluff tennis coach Brian Lim remembers his senior season at Lexington High in 2011. “We lost in the state championship, but I got closure,” he says on Tuesday morning at the rival school where he now teaches. “There wasn't a what if? I didn't have my best season, but it was still something that you don’t forget.”

With the spring sports seasons postponed, the South Carolina High School League has yet to cancel it all. They are following along with state orders on public schools, currently closed through May. “I have no idea really what to communicate to my team. I just say, 'It hasn't been canceled yet - try to stay in shape if you can,” says Brian, a 2015 graduate of the University of South Carolina.

His women’s team, who play in the Fall, captured the most recent state title. With less ambitious hopes, he has five seniors this Spring with the guys team. “Some of them are unmotivated now -- because they feel like everything has been taken away from them. Some are just really upset. They've worked really hard to play their last season. They want it end in a way they feel like a senior season should end.”

Brian teaches Pre-Calculus and Algebra II to sophomores, juniors and seniors. His biggest concerns are for the basic needs of some students. “Are they able to eat? Are they able get the social and emotional needs that they may not get at home — that they usually get at school? Are they able to get on the internet, because they don't have it at home?”

“People think of River Bluff -- they look at as this incredible school with all this incredible technology with all the incredible facilities,” he says “But that's the school, it not the kids. The kids are very diverse. You have kids that — yeah, they have everything that they need — and you have kids that don't have anything. So I think we have to cater to those kids and not allow them to get behind.”

“There’s just so much out there — I think a lot of small business owners don't know where to turn,” says Tamika Washington, who founded a community office space in Northeast Columbia 18 months ago with her husband, “It’s confusing because there is so much information.”

Her business, Converspace, services consultants, coaches, truckers, construction companies, graphic designers, and writers while two companies rent private space at the rear of the business.

Tamika was hopeful with the way her bootstrapped operation had recently found a groove. “We’ve seen growth, exponentially over the past four months. Because we shifted some things around, got really clear on our message, and that's when we started to see the people - the floodgates opened up.”

On Saturday morning, April 4, crowds flock to the nearby Bi-Lo grocery at the Sandhills shopping center and handfuls of folks take their morning walks. But the chairs sit upside down on the tables at Converspace and the small business now provides the role of virtual office space for all their clients. They provide complimentary mail forwarding to their members, now working from home. “When you're a small business owner, sometimes you can pick up the phone and call that person at the Small Business Association. Or you might have a connection — but now everybody is confused about what is available,” says Tamika, “What to apply for? What you may qualify for? You don't have the one on one connection because those people are trying to figure those things out as well.”

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