Baseball, beer and community: Here’s what Tacoma is looking forward to post pandemic
Normal, or some semblance of it. For the last year, we’ve all been dreaming of its return, in different ways.
As the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched on — taking an overwhelming physical and emotional toll — we’ve all had our lives turned upside down and inside out. While the staggering loss of life remains the paramount tragedy, for a year now we’ve also been forced to endure smaller losses that have effectively carved a painful chasm between what was and what is.
Informally, I recently posed a question to many Tacoma and Pierce County residents: With the prospect of wide scale vaccination on the horizon — providing a glimmer of hope as our darkest winter draws to a close — what’s the one thing you miss most about life before COVID-19?
For some, the answers were obvious but gutting. They’ve missed hugs, spending time with their families and snuggling newborn babies they have yet to meet. Others said they can’t wait to see live music, sing karaoke or order a beer at the bar. For most, when you dive a little deeper, they’re longing to see people’s unmasked smiles again.
The truth is, the pandemic doesn’t have an on-off switch. Even with the number of vaccinated people growing by the day, we won’t wake up one morning to find it gone. Whatever “normal” ends up looking like, our return will be slow.
But if the pandemic did miraculously end tomorrow, it’s clear that many South Sound residents know precisely what they would do first.
A night at the ballpark
There was no baseball in the City of Destiny last summer. No hot dogs, no peanuts or Cracker Jacks, and no Rhubarb. No Tacoma Rainiers.
It’s a loss that Casey Catherwood, the Rainiers creative director, felt acutely, and he wasn’t alone.
Catherwood is the man responsible for planning and executing the between-inning mayhem and fun that helps make Rainiers games fun for the whole family. Almost always, it means dancing on the dugouts or firing souvenir T-shirts into the stands. Sometimes it goes far beyond that, particularly when Epic Sax Gorilla gets in on the action.
When I told Catherwood this week that many people said they can’t wait to get back to the ballpark, it “warmed his heart” and gave him “chills,” he said.
“I think there is just a special magic to being with your community, celebrating your team, celebrating in your stadium, celebrating each other and celebrating Tacoma,” Catherwood said. “People noticed that void in 2020.”
With a tinge of irony, Catherwood noted how good the weather was last summer. If the Rainiers had played a normal slate of home games at Cheney Stadium, he doubts there would have been a single rain out.
Now — with a new Rainiers season drawing nearer, and optimism that at least some fans will be allowed back in the stands — he says he’s spent plenty of time envisioning what it will be like.
He knows when fans do first return to Cheney Stadium it won’t be exactly like it was, but it will be special, Catherwood said, and perhaps more meaningful.
“We have been through a lot. We have been damaged physically, and mentally people are hurting. … We’ve been damaged spiritually,” Catherwood said. “Now we need to heal together. I think that’s the most important thing that we can all lean into.”
A run and a beer
The last time Tacoma’s Derek Young gathered with the group of runners he’s been sharing his Thursday nights with for roughly a decade, he knew it might be a long time until he had a chance to do it again.
Tacoma Runners — which the outgoing Amazon employee co-founded in 2010 — had been regularly meeting at least once a week. A year ago, as the group limbered up outside the McMenamins Elks Temple and prepared for a three-mile jaunt and its traditional return for adult beverages, it was clear that things were about to change in a major way.
“I was giving my pre-run talk, and I got up there and said, ‘You know, pay attention to the news. Be safe. I don’t know if we’re going to be coming back,’” Young recalled on Friday. “Then the guidance came out, and we were done.”
While local runners have found ways to get their miles in during the pandemic, they haven’t gathered in anywhere near the numbers that Tacoma Runners brought together. Prior to the pandemic, Young said, an average of 60 to 80 people regularly participated in the weekly events, which always start and end at a local bar or restaurant. At certain points throughout the group’s history, it’s been more like 120.
The beauty of Tacoma Runners, according to Young, is how welcoming it is. Some runners are fast, many are slow, he said. Some are long-time Tacomans, others are new to town. Together, the group has forged lasting friendships.
Looking toward the future, Young said Tacoma Runners will play it safe with its plans to return. He has no interest in creating a “super-spreader event,” he said, and suspects the group is most likely to begin meeting in local parks or neighborhoods before venturing inside a local watering hole.
Still, he can’t wait.
“I’m looking forward to seeing the faces of people I know. Getting beyond our Zoom calls and actually getting outside,” Young said.
A sense of community
As manager of the Hotel Olympus apartments downtown, Angela Jossy has 49 units to worry about, each home to a person or family.
It can be difficult work, Jossy said. Owned by Korean Women’s Association, the property serves low-income residents, and over roughly the last five years she’s worked hard to build a sense of togetherness among her tenants.
As part of that effort, Jossy said she has regularly put on events or classes. Sometimes they’re instructional. Other times, it’s been bingo, potlucks or open mic nights.
She describes it as one of the most rewarding parts of her job, and when COVID-19 made it impossible, Jossy said, morale took a significant hit, and so did her stress level.
With a possible return now seeming closer than it has in many months, Jossy said she’s longing for it.
Hotel Olympus residents need it, Jossy said, and so does she.
“I really like improving the lives of people and giving them hope,” Jossy said.
“I don’t even know how to express how important it is to me that we be able to gather and have a community again. I think it means the world, to the residents and to me.”
This story was originally published March 21, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
