At the tables and in the booths, people talked about how masking had changed things.
“If you don’t really like being friendly you can kind of just mask up. You don’t have to smile and greet everyone you see,” said customer Brian McNally. But then, “We’ve gotten really used to this anonymity but it’s almost like we’ve forgotten how to be social in the real world.”“It’s a little uncomfortable honestly to see the servers and everyone without masks because we’ve been so conditioned to fear people without masks,” said Emily Basilio.“I’m a germaphobe,” laughed Judy.
“We’re talking about flus, colds all the active things that are pretty potentially harmful to older people,” Dan said about their potentially greater risk. They have grown used to masks.“Airports, airplanes I think I’ll always wear one on an airplane from now on,” said Judy.Tim Gachot said he wouldn’t mind not having to remember, “I’m excited to go back to just, phone, keys, wallet, and not phone, keys, wallet, mask.
Daly was glad to see people happy. While they are not yet making money again, he said that was mostly due to inflation. The staff was working together to get food and drinks delivered. Being closed was behind them hopefully for good and now hopefully masking as well. “It’s just not fun, restaurants and live music aren’t really fun for pandemics. And our pubs are about community and gathering and fun,” said Daly.