News & Notes
President ’ s Message
By Pamela Baird MVHA President
This newsletter is published four times a year by the MOUNTAIN VIEW HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION P . O . Box 252 , Mountain View , CA 94042 www . mountainviewhistorical . org
MVHA Board of Directors
President : Pamela Baird Vice-President : Robert Cox Secretary : Jamil Shaikh Treasurer : Emily Ramos Past President : Nicholas Perry Historical Data : Candace Bowers Publicity : Marina Marinovich Membership : IdaRose Sylvester Newsletter : John Cortez Ways & Means : Mark Perry Director-at-Large : Lisa Garcia Director-at-Large : Gil Lane
Newsletter Copy Editor : Cynthia Hanson Newsletter Graphic Designer : Nicholas Perry
MVHA Board of Directors Email : info @ mountainviewhistorical . org Voicemail : ( 650 ) 903-6890
Pamela Baird
Write it down ! When I was doing research for the suffrage exhibit at the Los Altos History Museum and the presentation shown at the November MVHA general meeting one thought kept occurring to me . Wouldn ’ t it be great if we could find a memoir or diary of a MV woman who actually participated in the suffrage efforts in 1911 ? If it hadn ’ t been for the newspapers kept in the history center at the MV Library ( for which I am really grateful !) there wouldn ’ t have been much of a story to tell . But it would have been so much more interesting to have a first-person account of the many events in which local women participated .
And this brings me to today and the stressful , crazy and historic time that we all have been experiencing during COVID . I started writing a “ COVID Chronicles ” over a year ago . Its primary purpose was to document where and when my husband and I ventured out to shop in case either of us became ill . I quickly expanded my comments to include observations of people ’ s behavior , Zoom calls with family , things we saw on our walks , current events and the status of the pandemic . I also documented the daily totals of COVID cases worldwide , nationally and the US death toll .
Some of the entries are quite boring and repetitious , but that ’ s what life quickly became . I write about what meals I prepared ( food preparation and its consumption has become a focal point of the average day ) and how the tomato plants were or were not growing .
I write in the COVID Chronicles every day , usually about a half page in length . Some evenings ( I do this just before I go to bed ) it ’ s a struggle to think of something to write but , I feel that it ’ s important to keep at it .
Amy Ellison , the exhibition curator at the Los Altos History Museum ( and the other speaker at the November meeting ) wrote last spring to members of the Museum to encourage writing memories of the COVID pandemic . I sent her an email about my chronicle writing and how I felt my entries would be boring to future readers . She wrote back the following “ That ’ s fantastic that you ’ re keeping such a detailed journal . I can tell you from experience that will not be boring at all to historians . A source like that that can sometimes make a historian ’ s career !”
The Board of Mountain View Historical Association is considering how we can develop a similar program . Watch for an announcement in the next month or two .
Will my efforts be of interest to someone in the future ? Maybe . Who knows ? But I know if I don ’ t do this , potential future readers will have no idea of our day to day life during the pandemic days of 2020 and 2021 .
— Pamela
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