‘Last Normal Photo’ From Exactly One Year Ago

I couldn't find a decent 'Last Normal Photo' so I decided to see what I had exactly one year ago and found this from May 19th, 2019. The idea of 3,800 plus people in one room seems like a memory from much longer ago than 365 days.

This sign is on the gym wall of The Rochester Community Center on Wakefield Street in The Lilac City.

Last year at this time, I was at my nephew Colin's seventh birthday party and he had a pizza party in their function room with an hour of reserved gym time.

I was employed at this facility for most of the 1990's, first as a work study job, then part time. It seems like I spent a lifetime in this gym but I never knew what the Max Occupancy was.

This sign was a new addition from the days when I roamed the halls with a push broom, informing kids that they should only bounce the basketball inside the gymnasium. (My two most important responsibilities.)

The 2019 birthday party was a blast. With 6 available hoops, there were games of HORSE, 5 on 5, three point shooting contests, free throw shooting contests, soccer and frisbee games too.

Now, the act of even passing a basketball from one set of hands to another, requires a haz mat suit and a quart of hand sanitizer. Not to mention DOZENS of us in the same room eating pizza and talking to one another within 6 to 8 feet.

The idea of three thousand people in the same room MIGHT not be possible in another 365 days, but hopefully this sign will become relevant by 2022.