Mask is something superheroes in movies/comics wore or in real world people who rob banks wore and as positive example something medical professionals used. However the year 2020 totally changed all that. Masking became an integral part of life as we knew from then on. However in US right from start mask and its usage became super controversial unfortunately. So living in a Red state in USA, masks while extremely common in 2020 started becoming less common from mid 2021 when the first vaccines arrived and by the time we rang in 2022 the number of masked folks started dropping, the trend was pretty visible. Having said that as the cases started ticking up once the effects of vaccines kind of wore off, there were still a good number of people who masked up when inside a store or public building. I have been masking up throughout and even with 3 vaccines in my system I still opted to wear a mask while shopping.
So early in August as I was trying to wrap 'back to school' shopping for my daughter, I had to go to a kids clothing store to return some clothes which were ordered online but were not of right size and get the replacement size from the store. So went to this somewhat busy area, parked there and walked past a number of shops and people in that area and walked into the store. Someone greeted me, but left me to mind my own business. I might have spent 5-10 mins browsing around the store, now shopping clothes for my daughter is something I really love. I took some time and found the right size tops for her. Bought a few more clothes for her and then went and got the size exchange done and walked out of the store towards the parking lot. Only when I was about to enter the car did I see someone who had parked nearby getting down and the person was wearing a mask. That's when it occurred to me that I had done an entire 15 minute shopping in a fairly busy store in a fairly popular shopping are without encountering a single person wearing mask! the times they are a-changin indeed, covid or no covid - people are just moving on.
