LOCAL HISTORY
BY BETTY OBENDORF Curator, Polo Historical Society
hard work of running this type of business. He not only is saving two downtown buildings but he will bring back traffic to this small town. All this at a time when small businesses are closing. I am an avid reader of newspapers and recently in the column of Jim Nolan he stated that there are 100,000 mom and pop businesses that have closed permanently. He also stated that we are going to have to learn to live and adapt with viruses. I have had a hard time keeping Kenneth in and each day he asks if the restaurants are open yet. Pretty soon all the pot roast dinners and banana splits are simply not going to work anymore. He is a social person and he wants to be with his friends. We are going to have to get going again and figure out how to do it safely for ninety year olds!! We keep hearing how our country was not prepared and yet my brother tells me our country was better prepared than any other according to a John Hopkins report.
Betty Obendorf’s granddaughter shows her new work gear as a dental hygienist.
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• Friday, May 29, 2020
Today is our granddaughter Clare’s birthday and she has been back to work now for over a week. Her job is high on the list for contamination by the virus. She is a dental hygienist and lives in Champaign. When her picture came through with her new outfit, I thought she looked like she was ready to do some kind of surgery. When the quarantine was started, Clare quickly emailed the family to remember to floss and brush each day as we stayed at home. She is definitely a caregiver. During her four years at Southern Illinois University they really centered on cross-contamination. Did they know this virus was coming and were they busy getting students prepared? Clare is confident she can handle all the new requirements for her job. It is a good feeling to know that she is back on the job since that means others have gone back to work. We will all feel better as more
of our nation moves back into the workforce outside of our homes. I think we all will feel better when more of our businesses open back up. In our family, when we see businesses closing, we are watching the near opening of our granddaughter’s husband’s new restaurant in Marshville, North Carolina. The pictures are being posted daily and this is a dream come true for Melvin. When we went down to Winston-Salem for our great granddaughter Anna Fay’s christening last August, we went on down to Marshville. We looked at the two buildings standing together and poured over all the building plans on the table at their home. It looked like a big undertaking and I thought this will take a long time. But here they are ready to open and it has not been a year. Several brick walls were uncovered and that adds to the atmosphere of the place. Melvin was part of a family with a restaurant and he grew up working there. So he is well versed on the
OGLE COUNTY NEWS | Ogle County Newspapers / oglecountynews.com
Work gear looks very different during COVID-19
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