It's INSANE how much things have changed over the course of the last two months!

Back in mid-March, the world was abruptly flipped upside down. I believe St. Patrick's Day was the first day that Governor Kim Reynolds ordered some businesses to close, but many people started to practice social distancing (before it was even referred to as social distancing) for a week or so before that.

The first big hit for us here in Eastern Iowa came on March 10th, when the annual SaPaDaPaSo Parade was canceled by organizers. I think that cancellation, as well as the recommendation from city officials, are what inspired local businesses to temporarily shut their doors. Before bars and restaurants were officially ordered to close by the Governor, the majority of them were already planning to stay closed for the holiday. My gym actually announced that it was going to be closed just one day prior. I don't think any of us had any idea what was in store for us all in the weeks to come.

Now that things are slowly starting to open back up again, people on social media have begun sharing the last "normal" photo from their phone's camera roll. It's the last photo you took before we were all told to stay home and stop socializing. I went back into my phone and scrolled all the way back to early March, where I discovered some photo booth photos from the Cedar Rapids Beer Summit and our last Listener Lunch photo at the Longbranch. It feels like they were taken a year ago!

Jen Zoller
Jen Zoller
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Hawkeye Photo Booth
Hawkeye Photo Booth
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Brain's last "normal" photo was from March 9th. It shows his daughters smiling on their front porch, completely oblivious to how much time they would be spending at home with each other during the next few months.

Brain
Brain
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Here are some of the final pre-social distancing photos that listeners posted on Facebook:

Iowans Share Their Last Normal Photo Taken Before Quarantine

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