Summary of the Experiences of Wanda Koger, New Jersey Resident.

Summary of the experiences of Wanda Koger, New Jersey resident, based on an oral history interview conducted on October 3, 2020.

Wanda Koger is a 62 year old resident of Piscataway, New Jersey. She lives with her husband, her younger son, and two of her nephews. On October 3rd, 2020, she was interviewed by her younger son, Donald Koger to document her memories of the days surrounding the March 11, 2020 declaration by the World Health Organization that COVID-19 had become a pandemic.

Donald Koger

3 October 2020 – Looking Back on the Oncoming Storm

Wanda Koger is a 62 year old resident of Piscataway, New Jersey.  She lives with her husband, her younger son, and two of her nephews.  On October 3^rd, 2020, she was interviewed by her younger son, Donald Koger to document her memories of the days surrounding the March 11, 2020 declaration by the World Health Organization that COVID-19 had become a pandemic.  She remembers thinking that things would only get worse as time went on.

From the early days of the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020, Wanda Koger experienced anxieties regarding the safety and security of her loved ones.  Even Before the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 health crises a pandemic, she worried that the virus would spread far and wide, and the world would struggle to face the health and economic effects of the damage it would inflict on an unprepared world.

She recalls doubting the information that was released by the Chinese government, such as that children were essentially immune and how contagious the virus was believed to be.  Wanda remembers, “Maybe they weren’t just saying certain things so that people wouldn’t panic.  They really had the brains to know that China was lying to them and things were way worse than what they said they were.”[1]

Her biggest concern was the safety of her family.  She remembers hanging a sign asking that people not ring the doorbell and instead call her on the phone.  While she says having her son and husband working from home changed the dynamic of the household, the time at home also provided for communal meals, which had often been skipped due to the hectic schedule of everyone in the household.  In early March onward, she says that she was not able to see her grandchildren in person.  Instead, while picking up or leaving groceries from her older son’s porch, she could wave at them through the windows.

While the household was mostly secured early on, uncertainty involved the school that her older nephew, who had previously lived with her, was attending.  The school he was attending did not decide to close until March 16^th, and it was an abrupt change where she had to drive several hours to pick him up. 

Once the household was established, it was a matter of trying to keep pace with a changing landscape of obtaining household items and groceries.  She tried to limit her trips to the grocery store and used online shopping along with sharing shopping responsibilities with her older son’s household, which them involved exchanging groceries and supplies by leaving them outside each other’s houses without coming in direct contact.

The strangest element of the early days of the pandemic was the shortage of toilet paper.  Having lived through natural disasters such as the floods from Hurricane Floyd, Hurricane Sandy, etc., she had expected that the normal staples of bread, milk, and eggs might experience some panic-buying, but the fact that folks elected to panic-buy toilet paper was astonishing.

[1] Koger, Wanda, interview by Donald Koger, October 3, 2020, in Piscataway, New Jersey