BEAR WEAR UBIQUITOUS IN MASKING OUR FEARS

Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com

MUSKOKA — They’re bear necessities.

Essential masks are ubiquitous — some even littering streets — and are more than a homemade fashion accessory.

They’re a warning sign that shouts from a far — “steer clear of me.”

They mask fears worn on faces.

On the streets, in offices, at stores and everywhere you go, pandemic fever has taken hold.

There’s not a line-up without someone wearing one.

Many round out their precautions with blue rubber gloves and look ready for the operating room.

And it’s all good — though it could and likely will get better.

At hospitals they’re more common than swabs.

Often you don’t know who’s behind the string of blue that wraps over mouths and noses.

Unless you ask.

Like Ron Turner.

At Huntsville District Memorial Hospital Friday, we met him as he walked out the front door donning his own PPD — personal protective device.

At 84 he’s taking no chances.

In for some troublesome blood work, the Kearney resident said he wasn’t bothered by the new protocol and said things went smoothly.

“We’ll see in a few days.”

But, still, the retiree who worked his last 20 years at KWP Pipe in Huntsville, said he’s amazed and concerned by what’s happening.

The last of seven boys in his family (three died near birth while born at home in Algonquin Park), he’s never seen anything like it.

After losing his beloved wife Fay last year — after 61 years of marriage — he said with a tear in his eye that he misses her dearly.

He also lost his last two brothers since 2016.

And one of his daughters lives in New Jersey, where he’s worried for her and her husband who “works in a big office tower.”

He’s not alone in his worries.

Around Huntsville pandemic signs are everywhere masking the worry on faces

At a group home on Gravenhurst’s main street, there’s a popular carved care bear out front that’s often dressed for Halloween or as Skokie for the winter carnival.

Today they call it bear wear.

There, the residents talk openly about “keeping your social distance” when walking around the block in procession that stretches into a parade — and when gathering apart for a photo-op.

Across the road, in a full parking lot at the Shopper’s Drug Mart and on the streets in front, dirty old discarded masks are run over by drivers still in a hurry to shop on a Saturday morning.

A group of intrepid sewers — dubbed online as “The Masketeers” — are trying to stop the littering by providing 1,000 free hand-stitched face shields.

Some responsible companies are providing cloth covers for their office employees and papering over staff in grocery stores.

Construction workers used to wearing masks have even taken to wearing the colourful covers when not forced to.

It’s a brave new world for those daring out unprotected.

Otherwise they risk condom-nation.

Masking our fears

They take social distancing seriously at this group home in Gravenhurst where their care bear reminders passersby.

Ron Turner, of Kearney, is taking no chances. Not at 84.

It’s a dog’s life these days as more protected people are walking their canine friends here in Bracebridge.

Barriston Law clerk Laura Austin, left, and lawyer Scott McEachern got cloth masks from their head office in Barrie.

Muskoka Road in Gravenhurst is masked in evidence of the pandemic.

Around Shopper’s Drug Mart in Gravenhurst, discarded masks are popping up as never before.

A forgotten mask on James Street in Gravenhurst is just part of the new COVID-19 scenery.

All manner of facial covering is being used in line-ups including tuques and scarves.

Be bear wise when it comes to the bear necessities of life today.