It was all very festive-June 2020, three or so months into a very long year-and-a-half of isolation and worry and waiting.ĭebbie and I had not imagined we would have any opportunities to socialize until there was a vaccine, but then we did. We arranged a basket of plastic plates and cutlery and sat outside to eat, everyone six feet apart, wearing masks when we weren’t eating. I baked a three-layer strawberry shortcake, and we set everything out on a table. I had barbecued steak with homemade steak sauce, made a pasta salad, roasted some fingerling potatoes, and sautéed pea pods with a sprinkling of cracked black pepper and Parmesan. There we were, at a small gathering of friends after my wife, Debbie, and I eloped in an office park in Encino, California.
