An Alternate Universe in Alabama, Y'all

Brenda and some biscuits.

I have recently started watching cooking videos online, posted by an exuberantly cheerful woman who lives in Alabama. Brenda Gantt is a really sweet lady who looks as old as the hills but I found out today she is actually a year younger than I, so kill me now. Anyway, the point is that where she lives, in a town called Andalusia, nobody seems to either know about or care about Covid-19.

Naturally Brenda doesn't wear a mask alone in her own kitchen while she is cooking, but during the course of the videos many other people wander in: her grandchildren, a few random neighbors, a couple of friends. None of them wear masks or keep their distance from one another, and all of them hug when saying hello or goodbye. It's like the good old days, only it's now.

I was so confused I wondered if the videos were old, but turns out they are current and she posts a new one every day on her Facebook page (Cooking With Brenda Gantt). So then I looked at the stats for the virus where she lives, and found out that there have been 399 new cases since last week, and 11 deaths. And in the entire state there have been 1,032 deaths out of 46,424 cases since the pandemic began.

Somehow Brenda and her good ol' friends down there in 'Bama don't give a hoot. So what's with us uptight Mainers who put on a friggin' mask to go inside an empty post office to get the mail? No wonder Brenda seems so much happier than I feel. For a good time, watch Brenda in her kitchen and feel like it's 1959, y'all.