Interview 06: Caitlin Layson
Dublin Core
Title
Interview 06: Caitlin Layson
Subject
COVID-19, COVID-19 pandemic, Hoboken, New Jersey
Description
An oral history with Caitlin Layson, elementary school teacher, regarding Hoboken's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as her personal experiences with it.
Creator
Hoboken Public Library
Publisher
Hoboken Public Library
Date
Recorded May 18, 2022
Format
Uploaded recording: .mp3
Preservation recording: .wav
Preservation recording: .wav
Language
English
Type
Oral history
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Original Format
Digital audio file
Duration
00:41:05
Transcription
Q: Thank you for joining us today for our oral history project. If you could please state your name, age, any other relevant information you want to include about your background, ethnicity, how long you’ve been in Hoboken, as well as today’s date.
CL: Okay. Caitlyn Layson. I am 32. What were the other things, sorry? Name, age, any other background information?
Q: Yeah, background information.
CL: I am from Jersey City/Hoboken. I’ve been in Hoboken probably since—well I was always back and forth, but I started going to school here I think 5th grade—no, 4th grade. And then I was at Wallace for a year and then I went to Mustard Seed and after Mustard Seed I went to high school in the city and then I came back my junior year and I went to the Hudson School. And I’m still here. I went to college in the area and did my masters in Montclair and then I started teaching right after my masters at Connors Elementary School, yep.
Q: Where were you when the initial lockdown was announced in March of 2020 and what do you remember from that day and moment?
CL: I remember hearing that it was happening. I think it was probably March 13 because—and I remember because it was what was written on my whiteboard at work, or in my classroom, and my teacher’s aide who became a really good friend of mine—and she had two daughters in the school and she seemed really panicked about it and I kind of was, like, no, we’ll be back in two weeks. And then scrambling to get stuff to send home for the kids that had shown up that day and, yeah, just kind of hearing from my principal and the vice principal to just get whatever I can together to send home in packets and we’ll see from there. So there were a lot of unknowns and I think it didn’t hit until, you know, until everything started really shutting down, yeah.
Q: And with your school, were they doing virtual teaching? Were they sending packets back and forth? How did they handle it?
CL: So the district at first was—it was paper. So everything was sent home and I know that my school specifically, it is a Title 1 school so we have a lot of—we have a range of socioeconomic backgrounds but with our lower income students not having a printer at home and all of that. So it was just paper-based. It wasn’t mandatory to meet virtually and, if anything, it was the first time I’d ever heard about Zoom, you know? I feel like it was everyone’s first introduction to it so I think probably for the first month and a half, it was just, you know, checking in—I would just call families and then they slowly started to roll out virtual where we were really in virtual teaching. And honestly I think it was better that way where we didn’t feel so thrown into it and we were able to kind of figure out what was going to work for us and what was going to work for our kids, too. Primarily my students were kids who had learning disabilities and reading and getting onto those computers is already a challenge as a second grader—actually not that much because kids by now can pretty much log on to anything—but, you know, navigating Zoom, putting in their e-mail because they never really had to. And getting the technology to them, too. Especially because I was working with primarily kids who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. But I will say our district did a really good job at giving a date and being flexible in terms of a pick-up place for the computers and just kind of getting it—making sure to get it to everyone.
Q: And as the pandemic progressed, were there any more changes with the teaching and with—when we went into the second year?
CL: So, the second year, which would have been September 2020, unless we had a medical reason, we were in-person. So I was in-person from September up until now. Unless we have a case of close contact or a positive case in the classroom. And then before breaks we would be virtual for the week and then coming back we would be in-person. It would be virtual just to mitigate any chance of seeing family members and contracting anything.
Q: And what was your emotional reaction like throughout the pandemic, would you say?
CL: It’s a mixed bag because, you know, it’s not a job where the only effect is a product. They’re people that I’m kind of hoping to mold and to input as much knowledge and information, and expiration is possible. But then there’s the other side of it where it was kind of nice to be home and it was kind of nice to be in town where there was so much parking—not that I had anywhere to go—but it was quiet. And you only really get that here around major holidays where it’s kind of dead. So there’s that part where you get to spend time with people in your little bubble but also I still had a job to do and I still had expectations of myself to perform and to be there for students. And that goes hand-in-hand with, you know, their emotional well-being. Yeah, because I had students—it was a range of students whose parents still had to work and parents were at home and had never had their kids home and they had never had to handle school work. I unfortunately had to put that on them, too, so I think it was a mix of worry and kind of—I don’t know the right word for it but just kind of settling—yeah, like settling into being home all the time.
Q: And were there any challenges you had about being homebound like that and kind of, you know, when we were in lockdown especially?
CL: I wouldn’t say—you asked if there were any challenges?
Q: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
CL: I think the biggest challenges were with work. I think personally it wasn’t much of a challenge to stay home and so I think the biggest challenge was working with students who already have, you know, a hard time retaining information and especially reading and not being able to give them manipulatives to work with and to try to make it as exciting as possible. So I think it was just as exhausting—you feel like the biggest thing you learn when you start teaching is that you’re always on. So always having to be on in-person but then to always have to be on at home and then try to settle and have a routine was probably a challenge—now that I think about. You know, it was nice being home but at the same time the work and home, that division, started to meld together and I kind of had to, like, shut it down. But it’s hard, you know? It still is a challenge to shut it down but more so when I had nowhere to go, yeah.
Q: Did you kind of create routines to kind of say, this is my work time, this is my at-home time?
CL: Yeah, I think staying active and moving around a lot. Fortunately, I go to Fit Foundry, it’s uptown, and they did a really great job of transitioning from—and almost immediately, actually—transitioning from in-person to making all of their classes virtual and making it accessible for everyone as members of the gym. So they did a really great job. And honestly, it probably saved me from going nuts. So, yeah.
Q: Did you view yourself and your job differently during the pandemic and, you know, what about other people—how they viewed you? Did you feel like the parents of the students view you differently now that you’ve had this experience?
CL: I think so. I think teaching kind of can be like a selfless job at times. You kind of have to live with things that you do not—you sort of become—I don’t know if numb is the right word, but you kind of see everything as, it’s just what I’ve got to do. And when I would tell people who weren’t teachers about what I was doing and trying to keep on top of, it seems like a lot, but it’s just kind of what you had to do. I think it’s different when you’re talking to your coworker about it and you’re, like, oh, I tried this or I found this resource, and do you want to try? And you just send it over. Whereas, you know, that also takes a lot of time to learn how to navigate and use and apply to your 15 students or your 17 students at a time. So I think parents—yeah, I think especially teachers. It makes me uncomfortable when people are, like, you guys are—teachers are superheroes and all of that. It’s great but I think—it’s kind of like, this is what we’ve been doing. This is what we’ve been doing this whole time. We weren’t just having your kids sit there and fill out some paperwork. A lot goes into it and I think everyone started to recognize that.
Q: So the parents could actually kind of see what you were doing—
CL: Yeah, exactly.
Q: . . . because they were literally there.
CL: Hm-hmm [affirmative], yes. And even now, like, earlier this year we had to be remote for just a couple days before Thanksgiving and I have a co-teacher because we’re an inclusion classroom so I’m the special ed. teacher and she’s the gen ed. teacher and we had parents, you know, messaging us on the side, like, I don’t know how you do it. Because, you know, they’re sitting with their kid. They’re witnessing everything that they’re doing. They’re hearing what we’re doing on our end and then, you know, what their kids are responding on their end. And they’re, like, I don’t know how you do this all day. Like, literally, almost every parent messages on the side and I would just send it to my co-teacher, like, isn’t this hilarious. They’re really—and it’s nothing in our minds. It’s just the day-to-day, but I think for parents to see their kid not only in a school element, but also how they are in school. Who they’ve become now that they’ve been with us for a while, they see the difference and they sort of are able to recognize—there’s a lot that goes into at times.
Q: Do you want to talk about a little bit how any of your family or friends, how their lives were affected by the pandemic?
CL: Yeah. So, my now husband, he worked for Hunter College and so he worked for the institutional research side of it but also was an adjunct professor, so now we’re both teaching at the same time and we don’t have a huge apartment and so just trying to navigate that. And, you know, my mom is a nurse so she was in it and I think that’s the part where I’m sure a lot of people who had family members that had to be on the front line—it’s a little scary because—and now it’s still something that you’re cautious of but I think it’s—I think everyone is a little numb to it—but in the beginning it was hard to let them go to work. It’s hard to see them off to work because for a while we stayed—my parents still live in Hoboken—but we stayed with them for a while. And she wasn’t going in at the time—I think for a couple weeks, but then when things started to get really intense, she started to go in and that’s when I was, like, I’ve got to go home. Because I can’t see you after work and then be worried all day and focus on what I have to do. So it was easier for her to be in her own apartment for a little bit. And my dad is in IT so that was an easy transition for him. But, yeah, I think having my mom be out there and it being so new to her and sort of seeing how kind of fearful she was, too, having to go in was eye-opening. You remember that there are risks to every job.
Q: What are some things that occurred that you think those outside your specific experience might not realize about the pandemic, either as a teacher or just living in Hoboken?
CL: I think as a teacher having it be the second year, almost third year we’re going through all of this, right? I think everyone needs to give each other—give everyone a little more grace. I think there was a point where everyone was doing that and everyone wanted to be so nice to each other and to accommodate everyone and everyone was—one of my best friends is in service, restaurant business, and she was, like, people are just tipping real big these days and then it started to slowly die down. But even with money aside, I think just giving everyone a little bit of grace and I also think people need to recognize that kids are—no matter what kids were doing at home and if they were being supplemented with extra work, everybody lost a year or two. And when there’s the pressure for those kids to perform, and numbers unfortunately matter a lot for school districts, it’s hard. And I think it’s made—I feel like going back to last year in September was difficult, but there was still a lot of grace given. Whereas now that things are seemingly normal, the expectation is back to where we were before Covid and it’s a lot. And it’s too much for kids and it’s too much for teachers and the expectation is too much when there’s been a lot lost.
Q: Did you have difficulties updating any supplies during the pandemic—medication, cleaning supplies, the toilet paper crisis? Did any of the kids express any sort of issues, or…?
CL: No. I feel like if anything, everyone—I think everyone went nuts with supplying us with the sanitizing wipes and sanitizer and masks, so I don’t think I had any difficulty, personally, or—you know, even in school, I feel very much equipped with what we needed but does mental health count? You know, I think that—if there’s anything that comes to mind, now, is I don’t think there was enough attention paid towards the kids and to what they were kind of experiencing. And even as a teacher it’s hard to—there were times where I felt like I didn’t know what to say or I didn’t know how to explain it other than, well, it’s because it’s Covid. You know, that’s just it. And how the well-being of teachers’ mental health has been handled and is being handled—I don’t know that it’s being addressed, yeah. And I think it’s just now the pressure. Just the pressure to produce when, again, there’s a lot lost and it’s expecting too much, I think.
Q: And when the pandemic was first going on, did you go out still to stores or were you having things delivered and what was that like? That experience?
CL: Before the pandemic, I was doing Hello Fresh for dinner, so we still continued with it and it was convenient. And then whenever we needed groceries we would go, but rarely would we—and I think, you know, having my parents nearby helped because either I would go on a big trip for everyone or my mom or my aunt was nearby, too, in Jersey City, so we would all just kind of take the lists and hit the store in one trip. So, yeah.
Q: And just for the—in case in the future, somebody’s listening and they don’t know what Hello Fresh is—you want to…?
CL: Oh, it’s a meal delivery service. I don’t have a promo code but they ship you the ingredients and they ship you the recipe and you just do it step-by-step and you have a meal. It’s pretty good.
Q: Thank you. Did you leave the city at any point—I know at one point you said you were staying with your parents—but other than that, did you guys, you know, go on a trip somewhere, you and your fiancé at the time?
CL: No. Well, that summer—so when school ended, I think it was the last week of school since we were still virtual, that would have been June 2020—we went to my aunt’s house in Massachusetts and they had recently bought a beach house in Narragansett, Rhode Island, so we—my cousin and I got in my car. We drove and met them there. We spent a week there and, yeah, other than that.
Q: Was it any different than, you’d say, like, experiencing the pandemic there versus here? Or were they doing similar precautions and stuff in Massachusetts?
CL: We were only in Massachusetts at my aunt’s house, but Rhode Island we were—when we had gotten to Narragansett, they were masked up. I think at that time it was very rare to see someone who didn’t comply. And if you did, it was kind of, like, they caught your eye but rarely did you see herds of people not following any kind of guideline.
Q: Did you have friends or family in other states or other countries and were their experiences any different than yours here in Hoboken?
CL: Any other states or countries—my husband has a lot of family in Europe so we had kind of heard what was going on there and then I think it was just as stringent but I think people were more vocal about that going into, you know, I think here we were more, you know, we tend to be more defiant. And maybe—and then what I had heard later was that we just weren’t paying enough attention and it wasn’t being as open or displayed in Europe. But there were still people that were anti-mask but for the most part, people kind of followed whatever guideline.
Q: And with your workplace, was there any specific thing that they did to keep you and the kids safe?
CL: They provided masks or they kept extras on hand for students because, for whatever reason, they would always break—especially the non-cloth ones or the sewed ones. And I think they—I think the big thing was taking a week before any major break or holiday, taking that time before and after to mitigate any transmission and then providing testing for students because we were one of maybe a couple school districts in Hudson County that had a majority in-person. And had stayed open for the entire year without having to shut down an entire building in the district. Which, you know, our superintendent should be very proud of because it was a risk and I think a lot of people were against it but when we saw it through and everyone made it out okay, it’s a big deal. Because a lot of assumptions are that it was virtual, so everyone this year was, like, well what’s it like going back in-person? I was, like, I’ve been in-person. This is just another year, if anything, and I think it’s pretty rare and kind of unheard of—especially that early into the pandemic.
Q: Did you feel anything in your life previously had prepared you for the pandemic? Or was it just something you can’t prepare for?
CL: I think maybe there were certain aspects that I had been prepared for. I think adjusting to technology and kind of—I’m not tech-savvy, but I’m willing to—I think a lot of people are just afraid to kind of click around and make mistakes. I feel like they think they’re going to blow their computer up if they try and explore a little bit. So I think adjusting to that because I feel like for everyone it played a huge role and still plays a huge role in how we navigate the world now. So I think having that in my back pocket helped a lot. Helped create a lot of resources for myself in terms of work. And resources that I could share, too. And I still utilize even though I am in-person.
Q: And would you say things have mostly gone back to normal for you now, or do you still see the effects of the pandemic regularly?
CL: I think now we’re seeing a little bit of an uptick in terms of cases in our schools so that’s a little alarming. But I think, again, just kind of being numb to it now and kind of just seeing it as, okay, well, you know, I’m doing what I can and I’m doing kind of what—I’m just following the guidelines. Just following the guidelines.
Q: And you mentioned—did you get married sometime during the pandemic?
CL: I did.
Q: So what was that like having a pandemic wedding and planning during the pandemic?
CL: I would say I’m glad it’s over with. We had waited. I was in no rush. I wasn’t desperate to do it but the timing—and contracts. Getting a new date would have been a pain and we already rescheduled it and I wasn’t by any means devastated because I would have rather done it during a good time than in the middle of chaos and at that time, this past summer, it wasn’t as chaotic. And then we were on the beginning cusp of Delta. I had two friends that couldn’t make it to the wedding and they were in my wedding and that was unfortunate but I’m glad we did it. We don’t need to do it again. No regrets. But I don’t recommend it to anyone. You worry about other people and I think even prior to the pandemic you still worry about people coming but that added layer, it’s not fun. Whether or not people are vaccinated, whether or not you provide testing—that added layer is no fun. So planning it wasn’t bad. I think experiencing it included tons of anxiety because you just don’t want to be the jerk that had a super spreader. And I didn’t, surprisingly. I’m still surprised that it wasn’t, so everyone walked away healthy and that’s all I could hope for.
Q: Do you think there was anything about being in Hoboken that made your pandemic experience unique? Or do you feel you had similar experiences to other people that you’ve talked to?
CL: I think it made me remember how small Hoboken is. I think it really brought things down to scale. It’s a square mile, you know? And you forget that because you’re surrounded by big cities and so it made you realize how small it is and how important your community is.
Q: And did you or any of your friends or family have local businesses and do you know how they were impacted by the pandemic?
CL: No local businesses. Like storefront—no local businesses. I have a couple friends who have their own business but it’s generally online so, no local business.
Q: So online—I’d be curious, did they feel like the pandemic in some ways helped online businesses, or…?
CL: Kind of sort of because I think, like, one of my really good friends, she has her own—she’s an artist and she has her own greeting card business and greeting cards—I said, oh my God, this is amazing. This should be a big opportunity for you. And she goes, yeah, if you’re already exposed in a storefront, but not a lot of people—unless you’re going on Etsy and printing it out—not a lot of people are seeing a reason to seek out greeting cards when you can send an e-mail. Or they’re not going to parties so there’s no reason to go pick up a birthday card. And she was still kind of building her way up and now that things are opening up now that she can go to conventions and put her product out there—her products out there—it’s much easier but, yeah. I think it was kind of because she could push her social media, but, yeah, it’s funny because there was no reason for people to buy cards. And if they weren’t going to a store, you know, so…
Q: Have you made any changes in your life or with your job that you plan to keep even after this whole thing is over?
CL: I think incorporating technology. Keeping things digitally backed up I think, too, is another thing I’m going to keep going and keeping my Google drive organized because, you know, you accumulate all of this stuff and it’s digital but if you can’t find it, it’s useless. So, yeah, it seems silly but when you have so many resources that you’ve created yourself, you want to be able to use it and share it and find it. So, yeah.
Q: And has the pandemic changed anything about the way you view Hoboken?
CL: I think it made me remember how great Hoboken is. I always viewed it as my hometown—aside from Jersey City, I would say more Hoboken because my formative years were here and, yeah, it made me want to stay, honestly. Because for a while I considered moving away because there was no need to be in-person at work for myself or for my husband so it made me remember how great it was to grow up here and, you know, my roots are here so, yeah.
Q: And what changes do you think Hoboken has had since the pandemic? Have you seen any changes, or…?
CL: Changes—it’s hard because we’re at a point now where things feel normal. Everyone’s out so I think I’ve seen it evolve from the pandemic to now—because technically we’re still in the pandemic, right? I don’t think we’ve hit that other tier yet but I think it’s back to where it was. I think it had changed a lot. I think I’m seeing a lot more, unfortunately, homeless population, it’s growing so that’s alarming. And I’m seeing it become less and less accessible, I think, and that’s the part where it kind of scares me a little bit because I think the things that I loved about Hoboken, it’s now being pushed out and there’s no longer this nice balance, this nice kind of sweet spot of a community where there’s a range of people. There’s a range of economic statuses and so that part, yeah. I think I take back what I said before about not seeing much change. I think that’s the biggest thing.
Q: What would you like to see for the future of Hoboken?
CL: Keeping the accessibility. I think there’s a big population that is being catered to and that’s not a good look and it’s not—I’m hoping that it’s not sustainable but everywhere you look—and for a very long time, everywhere you looked things are being built around us, but I think the heart and the little bit of that grit is kind of being lost. So…
Q: Anything else you’d like to mention about Hoboken related to the pandemic or your personal experiences?
CL: I think Hoboken did a good job at handling everything. And that’s also to say that no one knew how to handle anything but whatever they did do was with the interest of everyone’s lives in mind and I think that’s the most important part of, you know, keeping everyone—I think that they handled keeping everyone calm and not panicked, good. I think keeping everyone informed constantly was helpful in making things easily accessible, like testing early one was really helpful, too. And keeping people informed. Because as small as the town is, you know, you could easily get lost and not have access to testing and I feel like, as a teacher, trying to help the families and my students and knowing what resources I have to give them was really helpful.
Q: Anything else pandemic-related you’d want future generations of Hobokenites to know about?
CL: Remember to give everybody a little grace when navigating something that has no—there’s no guide. There’s no game plan book to follow something like this. And I think understanding that people are human and they’re going to make mistakes and people are going to have hard days and just kind of recognizing that people are trying is important.
Q: And so anything else that you’d want to include before we wrap up, or…?
CL: No.
Q: Thank you so much for joining us.
CL: Of course. Thanks. Thank you.
[audio end]
CL: Okay. Caitlyn Layson. I am 32. What were the other things, sorry? Name, age, any other background information?
Q: Yeah, background information.
CL: I am from Jersey City/Hoboken. I’ve been in Hoboken probably since—well I was always back and forth, but I started going to school here I think 5th grade—no, 4th grade. And then I was at Wallace for a year and then I went to Mustard Seed and after Mustard Seed I went to high school in the city and then I came back my junior year and I went to the Hudson School. And I’m still here. I went to college in the area and did my masters in Montclair and then I started teaching right after my masters at Connors Elementary School, yep.
Q: Where were you when the initial lockdown was announced in March of 2020 and what do you remember from that day and moment?
CL: I remember hearing that it was happening. I think it was probably March 13 because—and I remember because it was what was written on my whiteboard at work, or in my classroom, and my teacher’s aide who became a really good friend of mine—and she had two daughters in the school and she seemed really panicked about it and I kind of was, like, no, we’ll be back in two weeks. And then scrambling to get stuff to send home for the kids that had shown up that day and, yeah, just kind of hearing from my principal and the vice principal to just get whatever I can together to send home in packets and we’ll see from there. So there were a lot of unknowns and I think it didn’t hit until, you know, until everything started really shutting down, yeah.
Q: And with your school, were they doing virtual teaching? Were they sending packets back and forth? How did they handle it?
CL: So the district at first was—it was paper. So everything was sent home and I know that my school specifically, it is a Title 1 school so we have a lot of—we have a range of socioeconomic backgrounds but with our lower income students not having a printer at home and all of that. So it was just paper-based. It wasn’t mandatory to meet virtually and, if anything, it was the first time I’d ever heard about Zoom, you know? I feel like it was everyone’s first introduction to it so I think probably for the first month and a half, it was just, you know, checking in—I would just call families and then they slowly started to roll out virtual where we were really in virtual teaching. And honestly I think it was better that way where we didn’t feel so thrown into it and we were able to kind of figure out what was going to work for us and what was going to work for our kids, too. Primarily my students were kids who had learning disabilities and reading and getting onto those computers is already a challenge as a second grader—actually not that much because kids by now can pretty much log on to anything—but, you know, navigating Zoom, putting in their e-mail because they never really had to. And getting the technology to them, too. Especially because I was working with primarily kids who come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds. But I will say our district did a really good job at giving a date and being flexible in terms of a pick-up place for the computers and just kind of getting it—making sure to get it to everyone.
Q: And as the pandemic progressed, were there any more changes with the teaching and with—when we went into the second year?
CL: So, the second year, which would have been September 2020, unless we had a medical reason, we were in-person. So I was in-person from September up until now. Unless we have a case of close contact or a positive case in the classroom. And then before breaks we would be virtual for the week and then coming back we would be in-person. It would be virtual just to mitigate any chance of seeing family members and contracting anything.
Q: And what was your emotional reaction like throughout the pandemic, would you say?
CL: It’s a mixed bag because, you know, it’s not a job where the only effect is a product. They’re people that I’m kind of hoping to mold and to input as much knowledge and information, and expiration is possible. But then there’s the other side of it where it was kind of nice to be home and it was kind of nice to be in town where there was so much parking—not that I had anywhere to go—but it was quiet. And you only really get that here around major holidays where it’s kind of dead. So there’s that part where you get to spend time with people in your little bubble but also I still had a job to do and I still had expectations of myself to perform and to be there for students. And that goes hand-in-hand with, you know, their emotional well-being. Yeah, because I had students—it was a range of students whose parents still had to work and parents were at home and had never had their kids home and they had never had to handle school work. I unfortunately had to put that on them, too, so I think it was a mix of worry and kind of—I don’t know the right word for it but just kind of settling—yeah, like settling into being home all the time.
Q: And were there any challenges you had about being homebound like that and kind of, you know, when we were in lockdown especially?
CL: I wouldn’t say—you asked if there were any challenges?
Q: Hm-hmm [affirmative].
CL: I think the biggest challenges were with work. I think personally it wasn’t much of a challenge to stay home and so I think the biggest challenge was working with students who already have, you know, a hard time retaining information and especially reading and not being able to give them manipulatives to work with and to try to make it as exciting as possible. So I think it was just as exhausting—you feel like the biggest thing you learn when you start teaching is that you’re always on. So always having to be on in-person but then to always have to be on at home and then try to settle and have a routine was probably a challenge—now that I think about. You know, it was nice being home but at the same time the work and home, that division, started to meld together and I kind of had to, like, shut it down. But it’s hard, you know? It still is a challenge to shut it down but more so when I had nowhere to go, yeah.
Q: Did you kind of create routines to kind of say, this is my work time, this is my at-home time?
CL: Yeah, I think staying active and moving around a lot. Fortunately, I go to Fit Foundry, it’s uptown, and they did a really great job of transitioning from—and almost immediately, actually—transitioning from in-person to making all of their classes virtual and making it accessible for everyone as members of the gym. So they did a really great job. And honestly, it probably saved me from going nuts. So, yeah.
Q: Did you view yourself and your job differently during the pandemic and, you know, what about other people—how they viewed you? Did you feel like the parents of the students view you differently now that you’ve had this experience?
CL: I think so. I think teaching kind of can be like a selfless job at times. You kind of have to live with things that you do not—you sort of become—I don’t know if numb is the right word, but you kind of see everything as, it’s just what I’ve got to do. And when I would tell people who weren’t teachers about what I was doing and trying to keep on top of, it seems like a lot, but it’s just kind of what you had to do. I think it’s different when you’re talking to your coworker about it and you’re, like, oh, I tried this or I found this resource, and do you want to try? And you just send it over. Whereas, you know, that also takes a lot of time to learn how to navigate and use and apply to your 15 students or your 17 students at a time. So I think parents—yeah, I think especially teachers. It makes me uncomfortable when people are, like, you guys are—teachers are superheroes and all of that. It’s great but I think—it’s kind of like, this is what we’ve been doing. This is what we’ve been doing this whole time. We weren’t just having your kids sit there and fill out some paperwork. A lot goes into it and I think everyone started to recognize that.
Q: So the parents could actually kind of see what you were doing—
CL: Yeah, exactly.
Q: . . . because they were literally there.
CL: Hm-hmm [affirmative], yes. And even now, like, earlier this year we had to be remote for just a couple days before Thanksgiving and I have a co-teacher because we’re an inclusion classroom so I’m the special ed. teacher and she’s the gen ed. teacher and we had parents, you know, messaging us on the side, like, I don’t know how you do it. Because, you know, they’re sitting with their kid. They’re witnessing everything that they’re doing. They’re hearing what we’re doing on our end and then, you know, what their kids are responding on their end. And they’re, like, I don’t know how you do this all day. Like, literally, almost every parent messages on the side and I would just send it to my co-teacher, like, isn’t this hilarious. They’re really—and it’s nothing in our minds. It’s just the day-to-day, but I think for parents to see their kid not only in a school element, but also how they are in school. Who they’ve become now that they’ve been with us for a while, they see the difference and they sort of are able to recognize—there’s a lot that goes into at times.
Q: Do you want to talk about a little bit how any of your family or friends, how their lives were affected by the pandemic?
CL: Yeah. So, my now husband, he worked for Hunter College and so he worked for the institutional research side of it but also was an adjunct professor, so now we’re both teaching at the same time and we don’t have a huge apartment and so just trying to navigate that. And, you know, my mom is a nurse so she was in it and I think that’s the part where I’m sure a lot of people who had family members that had to be on the front line—it’s a little scary because—and now it’s still something that you’re cautious of but I think it’s—I think everyone is a little numb to it—but in the beginning it was hard to let them go to work. It’s hard to see them off to work because for a while we stayed—my parents still live in Hoboken—but we stayed with them for a while. And she wasn’t going in at the time—I think for a couple weeks, but then when things started to get really intense, she started to go in and that’s when I was, like, I’ve got to go home. Because I can’t see you after work and then be worried all day and focus on what I have to do. So it was easier for her to be in her own apartment for a little bit. And my dad is in IT so that was an easy transition for him. But, yeah, I think having my mom be out there and it being so new to her and sort of seeing how kind of fearful she was, too, having to go in was eye-opening. You remember that there are risks to every job.
Q: What are some things that occurred that you think those outside your specific experience might not realize about the pandemic, either as a teacher or just living in Hoboken?
CL: I think as a teacher having it be the second year, almost third year we’re going through all of this, right? I think everyone needs to give each other—give everyone a little more grace. I think there was a point where everyone was doing that and everyone wanted to be so nice to each other and to accommodate everyone and everyone was—one of my best friends is in service, restaurant business, and she was, like, people are just tipping real big these days and then it started to slowly die down. But even with money aside, I think just giving everyone a little bit of grace and I also think people need to recognize that kids are—no matter what kids were doing at home and if they were being supplemented with extra work, everybody lost a year or two. And when there’s the pressure for those kids to perform, and numbers unfortunately matter a lot for school districts, it’s hard. And I think it’s made—I feel like going back to last year in September was difficult, but there was still a lot of grace given. Whereas now that things are seemingly normal, the expectation is back to where we were before Covid and it’s a lot. And it’s too much for kids and it’s too much for teachers and the expectation is too much when there’s been a lot lost.
Q: Did you have difficulties updating any supplies during the pandemic—medication, cleaning supplies, the toilet paper crisis? Did any of the kids express any sort of issues, or…?
CL: No. I feel like if anything, everyone—I think everyone went nuts with supplying us with the sanitizing wipes and sanitizer and masks, so I don’t think I had any difficulty, personally, or—you know, even in school, I feel very much equipped with what we needed but does mental health count? You know, I think that—if there’s anything that comes to mind, now, is I don’t think there was enough attention paid towards the kids and to what they were kind of experiencing. And even as a teacher it’s hard to—there were times where I felt like I didn’t know what to say or I didn’t know how to explain it other than, well, it’s because it’s Covid. You know, that’s just it. And how the well-being of teachers’ mental health has been handled and is being handled—I don’t know that it’s being addressed, yeah. And I think it’s just now the pressure. Just the pressure to produce when, again, there’s a lot lost and it’s expecting too much, I think.
Q: And when the pandemic was first going on, did you go out still to stores or were you having things delivered and what was that like? That experience?
CL: Before the pandemic, I was doing Hello Fresh for dinner, so we still continued with it and it was convenient. And then whenever we needed groceries we would go, but rarely would we—and I think, you know, having my parents nearby helped because either I would go on a big trip for everyone or my mom or my aunt was nearby, too, in Jersey City, so we would all just kind of take the lists and hit the store in one trip. So, yeah.
Q: And just for the—in case in the future, somebody’s listening and they don’t know what Hello Fresh is—you want to…?
CL: Oh, it’s a meal delivery service. I don’t have a promo code but they ship you the ingredients and they ship you the recipe and you just do it step-by-step and you have a meal. It’s pretty good.
Q: Thank you. Did you leave the city at any point—I know at one point you said you were staying with your parents—but other than that, did you guys, you know, go on a trip somewhere, you and your fiancé at the time?
CL: No. Well, that summer—so when school ended, I think it was the last week of school since we were still virtual, that would have been June 2020—we went to my aunt’s house in Massachusetts and they had recently bought a beach house in Narragansett, Rhode Island, so we—my cousin and I got in my car. We drove and met them there. We spent a week there and, yeah, other than that.
Q: Was it any different than, you’d say, like, experiencing the pandemic there versus here? Or were they doing similar precautions and stuff in Massachusetts?
CL: We were only in Massachusetts at my aunt’s house, but Rhode Island we were—when we had gotten to Narragansett, they were masked up. I think at that time it was very rare to see someone who didn’t comply. And if you did, it was kind of, like, they caught your eye but rarely did you see herds of people not following any kind of guideline.
Q: Did you have friends or family in other states or other countries and were their experiences any different than yours here in Hoboken?
CL: Any other states or countries—my husband has a lot of family in Europe so we had kind of heard what was going on there and then I think it was just as stringent but I think people were more vocal about that going into, you know, I think here we were more, you know, we tend to be more defiant. And maybe—and then what I had heard later was that we just weren’t paying enough attention and it wasn’t being as open or displayed in Europe. But there were still people that were anti-mask but for the most part, people kind of followed whatever guideline.
Q: And with your workplace, was there any specific thing that they did to keep you and the kids safe?
CL: They provided masks or they kept extras on hand for students because, for whatever reason, they would always break—especially the non-cloth ones or the sewed ones. And I think they—I think the big thing was taking a week before any major break or holiday, taking that time before and after to mitigate any transmission and then providing testing for students because we were one of maybe a couple school districts in Hudson County that had a majority in-person. And had stayed open for the entire year without having to shut down an entire building in the district. Which, you know, our superintendent should be very proud of because it was a risk and I think a lot of people were against it but when we saw it through and everyone made it out okay, it’s a big deal. Because a lot of assumptions are that it was virtual, so everyone this year was, like, well what’s it like going back in-person? I was, like, I’ve been in-person. This is just another year, if anything, and I think it’s pretty rare and kind of unheard of—especially that early into the pandemic.
Q: Did you feel anything in your life previously had prepared you for the pandemic? Or was it just something you can’t prepare for?
CL: I think maybe there were certain aspects that I had been prepared for. I think adjusting to technology and kind of—I’m not tech-savvy, but I’m willing to—I think a lot of people are just afraid to kind of click around and make mistakes. I feel like they think they’re going to blow their computer up if they try and explore a little bit. So I think adjusting to that because I feel like for everyone it played a huge role and still plays a huge role in how we navigate the world now. So I think having that in my back pocket helped a lot. Helped create a lot of resources for myself in terms of work. And resources that I could share, too. And I still utilize even though I am in-person.
Q: And would you say things have mostly gone back to normal for you now, or do you still see the effects of the pandemic regularly?
CL: I think now we’re seeing a little bit of an uptick in terms of cases in our schools so that’s a little alarming. But I think, again, just kind of being numb to it now and kind of just seeing it as, okay, well, you know, I’m doing what I can and I’m doing kind of what—I’m just following the guidelines. Just following the guidelines.
Q: And you mentioned—did you get married sometime during the pandemic?
CL: I did.
Q: So what was that like having a pandemic wedding and planning during the pandemic?
CL: I would say I’m glad it’s over with. We had waited. I was in no rush. I wasn’t desperate to do it but the timing—and contracts. Getting a new date would have been a pain and we already rescheduled it and I wasn’t by any means devastated because I would have rather done it during a good time than in the middle of chaos and at that time, this past summer, it wasn’t as chaotic. And then we were on the beginning cusp of Delta. I had two friends that couldn’t make it to the wedding and they were in my wedding and that was unfortunate but I’m glad we did it. We don’t need to do it again. No regrets. But I don’t recommend it to anyone. You worry about other people and I think even prior to the pandemic you still worry about people coming but that added layer, it’s not fun. Whether or not people are vaccinated, whether or not you provide testing—that added layer is no fun. So planning it wasn’t bad. I think experiencing it included tons of anxiety because you just don’t want to be the jerk that had a super spreader. And I didn’t, surprisingly. I’m still surprised that it wasn’t, so everyone walked away healthy and that’s all I could hope for.
Q: Do you think there was anything about being in Hoboken that made your pandemic experience unique? Or do you feel you had similar experiences to other people that you’ve talked to?
CL: I think it made me remember how small Hoboken is. I think it really brought things down to scale. It’s a square mile, you know? And you forget that because you’re surrounded by big cities and so it made you realize how small it is and how important your community is.
Q: And did you or any of your friends or family have local businesses and do you know how they were impacted by the pandemic?
CL: No local businesses. Like storefront—no local businesses. I have a couple friends who have their own business but it’s generally online so, no local business.
Q: So online—I’d be curious, did they feel like the pandemic in some ways helped online businesses, or…?
CL: Kind of sort of because I think, like, one of my really good friends, she has her own—she’s an artist and she has her own greeting card business and greeting cards—I said, oh my God, this is amazing. This should be a big opportunity for you. And she goes, yeah, if you’re already exposed in a storefront, but not a lot of people—unless you’re going on Etsy and printing it out—not a lot of people are seeing a reason to seek out greeting cards when you can send an e-mail. Or they’re not going to parties so there’s no reason to go pick up a birthday card. And she was still kind of building her way up and now that things are opening up now that she can go to conventions and put her product out there—her products out there—it’s much easier but, yeah. I think it was kind of because she could push her social media, but, yeah, it’s funny because there was no reason for people to buy cards. And if they weren’t going to a store, you know, so…
Q: Have you made any changes in your life or with your job that you plan to keep even after this whole thing is over?
CL: I think incorporating technology. Keeping things digitally backed up I think, too, is another thing I’m going to keep going and keeping my Google drive organized because, you know, you accumulate all of this stuff and it’s digital but if you can’t find it, it’s useless. So, yeah, it seems silly but when you have so many resources that you’ve created yourself, you want to be able to use it and share it and find it. So, yeah.
Q: And has the pandemic changed anything about the way you view Hoboken?
CL: I think it made me remember how great Hoboken is. I always viewed it as my hometown—aside from Jersey City, I would say more Hoboken because my formative years were here and, yeah, it made me want to stay, honestly. Because for a while I considered moving away because there was no need to be in-person at work for myself or for my husband so it made me remember how great it was to grow up here and, you know, my roots are here so, yeah.
Q: And what changes do you think Hoboken has had since the pandemic? Have you seen any changes, or…?
CL: Changes—it’s hard because we’re at a point now where things feel normal. Everyone’s out so I think I’ve seen it evolve from the pandemic to now—because technically we’re still in the pandemic, right? I don’t think we’ve hit that other tier yet but I think it’s back to where it was. I think it had changed a lot. I think I’m seeing a lot more, unfortunately, homeless population, it’s growing so that’s alarming. And I’m seeing it become less and less accessible, I think, and that’s the part where it kind of scares me a little bit because I think the things that I loved about Hoboken, it’s now being pushed out and there’s no longer this nice balance, this nice kind of sweet spot of a community where there’s a range of people. There’s a range of economic statuses and so that part, yeah. I think I take back what I said before about not seeing much change. I think that’s the biggest thing.
Q: What would you like to see for the future of Hoboken?
CL: Keeping the accessibility. I think there’s a big population that is being catered to and that’s not a good look and it’s not—I’m hoping that it’s not sustainable but everywhere you look—and for a very long time, everywhere you looked things are being built around us, but I think the heart and the little bit of that grit is kind of being lost. So…
Q: Anything else you’d like to mention about Hoboken related to the pandemic or your personal experiences?
CL: I think Hoboken did a good job at handling everything. And that’s also to say that no one knew how to handle anything but whatever they did do was with the interest of everyone’s lives in mind and I think that’s the most important part of, you know, keeping everyone—I think that they handled keeping everyone calm and not panicked, good. I think keeping everyone informed constantly was helpful in making things easily accessible, like testing early one was really helpful, too. And keeping people informed. Because as small as the town is, you know, you could easily get lost and not have access to testing and I feel like, as a teacher, trying to help the families and my students and knowing what resources I have to give them was really helpful.
Q: Anything else pandemic-related you’d want future generations of Hobokenites to know about?
CL: Remember to give everybody a little grace when navigating something that has no—there’s no guide. There’s no game plan book to follow something like this. And I think understanding that people are human and they’re going to make mistakes and people are going to have hard days and just kind of recognizing that people are trying is important.
Q: And so anything else that you’d want to include before we wrap up, or…?
CL: No.
Q: Thank you so much for joining us.
CL: Of course. Thanks. Thank you.
[audio end]
Interviewer
Aimee Harris
Interviewee
Caitlin Layson
Location
Hoboken Public Library, Hoboken, New Jersey
Citation
Hoboken Public Library, “Interview 06: Caitlin Layson,” Hoboken Public Library's 2022 COVID-19 Oral History Project, accessed May 15, 2024, https://hobokenoralhistory2022.omeka.net/items/show/6.