As the first day of early voting dawned in the Cook County suburbs on Oct. 19, voters lined up around the building at Brookfield Village Hall, waiting as long as two hours to cast their ballots. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Cyclists ride their bikes down Burlington Street on June 25, 2020, in Riverside. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Brook Park principal Mike Sorensen, left, takes a student’s temperature with a decorated thermo-gun before being allowed to enter the building on Sept. 21 in LaGrange Park. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Killian Cwik, 9, lines up a putt as a cutout of Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s meme-worthy glower stares back during the Brook Park Council’s Summer Camp Progressive Putt Putt on one of the front lawn holes scattered throughout Brookfield and LaGrange Park on June 28. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Workers serve the outdoor diners on Nov. 6, at La Barra on Longcommon Avenue in Riverside. On Nov. 5, elected officials voted unanimously to extend temporary sidewalk and outdoor patio access for downtown establishments through April 30, 2021. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Komarek School eighth-graders wave from their vehicles to well-wishers lining a parade route from the school to Village Commons before a graduation ceremony at Veterans Park on May 30. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Families of present and past students — about 50 of them — said farewell to Jenny Barhorst personally during a drive-by parade outside Hollywood School on May 29. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Grand Boulevard is seen blocked off for outdoor dining customers on July 25. Public works crews barricaded the street at the Grand/Prairie/Fairview/Brookfield intersection and mid-block to provide a safe area for diners, who sat at tables set up on either side of Grand Boulevard in front of establishments. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Sidelined by the pandemic, Sam Sion (top) and Sylvia Friedman sharpen their trapeze act in the backyard of their Riverside home on July 16. The Duo Rose perform an act that combines dynamic trapeze work, contortionism and a good dollop of sexy intimacy that has wowed crowds from Chicago to Europe. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Brook Park School fifth-grader Tristan Spaargaren works on a project in class on the first day of hybrid-learning school on Aug. 26. (Alex Rogals/Staff Photographer)
Twenty years from now our kids and grandkids will look at a photo of a line of people, all wearing facemasks, and wonder, “What was that all about?” Or, who knows, maybe masks will be so common in the future, that they’ll marvel at picture of people packed shoulder to shoulder, unmasked, without a care in the world.
Either way, 2020 will be seen as “that year we all wore masks” or the demarcation line between the way we used to live and the new normal. For all of us who lived through it, 2020 will remain unforgettable.
