Music, Exercise, Gray Hair: Pandemic Practices That Live on

Dusting off old musical instruments, appreciating the outdoors more meaningfully, dumping the hair dye and letting the gray fly forever.

The pandemic disrupted our traditions, practices and pursuits, how we mark milestones, what we do with our time, what’s important in routines. It replaced old with new, a kind of new that just might stick.

Nearly three years after the World Health Organization declared the deadly spread of COVID-19 a pandemic, there’s plenty of old life mixed with the new. And, yes, the latter includes a whole lot of Zooming still going on among families, colleagues and friends, near and far.

Here’s a look at pandemic passions that for some are here to stay:

INSTRUMENT REDUX

That sax in the corner. The piano that looks so nice in the living room but was rarely played. People picked up their instruments again, some after decades, to flex their musical muscles.

They’re not looking for concert careers, but they’re dedicated in their rediscoveries.

Bob Dorobis in Middletown, New Jersey, worked intensely to improve his guitar fingerpicking during the pandemic after a long break. Now, the 70-year-old software developer is looking forward to more practice time in retirement.

“When your fingerpicking sounds good it’s very rewarding,” he said. “I finally realized the only way for me to like it better is to learn it better.”

EXERCISE LOVE

The post-lockdown economy wasn’t kind to Peloton when its stock tanked as many pandemic newbies lost their mojo. Many, but not all. We’ve got newcomers seriously spinning on.

Amid all the spinning, folks who hadn’t worked out in years are now committed to running, working up to half-marathons and beyond.