Covid lockdown: Boris Johnson was right, we did get through it – Susan Dalgety

What memories from the last two years would you put in a time capsule to be opened in 50 years’ time?

Future generations will want to learn about life under lockdown (Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

That was the challenge set for pupils from three West Lothian primary schools to mark the refurbishment of Whitburn’s Burgh Halls.

Last week, youngsters from Croftmalloch, Polkemmet and Whitdale Primary Schools joined councillor Kirsteen Sullivan to seal their time capsules in the walls of a new Partnership Centre due to open later this year.

The pupils contributed drawings and photographs as well as writing down their thoughts and feelings about the Covid pandemic. They are bound to delight whoever finds them in 2072.

If I had to choose three things to put in my time capsule, I would start with a copy of my Covid vaccination certificate. During the dark days of the first lockdown, I couldn’t believe that we would be able to produce not one, but several, vaccines to combat Covid. Yet here I am in August 2022 awaiting my fourth jab.

I would throw in my old iPhone, with a note explaining how important it was during the pandemic. I used my smartphone to order groceries, to stay in touch with family and friends, to binge on box sets, and of course check the Covid numbers in East Lothian every day.

In 50 years’ time, we will have microchips in our fingertips, and people will laugh at my old iPhone 8S the same way my grandchildren giggle at my record player, but I could not have survived the last two years without it. I may have been locked down, but I had the whole world in my pocket.

And of course I would include a copy of the Evening News, the one from Monday 23 March 2020, the day the first lockdown began.

As we struggle to cope with the cost-of-living crisis, it’s easy to forget that only two years ago we were facing the biggest global catastrophe since the Second World War.

“We will come through it stronger than ever,” said Boris Johnson as he announced a Draconian set of measures. And while it may not feel like that now, he was right. Working together, we survived. And that is surely something to tell our great-grandchildren.