Oral History Interview with Allison Lile

Mandy Higgins 0:00 So, it is Wednesday, June 22nd at 5:25pm and we're in Frankfort, Kentucky. Mandy Higgins is conducting the interview. So, if you could start by stating and spelling your name,

Allison Lile 0:13 my name is Allison Lyle. It's A-l-l-i-s-o-n L-i-l-e.

Mandy Higgins 0:19 Awesome. When did you begin to sew or craft?

Allison Lile 0:27 When my daughter was in second grade, she was involved in the Bluegrass Theatre Guild here in Frankfort. And the children's productions were run by my old music teacher. So, when I showed up as a parent, she said "you are assigned to this." And it was making costumes for that. So, that's when I learned how to sew quickly. [laughter] My mom, my mom knew and it was one of those things, kind of like teaching your child how to drive, it's better for somebody else to do it. And so I hadn't learned before that really on the sewing machine. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 0:59 Do you--how old is your daughter now?

Allison Lile 1:01 She's twenty, so that would have been thirteen years ago.

Mandy Higgins 1:03 Okay.

Allison Lile 1:03 Yeah, or she's almost twen--no she's twenty-one. I forgot, forteen years ago. [laughter]

Mandy Higgins 1:09 Did you--so you were self taught? Or did you--

Allison Lile 1:12 Yeah--

Mandy Higgins 1:12 --take lessons?

Allison Lile 1:13 --No--

Mandy Higgins 1:13 --or how did you--

Allison Lile 1:14 --Just self taught. Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 1:15 Yeah.

Allison Lile 1:15 Yeah, just lots of--of YouTube videos and Googling. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 1:19 Did you--what did you start making after you learned to sew the costumes?

Allison Lile 1:25 Pretty much stayed with costumes because, I was just involved with the theater. Even when my daughter wasn't in a production, I was usually involved with it. If you say--if someone says they theater sew locally, that means you can look at it from ten feet away, and it looks good. But, if you get closer, it might not look so good. [laughing] So--so I personally have never made clothing, or anything like that--I've made you know, I've made a quilt. I've made that sort of thing. But my daughter has far surpassed me. She makes her own clothes and it's like super complicated stuff. So, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 2:04 And did she start working with you when she was in second grade, or is this something she picked up later?

Allison Lile 2:10 Probably Middle School. Yeah, by Middle School she started doing that, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 2:13 Yeah, did you do any of that in groups? Can you talk a little bit about sort of your process of making these costumes, and--

Allison Lile 2:25 Well, in our house, we have a sewing room. And it looks like what I think of like old school architects, our tables are put together facing each other. And then we have our sewing machines on each table. So, that's what our sewing room looks like. And so, even if we're not working on the same project, we were often sewing together in the same room, just on different things. She's--goes to school in Boston now, so she's far away. [laughing] But, but when she's home, yeah, that sort of thing. But the costume, she would help me on costumes for the theater stuff. But, a lot of it wasn't like super complicated. Because for theater, we often would take things that already existed and just modify stuff. So it wasn't like a huge late--you know, labor process.

Mandy Higgins 3:15 Umhmm. Were you involved in any sort of sewing groups or other craft groups before the pandemic?

Allison Lile 3:21 No, I was not. [laughter] I was trying to think I'm like, no, no, I wasn't--I we had people in our church who do knitting, that sort of thing. And I kind of would have liked to have been in that kind of thing to learn from them, because she makes amazing things. And I just--that's one thing that I cannot figure out by watching YouTube videos. But, I never had the opportunity to do that. no

Mandy Higgins 3:48 Yeah. [I'm] shifting a little bit.

Allison Lile 3:53 Okay.

Mandy Higgins 3:53 How did you learn about COVID?

Allison Lile 3:57 Oh, well--at the time, I worked for the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. [laughter] So, I kind of--I'm trying to think of when I first heard about it. I'm sure I heard about it on the news. I'm a big podcast person, I listen to podcasts all day, all week while I work. And so I'm sure I heard about it there. But, I had just come back from a trip right before they sent us home. And I actually was sick right before they sent us home. I definitely did not have COVID, I just had a respiratory whatever, yearly allergy thing. So, I just came in to get my laptop and went home.

Mandy Higgins 4:41 Yeah.

Allison Lile 4:42 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 4:42 can you take me back to that--getting sent home days? Do you remember when it was, do you remember how you were feeling?

Allison Lile 4:50 It was the second week of March, I believe and--of 2020. And I was excited [laughing] because, I'm not necessarily a people person. If I could stay in my home all day, I probably would. So, I wasn't worried, I'm a very critical thinker. What I do for a living is work in healthcare data. So, I understand what the numbers mean, when I see them, I dig deeper and look at like, what are the sources. And so, I wasn't worried, I was--I've never been worried throughout the whole process, I'm more about stay educated and do your overlapping mitigations to prevent yourself from getting COVID, that sort of thing. So, I never really was worried I was more--actually what worried me the most was my daughter was a freshman in college in Boston. And her school kept saying they weren't gonna close, they weren't gonna close. Then they said they were gonna close and everybody needs to be gone in five days. Well, I couldn't drive up there and get her and bring all of her stuff back. So, that was actually the most stressful part of the whole thing, was figuring out where she's gonna store her stuff, and flying her home. So, but then when she got home, it was kind of lovely for her to be there and doing classes online. And then, I got to keep her for extra--long time, which was really nice.

Mandy Higgins 6:11 Yeah. Do you remember any of the early mitigation or like panic things? Do you remember doing anything like washing your groceries or--?

Allison Lile 6:21 I did not wash my groceries. I definitely stayed home. I had been doing [Kroger] ClickList before that, because I don't like the grocery store. [laughing] So, that was something I was already used to doing and already doing. And mainly, I just didn't go into anywhere. And if I had to go somewhere, I wore my mask, but, I mean, for months and months and months, I didn't go into anywhere. And I was fine with that, it didn't stress me out. I was fine just to be home, do my ClickList. My daughter and I and our two dogs, we were just--we were cool. But, I mean, mostly I just tried to pay attention to the smart people, the people who know way more about it--this than I do, the epidemiologists. And obviously, the people at the Cabinet that worked for [at] the time were the smart people. So, I just trusted what they told us.

Mandy Higgins 7:19 Yeah--do you--do you remember when you began to make masks?

Allison Lile 7:25 It was--I think it was it--was April, it was the next month. I don't remember exactly when, but they were talking about, obviously that the medical masks were in short supply, we need to leave those for the professionals. And I think someone maybe even asked me because they knew I sewed. And so, someone else I think, sent me a video and it was a lady in Lexington had posted a video on YouTube as she was making masks, I think for nurses. And she kind of gave out her whole process. And it was super simple, and so we just started doing that, my daughter and I actually did it together in the beginning when she was still there. And so April is when I started, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 8:10 Yeah. And so you learn[ed] from a YouTube video?

Allison Lile 8:12 Yeah. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 8:13 And did you keep that same pattern?

Allison Lile 8:15 Yes, yes, I am very much--so my background is, I have a math degree, I'm very, let's do the most efficient thing. And so yeah, I kept the same--I adjusted the--the ear straps and lengths because, I don't know how big people's faces are and kind of adapted some of those things. But, the--the premise of the actual mask that covers your face, I was the same form the beginning.

Mandy Higgins 8:43 How did you source your supplies?

Allison Lile 8:46 So, in the beginning, when stores--I don't think the stores stay closed, like--like completely, from the beginning. Maybe there was a few weeks and we already had material. But also, I think I probably posted on Facebook and I have a friend who had a mother who had passed a while back who was--she was a sewing hoarder. [laughter] Love the woman, love that she was a sewing hoarder. [laughing] And so this--this person gifted us quite a bit of fabric. And so we used that, but then also Joann's [Joann Fabrics] I'm so thankful we have a Joann's and Frankfort [laughing[, a lot of small towns have no source of that sort of thing. And you could do it online and just drive up and pick it up and they bring it out to you, so those ladies got to know us really well.

Mandy Higgins 9:35 Yeah. Did you--did your masks have filters or backing? Can you describe a little bit more of the like type of mask?

Allison Lile 9:43 Yeah, so we made the folding masks. I knew it would take me way too much time to cut out the patterns for the fitted masks. And that would just mean I couldn't make as many as I wanted to make. So, we made three layers and the front layer was one hundred percent cotton, the middle layer, if I was making them for somebody, I gave them the option, it could either be flannel, or it could be another layer of cotton. And then, the face layer could also--they could choose from flannel or another layer of just quilting cotton. And then yeah, from there, we just sewed them like normal.

Mandy Higgins 10:22 Yeah. Did you use elastic, or what were you doing for the ear bands?

Allison Lile 10:27 So at first, we just would use elastic at the very beginning. I think we did, but then it got hard to get elastic-- of the right kind. And so, we actually found this, a lot of people were talking about, you could use T-shirts, but I wasn't gonna just use something I already had, I didn't think that was hygienic. But we--my daughter had figured out there was this material that's kind of like those T-shirts that you get when you run Five Ks that are kind of slick, but you buy the material. And, if you cut that in strips and then pull it, then it becomes kind of like that. So, we did use that for probably three months. But then, we were able to get the the elastic. So, bought many, many, many hundreds of yards of elastic from Joann's and Amazon and wherever we could get it.

Mandy Higgins 11:18 Who are you making masks for?

Allison Lile 11:21 In the beginning, it was for friends and family, people that just, you know on Facebook who said they needed it. I did decide--I didn't charge anybody for those. But then, I decided, as a single mom with a kid in college, I probably needed to cover my costs at least. So, my daughter already had an Etsy store, so we started selling them on Etsy. And so, probably half of the ones that we made, we sold on Etsy and probably half were just local, either giving away, I don't know if--I probably--people probably gave me money for about twenty-five percent of the ones that were from local. Some people will just insist on it and whatever. But, neighbors, I know for Halloween that first year, I dropped off little-- because I knew the kids couldn't trick-or-treat, so I dropped off little packages of candy at the few houses on our street that had kids, with masks for the parents and the--and the kids. [laughing] I'm not sure they even knew who put them there. But-but yeah, I just, I mean, even--there were some people that were like oh, so and so really wants one. I'd give them their--my address, they'd do a porch pickup. So many random people came to my house [laughing] and did porch pickups for masks. And then I mailed a bunch for Etsy.

Mandy Higgins 12:40 Do you have an idea of how many masks you made in total?

Allison Lile 12:46 I have this on my-- I have this at home somewhere. It was at least two thousand, I'm not sure if I--if I went over two thousand, but it was at least two thousand.

Mandy Higgins 12:58 Can you tell me a little bit about sort of the feelings as you were making them? What was it like, what were you feeling or?

Allison Lile 13:06 Yeah, so it--it definitely made me feel useful, which I really, really appreciated. Because, otherwise I did not feel useful at all and I was one of those lucky people who could sit at home and do my job and got paid my full salary and benefits and everything so, I definitely wanted to feel useful. It was a little bit stressful because, I would work till you know, five o'clock every day and then immediately go to the sewing room. And so till ten or eleven o'clock at night, almost every night and every once awhile, we would take a break on the weekend, but I was easily sewing, you know, three to five hours every day to do this with my daughter, she was sewing too. So, a little bit stressful, but mostly useful and because I'm a big podcast and audio book and all that sort of thing you know, I had stories going on in my head the whole time. And at one point, I was listening to the book, Women of Troublesome Creek--did I say that right? And of course, that's about women in Kentucky and the--the librarians who went out into the mountains to deliver books and I was just like, I know I'm not anywhere near what they're doing, but I feel like this connection to these characters a little tiny bit, like nowhere close but like a tiny bit, you know, because they were doing you know, good work and all that stuff and they were from Kentucky, so I thought that was neat.

Mandy Higgins 14:35 Yeah, what about your daughter, do you have any insight into how she was feeling or--

Allison Lile 14:41 She's a very--she's a lot like me, critical thinker type thing. I don't recall, she was stressed while she was in school, about getting home and of course there's all you know, there's rumors when you're at school and she had heard that Logan Airport was gonna be shut down, I'm like Logan Airport's not gonna be shut down. And she had to--of course, I'm stressed about the fact that she wasted so much stuff because, she had to throw away so much stuff in her dorm room because she had nowhere to put it, and I hate being wasteful. But then, when she got home, she--she enjoyed the sewing, she's able to do class, but she could do actually some of the sewing while I was at work if we like, had somebody who wanted to pick up twenty masks for a particular group of people or whatever it was. So, I think it's relaxing for her. And it was relaxing for me too, some. When we didn't have--when we could do it just to kind of build up a supply, it was more relaxing, than someone's gonna be here at seven o'clock to pick up masks, we've got to get them done, kind of thing. So--but, yeah, I think she was not really stressed or anything, she was fine.

Did it feel like a bonding moment or something that you?

Oh, yeah, definitely. But, my daughter and I, we, I mean, we've--we've done everything together. Because I'm a single mom, she's my only child. So I mean, we've cooked meals together all you know, so a lot of the stuff that, when she's home, all of the stuff we do together is bonding, but yeah, definitely, and especially because, it hadn't been more than maybe a year or two that we had kind of turn[ed] our third bedroom into the sewing room and kind of get it--got it exactly how we wanted it with our thread holders on the wall and our shelf with our fabric and everything. So, it was--we had to put dog beds in the sewing room because the dogs would wanna hang out with us while we were sewing. So yeah, it was nice to be in the same room, even though we were both doing our own sewing and probably had different things in our ears. [laughter]

Mandy Higgins 16:51 How did you learn about the quilt?

Allison Lile 16:53 I think someone must have tagged me on Facebook. I didn't know anyone who was involved in it beforehand. Gina [Hudson] and I are still Facebook friends and I've really enjoyed that. But, I think someone must have heard about it and tagged me and said "hey, you should do this," because they knew I was making the masks.

Mandy Higgins 17:13 Yeah. What made you want to be involved?

Allison Lile 17:17 in the--

Mandy Higgins 17:18 In the quilts.

Allison Lile 17:18 --In the quilts?

Mandy Higgins 17:19 Yeah.

Allison Lile 17:19 Oh, I just thought it was a great idea. And I'm--it's interesting because, I've got all this fabric leftover. And I keep saying I'm gonna make more quilts, I'm gonna make more quilts. But man, making a quilt is very involved, especially when you're making a very large quilt and I really appreciated, we you know, she created a Facebook group. So, we'd get to communicate with each other and I really appreciated, kind of learning from the people who are much better sewers than I am, have a lot more experience. So, I already forgot what your question was.

Mandy Higgins 17:54 Why you--

Allison Lile 17:55 Was it--

Mandy Higgins 17:55 Why?

Allison Lile 17:56 --Why.

Mandy Higgins 17:56 Yeah.

Allison Lile 17:58 I guess--they wanted somebody from each county. And I just thought it would be really cool to be--to represent Franklin County, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 18:06 Can you talk a little bit about what you learned from these more experienced sewers?

Allison Lile 18:11 So, so one thing--at that point, I had kind of made a quilt, but I didn't do a very good job. And then the person who finished it for me fixed the parts that I did. So, just--just them explaining how to put together a quilt square, how you're gonna cut a three-by-three square. And then, once you piece it together with a quarter inch seam on, you know, all the way around, it's only gonna be two and a half inches by two and a half inches. As a math person, [I] totally got that. And by this point, we'd also upgraded all of our tools and our sewing room. So a nice big cutting mat, nice big ruler, nice, rolling, cutting utensils. And so yeah, so just like learning how to line things up properly and make sure you're cutting things at the right. If you notice on the quilt, some of them had the black border. And I was like--I was so nervous when they first showed the quilt, I'm like please let mine not have a black border and hopefully I did it right. [laughing] Not that that's a problem--whoever do [does] have a black border,but I'm like, hopefully I did it right. Hopefully I didn't cause them extra work to put my--my square up there.

Mandy Higgins 19:27 Tell me a little bit about your square.

Allison Lile 19:29 So, it literally was scraps from the masks. Part of my process, when you get this fabric, my--the way I did my masks was, I would cut rectangles that were seven-by-nine. So, some nights, I would spend two hours just cutting fabric and if there's any scraps on the end, put them in my scrap pile. Some of them would be big enough to do something with, some of them wouldn't be, the ones that aren't big enough to do something with, you can use for stuffing for other projects or. So, when I first heard about the project, my first step was to go look at my scrap pile, and pull out the ones that I thought would look good together. I didn't actually like, try to coordinate colors or anything, I just wanted to use, you know, a total of nine different fabrics for each square. And then, just cut them and put them together.

Mandy Higgins 20:23 Umhmm. And so there wasn't a--they were just your scraps, you didn't make a significant statement or--

Allison Lile 20:32 No, I kind of wanted them just to be my scraps, because they were literally from the masks I was making. Like, there's another--there's another square on there that was someone else's favorite mask. And so I mean, I could tell you like specifically a few of the--of the squares, people who liked that mask, but mostly, I just wanted to make sure it was legitimately scraps from fabrics I used in masks I was making.

Mandy Higgins 21:00 And you--when we saw the quilt you said, "oh, that was my favorite." Can you describe that scrap that was your favorite?

Allison Lile 21:07 That one was one that came from the friend who gave me some from her mother's sewing hoard. So, it was probably a fabric from, probably the 70s or 80s. I don't--I haven't seen anything like it before. But, it's mostly green, and it's got just a unique kind of white floral print to it. And I'm just a big fan of green and you don't see green in fabrics very much. So, that was just my favorite one. Probably because there wasn't a ton of it. I probably had a half yard of it. So, in that one, I think when you know, when people got to choose, that one went fast. Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 21:46 Did you make a mask for yourself out of that fabric?

Allison Lile 21:48 I think I did early on, when like they weren't the best quality. So, I probably didn't use it very much. I'm, I've thought about trying to cut it apart and use it for something else that I can actually use, so.

Mandy Higgins 22:03 Yeah. How did you share your square?

Allison Lile 22:10 What do you mean--

Mandy Higgins 22:11 To the quilt, how did you send it in, what did you do? Yeah.

Allison Lile 22:13 Oh, yeah. So-- Gina posted on Facebook, to put it in, you know, an envelope and send it to her. So yeah, that's what I did.

Mandy Higgins 22:22 Okay. Did you--did you include anything when you sent the square? Did you write a letter to the governor? Did you include a picture?

Allison Lile 22:32 No, I didn't. Oh, well--well--I so, I sent it--it got put in the mail before she mentioned, we should include a picture. So, I emailed her a picture--

Mandy Higgins 22:43 Okay.

Allison Lile 22:42 --Of I think, my daughter and I and we had taken pictures of the quilt squares to share with friends you know, online because, we didn't know, you know, how long it would take or when it might be shared. It could take a really long time. So yeah.

Mandy Higgins 22:58 But you didn't write a letter

Allison Lile 23:00 I didn't. I'm a math person, I'm not a word person. [laughter] You don't want me writing words for anything? [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 23:07 Oh, I don't know if that's true. [laughter] But, how did it feel to be involved in this project?

Allison Lile 23:15 I--mostly, I think I was very appreciative that somebody was putting all that work together and allowed us to be part of it. I thought that was very kind of her and very giving spirit of the people who worked on it, because I don't know if you've seen what--what happens on the other side of a quilt. But, it is massive work. And this is a large quilt and she had to have all the equipment. And then you saw the counties around the edges. I mean, I'm just in awe of the work that happened after I did my very simple two squares. So yeah, that was mostly just appreciative and just kind of, you know, in awe of what they were willing to do, all the work they were willing to put in on the other end.

Mandy Higgins 24:01 Yeah. How did it feel when you saw it, just now?

Allison Lile 24:05 Oh, yeah. Well, the first time I saw it was on Facebook, of course. And I was so excited. And of course, I tried to find the original images, so I could zoom in really close to see if I could find my squares. But yeah, it was--I felt just now seeing it, I was really excited to see it in person. Like I said, for some reason, it looks smaller in person than I thought it would be. And I don't know why. Why that is, but maybe I'm remembering--my squares seem bigger. But, when you piece them together with other quilt pieces, they obviously get smaller because of seam allowances. But yeah, it was really neat to finally see it. I'm--kind of anxious now to be able to bring other people to come see it eventually.

Mandy Higgins 24:48 Do you remember how you felt when it was presented to the governor?

Allison Lile 24:54 I was--I was definitely excited. It was neat because other people already knew that I was part of it. And so, I think other people, like tag me all day on you know, Facebook, about the post. And I was excited that he shared it. I wasn't sure you know, it's the middle of COVID, how important really is a quilt? I know it symbolizes a lot, but you always want to say, "well, what's the priority for today?" So it was--it was really nice when he gave it airtime, I guess. [laughter]

Mandy Higgins 25:24 Yeah. Did you send anything else to any elected officials any like a thank you--you say you're not a word person.

Allison Lile 25:32 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 25:32 But, were there, you know, a card, a thank you, any of the--

Allison Lile 25:35 I didn't. and it's mostly because, like, I felt like they were probably so busy, I didn't want to take up their time opening something, like I didn't want to add to work that somebody else had to do. So, I was just like, I will do my job and do it well, and let everybody else do what they do.

Mandy Higgins 25:54 Yeah. How have you seen the community continue to support each other, the quilting community or the mask comm--?

Allison Lile 26:08 Well, one thing I forgot to mention, I knew I was gonna forget something. So, one thing that's a little bit something related is, I have been involved in Cinderella's Closet, I'm here to that. So,I would be considered a little mouse. [laughter] So, this year, we were supposed to do that again, for the first time since--the pandemic started, and then ended up snowing on my day, and we--I didn't get to go. But, I was already like, I had purposely bought a wheeled bag for my sewing machine so I could go for this. So that was--I was looking forward to that, so hopefully I could do that next year. But the community I mean, in Frankfort, capital cities tend to be a little more progressive. That's kind of a countrywide thing, I'm a numbers person, so I know that because of that. And--if I go to Kmart, or, or I don't go to Walmart, but if I go to Big Lots or something, I'm still gonna wear a mask. Nobody's looked at me mean or said anything. I still don't really eat in restaurants. I just--I don't need to--it doesn't hurt me that I'm not doing it, so I'm just not doing it. It'll be interesting, because I'm flying to Boston to see my daughter and I will one hundred percent be wearing a mask in the plane, in the airport. So, I'm really curious to see how that goes. [laughing] But I mean, I don't feel like anybody is--I feel like we've gotten to the point where everybody's just kind of allowing other--everybody else to do what they--what they need to do, what feels right to them, sort of thing.

Mandy Higgins 27:56 Yeah. Do you--we're gonna reframe the question. [laughter] So, the governor introduced this idea of Team Kentucky.

Allison Lile 28:09 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 28:09 Can you define that in your own terms?

Allison Lile 28:13 Yeah, so actually, one of the, one of my friends who I made masks for, who wanted to pay me and I told her no, I said, I told her to make a contribution to Team Kentucky actually, I was, that was one of the ways I thought she could pay it back or pay it forward. I think it's just a way to appreciate and be considerate of your fellow Kentuckians, we fall at the bottom in a bad way in so many categories, that if we just try a little bit and support each other a little bit, and listen to the experts a little bit, we could be so much better at so many things. So, that's kind of how I look at it, as just like as a state, trying to support each other and do what's best for your neighbor and for your--your state citizens.

Mandy Higgins 29:01 Do you see the quilt working into that idea?

Allison Lile 29:03 I don't know necessarily, in the beginning, when we were making masks and making the quilt, I mean, there were still a lot of people who are very anti-mask. And so, they may have looked at the quilt and thought it was stupid, I don't know. I--what I think of more when I think of the quilt is more of like the legacy of the story of the pandemic and how Kentucky dealt with it. Those of us who were at home, not on the front lines necessarily. That's kind of more how I think of it. I don't know, I think people thought it was really interesting and really cool and they appreciated that this was one of the ways that people who were sitting at home for four hours making masks every night after work, maybe could get a little bit of recognition or--or have their work on display on a statewide level. But, more--what I was always thinking about was legacy, and I was picturing it in this museum. And you know, grandkids seeing it one day, maybe that sort of thing, because you always look at things in history and wonder what it was like. And I felt like we were kind of in the middle of history.

Mandy Higgins 30:19 Yeah. How do you feel today in June of 2022?

Allison Lile 30:25 about COVID?

Mandy Higgins 30:25 --About COVID about--.

Allison Lile 30:27 I am trying to be a little more relaxed about it, I still do mitigation things, I still wear a mask, in places, I still, it's funny at work, I don't want to wear a mask, and I'm finally okay with that. [laughter] And I still wear a mask inside the bathroom, though, because I've learned too much about things that float around the air. And so, I think I will always wear a mask inside public restrooms, from now on, I will probably always wear a mask on airplanes from now on. And it's more of, I'm understanding the, the way that the people in Asia have been using masks for--for years and years and years. And they're kind of like, their reasoning behind it and how they use it to just prevent all kinds of illnesses. And especially if I have a cold, I would wear a mask, anywhere I go, to make sure I'm not spreading that. So, I think of it, yeah, more in those terms. If I have to be around, you know, in tight quarters, for a very long time, I'm gonna wear one. But, also just you know, if people--when they had a cold, you know, and also now that we can work from home, sometimes that makes it a little bit easier. But, I know that that might not last forever. And people might start coming back to work and being sick at work. [laughter] So I just, I feel like it kind of educated me, I learned so much about, you know aerosols, and what people breathe in and out. And so, just knowing that, there are certain times that I will still wear a mask.

Mandy Higgins 32:12 Yeah. This is a little out of order in questioning, but how did it feel to send your daughter back to school?

Allison Lile 32:22 Oh, it was well, she ended up doing the--she came home in March. She ended up doing the next semester remote. They gave them the option, they had all of their classes where they had cameras. And so, so she goes to a private school. And it's--I think it's probably a wealthy private school. So, what I say is, I'm Kentucky middle class, but I'm Boston poor. [laughter] So, she got--she's also very smart, so she got like, lots of money to go to school there. And so, it's a very fancy school and they have all the equipment. And they did--they did testing of every student, every faculty member, everybody on that campus, every three days.

Mandy Higgins 33:11 Wow.

Allison Lile 33:12 They had their own facility, their own testing. And she--they made an app for it. You could not get into certain buildings, if you had not done your testing every three days. You couldn't--if you tested positive, they had special dorms for you to go to. So I felt very--I liked that she stayed home with me through December, through Christmas. And then, when she went back, I was okay with it, she was gonna have her own room at that point. She wasn't gonna be in a shared space. But, I appreciated everything her university was doing, they were being very smart. Boston was being very smart, Massachusetts was being very smart. And so, I almost felt like she was safer there than she was if she was going to school in Kentucky. Because--

Mandy Higgins 34:01 Yeah.

Allison Lile 34:01 --They weren't being quite as diligent about it as Boston and everything was.

Mandy Higgins 34:08 Do you remember when you stopped making masks?

Allison Lile 34:11 I stopped making masks about two months ago. [laughter]

Mandy Higgins 34:13 Oh wow!

Allison Lile 34:14 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 34:15 So in like April of 2022?

Allison Lile 34:18 Yeah--yeah and actually it's funny because I still had my etsy store. But I, I put it on break or whatever you think (??). And I thought it was on break, and I went like I kept on saying, when I go two weeks with no mask orders, I'll shut it down. And then, I would go ten days and I'd get a mask order, just like randomly people would steal and I'm like, if they want, it I'm gonna make it for them. And--and--I had so many repeat customers, especially I wanted because, they were like you know, I've gotten masks from all different places, yours are the ones that work for me. So, then you've kind of feel like a responsibility to give them the mask that they need. Especially because some people reached out and explained exactl, like they worked in a certain type of place, and this is the thing that helped them. So, so then I thought I had it on vacation mode, and I randomly got another order, like in April. So yeah, it's really on vacation mode now. [laughter] And I don't anticipate, you know, making masks again, I kind of want to--now that I've done Etsy, I kind of wanna shift into something else. And so that's what I'm trying to figure out, if I wanna do that or not, or just be done. [laughing]

Mandy Higgins 35:36 Yeah. I'm shocked at the--

Allison Lile 35:41 Yeah.

Mandy Higgins 35:41 --like, two months ago.

Allison Lile 35:42 Yeah, seriously.

Mandy Higgins 35:43 Yeah. [laughter] And did--so, it was mostly Etsy or folks in town, did you contribute to like the First Lady's coverings campaign or any of those?

Allison Lile 35:53 I reached out to schools and never heard back. Like, I've had somebody who said, "oh, yeah, so and so would want some," and--and then never heard back. I did, let's see, this would have been last fall. I have friends who are teachers, so I felt like I was--I first reached out to like the principals and the vice principals of local schools, and didn't hear back. And so, then I was--Ruth reached out to just friends that were teachers. So, I did make probably about forty masks for Elkhorn Middle School, I think. And then, there were a couple events in downtown Frankfort, like the march, I knew a young lady who was involved in that. And so, I gave her I think, eighty masks for that, because I wanted everybody to wear the masks in the march.

Mandy Higgins 36:43 Is--this is the Breonna Taylor March?

Allison Lile 36:44 Yes.

Mandy Higgins 36:45 Yeah--.

Allison Lile 36:45 And then also, later on, they did a--an event that had to do with, like gentrification and helping people who are downtown who are getting displaced, they were gonna have like, booths set up as resources. And I gave her more masks for that, so that sort of thing. Somebody reached out, I think about a nursing home, but that never--like I'd-- wouldn't necessarily hear back from people, I'd reach out and then maybe they got a better source, I don't know. [laughter] Or maybe they got like, you know, actual medical ones [laughing] for those more fragile population[s].

Mandy Higgins 37:25 Yeah. This will be our--our last question--

Allison Lile 37:30 Okay.

Mandy Higgins 37:30 Do you--how do you feel you, how would you describe your feelings about being involved in something so large?

Allison Lile 37:41 Well, it's interesting, because I feel like it's been kinda like a gift to me. Because, and I'm thinking of this more--are you thinking this as--as like the making the mask or the quilt specifically?

Mandy Higgins 38:00 Both.

Allison Lile 38:00 Both?

Mandy Higgins 38:00 Yeah--.

Allison Lile 38:00 Yeah, so I mean, I is, even though it kind of gave me a little bit of stress, sometimes, it was mostly just very fulfilling. For me, I'm a person who wants to be helpful. And, you know, like you mentioned, it was something that my daughter and I could do together. At one point, I would do like two steps of it, And she would do the last few steps of it. So, we had like a manufacturing thing going on. But also, it got me behind the sewing machine more often, before it was very seasonal. Just like everyone saw--I would start to do that. And that made me more confident to sew. I made my daughter a much nicer quilt [laughing] after that--after I became a lot more confident in sewing. And just like, I guess more willing to kind of share my sewing with other people. I will never make a quilt for anybody because it's way too much work. People have said after they saw the one I made for my daughter, they said, "oh, you know, can I buy a quilt from you" I'm like, "no, because it would cost you $10 million for how much time and effort I put in. [laughter] And I'm not worth that. Because, it's just--it takes a lot of time and effort. So but yeah, I just got, it was all positive on my side, yeah.

Mandy Higgins 38:26 Thank you.

Allison Lile 39:11 You're welcome. Thank you.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai