Title Page & Abstract
An Interview with Harrison Brackett
Part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project
Interview # T20-A-L-2022-019
Harrison Brackett, an Aldi Store Associate, was interviewed on the date listed below as part of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library’s Tumultuous 2020 Oral History project.
Interview dates & location:
Date: April 20, 2022
Location: ALPL’s Recording Studio, Springfield, Illinois
Interview Format: Digital audio
Interviewer: Amanda Riggenbach, Tumultuous 2020 project manager
Accessioned into the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library Archives on August 12, 2022.
The interview is archived at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
© 2022 Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library
Abstract
Harrison Brackett, Tumultuous 2020, T20-A-L-2022-19
Biographical Information/Overview of Interview: Harrison Brackett was born in Springfield, Illinois, in 2000. He grew up in Rochester, Illinois, and attended Rochester High School. He graduated in 2018. Post-graduation he began attending Lincoln Land Community College, pursuing an associate of science. Brackett began working at Aldi in Springfield in January 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic began in Central Illinois, leading to a statewide stay-at-order on March 21, 2020, Brackett felt the impact immediately. He had been traveling in Virginia and experienced the uncertainty whether he would be able to fly back to Illinois. When he returned to Illinois, his schoolwork was moved online, and Aldi began to create COVID-19 mitigations from the corporate level.
Over the course of the interview, Brackett details the way he experienced the pandemic personally and as an essential worker at Aldi. This includes his experiences with the mitigations set by Aldi from the corporate level as well as the different ways customers responded to the pandemic. On a personal level he decided to not return to school in the autumn of 2020 because it was difficult to learn remotely, though he currently plans to go back to Lincoln Land when the mitigations ease. He outlines the pandemic chronologically, up to March of 2022 when the Illinois mask mandate was lifted.
Subject Headings/Key Words: Tumultuous 2020; Tumultuous 2020 oral history; Harrison Brackett; Aldi, Grocery Stores; Corporate COVID-19 response; Customer service; COVID-19 pandemic; coronavirus; Springfield, Illinois; covid callousness; essential workers;
Notes to the Reader: Readers of the oral history memoir should bear in mind that this is a transcript of the spoken word, and that the interviewer, interviewee and editor sought to preserve the informal, conversational style that is inherent in such historical sources. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum is not responsible for the factual accuracy of the memoir, nor for the views expressed therein. We leave these for the reader to judge.
COPYRIGHT
The following material can be used for educational and other non-commercial purposes without the written permission of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. “Fair use” criteria of Section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 must be followed. These materials are not to be deposited in other repositories, nor used for resale or commercial purposes without authorization from the ALPLM.