“Just normal stuff,” said shopper Beth Scheiderman. Nancy said she’s cried in the closed cafe a few times since then, though his condition has improved.Ĭustomers at Dunham’s bought greeting cards, socks, a toaster, everything the Walmart in nearby Mansfield has been selling all along. John Dunham, the patriarch of the department store, had suffered a stroke in the small cafe and coffee shop there just days before it shut down in mid-March. He died, the woman said, “but it wasn’t COVID.” “How’s your husband?” Nancy Dunham asked a shopper. The cafe’s chairs were placed atop tables, but customers still came in for takeout coffee.
It’s a town where the owners are likely behind the counter.ĭunham’s, opened in 1905 by Roy and Fannie Dunham, felt like a community center, everyone eager to catch up after holing up indoors since March. In Wellsboro, a borough of 3,239 known for its gas lamps on Main Street and Christmas celebrations, reopening didn’t look the same for every business. Meanwhile, stay-at-home orders in Philadelphia will continue until at least June 4. Stay-at-home orders become “aggressive mitigation.”Ĭounties in Southwestern Pennsylvania will move from red to yellow next week. The yellow phase permits most businesses to resume in-person operations, though restaurants and bars remain limited to takeout and delivery. Neighboring Potter County, one of the state’s most rural counties, had four cases and no deaths. At that point, Tioga had 16 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and one death. Tom Wolf’s color-coded reopening plan Friday morning. Tioga County, population 40,763, is one of 24 north-central and northwest Pennsylvania counties that entered the “yellow” phase of Gov. “You’re the first customers in!” she said. Dozens came during the first 30 minutes, all of them wearing masks and a few in gloves. On Friday, just after 11 a.m., Ann unlocked the door and ushered in shoppers and a small semblance of normalcy for the first time in eight weeks.