Remember when we all first started wearing masks? Even though everyone was starting to do it as a rule, I still felt sort of strange wearing one. I had this odd feeling that people were looking at me because I was wearing one. Obviously, wearing a mask eventually became the norm. Now that the state is no longer following a mask mandate, and in most situations fully vaccinated people don’t have to wear a mask, it actually feels strange not wearing one. It’s funny what we get used to.  

You probably noticed that many people are still wearing a mask all the time. There’s probably a good argument to continue doing so. When is the last time you remember having even a cold since you’ve been wearing a mask? I can’t remember the last time I had one. It will be interesting to see just how long it takes to actually get any kind of a cold, now that we aren’t wearing masks.  

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My wife, Marianne, and I were in Maine this past weekend and depending on where we were, either everyone was wearing a mask or no one was wearing one. It was difficult to know where it was acceptable to not wear one until we were actually in any given situation. In one place we were able to walk around mask-less and everything was just fine. In another place, we found out that the norm there was wearing a mask, only after we got a several dirty looks by people that were wearing masks.  

I guess my point is I just want to feel normal again. I can’t imagine a time when we will look at this whole thing in the rearview mirror and say “remember when...” - but maybe we will eventually. I hope so anyway.  

LOOK: Here are the 50 best beach towns in America

Every beach town has its share of pluses and minuses, which got us thinking about what makes a beach town the best one to live in. To find out, Stacker consulted data from WalletHub, released June 17, 2020, that compares U.S. beach towns. Ratings are based on six categories: affordability, weather, safety, economy, education and health, and quality of life. The cities ranged in population from 10,000 to 150,000, but they had to have at least one local beach listed on TripAdvisor. Read the full methodology here. From those rankings, we selected the top 50. Readers who live in California and Florida will be unsurprised to learn that many of towns featured here are in one of those two states.

Keep reading to see if your favorite beach town made the cut.

READ ON: See the States Where People Live the Longest

Stacker used data from the 2020 County Health Rankings to rank every state's average life expectancy from lowest to highest. The 2020 County Health Rankings values were calculated using mortality counts from the 2016-2018 National Center for Health Statistics. The U.S. Census 2019 American Community Survey and America's Health Rankings Senior Report 2019 data were also used to provide demographics on the senior population of each state and the state's rank on senior health care, respectively.

Read on to learn the average life expectancy in each state.

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