“Summer, after all, is a time when wonderful things can happen to quiet people. For those few months, you’re not required to be who everyone thinks you are, and that cut-grass smell in the air and the chance to dive into the deep end of a pool give you a courage you don’t have the rest of the year. You can be grateful and easy, with no eyes on you, and no past. Summer just opens the door and lets you out.”

―Deb Caletti, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart

A Word About our Zooms
By Maggie Fenton

First, thank you all for responding to the survey and your enthusiastic response. We are looking forward to the September 26th Zoom and hope you will sign up. It will be from 1 p.m. (Eastern Daylight Time) until 3 p.m. Adjust to your time zone and add it to your calendars now. There will be more information in the August newsletter. The board decided to charge a $15 fee to help us cover on-going costs. Sign-ups will be available starting August 1. You will be able to pay when you register.

In response to some of the comments, here are some Zoom factoids.

• You can ‘chat’ by typing in messages on Zoom using the chat button, usually found at the bottom of your page although it can vary by device. You can either send a chat to one particular person or to the whole group. We can’t really chat with audio except in the small groups because it is ONE VOICE AT A TIME and often, the person with the best audio setup prevails. Trust me on this, it becomes a cacophony of gibberish when everyone in a large group is trying to talk at the same time.
• We heartily recommend, now that you are Zoomers, to schedule chats with a smaller group after the large event. Our board meetings are held on Zoom and although we occasionally talk over each other, we’re learning about things like time delay, raising our hands to speak and it works quite well. Basic Zoom is free and will accommodate up to 100 people for 40 minutes at a time.
• For those of you with limited Internet speed, after you have identified yourself, you can turn off your video if you want. It may help you have better audio. It is important for us to have your identity so we don’t get any “Zoom Bombers,” miscreants who check into random Zoom meetings to cause problems.
• We would love to have more music too. However, the quality of live music on Zoom is terrible. We can’t sing together because of the ONE VOICE AT A TIME restriction. An individual could sing but the sound of the voice is limited by their own computer audio and will not come across well. HOWEVER, if you have or know someone who has good recording equipment and want to pre-record appropriate Crone songs we could use during the Zoom, we would love to have them. Think about it and let us know.

Whiskey and Apple Pie

A movie (1 hour long) where elders were interviewed for their memories, wisdom, longevity, and important ideas. Listen here.

Passing it On
Maggie Fenton

My son called me last week to talk about jam. He asked how I made it without using pectin. How did I know when it was ready? How long did I process it? He had picked a bucket of wild black raspberries and wanted jam but not just any jam. He wanted the dense, intense fruity caramelly kind he had grown up eating. When I hung up from our conversation, I remembered and cried .. tears of joy and nostalgia. I’d had similar conversations with my mother as she had likely had with her mother. After she died, I found myself often picking up the phone to call her and ask how she had done something. I missed her and I missed being able to tap into that “uncommon” common sense and wisdom.

It seems many of our family memories and traditions are wrapped around food. Gathering it, preparing it, cooking it. One urban family I know gathers every fall to make sausage from an old family recipe. Another has a huge marinara making event in the summer with multiple generations attending and helping. Garlic and basil come from West Virginia, tomatoes from a Pennsylvania garden and a huge caldron is used with the young men doing the heavy lifting. Everyone goes home with jars of marinara to be used over the winter. My mother and her siblings vied for year-long bragging rights by having the first really ripe tomato of the summer and my first one always brings memories of the light-hearted fierceness of their competition.. Then, of course, there are the regular holiday meals with Aunt Lois’ pumpkin pies at Thanksgiving and Aunt Sal’s famous baked beans in the summer. Both aunts are many years gone but their memories live on through their carefully honed recipes.

It feels good to pass these simple but significant traditions along, whether to your children or others who want to know. What are your traditions? What foods bring back memories? Write to me about them at registrar@cronescounsel.org

The Next Crone Times Theme

Would you like to write an article for Crone Times? Our next issue will come out in February 2021 and our theme is Compassion. We love to hear may different voices. If you are interested, please contact Kianna or Julie for more particulars. Contact them via email.

Download the July 2020 Crone Times.

Just Bring it On
By Suzanne Gruba

Peace, joy, a sense of wonder
Comes to me each day as I surrender.
I’m in love with life
The joys, the sorrows, the hope, the strife.
Fill me up with more, more and more!
How much more can I take?!
I don’t know, just bring it on.