Communication
By Kay Marie Bouma

Going through some very old files today brought to mind how communicating with one another has changed over the years.

I see in my Grandparents time; they wrote post cards to one another. Fascinating, isn’t it? My sister and I found a rather large shoe box in their attic filled with postcards our Grandmother wrote to Grandpa and he wrote back! Even more surprising. She would ask if was going to the dance on Saturday night and he would reply. I have several of these post cards made up in a tray that spent many years on my dresser.

In the files I was purging this week I found hand written letters to and from my sister, my brother-in-law, my son and daughter-in-law, and from my parents. I found typed letters from typewriters and then from computers. I found copies of emails to and from the family. These all bring back memories – some absolutely wonderful, some not so much. But memories none the less. It is the journey.

When I was a small girl and we got our first phone the price to call Indiana from Arizona was very expensive and was not used too often. When the prices came down for long distance calls the folks called their parents pretty regularly and the letters got less frequent.

Then came along the mobile phones, you remember (some of you anyway) the large brick phones and the ones mounted in the car or truck. Of course, those prices were up there too and we had to watch our minutes. As the prices and plans got more affordable, the calls were made all the time – for everything! “Where are you? What are you doing now? And any other nonsense.

Seems somewhere along the line phone calls became too bothersome and text messaging took over. And now seems to be the choice of most everyone. The shorter the better. However, I don’t always find that we are actually communicating! And for me, with the auto-correct and my lack of spelling skills, it is many times impossible to figure out what I am saying.

Not complaining, mind you. Any contact with family (son’s, daughter’s, grandchildren) is always welcome.

But there really is no replacing the joy of finding a letter in the mailbox!!

Dear Elsie

Autumn greetings, Dear Crones. Pixler Hill is once again showing a bit of glorious fall color as trees and bushes slowly brighten. Harvest festivals and fairs compete with sports events to fill the weekends as vacation memories fade into the back to school, work and harvest mode. The animals are as busy as the people. This month’s question might be related.

Dear Elsie,

My cat, Carlos, goes outside during the day and appears to be eating out somewhere as he’s gained weight and turns up his nose at food he normally loves. I keep an eye on him when I let him out but he is very sneaky. What can I do?

Dear sneaky cat detective,

If he seems healthy, it sounds like good ole Carlos may be living a double- or even triple-life with another family. Cats are so skilled in the art of deception that it might not be easy to solve this mystery.

How well do you know your neighbors? Is there one that leaves out food for strays? Does anyone mention that their cat stays out all night and is ravenous when he comes home in the morning?

A friend remembers moving into a townhouse with her country cat, Moonshine. It was several weeks before she met a neighbor who told her about a friendly black and white kitty who had started coming in through her pet door most week days and curling up on her bed with her own little cat. The neighbor invited my friend in to see, and there was Moon looking very guilty. Evidently, he was bored staying home alone with the dog or else he was in love with the cute girl kitty next door.

Back to spying on Carlos. You could try to follow him at a distance with a large spyglass to make out his paw prints. Or go high tech and somehow put a tracking device on him. Not so easy since cats don’t like to carry a phone. Another tracker would be tying a balloon to his collar. Well maybe not, way too many potential problems.

Carlos could be a rare “weather cat”, sensing a long, hard winter approaching and storing up extra fat with a diet of field mice, gophers, lizards or whatever abundant wild treats are available.

Good luck and be patient, soon enough it will be cold and wet then Carlos will be happy to spend the days inside on his warm blanket.

Elsie

Climate Action
By Laurie Dameron

Simple action for the month: Hang your clothes out to dry! I’m sure many of our Crones remember doing this in their childhood!

Dryers suck A LOT of energy!

Enjoy a beautiful and colorful autumn!

YOU ARE A PART OF THE SOLUTION!

Magical Memories from CC Gatherings
By Kianna Bader

Suddenly, into a huge room filled with chattering crones, the sound of drum beats was heard. From one corner of the room, a tiny woman wearing a djembe drum slowly strutted through the crowd strongly beating rhythms that drew us in. As she made her way to the center 300 women were stunned into an awesome silence. It was Simone la Drumma!

We were at Estes Park YMCA on an unusually sunny autumn day. In the early evening, a herd of elk bellowed the meadow below. The next morning, we were surprised by a glistening snowfall which covered the meadow, the trees and the road. In the artisan room, Vita Laume’s amber hung in the window enhanced by a perfect snow scene in the background.

In her black tux, Jackie Gentry led the Follies. A group sang, “Has Anybody Seen My Crone?” and the hilarious “Menstruation.” And, I can never forget Enid Tiger-Meadowlark Williams wearing her pink boa regaling us with Raging Granny songs. Not to mention Ann Emerson telling her risqué “Little Old Lady” jokes.

Laughter erupted when Rita Bresnahan told us about shopping for a Thanksgiving turkey. She was surprised by all the choices in the frozen turkey bin, but the one that stopped her was the ”self-effacing turkeys!” Who would ever want to kill and eat a self-effacing turkey?

And then there was the time Rita told us about a retreat she attended where she sat meditating on a hill overlooking Seattle. The facilitator said to close her eyes and when she opened them to meditate on the first thing she saw. When she opened her eyes, Rita saw a huge blinking Dunkin’ Donut sign, so she spent her meditation time thinking about a chocolate donut.
Finally, there was the year a group of five women came from England and Scotland. They all wore t-shirts with the letters GOD on them. We soon discovered it meant Growing Old Disgracefully! They were a hoot especially at the Follies. One woman read us a list of instructions on “How to Feed a Pill to Your Cat.” We nearly fell off our seats laughing at that one.

Kianna attended her first Crones Counsel in 1994 at age 55. She was on the board as secretary for 8 years. After that, she became story-gatherer and editor of Crone Times and is still active in that role at age 84.