Scratchings 3 Available
Scribble Sisters, the branch-sponsored writing group of about a dozen women, has published the next volume of Scratchings.
2020 has been a most unusual year. Between the 100th Anniversary of the winning of Women’s Suffrage in the United States and the lockdown caused by a global pandemic, little energy has been left to deal with one of the most contentious presidential election seasons in the nation’s history.
This book is our attempt at making some sense of the world by telling our stories, and hoping that the expression of our emotions as we steer through uncharted territories will resonate with our readers.
You will be able to purchase copies by contacting Suzanne Kirkpatrick (who will have them for sale around the middle of November) for the incredibly low price of $10. They will make GREAT holiday gifts. And even better, the proceeds of your purchase are donated to our Branch’s Scholarship Fund, helping to provide non-traditional women students the opportunity to further their education.
Now, to whet your appetite, please enjoy three selections from Scratchings 3:
Introduction by Jeanne Rogers
I sit among them, feeling safe, listening intently. They talk among themselves, not noticing me. They speak of important matters: women’s suffrage, government corruption. At times their voices all talk at once, other times everyone listens to one voice as intently as I do. All twelve of us are about the same age, yet I believe their wisdom surpasses mine. Their lives have been full and rich with travel and adventures. Not so with mine.
Every couple of weeks, I sit among these diverse women, listening and learning. As the years go by, I get a little bolder. I feel comfortable enough to interject with questions. Their precise answers clarify the conversation. I begin to understand why these gatherings are so important.
These women, like those before them, talk with each other to identify and solve the problems of the world. At the first gathering I thought, “Why would a few women believe they could change the world and how on earth would they do it?”
The group kept meeting. I soon realized that conversations and spoken words evolved into written words, the written words into books!
Our quaint gatherings of a few are now out there to influence all who want to learn and experience the power of “belief”.
There is a saying: If you think you can or if you think you can’t, you’re right.
Fall Flashback by Wilma Ann Johnson
I remember the blazer and the beret
I wore that fall day we took an
afternoon Sunday ride “out in the County”
as my father would say.
We stopped at some vegetable stand
where we bought apples
and picked out three differently colored and marked cobs
of Indian corn, to hang on our front door and
several differently colored and shaped gourds,
which my father would shellac and my mother
would place in a wooden bowl on our kitchen table.
And, oh, the smell of cinnamon-flavored baked apples
that night for dessert
with a spoonful of whipped cream.
Note by Kay Wisniewski
New seeds set within.
Not what’s been,
But what can be,
Eventually.
A poem is like a prayer rug.
Apprehend;
It’s not a ship or tug.
It’s land.