[Things were a bit jostled in the calendar; Lynn and Sharon switched months. This meeting took place in June. The June book, The Rosie Project was discussed in February at Lynn’s but will appear with its original June calendar.]
(Book #70) Sharon hosted this gathering at the fourth residence she’s lived in since she joined our group! [4/5] We spent the first part of the evening with wine on the roof deck and went inside to a communal area for the meal. Now that I’m in a time period where I’ve saved emails, my descriptions will have far more detail. Below is the email I sent to Sharon after the event.
June 20, Year 20
Dear Diary,
Tonight I joined in a Summer Solstice celebration at a neighboring camp. It was the most food I’ve seen gathered anywhere since before the flu. Our hostess, Sharon, was able to catch some salmon in the nearby Wholefoods River and served it with hummus, pita, grilled vegetables and tabouli — the ingredients for which she must have grown in her small plot of the camp garden. We had a lovely evening around the light from her lantern talking about what we missed from life before we know it now. Susan said she missed the easy access to water, the days when she stored several gallons of water in her basement (and even more gallons of wine!) Geri said she missed being able to see — her glasses were lost in the snow in a long trek to her first camp and though she’s looked in Lenscrafter shops all along her travels, she can only find nice frames with plain glass in them. Rosalie said she missed being in touch with her children, which didn’t bother her as much as not being in touch with her grandchildren who she hoped were turning out to be more like her than her children did. The pleasant conversation was ruined by a young marauder who came into the encampment and lit what may have been someone’s dinner on fire. Melissa recognized her markings as being from a group called Wings of the Angel who follow a prophet others know to be a narcissist. We talked for awhile in sad dismay about the narcissist and hope his followers will come to their senses.
I almost forgot to mention, there was dessert too — something I remembered from my youth when a camp was somewhere you went for the summer to swim and learn about nature — they were made of chocolate and marshmallows and graham crackers — I don’t know how Sharon came across the chocolate or marshmallows but she told us she made the graham crackers herself. I can’t imagine how — though she said someone named Martha helped her. Apparently Martha had once been in prison back when there were such things.
What an amazing night. Sharon was wonderful to us which is particularly amazing since she has only just moved to this camp. (I think she changes camp fairly regularly — I’m not sure why.)
We discussed getting together again and even set some dates for the future. We will meet in July on the 26th at Marcia’s encampment in the north, in August on the 23rd in the old prop business where Melissa now lives and in September on the 27th at Linda’s camp.
That is all for tonight,
Teresa