A long time ago, we decided to go in chronological (by age) order to determine who would be hosting the sister day celebration. This month “August” was my turn to host the event. When it‘s your turn, sisters day starts weeks before the date of the next gathering. Sometimes the planning begins on the way home from the last sisters day. “That was a great day. What am I going to do to keep up this standard?” After 15 years it’s getting harder and harder to come up with something unique and/or fun. We all know that whatever we do will be appreciated no matter what it is. As we all get older it is more difficult to do something to big and fancy, besides it’s the getting together that makes the day special.

I start out with, “What am I going to serve to eat?” After several days/weeks and changing my mind a half dozen times I finally decide on a menu. This leads to a couple of hours in Walmart on the Friday morning before sisters day. I don’t work on Friday.

As for a project I gave that some thought also. I settled on some assistance with cutting out some Christmas gifts I will be sewing. As it turned out, we got so busy talking I didn’t even bring it up.

It was finally time to set things up. Monday afternoon I finished straightening up the house. I then started doing what preparations and cooking which could be done in advance. Finally the day is here. I set the table and welcome the girls. Pam Hale, Shirley Huffman, Mary Jo Crider and I (Linda Crider) the hostess were in attendance. My coffee pot quit so I made arrangements with Lucy to bring hers. Lucy and Betty couldn’t come until lunch time so Mary Jo brought hers. She started the coffee and I started putting breakfast on the table, hot biscuits and a crock pot breakfast casserole accompanied by fresh watermelon. The casserole was a new recipe and I was a little disappointed in it.

Just because there was only four of us for breakfast does not mean we were short on conversation. We talked about the new babies. Betty got her second great-granddaughter. We talked about how fast the others are growing. We have several more on the way.

Mary Jo, Shirley and Pam all talked about how hard it is to finding canning supplies. Of course, they have plenty of jars from their years of raising kids and big gardens. Shirley sent Bob, her husband, to get jar flats and he came home with jars with lids on them. That was the only way to get flats. Pam said her kids are having the same problem. Mary Jo and her kids are having the same issue. I of course being a city girl for 50 years let the food industry can mine.

We are not having trouble staying busy. We all like to travel which filled up some of our time. Even without that so readily available we are managing to keep active and entertained, mostly without computers or TV. Canning, sewing, of course, housework and keeping in touch with the kids by phone or short visits fills up time, quiet nicely.

Shirley pulled out a package she got from her daughter-in-law, Jodi, in California. She told us Jodi’s note said to share them with the aunts on sisters day. Shirley passed out the packages to each of us. Small, flat, yellow cellophane wrapped, there was only one little problem. All the writing on the packages was in a couple of foreign languages. We laughed about that and got the scissors to open them. Each package contained two crispy wafer like cookies that tasted like really good peanut brittle.

We were kind of worried about the kids starting school and pray they will be safe and well.

Mary Jo, her daughter, Carol, granddaughter, Mary Beth and two great grandsons, Karson and Conley, went to the creek to play in the water. A drone flew over and circled around. This upset Mary Jo until she found out it was being flown by one of her grandsons who flies them as a hobby. He only wanted to get some footage of grandma and the boys playing in the water.

Mary Jo’s granddaughter, Maggie, told Mary Jo she had to live until this pandemic is over in case Maggie needs to know about any of the old ways Mary Jo would be there to show her how to do them. If I were Maggie, I would go stay with Grandma a while and learn some of the old ways just in case. If something like this happens, God forbid, in 20, 30 or 50 years there would be someone to show that generation the old ways.

Cemetery plots were discussed. Ownership of plots have a lot of rules about what you can do with them if you find out you don’t need them. If people buy them and then get buried somewhere else they just sit there unused. Who knew?

I never thought about all the trouble having hearing aids could be. It seems sometimes all these changes they are making that are supposed to be so wonderful can really cause a lot of problems. The smaller they get the easier it is too loose them and the harder they are to find if the fall or get flipped out. I didn’t know you can’t buy a replacement if you lose one. You have to buy two and as any of you know who has them they are not cheap. I didn’t know, as I was complaining about wearing masks, what a bigger pain it is if you have hearing aids and glasses then try to take off a mask. Well no more complaining about that for me with only earrings and my mask to content with.

I decided when I was planning our day that I really didn’t want to cook anything else for the day. So as lunch time rolled around we loaded up the cars and went to Steak and Shake for lunch. Lucy Branson and Betty West met use there. I collected my friend and neighbor Janice Hicks to join us for lunch. Jan really loves their three way chili and so do I. We talked of course and joked around. Lucy had a fit because we had to wait to be seated. I fused right back at her. I finally told her I was the hostess and I got to decide where to go and how long to wait. She then said, “Oh Yeah, that’s right.” We both laughed. We love our little fights and play at them when we can. It’s easy to tell the difference when it for real.

I chose Steak and Shake because they are still practicing safety, only half capacity seating and disinfecting everything every time it is touched tables, menus even the silverware is washed twice and no condiments on the table. I work there so I know how things are done. In my opinion the food is really good. Most of the other restaurants are back to normal. In my opinion, if you are going to make your employees wear masks you should be trying to protect your customers too.

I am happy to report that sister Shirley is finally feeling better. However, sister-friend, Susie Kleffner was not with us today. She was home with the virus. God bless her and grant her a speedy recovery. We missed you today.

For the rest of the sisters the day was over. Mine continued until I wrote and typed this article. I visited the Feather River Regional Library to email it to the paper and some out of town friends. I hope you have enjoyed it.

To all of you be safe and God Bless

Thought: I always wondered why somebody didn’t know about that, and then I realized I’m somebody.

Advice from an Old Farmer: Every path has a few puddles.