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Dear Flo,
I asked Hannelore Heinzerling, and she agreed on three things-first on the luncheon date. She also agreed that it would be a good thing to be members of a League of Women Voters, and she asked about childcare plans for the meetings. I told her that I had no idea what the plans were, but that I’d be happy for Kathi to volunteer as a sitter. I told Kathi that it was her civic duty, and now she has gotten Anne Penzey to help her. Mina Matz wanted to help, but Kathi told her that since she’s eighteen now, she should come to the meeting.
Did you know an idea would grow like this?
Finally, Hannelore thinks it’s a shame that no one is making money off all of the horse manure. “It should be good for something beyond flies,” is what she said. I really think that we could get one of those guys from the back hills interested in using it for a nitrogen farm for stuff that goes “boom.” As for a place to put the manure, is the meeting at the library? Could Christy Penzey use all those land maps to help us figure out if there’s even a place in the ring of Fire that would be safe to compost that much manure without endangering the water downstream?
Your frustrated friend,
Fran Genucci
P.S. Thank you so much for entertaining us with that ram of yours. Which of your partners writes those stories? Is it Herr Sprug? He seems so quiet.
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Dear Fran,
It is amazing, isn’t it? Once I finally convinced Anna Sprug, Ilsa Schmidt and Maggie Utt, that, YES, they really can vote and have a say in the world, they dug right in. So, they and Lena and I will all be at the meeting. We do plan to leave the children at home, under Ursula’s supervision. There’s just so many kids around this house, I don’t feel it would be right to overload the baby-sitters that way.
Veleda and I have been discussing the manure problem. I certainly agree that it ought to be good for something. How about you talk to one of those guys you mentioned and see what he says? We’re thinking that we might be able to at least get the stuff in question scraped off the roads with one of those scraper thingies. Surely if we get enough signatures and raise enough of a stink, the city council will listen. Have you spoken to Christy? It would be good if she could come to the meeting. That way, she could report to everyone at one time.
That reminds me, Veleda said there’s a meeting, but I’m not sure where it is. Guess we better find out, hadn’t we?
Fran, I have no idea who is writing those stories. It’s making me crazy. It wasn’t so bad when they just talked about the devil in sheep’s clothing, but that last one!!!! I’m seriously ticked off about it. The very idea that I’m going buggy!!! I do not think the ram is smarter than I am. Honestly! I really don’t think it could be Johan Sprug, unless he’s hiding a much better understanding of English than I think he has. Although, there are translators, now that I think about it. Hmmm. I assure you, when I find out who’s doing this, I will do something. Maybe I can put whoever it is in the pen with Brillo.
Of course, with my luck, the rotten ram will make nice.
Speaking of frustrated!!
Your friend,
Flo Richards
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Dear Veleda,
Thanks so much for the notification concerning the League of Women Voters meeting. Since it’s during the day, I’ll be sending the boys in my classes at the high school to the other section, and bringing all the girls from both American History sections. I’m getting Sarah Beth Cochran to bring her girls, too. We don’t want to fall into the trap that happened up-time of getting this looked on as a project of busybodies who all fall into the category of, “The Old Gray Mare, She Ain’t What She Used To Be!”
Even though most of us are, except for a few of the younger gals like Flo and Fran.
I do think that Sarah Beth and I can make a contribution to the manure discussion. Oliver and I keep five horses, you know, and have been riding to school with Sarah Beth since they hired us all to teach. Unless you work with animals, you don’t realize just how big a manure pile just cleaning out the stables for five horses makes.
If we take the manure off the streets of Grantville, where are we going to put it? It will have to be somewhere that won’t leach into the water supply, you know.
Should we ask Iona Nelson to bring the girls’ choral group from the middle school? I know that we’re keeping the Star Spangled Banner for the RoF anthem, but the contest for the NUS anthem is going strong. Iona has picked a tune written by a man who’s still alive. Melchior Franck, from down in Coburg. The original words are by Johann Matthaeus Meyfarth and it’s called, “Jerusalem, Du Hochgebaute Stadt.” She says that it fits the tradition properly, because it’s just as hard to sing as the “Banner.”
The middle school students are working on writing lyrics in English and German. They can give us a sample before they take it to the competition at the Fairgrounds.
Yours,
Ardelle Edgerton
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Dear Flo,
Well, I just talked to Veleda. She had the meeting scheduled for the public library, but she expected about twenty-five people.
She’s moved it to the council room at city hall. Even that’s going to be tight quarters. But the girls’ choral group from the middle school will just come in, sing, and then go help with the baby-sitting.
The newest Brillo story is really cute.
Ciao,
Fran
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Dear Veleda,
I announced the organizational meeting for the League of Women Voters when the Baptist ladies met on Wednesday. We have voted to provide refreshments.
It will be a memorable occasion for everyone.
Do you remember that flash flood in March before the RoF? That was the day before the Grantville Baptist ladies were to host the association for the District Women’s Missionary Society. It hadn’t been rescheduled yet. So we’ve been hoarding the supplies (it’s not as if anybody was going to starve without them, really) until something came up that was worth using them for.
So we have five gallons of canned black cherries, and plenty of black cherry flavor Jell-o mix, and several cases of Coca Cola, and goodness knows we can get plenty of cottage cheese here down-time. Claudette will drop a note to Fred Swisher to put in a special order for us with the dairy that’s supplying USE Steel and they’ll send us three kegs the day before the LWV meeting, when the commuter bus returns.
So the Grantville Chapter of the League of Women Voters will be seen into existence by the very last black-cherry-and-Coca-Cola-and-cottage-cheese Jell-o salad in the world. If that doesn’t make all our new immigrant voters sit up and start working for a world that can provide the ingredients again, we don’t know what it will take.
We’ll bring the serving dishes, too. We never did get rid of them when people started using paper plates. We just stored them.
Flo Richards picked up a copy of the old 4-H wrist pincushion pattern. I’ll wait three days. If she hasn’t decided to use it, then I’ll just ask her for some of the wool she doesn’t like. Karen can pay her something for it, and it’s the kind of thing that Fabrics and Textiles can probably sell.
Yours,
Mary Ellen Shaver
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Dear Fran,
Just got your note about the League of Women Voters meeting. Are we even sure the council room at city hall will be big enough? From the response I’m getting from the ladies I’ve seen lately, I don’t think “voter apathy” is going to be a problem around here. I remember being so frustrated when people wouldn’t vote in the up-time elections, don’t you? The down-timers I’ve spoken to are thrilled to be able to contribute to the common good.