Deep in the soul of each Story Chip glows the knowledge that shared experience enriches us all. We see this most clearly in the eyes of our seniors with their accumulated wealth of adventure, sorrow and personal triumph. Pomperaug Woods is a retirement community in Southbury, Connecticut that includes among its many programs one that helps the community to record and share their life experience. The stories on this page are written by men and women who were born before there were computers and retired before there was an internet. Today, they are pioneers in digitizing their memories. They began their recollections focusing on World War II and the Great Depression, while future memories will have more variety. We are flattered they have chosen to join Story Chip with their wisdom and insight. These stories will become treasures, preserved on the Internet, for their descendants to cherish beyond the pleasure of the casual reader. We also want to express our gratitude to Pomperaug Woods for their cooperation in making this page possible.
Members of the Pomperaug writers group
From Left to right
Back Row: Veronica Berrill, Lisbeth Leonard, Tom Julian, Harry Tyson, Jeanie Henry, Lois Learned
Front: Florence Brown, Jean Spining, Elsie Johnson
Have You Ever Eaten Dandelion Greens?
During WWII, I started my freshman year at an all girls high school in Baltimore, MD. With my father in the Army Engineers in the Aleutians, my grandfather doing his bit as an air raid warden, my mother playing piano at a USO (I was there, too, making sandwiches in the kitchen) and my brother collecting tin foil and scrap metal, we were all involved in the war effort. Except for our “Victory” garden where the peas and beans didn’t win.
One morning, at my new school, we were all issued spoons and sent out to the lawns where we were told to dig up the dandelions. It seemed the landscapers had gone to war. We were extremely disappointed that the boys’ high school across the street had not been invited to join us. The up side of this educational exercise was that we were served the dandelion greens for lunch to show how we could contribute to the war effort and our health as well.
Years later I was chastised by someone working for me for throwing out “those weeds” poke salad and dandelions which were “good eatin’”. Lesson not learned.
Barbara Cooper
Southbury, CT 2011
Click these links for more stories from each of these Pomperaug authors.
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