Last Tuesday, we had a mock story slam in the style of The Moth. The World Cafe said they were hosting The Moth's first live show in October, so we decided to have all the older buds telling five minute stories, off the cuff, with no notes or props, based on the theme "spooky." The good news is everyone had incredible stories, some of which inspired even more stories and interesting conversations. Several older buds had surgery before, or their family members had surgery, and even a successful surgery can lead to an interesting story.
The bad news is that we were competing with the sound of PSC's air conditioner, which meant that the people on Zoom couldn't always hear the people at PSC, and the people at PSC couldn't always hear the people on Zoom. We may need some speakers for the computer, or to hook it up to a large screen TV. Also, many of our older buds came back in person after months of not even coming to Zoom sessions, so we kind of threw them in the deep end by going straight into a story slam.
To celebrate our progress on in-person sessions and our hopes about The Moth, we're featuring stories from our returning older buds:
Norman Cain
10.08.2020
In Touch
I don’t have a story today. I had a lot of business to take care of this morning. But I can speak a little on things that I’ve been doing and what’s going on in my life now in terms of my activities. Of course I have Best Day on Thursdays, and before Best Day I’m with the poetry group that’s facilitated by one of our members on Best Day up at Center in the Park. And we do our poetry in the mornings. So we get up from 10:30 to 12 and then I have an hour to come to our Best Day. That group in Center in the Park is by Victoria and 14th. I’ve already fallen in love with my Chromebook and I decided to have Word placed on it and miraculously, it was only going to cost me seven dollars a month and it works out better than what has been the Google type app that it has on there. Also, I would like to say I’ve been by phone in touch with Brenda, one of our friends, at least two or three times in the last two weeks, by phone. And I ran into Joan a couple weeks ago, one of our dedicated members, right, and she’s doing good because we sort of have a thing going on between members of 509, staying in touch with one another. We couldn’t find Joan for a while, but she’s doing very good. From time to time, Miss Abrams she comes to us, she’s very busy, so I’ve been in contact with her. So in spite of the pandemic, we seem to be able to find a way to come together. Years ago I didn’t want anything at all to do with the computers but they’re kind of coming in handy right now. Next week I really should have a story going on, so much happened to me between the last couple of days. That’s about all I have for right now but it’s so good to see everyone.
Brenda, I don’t believe Brenda has an email address. Liz has an email address, maybe, I’m quite sure she has an email address. I gave her your number, phone number, and she wanted to call you because she’s been trying to get on for some time so you can talk to her about that.
She probably does now that I think about it, what she has going on with her church activities corresponds with Best Day. I just remembered that, but I keep her informed about what’s going on with our activities here.Joan Bunting
05.16.2019
My Most Joyous Time
In my senior years my most joyous time is when I think about my children because I overhead my foster mother tell a friend that I couldn’t have children according to the doctor. That happened when I was twelve years old. When I was eleven I had my appendix removed. Two months later somehow I developed an infection and had two more operations. I had just turned twelve years old.
Well, I bore six wonderful children, all healthy, twenty six or seven grandchildren and I’ve lost count of great grandchildren and twenty some. I just feel so blessed. And all of my wonderful children shows their love for me.
I have two boys, which are the oldest and I have four girls.
When I think about them I just thank God and get to smiling.
They’re not perfect but I know that they love me.
Rochelle R. Tynes
06.18.2020
It's Only Temporary
I say that too, and um I know sometimes when I talk like this people are like “Oh here we go again” but I wanna know where is people safe. If the Lord has promised to stay by you and help you through everything, then why aren’t you believing that you’re not going to be one of those people that just go? The Lord know what he doing. I just don’t understand why some people they just, I mean if they hear that someone has the virus, they are like “oh” and expect them to die tomorrow. It doesn’t work like that. If it’s two percent and the Lord- I’m under the impression that what the Lord has for you is for you and if you goin’ get it, you goin’ get it and if you’re not you’re not. That’s the way it is.
If you want to transcribe for Best Day, then email us at info@bestdayofmylifesofar.org. You can also share our older buds' adventures by donating to Best Day, subscribing to our newsletter, sending a note to our older buds, or following us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. And if you or the older buds have shared their stories onstage, then you or they can submit stories through our portal right here. We're especially interested to stories from Black older buds, but we're always looking for stories from older buds of color, older buds with disabilities, LGBTQIA+ older buds, older buds of any gender or sex, older buds of any religion, and older buds who just plain break the mold.
And don't forget to maintain contact with the older buds in your life. If you can't be there in person, please call them, email them, or message them on social media. And if they're using teleconferencing or remote events for the first time, give them a call and help them set things up. Check in on them to see how well they're getting used to these programs. Buy them a computer or an internet package if they don't have one of their own. It's a human right, after all.
Curated by Caitlin Cieri