We meet on Zoom

This is Jacquie's photo of our second Zoom meeting. 

Louisa had sent out an invitation for an informal gathering by Zoom in early May. At that time, we were still hoping that rules of social distancing would be lifted  and we could resume person-to-person meetings in mid-May. That likelihood was quickly disappearing.

The first Zoom meeting was a success - we loved being able to talk to each other again. We know Zoom is  a substitute for what we really want - to see each other in our full dimensionality -  but that's just not possible right now because of NY State coronavirus restrictions on social gatherings.

We have decided to proceed with Zoom. Connie led the way; she made her presentation on Mollie Panter-Downes on May 13, 2020. She had been circulating Panter-Downes' stories by email as her presentation got postponed from her original date of March 25 several times - all in the hopes that we could be together at hostess Christine's house. Panter-Downes' stories and "Letters from London" (in the New Yorker magazine) during World War II reminded us that there were worse times than a coronavirus lockdown. But the parallels were there - living through a time of fear, of restrictions, of shared experience. The comradery of being all in this together. The courage of Londoners during the first grim years of the war, when they alone were fighting the Axis powers, was inspiring. The good-will of Britain, accepting Jewish children through the Kinder Transport and the depressing refusal of the US to do the same, was a bitter reminder of the ways our government has failed. 

Why do we have this blog?

The blog started as a way to preserve our emails as we reacted and adjusted to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, we're using it as our archive, for minutes and email notices, starting in March 2020. We have continued many of our meetings on Zoom, and several, in person. We met outdoors when the weather permitted. After we were all vaccinated, and before the Omicron variant spiked in Hastings late December 2021, we met indoors, masked. We suspended our tradition of the meeting's hostess serving lunch. It's an inconvenience caused by the pandemic, we acknowledge it, but it's another of the small deprivations we've endured during this difficult time.