Apples & People

My God she was a talker! And a listener!! I guess because she liked people and found just about everyone interesting or aggravating, or both.

About 4 or 5 years ago, Jan and Brian joined us at the annual September Apple Butter Festival at Skylands in the Shenandoah National Park. It was beautiful cool autumn weather and the smell of clove oil and apples was strong in the air. The evening we arrived it was so foggy we almost drove off the road. But the next morning, the valley people (many of them descendants of the former mountain people) had the enormous pots boiling with apples and water and other good things, stirring with big wooden paddles.

Jan wandered through the few tents of people selling things (including the old lady whose baked goods we found out later -- after buying -- were inedible). But she spent most of her time around the apple butter pots and in the wooden meeting center chatting with people. Chatting, and listening, and making friends. We wandered off in the afternoon and walked some easy trails. When we came back in the afternoon to the apple butter workers, they all said hi to her as she walked around saying "Well, hello, hello!" in that cheery way of hers. Sunday morning, they were greeting her like an old friend.

I guess she wasn't just a talker or listener but just absolutely great with people!