Though there is no “Baby Boomers and Beyond” this month, Angela Fichter has provided us with an article on the benefits of age.

Surely, you’ve heard the expression, “old, but good”?  The assumption in the expression is that if something is old, that means it’s out of date, or worn out, yet this particular old item is still good.  Hah.  Maybe we should change the expression to “good because it’s old.”  I remember when we lived in South Killingly in the mid 1970’s, and I went shopping at a grocery store in the shopping center on Route 6 in East Brooklyn. The store had let some old women set up their table right in front of the store to sell their pies. It must have been autumn, because what they had to sell was apple pies. I walked up to the table and asked the oldest looking woman behind the table which pie she had made.  She pointed to one, and I bought it. It was very yummy.  Why did I ask the oldest woman? Because she would have made it from scratch from fresh apples, not canned apples.  I asked the ladies which organization they were from, and the answer was the Brooklyn Episcopal Church. I had recently bought an apple pie from another church that had been made by a young woman.  It had canned apples.  Just not the flavor you get from fresh apples, and because the woman was young, she chose the quickest way to make a pie: buy an already made crust and put canned apples in it.

Another example that old can mean good, as in more knowledgeable, was when I lived in Greene, Rhode Island.  We were renting what had been the chauffeur’s apartment, which was over a five-bay stone garage built around the time of World War I.  This was on the Arnold estate, which was over several thousand acres, and had been built by an obviously successful businessman as his summer home.  I believe his other home was in Providence. I fell in love with a flower I had never seen before that was planted just along the low stone wall near the big white barn. I asked the name.  The answer was, “Oh, that’s columbine, it was planted by the English gardener we had.  His home was up there”, said by Mittie Arnold, the builder’s now elderly daughter, as she pointed up the hill a bit.  “And if you walk down that dirt road, you can see the cranberry bog we have.” The chauffeur’s apartment had hardwood floors, a clawfoot bathtub, and a soapstone sink.  The view of the valley from the apartment windows was lovely. This looked over the area where Mittie and her friend Margaret Thomas had planted their gardens of herbs. They had run a successful business called Greene Herb Gardens, selling little jars of herbs that you bought at their small shop, or ordered by mail, or bought at various health food stores. In the 1950’s they provided the herbs to Pepperidge Farm for an herb bread that was sold at that time.

Once while we rented there, from about 1972 to 1974, I became very ill. I had a temperature of 102 to 103. I think it was the flu. I stayed in bed and felt weak and drained, plus had a fever. Since I had not been seen by the ladies for a couple days, they asked my husband if I was all right. He told them of my being in bed with a fever and not feeling well. A couple hours after he told them, Margaret showed up at my bedside with a mug of hot tea. She said drink this up, it will help you. I asked what the ingredients were.  She said feverfew and explained it should reduce my fever.  I obeyed and drank it up. Thirty minutes later I had no fever. I still had no energy. Took several days before I felt good again, but no more fever.  Ever since then I have grown feverfew.  It has small white blossoms with little yellow centers. It belongs to the daisy family. You snip off the blossoms when they are in full bloom and dry them on a paper towel in your home until they are bone dry. Then place them in a small bottle. If you get a fever, boil some water and add a spoonful of feverfew blossoms to a mug of hot water. Let them brew for several minutes. Then take the blossoms out and drink the hot tea.

Since the yummy apple pie and the effective feverfew tea were both provided by old women, who had years of experience, I think we should change the expression of old, but good, into old and therefore good.

Angela Hawkins Fichter