“I can’t say I miss her much,” said Willie, who was working her way through four of Sue’s tiny cream puffs. “Gosh, these are good.”
“I heard she complained about your pig,” said Chris.
Lucy saw her opportunity to enter the conversation. “You’ve got a pig?”
“Just a tiny little pot-bellied one. Her name is Lily. She’s awfully cute but Mimi doesn’t seem to appreciate her. She thinks she’s a farm animal instead of a pet and she reported us to the zoning board.”
“She’s after me to cut my lilacs,” confessed Lucy. “I think she’s got a lot of nerve to complain about my bushes, considering what a nuisance her son is with that noisy motorcycle of his. Now that’s what I call annoying.”
“I think he’s just trying to get away from his father,” said Chris, who was sticking to black coffee. “I hear him yelling all the time, and not just at the boys. Mimi gets her share of abuse, too.”
“He’s a piece of work,” said Willie, polishing off her last cream puff and moving on to the blueberry cake. “I can’t believe the problems we’re having with our house. Half the doors don’t close because they’re hung crooked.”
“My bathroom looked great when we first looked at the house but now I realize I was fooled by the mirror,” said Bonnie, patting her lips with a napkin. “It’s really tiny. You can’t turn around in it unless the door’s closed.”
“I know,” said Chris. “In fact, I’ve got a list a mile long that I’m sending to the state consumer affairs department. The final straw was when I discovered the garbage grinder in the sink was installed backwards.”
“No!” They were all shocked.
“I had the plumber fix it and sent Fred the bill, but so far I haven’t gotten a check.”
“Don’t hold your breath,” advised Willie, who had refreshed her plate and was starting on a new batch of cream puffs.
Lucy was so absorbed in getting all the details on Fred’s shoddy construction so she could give Bill a full report that she was disappointed when Pam tapped her cup with a spoon and invited everyone to sit down.
“I’m so glad you all came,” she began, smiling warmly. “I know Lucy has been eager to meet her new neighbors and we’re always happy to welcome newcomers to Tinker’s Cove, which a lot of us think is a little bit of heaven right here on earth. We have abundant natural beauty with the ocean right at our door, and our Main Street has been named one of the ten most beautiful in New England. We’re blessed to live in such a gorgeous area, but, unfortunately, for a number of residents, beauty doesn’t pay the bills.”
A few of the women nodded knowingly.
“That’s why a group of us started the Hat and Mitten Fund a number of years ago,” she continued. “The purpose of the fund is to provide warm clothing for the town’s less fortunate children, and it’s here that I’m going to give you a shocking statistic. Fully fifty percent of the children in the Tinker’s Cove public schools are eligible for the government lunch program.”
“I had no idea,” said Frankie. “I thought everybody in Tinker’s Cove was well off. I mean, the price of an average house is well over three hundred thousand now.”
“It’s a common misconception,” said Pam. “People see all these big second homes lining the shore but, believe me, if you follow some of the back roads into the woods you’ll find families living in extreme poverty. And that’s why, in addition to providing coats and mittens and hats, this year we’d like to be able to help our families buy school supplies for their kids.”
“How do you operate?” asked Chris. “Do you collect cast-off clothes?”
“That’s how we started, but the fund has grown through the years. Now the children’s store at the outlet mall gives us all their unsold coats at the end of the year. The women’s groups at local churches supply the hats and mittens and we also get cash donations from local businesses to fill in any gaps. But I estimate we’ll need to raise about two hundred fifty dollars in seed money for the Pencil Box project. Once I have that I can ask our sponsors for matching donations.”
“I know,” exclaimed Frankie, giving a little bounce. “Let’s do one of those nude calendars, like in that movie.”
Bonnie gasped. “You mean, pose nude for photos?”
“Well, yeah, but they screen off the naughty bits with a plant or something.”
“We were thinking of something different,” said Pam, to relieved sighs from the group. “We’re planning on holding a bake sale on Saturday. Sue, would you like to take it from here?”
“Thanks,” said Sue, getting to her feet. “We decided on a bake sale because it’s a proven method of raising money fast. In the past, we’ve been able to raise at least two, sometimes three hundred dollars. So we’ve scheduled the sale for Saturday morning at the IGA downtown. I hope you’ll all bake your favorite recipes, ask your friends for donations, and volunteer to work at the table for an hour or two.” She was just sitting down when Chris began peppering her with questions.
“Why not hold the sale Labor Day weekend? The holiday will bring a lot of people to town, no? And why at the IGA? I’m sure there’s a lot more traffic at the outlet mall.”
“But we always…” protested Sue.
“Well, maybe it’s time to change. Time to think big. Maybe you can raise five hundred, or even a thousand dollars.”
“That would take an awful lot of baked goods,” said Sue. “We just don’t have that many bakers.”
“We could concentrate on stuff that’s easy to make,” suggested Pam. “Like Rice Krispie bars. I can turn out an awful lot of them, and people like them. They’re sort of retro and remind them of their childhoods.”
“With all due respect, Pam, I think we ought to offer something more wholesome than Rice Krispie bars,” protested Rachel. “Now I have a recipe for Carob Oaties that’s very fast and simple…”
“I agree that we need to choose items that are easily made,” said Chris, producing a pad and pencil and jotting down a few notes. “And I think we can take our cue from Henry Ford.”
“Henry Ford?” Lucy was puzzled.
“Right. He introduced standardization, and that’s what we should do, too. We’ll pick a limited number of items with high customer appeal and everybody will follow the same recipes. That way we can increase production significantly with just a few volunteer bakers.”
“That makes sense,” said Pam, getting a dark look from Sue.
“But everybody’s on diets these days,” said Bonnie. “Who’s going to buy baked goods?”
“We need items like low-carb snacks, maybe home-baked dog treats, even bottled beverages. Stuff that appeals to men, too. Remember, they’ll be at loose ends while their wives shop.”
“I think Chris is onto something here,” said Lucy, remembering her futile phone calls. “I think we have to admit times have changed and we have to adapt if the sale is going to be successful.”
“I heartily agree,” said Rachel.