Nancy: I'm assuming you wrote your memoir while you have been in Saratoga? Or was that earlier in your Wyoming time?

Miss Edith: It was earlier, yes. In fact, the book was a long time in the making. It consists of stories of things that I experienced while I lived in California raising my kids and earlier still coming from Germany… and learning to settle in California, getting married there, and so forth. And then, after my husband passed away and my eldest had settled in Wyoming, I moved here to look after their daughter, who is now a college student. That's what brought me to Wyoming originally. 

I've always enjoyed writing and while I lived in Cheyenne, I wrote a regular column for the main newspaper [The Cheyenne Post]. Then that changed ownership and they decided they didn't want local columnists anymore. I then wrote for an online publication that was maintained through a writer whom I had gotten to know and admired. So I wrote for them until that kind of faded away. At that point, I was then in the finishing stages of this book. It, like I said, consists of stories. Some of them go way back to California. Some of them are even earlier, to my childhood. That's where it starts and it just kind of progresses.

Nancy:  So what would you want people to know about Wyoming and why you've  settled here?  

Miss Edith: There is this book that's called The Battle for Yellowstone Morality and the Sacred Roots of Environmental Conflict by Justin Farrell, and he has been quite outspoken about how the Wyoming government sometimes ignores the local population, the Indigenous people. There is also another one that's called Billionaire Wilderness, and it is also by this author Justin Farrell. It talks about the Jackson Hole environments, which is kind of a playground for the wealthy. And it kind of distorts the area because the area is a mountainous region that was at one time was sacred to the Native population. 

These books caused me to be more deeply involved in Wyoming. You know, I came here at first just to kind of help look after my granddaughter when she was small. So it was all family oriented, but then the family moved to Texas and I decided I would stay here. And I was, as I said, writing for a local newspaper, so I became more interested in Wyoming history, in its conflicts between political parties or political viewpoints and also between whites and Native Wyomingites.

Because Wyoming is rather conservative, mostly Republican oriented, so you don't want to get into really hairy discussions. But at the same time, we have to acknowledge that we are nationally--not so much in Wyoming--but nationally, we are really at a crossroads and it looks rather grim for the future, for the immediate future…in my view. 

I try to involve myself with people, but it's just kind of like…with the gardening people, we talk gardening. And we talk about community only to the extent that the community garden involves the community. We sell our products or we give them away. Sometimes we donate to the senior services and so forth. With the choral where I sing…they are obviously rather religiously and traditionally oriented, so we don't have any controversial discussions there whatsoever. And, my neighbors…unfortunately, they moved away. He retired. He was an employee of the Forest Service here, and when he retired, they wanted to move closer to their grandchildren, so they left the state. And so I lost a valuable source of conversation.

Nancy: What, what you're talking about, about how it can feel hard to have conversations about who we are as communities. We kind of talk in our little silos, but it's hard to broach the subject of how do we make these places as welcoming as we can for all different kinds of people. Those can be hard conversations to have.

Miss Edith: Mm-hmm. And that happens sometimes at the hot pool, you know, because we've got people who come here just for visits. Sometimes they consider settling here. And they want to hear what the community is all about. But very often, they just want to relax and enjoy themselves...

Note: The transcript above has been condensed from its original audio recording to improve the flow and readability of the story.