Flora Davis and Mike Tayyabkhan formed clubs to make friends
By Julia Boyle
THE ERICKSON TRIBUNE
Just one month after moving from Princeton to Seabrook in Pompton Plains last May, Flora Davis held her first meeting for Reminiscing on Paper, a writer’s group.
Now, a year later, the group thrives thanks to Davis’s dedication and the help she has received from Community Resources Coordinators Susan Coulson and Angie Crippen.
To Davis and her husband, Mike Tayyabkhan, the opportunity to join and start clubs was a major player in their decision to move to Seabrook. “I couldn’t imagine being here and not doing it. It’s part of the reason for coming here—to be able to do things like [the writer’s group],” Davis says.
Jumping in head first
A professional freelance writer and author of five books, Davis founded a similar writers group in Princeton. Upon moving to Seabrook, she wasted no time in introducing the idea there.
Shortly after settling in, she spoke to Crippen who made arrangements for a table, a sign, and fliers at the yearly groups, clubs, and activities fair. Crippen then found the group a room in which to meet, and Reminiscing on Paper was born.
The writers, who meet every two weeks in a classroom across from the in-house TV studio, write about everything from their genealogy to small anecdotes of past experiences.
“It’s just fascinating,” Davis says. “You learn things about people’s lives that you would probably never stumble onto as the topic of everyday conversation.”
She adds that the group meets not to improve their writing, but to share it. “The meetings provide the motivation for writing and give us a chance to share our lives in a way that you don’t get to normally,” she says. “It has been a good way to meet other people who have something in common.”