ROCK & ROLL IS HERE TO STAY
Ilene McCrae’s Game in the World has brought about a new family tradition; producing homemade canned goods, involving all family members in the process. With tomatoes, peaches, applesauce, jellies, chili sauce and lots more items, the family cans and even trades them at Christmas time.
Rock & Roll is Here to Stay has brought together four generations of Ilene’s family, including her 93-year old mother, her children, and her grandchildren. Even Ilene’s ex-husband, who’d been out of communication with Ilene for over twenty years, now participates in Rock & Roll is Here to Stay with his girlfriend.
A larger goal of Ilene’s is to see healthy eating take root in mainstream society and Ilene sees her Game in the World as a way to do that. She thinks it’s interesting that recent generations have grown up entirely on processed foods. Even her 17-year-old grandson told her recently he’d never had homemade applesauce. Her own mother still goes to the farmer’s market in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and nowadays the family gets up with her at 5:00 AM to make the trek.
Ilene would like to see Rock & Roll is Here to Stay spread with more and more people getting interested in canning and eating locally grown foods. She sees the possibility of sharing her Game with other families in different regions where other types of produce are grown. She believes that people don’t understand canning since most families don’t have to do it in today’s world.
Ilene believes that if more people played Rock & Roll is Here To Stay, the food production market would shift nationwide and we’d see an emergence of “locovores;” people who eat foods exclusively produced in their home areas. She also feels that the tradition could expand to encompass entire towns and cities, and perhaps entire food supply chains might shift to serve an expanding demand for local goods. Rock & Roll is Here to Stay is a game that promotes eating good food along with creating a food tradition that brings families together.
Ilene McCrea, T1Q4 Team Detroit