I’m looking forward to a special event sponsored by the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society this Friday, July 11, at 6 p.m. at Pleasant Valley Commons (the former Pleasant Valley Grange), 721 West Bethel Road, West Bethel. Katherine Rhoda, a singer and multi-instrumentalist from Hiram, Maine, will present a concert of Vintage Grange Songs.
An egalitarian, nonpartisan fraternal organization founded in the wake of the Civil War to advance the interests of farming communities, the Grange, also known as the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, has had a profound influence on rural American life. It has a rich heritage of song, with a number of songbooks published starting in 1872. Katherine Rhoda collects and studies this material and will share songs celebrating agriculture, rural life, and the pursuit of the common good.
Katherine says the goal of her concerts is to “draw listeners into an experience of contact, ease, mutuality, gusto, and Big Fun.”
If you remember attending suppers and other events at the Pleasant Valley Grange in years past, and haven’t yet seen the inside of the old hall since the beautiful restoration undertaken by Celina Adams and Cameron Wake over the past few years, you won’t want to miss this opportunity. The event is free and open to the public (and, if the heat breaks before the end of the week, there might even be cookies)!
On Saturday, July 12, from 2 to 4 p.m., the Greenwood Historical Society will hold an open house, with two new exhibits available for viewing. One is “Blaine’s Corner,” a tribute to the late Blaine Mills, whose dedication to GHS and to preserving local history was legendary. This display features a snapshot of Blaine’s contributions to GHS. The second exhibit is called “Community” and displays many items which capture the spirit of the community and the people who have made it, including baseball, American Legion, and other memorabilia, toys, and more.
I’ve had a wonderful long weekend of fun and family, with successful events at the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society on both Friday and Saturday, and visits at camp from several nieces and nephews and their offspring. I’m looking forward to giving a book talk about Just Like Glass on Thursday, July 10, at 1 p.m. at the Whitman Library in Bryant Pond and hoping some of my camp neighbors will come and hear me read from the book, much of which takes place right here on North Pond.
If you have news or events you’d like included here, email me at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com or call 207-890-4812. The next print issue of the Citizen will be out on July 25, but you can read the Locke’s Mills column online every week at amywchapman.com, or subscribe for free to have it emailed to you each week.
“If I had my way, I’d remove January from the calendar altogether and have an extra July instead.” – Roald Dahl