Happy Fourth of July weekend!
It’s looking like we have the best weekend ahead, weatherwise, that we’ve had in longer than I care to remember, making it perfect for gathering with friends and family, as well as for attending some of the many special events happening in the area. Here’s the schedule for the Bethel Area Arts and History Celebration this weekend:
Friday, July 4, at 11:30 a.m.: Annual Picnic and Concert by the Portland Brass Quintet on the grounds of the Dr. Moses and Agnes Straw Mason House on Broad Street. Bring a picnic and a lawn chair or blanket and join us for this always-popular celebration, which continues a tradition begun by the Masons when they occupied the house in the 19th century and held outdoor summer gatherings of their friends and neighbors. As in the past few years, we’ll be offering whoopie pies and cookies for sale from our century-old Mt. Zircon Moon Tide Spring bottle-shaped lunch stand.
Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.: Western Maine History Fair at the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society. More than a dozen historical societies and other organizations from across the region will be participating in this event, which will feature workshops and demonstrations, games, exhibits and displays, music, and refreshments.
Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m.: Neighborly Views Art Show in the Mason House Barn at 14 Broad Street, featuring selected local art from the MBHS Collection.
Saturday, July 5, from 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.: Shy, Novice, and Closeted Art Show at 18 High Street. This is the 21st annual show by local artists, hosted each year in Janet Willie’s home, and is always a wonderful and varied exhibition of some of our less well-known local talent.
Saturday, July 5, from 9 a.m. – 3 p.m.: BAAM Summer Art Market at the Philbrook Place, 162 Main Street.
Saturday, July 5, from 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.: Bethel Plein Air Artists Open House at the Isham farm, 1006 Vernon Street, Albany (about five miles from Bethel Village).
Looking ahead to next weekend, 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, Legion, and other memorabilia, toys, and more.
Tony had his second cataract surgery this week, on Wednesday, and it seems to have gone as well as the first. This time around he’s been a little less concerned about not being able to see much with that eye for the first 24 hours or so, knowing that it should resolve quickly. Even without the vision issue, he’s been at a bit of a disadvantage in social situations for the past couple of weeks, since losing one of his hearing aids while cutting some trees at Jim and Jane Chandler’s home. Fortunately, he had an insurance policy that will replace it for a fraction of the cost of a new one (although still not peanuts), and believe me when I say that we’re both eagerly awaiting the call from his audiologist to say that the new one is in.
I had two wonderful opportunities to read from and discuss my family memoir, Just Like Glass, last week: on Wednesday evening at the library in Buckfield, and on Thursday evening at the Bethel Library. Both events were well attended by enthusiastic folks, many of whom had already read the book.
Next up on my book tour is a program at the Whitman Library in Bryant Pond on Thursday, July 10, at 1 p.m. Since our camp on North Pond in Woodstock is central to the story, I’m hoping to see some of my neighbors from the pond there. Just this evening (Wednesday), I had a nice visit from Dick and Patty Cole and their dog, Pogo, pond neighbors from Camp Road, who stopped by our camp on their sunset boat tour to let me know how much they had enjoyed reading the book.
Dick Cole mentioned that he had noticed that in the book, I write about my mom hearing the loons calling at night in the 1950s, when my family first started building our camp. He told me he had spent time on North Pond from the 1960s on, and didn’t remember loons being on the pond back then, and I realized that he was right. I first remember hearing and seeing loons here in the early 1970s. Oh, well, a little poetic license never hurts.
I’ve actually just recently noticed another small detail that I got wrong in the book: I referred to my father’s cousin Albert Buck owning the Western Auto and Shell gas station on Railroad Street, and I know perfectly well that it wasn’t Shell gas that Bucky sold. (It was, of course, Pete Chapin who ran the Shell station in town, which I also refer to in other places in the book.) Now, who can tell me what brand of gas was sold at Bucky’s? It think it might have been Texaco, but I’m not sure.
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 next week, but you can read the Locke’s Mills column online every Thursday at amywchapman.com, or subscribe for free to have it emailed to you each week.
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like me, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.” – Thomas Paine