Summer seemed to come to an end even more abruptly than usual this year. Temperatures overnight were getting chilly, so Tony and I moved back home from camp on Sunday…sort of. We’re going back to spend the weekend, when Donna will be up to help us close the camp for the season, and I actually think I feel a little less melancholy doing it this way. As Donna said, “Maybe this is how we should close camp in the future, with a ‘soft’ move back to the house, and then a ‘Weekend of Gratitude’ closing weekend.”
It just so happens that this week Donna and I are celebrating the 60th anniversary of the day we met, on the second day of second grade, and immediately became best friends for life. (You can read our “origin story” here.) So, besides the usual camp closing chores, this weekend will be filled with time on the deck, reminiscing about our six decades of friendship, reminding each other how lucky we are, and maybe some blueberry pancakes to celebrate the end of summer.
Speaking of celebrations, many of my regular readers know that our family is preparing to celebrate a wedding very soon. Our son, Will, and his fiancée, Rosemary, are getting married on September 27 in the Buck’s Ledge Community Forest, at the overlook on the access road. Keep your fingers crossed for a beautiful day, and for at least a little foliage color, despite the current drought!
As it happens, Will and Rosemary’s wedding isn’t the only one happening in our family this month: our daughter Annie and her fiancé, Ben, are getting married this Saturday in Colorado. Annie says they’re eloping, which I always thought meant a spur-of-the-moment event involving something like a groom tossing pebbles at an upstairs bedroom window and a bride climbing down a ladder to run off into the night against her parents’ wishes.
As it turns out, though, most elopements nowadays are pretty well planned. Annie and Ben have had a reservation at an Airbnb in Estes Park for months now, and the friend who introduced them seven years ago, when they were all working at a school in New Hampshire together, and is a justice of the peace, is flying out to perform the ceremony. Our other Colorado daughter, Cait, and her boyfriend (who is also named Ben, so we call him Ben Two) will be there, along with Cait’s good friend Katrina, a photographer who started specializing in outdoor elopements during the pandemic.
I told Annie I was thrilled with her wedding plans, since I’d much rather make a trip out to Colorado to go hiking and exploring with her and Cait than go out for a hectic wedding weekend. And one wedding in September is enough for me!
Please note that this Sunday’s planned program at the East Bethel Church has been canceled due to illness, but here are some upcoming events:
Thursday, September 11, 4 to 5:30 p.m. at the West Parish Congregational Church: “Navigating the Healthcare System,” a free program hosted by To Your Health, in collaboration with Western Mountains Senior College, the Bethel Family Health Center, and MSAD#44 Continuing Education. For more information, please contact MSAD#44 at 207-824-2136, ext. 1341 or email WMSC@sad44.org.
Saturday, September 20, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the Bethel Common: HarvestFest. There will be arts and crafts, live music, harvest activities, and food. This is always a fun day, and the Museums of the Bethel Historical Society usually enjoy participating, pressing fresh apple cider and having our buildings open for tours. Unfortunately, because the event was originally scheduled to take place at other locations outside of town, Will and I both have other plans for the weekend, and most of our volunteers are also unavailable, so there won’t be cider pressing this year, but look for it to return next September.
Saturday, September 20, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Whitman Memorial Library: Third Annual Vendor Fair and Free Book Event. There is no charge for vendor spaces. For more information, contact librarian Pat Little at 665-2502 or email whitmanlibrary2@gmail.com.
Saturday, September 20, at 12:30 p.m. at the Rumford Community Forest, 161 Isthmus Road, Rumford: Join Trust for Public Land and Inland Woods + Trails to celebrate the Rumford Community Forest. This new 446-acre Community Forest is within five minutes of downtown Rumford and was permanently protected as a shared backyard for the surrounding community early last year. A celebration with community remarks and refreshments will be followed at 2 p.m. by a guided trail walk. There is also an opportunity for volunteer trail work that morning, from 9 a.m. to noon. Learn more and register online at https://events.tpl.org/rumford-celebration/registration/form.
Saturday, September 20, at 12 p.m.: Annual meeting of the Gilead Historical Society. The festivities begin with a free lunch at noon, followed by a short business meeting and raffle drawings, and then the program, which will feature highlights of the past 20 years of GHS.
September 20 looks like a busy day! As for me, I’ll be at the Vassalboro Public Library, reading from and discussing Just Like Glass at 1 p.m. I don’t know a soul in Vassalboro, and I’m hoping that doesn’t mean I’ll be reading to an empty room, so if you have any friends over that way, send them to the library!
If you have news or events you’d like included here, email me at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com or call 207-890-4812.
"I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life." —Rita Rudner