Now that my weekly Locke’s Mills column (along with those of several other former Bethel Citizen town correspondents), is part of Western Maine Neighborhood News, found on Substack and at the website wmnn.org, I’ll be posting only every other week’s “free to all” Locke’s Mills columns here on my own site.
On some of the weeks when my current column doesn’t appear here, I’ll be posting a look back at Locke’s Mills columns from 5 and 10 years ago.
FIVE YEARS AGO
In the February 18, 2021, issue of the Citizen, I reported on five hikes I had taken in the seven days prior to writing that week’s column, including four on snowshoes. I had been to Buck’s Ledge and the summit of Moody Mountain; to the Upper Sanborn River Trail via Willis Mills; to Lapham Ledge and Buck’s Ledge, where I had a good view of rally races being held on the ice of North Pond; and, on two consecutive mornings, to Peaked Mountain in Maggie’s Nature Park in search of sunrise.
I also noted that “Besides hiking, my other adventures this week revolved around a flying squirrel that found its way into our house. Actually, I suspect he lives in the attic, but doesn’t usually let himself be seen. He created quite a bit of excitement for the cats, led me (armed with an old fishnet) on two unsuccessful high-speed chases over two days, and was finally escorted outside after Tony trapped him under a dog dish. (I’m sure he was safely back in the attic by the time Tony got back inside himself.)”
On February 25, 2021, I wrote, “Remarkably, there have been no further flying squirrel sightings here at our house, and not even any scrabbling in the walls and ceilings, since Tony shepherded our adorable little invader out the door under a dog dish last week. Do I dare to hope he was a rare loner of the breed, and doesn’t have a couple dozen siblings and cousins holed up in my attic?”
I reported on a visit to camp to clear snow from the roof and deck, another hike to the summit of Moody Mountain, and one to Wheeler Mines in Gilead to admire the ice formations.
I had also been getting some indoor exercise:
“I’m in the process of moving my work office from the third floor of the Bethel Historical Society’s Robinson House down to the first floor, and for the rest of the work week, I got most of my exercise by making at least 20 trips a day up and down between my old and new offices. It turns out that you can find a whole new set of muscles when you carry boxes, file drawers, and, sometimes, one end of a table, desk, or four-drawer file cabinet down two flights of stairs.”
(Coincidentally, now—exactly five years later—I am in the process of moving my office back up to the third floor!)
TEN YEARS AGO
In the February 18, 2016 issue of the Citizen, I extended sympathy to the families of Irving Cole and Eleanor Inman, who had both recently passed away, and concern for Gilbert Dunham, who had been taken to the hospital after suffering a mild stroke, but had been able to return home a couple of days later.
The Greenwood selectmen had voted for a resolution in support of a collaborative approach to the Age-Friendly Community Program, and I reported that “By joining with Bethel and other area towns to help provide the supports that make it possible for seniors to ‘age in place,’ instead of having to leave their homes as they age, we will be breaking new ground. The AARP and the World Health Organization have established a nationwide network of Age-Friendly Communities, but none, so far, in which towns have utilized a collaborative approach. Peter Musso has volunteered to be the community contact for Greenwood in the project.”
Planning for Greenwood’s bicentennial celebration was well underway, with a parade, food and craft vendors, concerts and other entertainment, an old-time slide show, a reunion of the Locke’s Mills School, and more all in the works. The Bicentennial Committee had recently met with Steve Marson of Central Maine Pyrotechnics, “who is promising the best fireworks display the town has ever seen for our 200th birthday celebration on August 13.”
Also from that week’s Locke’s Mills news, my son Will had just finished scanning and digitally archiving all of the glass plate negatives in the Greenwood Historical Society’s Nettie Maxim collection, and I wrote: “He’s now working on the Guy Coffin negatives, taken at about the same time, around the turn of the 20th century, as well as some earlier stereoptic images taken on Main Street by an unknown photographer around 1875. For a small local historical society, GHS is fortunate to have some very special items in its collections.”
I had spent Valentine’s Day weekend in Portsmouth, NH, with my lifelong best friend, Donna, and we had met up with two of my daughters, Annie and Caitlin. I reported on our visit: “We all enjoyed one of our favorite activities, thrift store shopping, as well as a visit to a farm with adorable 10-day-old baby goat triplets, which we got to hold and bottle-feed.
On February 25, 2016, I reported that I had read to 16 children at Story Time at the Bethel Library the previous week. “I read three books by Jan Brett featuring the adventures of Hedgie, a silly little hedgehog, and brought along a knitted Hedgie I had made for the kids to hold. It was nice to sit in the rocking chair that was purchased for the library with donations in memory of my mother after she died in 2004. My mom was a school librarian in Connecticut for many years, and volunteered at the Bethel Library for nearly two decades after retiring to Maine, her home state, in 1982.”
You are building a significant written legacy. Lovely.