Slurp Spaghetti for the new school! Friday, February 7 from 5 to 6:30 pm, join us all at the new Edgecomb Eddy School Cafeteria! Cost is $5 for adults, $2.50 for ages 4 through 12,
kids aged 3 and under eat free. Checks payable to Edgecomb School PTC. Space is limited to 150 people. Call Judy Reid at the school, 882-5515, to reserve your seat, and to get more information.

The American Red Cross is conducting a Water Safety Instructor Certification course in February and March, with the Wiscasset Community Center. Call the Red Cross at 729-6779 for information about costs and requirements. The registration deadline is February 10, so do it now! Remember, this is a must for anyone looking for camp counseling work this summer!

On Saturday, Feb. 8, at the Augusta Barnes and Noble Bookstore from 2 to 4 pm, Edgecomb writer Lea Wait will be signing copies of her new juvenile, Seaward Born. This tale follows the adventures of the black seaman Noah Brown, an important but minor character in her first title, Stopping to Home.

Hasta la vista to Krystin Benton who will be off to Barcelona for ten days of intensive Spanish language training on a Lincoln Academy foreign travel program, and, I trust, equally intensive turismo! Ms. Benton, older daughter of Charles and Becky Benton, is a senior at L.A. this year.

Edgecomb gardeners! The Rising Tide food co-op in Damariscotta will shortly have its annual Fedco bulk seed order, which gets you what you need at 20% discount. (Sorry, no seed potatoes.) The catalogues are at the store, available for consultation. The last day for this bulk order is Feb. 24. For any Edgecombites who are RT members, their annual meeting is Sunday, March 2, from 3 to 7 pm in Newcastle's Second Congregational Church.

Edgecomb Schools Infinity: Tired of this topic yet? I'm almost done, unless or until someone feeds me some more historic fuel! Katherine Chase Owens, on page 38 of Early Edgecomb, Maine, volume 1, gives us a list of schools operating in the year 1897. School
District 1 = Eddy School; 3 = City School; 4 = Salt Marsh; 5 = River Street; 6 = Dodge School; 7 = High Street School; 8 = Cross Street School.

Okay, so now we have some new questions: What has become of Edgecomb School District 2? River Street is no doubt the River Road, so #5 must be the upper River Road school, across from Ripley's. But if the Dodge Road School is #6, why does Nick Dean's 1887 map show this second East Edgecomb school as District #6, why does Suzanne Ripley know it as "the Number 6 School"? Also, is this the building known as "the Brick School"? The Salt Marsh and Dodge Road buildings were also brick, although the Dodge Road building was two stories. Is District 7, the High Street School, the ill-fated Mount Hunger school which burned in the great fire of 1928?

This is the first time I have heard of a school on Cross Street (or Road). Would that have served the Davis Island population? I was theorizing that that might be the school mentioned by KCO on page 31 as at the corner of Mason and Eddy Roads, which is not included in this list. Or is KCO referring to McKay Road, which used to be known as "the cross road?" One of these columns mentioned a school south of the City School (KCO's #3) and the cross road's entrance on the east side of the Boothbay Road (Route 27). Ain't research fun?

Head spinning with careening school buildings, I reel around 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in The Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, The Wiscasset Newspaper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.