A big high five for Nicole Fowler, one of Wiscasset High School's students of the month of November! Her parents are Ken and Cindy Fowler on Old County Road.

Hannah Sieracki was among the Wiscasset 8th graders who enjoyed an International Dining Experience in Portland. Hannah, daughter of Michael and Pamela Sieracki on the Cross Point Road, visited the Bangkok Thai and enjoyed the interesting salt/sweet quality of South-East Asian food, so different from our usual fare.

Mark your calendars for The Center for Teaching and Learning's holiday program, to be presented in The Barn at 6:30 pm on Wednesday, Dec. 17, snow date Thursday, Dec. 18. Come and hear these children sing their hearts out for the season!

Van Reid will be signing his latest book at Bookland on Saturday, Dec. 13. "The Widowy Worries of the Moosepath League" is #4 in his good-humored series following the Pickwickian adventures of as miscellaneous a muster of Mainers as you could find anywhere north of Kittery! I daresay the other three titles will be available, as well. Load up for long winter nights' fireside reading!

Also on Saturday, Dec. 13, at 1:30 p.m., Lea Wait will be speaking at the Southport Library Open House. She is the author of the Maggie Summer "Shadows" antique print mysteries, with two titles available now, and the third, "Shadows On The Ivy," due out in August 2004. Her juvenile historical series, set in 19th century Wiscasset – "Stopping to Home," "Seaward Born," (my apologies, Lea, I've been calling it Seaward Bound) will be followed next September by "Wintering Well."

Our sympathies to the Hodgdon family of East Boothbay and to Mary Burnham Reeves of Boothbay Harbor on the loss of their mother and sister Stella. Stella and Mary were the daughters of John and Lizzie Burnham who once ran Burnham's general store on the River Road in East Edgecomb. Stella was in Lincoln Academy's Class of 1936.

Going through old letters and memorabilia, and one from my mother at about this date in 1956 remarks, "We did have skating, three glorious days of it, and we really used that wonderful ice. Black, and completely smooth, and beneath, before we scratched it all up, pollywogs! And caddis flies in their twiggy little cartons bumping up against the bottom of the ice so that we could judge how thick it was. Friday we skated, and Saturday, and Sunday, all we could. Anni [my sister] ... has outgrown her skates, but she made do without socks the first two times since it was very warm, ideal, and by Sunday we were all so enthused that no one worried about fit. We played a riotous game of hockey all Sunday from 2:00 in the afternoon until, for the kids, quarter of six. I haven't done so much skating so violently for years."

I've just received a fascinating e-mail from Dan Hanke, who used to live on the River Road. He attended the Salt Marsh School until 1939, says, "I used to lug water from the well adjacent to May Williams' driveway to the school . . ." He graduated from Lincoln Academy in 1943, then joined the Navy, "ended up in Okinawa at war's end." He asks, "Have you seen the grave of the man killed by pirates?" OK, everyone out there, what's with this man who was killed by pirates?

Edgecomb in the news: Jeffrey Cusumano, Jr. has completed his Marine Corps basic training at Parris Island, South Carolina, and is now studying field communications in California. He expects to complete that course of study in February. Congratulations, young Jeff, and parents Jeffrey and Linda of Edgecomb, grandparents Joseph and Janice Cusumano of Boothbay Harbor and Leo, Sr. and Patsy Barter of Boothbay.

Big Winnah! One of the Boothbay C of C's Early Bird Sale Door Prizes went to Charlie Armstrong who won a gift certificate to Wen's Diner!

So how do you like this winter, now that it's finally arrived? Digging out 14 inches att 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.