Our new neighbors, The Cabin Pottery (in the former POD building at 186 River Road), will be holding an Outdoor Raku Firing on Wednesday, July 13; call 633-9966 for more information. Raku is a Japanese pottery technique.
Headed for vacation, but you don't want to take your pet? Call Angie Richards who will pet sit for you! She is experienced with small and large animals, and is both bonded and insured. Call her at 633.4610.
Joseph Neely, grandson of Willie and Jo Myatt on the Eddy Road, has been selected to attend Lead America's Congressional Student Leadership Conference. This is a college-accredited leadership program for outstanding high school students, held in Lexington, Virginia. Joseph and his parents Gary and Rebecca Neely live in Trenton, Tennessee. More information about the program can be found at www.lead-america.org.
Fort Edgecomb Bicentennial: Great thanks from the Town's Bicentennial Committee, the Edgecomb Historical Society and the Friends of Fort Edgecomb to Ann Zak for her hospitality on Sunday, June 26! We felt rather like Southern gentry out on the veranda, with iced tea in abundance. It was good to have Jim Davis, the Fort's site manager, Tom Desjardins, Director, Historic Sites Division in the Bureau of Parks and Lands, and Leon Seymour, Executive Director of the Friends of Fort Knox together to share both the harsh facts of life (many needs, no money) and proposals for ways to tackle a solution to this double-edged problem. Also with us, John Reinhardt of the Stewards of the Sheepscot, Fred and Beth Maitland, founding members of FOFE, as well as Andy Abello and Bruce Cameron, Sue Carlson, President and Rev. David Cole of EHS, and Sue Ripley as well as Ann Zak. More news on this topic in columns to come!
Bruce announced that access to the Edgecomb Historical Society website can now be made directly from the home page of www.Edgecomb.org!
And hereby hangs a tale: One of the Flye pictures shows a well-dressed group seated on the grass, surrounded by Model T (I assume) Fords and an open paneled station wagon with a Red Cross logo on its side. I infer that this may date from World War I days. A gentleman is addressing the group, possibly a politician or a preacher (memorial service for a veteran killed in action?), or perhaps a representative of the American Red Cross, getting the homefront involved in war work? One of the Model Ts' license numbers is clear: 29081.
I called upon Lee Smith's expertise: The history of American car regulation might be a dandy thesis topic for a History major! She tells me Edgecomb only started issuing the plates in 1980 when Rebecca Townsend was Town Treasurer. Before that, you had to go to Augusta to get them. Becky remembers going to a one-day workshop which taught the town treasurers all they needed to know. It was a very smooth transition of responsibility.
Bruce called the Licensing Division; they have not kept an archive. The State Archives said they would look, but so far we have heard nothing. However, Lee came up with this suggestion: "Many people have kept old license plates as a hobby and have them stuck on garage walls, etc. If that plate belonged to an Edgecomb resident, someone might have it hanging around in a collection." If anyone has this plate, or any like it from the same era, please let me know! A long shot, but worth trying!
Dissolving into a blob of glup from the humidity at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.