Mystery Revealed! You will be able to admire not one Edgecomb garden on the Nine Hidden Garden Tour, but two! Mary Gene Myer on Shore Road has told me that her garden and Sandy Sarmanian's are going to be open for this Garden Club of Wiscasset event, Thursday, June 29, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. To order tickets call Kay Lieser at 882-9135 or Sally Howe, 882-6606, or email GardenClubOfWiscasset@hotmail.com. Box lunches can be ordered also, but no later than June 21.
Boaters Alert: The Coast Guard Auxiliary is offering Vessel Safety Checks to be sure you have all the required equipment aboard for a safe boating season. If you pass, they issue a decal to show your vessel complies with both Federal and State Regulations. On June 17 you can go to Brown's Wharf/Carousel Marine in Boothbay Harbor, July 8 at the Tug Boat Marina also in Boothbay Harbor, or July 15, Ocean Point Marina in East Boothbay. The scheduled times are 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Call Ted Chatham, Flotilla 25 Staff Officer, Vessel Exams, at 549-3898 or e-mail boatcheck@att.net for more about these and other places and times.
Edgecomb Thespians: Samantha Beam will be playing Ado Annie in the upcoming LCCT production of "Oklahoma" and her ma, Debbie Beam, will be Aunt Eller. Performances will be in late July, early August. Call Lincoln Theater 563.3424 for information and tickets.
Let us bow our heads at the passing of Lloyd C. Farrin, Sr. A Celebration of Life service will take place tomorrow, 12:50 p.m., in Augusta at the Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery, Mt. Vernon Road. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Harrington Meeting House, the South Bristol Historical Society, or the Alzheimer's Foundation.
My big news story is Bruce' and my excellent adventure at his Class of 1956 50th Reunion at Harvard! We set forth early last Tuesday morning, June 6, which started so foggy we only assume we passed through Wiscasset and Bath on our way down! Arrived in time for a lovely lunch at the Radcliffe campus, with a stimulating talk by Geraldine Brooks, whose best-known work is "Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women," and she addressed this issue eloquently. Afterwards, we went to a light-hearted Concert of American Music, which included three songs by that Harvard icon of the 1950s, Tom Lehrer. Everybody join in, "Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight! Demonstrate to them our skill! Albeit they possess the might, nonetheless, we have the will! . . . (but don't be rough, now. . .)." And so on.
Then we were whisked by bus to Boston's Symphony Hall for an all-Tchaikovsky program by the Boston Pops, which also included an opportunity to bellow out Harvard and Radcliffe alma maters (let me quickly say I'm a Swarthmore graduate, class of ‘57!), and we came away to the strains of a rousing "Stars and Stripes Forever" by Sousa, to collapse on Spartan cots in Bruce's old dormitory, Kirkland House. Ah, nostalgia!
Wednesday was wet. Wetnessday, they should have called it. But we took in several excellent lectures on the public issues facing and requiring an educated population: global warming and decreasing bio-diversity were among the topics (we could not attend them all!). Lunch at the new Science Center, 300 people in a huge tent, in the pourdown rain, literally walking on water to the coffee dispensary at the far end of the tent from where we were sitting. Third consecutive meal serving cold chicken breast. We ended our two days (the Reunion went on for a week!) with a rollicking trip to Fenway Park to hear 1956 classmate Bill Cleary, the captain of the U.S. Winter Olympics hockey team that defeated the Soviet Union for the gold medal in 1960, discuss "50 Years of Harvard Athletics." After which we sloshed back up the highway, still couldn't see Bath or Wiscasset because it was 2:00 in the morning.... So if you haven't been able to reach us, that's why.
Haven't had any birdwatching news lately, so I'm thrilled to report a rose-breasted grosbeak on our seed feeder! I swear, I have not seen one since I was a Girl Scout racking up bird list points for my Nature badge in the 1940s. Still adding to my Life List at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.