Let us salute the passing of Eliot Winslow, so long a staple of Boothbay regional life! To the many stories by his myriad friends, let me add a couple of mine: He and my stepfather Aage Colby would go down to serve as pilots in Portland Harbor to put in the required minimum for keeping their masters', mates' and pilots' licenses alive. I can remember once going out on the Balmy Days, the Boothbay Harbor - Seguin run, when we got becalmed. Without missing a beat, Commodore Winslow produced a huge glass jar of "Mama's Home Baked Cookies," only a dime each! That, and the elderly tourists' white nose protectors, which made them look like puffins in the glare of the sun on the back seats of the boat, are images carved into my childhood's memories!
One Edgecomb family is particularly grateful this week! Joanne O'Connor on Quarry Farm was driving home last Tuesday when the storm struck. As she tells it, "My truck was hit by a large pine tree as I drove up Stone Street in Augusta. Other than the shattered windshield all over my lap, legs and feet I was fine. Shortly after Dick [her spouse] found me, his cell phone rang. It was our daughter-in-law calling to say a tree had fallen on her truck - could he please come get her. They had spent the afternoon swimming at Cobbossee, and she was just loading up to come home. Two of the children were in the truck, she and the oldest were getting ready to get in. Melissa had just stepped away from the driver's door to go around to help the others buckle in when a large poplar fell in the "V" between the driver's door and the truck. The big news is that we are feeling very blessed to be alive and well."
Still treading the boards at LCCT, the McKay Road Beam ladies in "Oklahoma!" for three more nights this Friday, Saturday, Sunday at 7:30 p.m. only! Call Lincoln Theater, 563.3424, for information and tickets.
Cheers to vacationing Arthur Paquett for his 17 stripers caught and released in local waters! He now lives in Edmond, Oklahoma. Can't get stripers in Panhandle country, can you, Art? Welcome home!
Bob Thomas on the Eddy Road, photographer, artist and spouse of writer Lea Wait, will be showing his photographic works at Alewives Fabrics in Damariscotta Mills for the month of August, starting with a reception this Friday, August 4, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m.. Thomas will display works from three series Maine Stones, Sheepscot River Kelp, based on the moiré color effects of the blades of kelp when held up to light, and Sand Sculpture, the patterns made by receding tides at Pemaquid Beach. For a preview, check out Thomas' and Wait's antique print website www.mahantiques.com.
For entertaining education, come to Le Café Scientifique on Wednesday, August 9, 6:00-7:00 p.m., to hear Bigelow Laboratory scientist Abby Manahan, "Rediscover Maine's rocky shore through the Maine InterTidal Zone Investigation." This is the third in a series sponsored by the Bigelow Lab, presented at the Opera House in Boothbay Harbor, second floor, each Wednesday through September 13, and a final Café on Tuesday, Sept. 19. Open to the public, free of charge, cash bar available. Call 633-9600 or 633-6855 for more information.
Boaters, prepare yourselves for milfoil et al.! The Maine Center for Invasive Aquatic Plants is running a workshop to help you identify the 11 invasive aquatic plants threatening Maine's freshwater lakes and ponds. Wednesday, Aug. 9, from 9:30 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., at the Friends' Meeting House on Belvedere Road in Damariscotta. Call 783-7733 or go to www.mciap.org for more information. Participants will get a copy of the "Maine Field Guide to Invasive Aquatic Plants," and a handbook. Certification as an Invasive Plant Patroller plus other materials will be available for those who are willing to join Maine's "early detection" effort. There will be a quiz next period, best 10 out of the 11.
Watershed Center for the Ceramic Arts' special Summer Symposium Series continues at Skidompha Library's Talbot Porter Meeting Hall. On Tuesday, August 8, at 7:30 p.m., Artist-in-Residence Kansas City artist Jane Shellenbager and a diverse group of her colleagues will discuss their work. Come to find out what ceramics artists in the Mid-West are doing currently! These programs are free and open to the public. If you wish, you may come to dinner with the artists at 6:30 p.m., before the presentation, at a charge of $10.00.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at the Watershed Center itself, on Brick Hill Road just over the border from Edgecomb, come to their Slide Nights, which give the resident artists an opportunity to explain their work for your understanding of contemporary trends in the ceramic arts. Also free, also at 7:30 p.m. Call Watershed, 882-6075 or go to www.watershedceramics.org for more information.
Belated kudos to Eleanor "Lena" Rich, 8-year-old daughter of Paul Rich and Jennifer Mathews and CTL second-grader, who won a second place award in the Bagaduce Music Lending Library's statewide Young Composers Festival in Blue Hill for "Winston," an original trio she wrote for piano, cello and flute. Gee, the last kid to do that was Mama Mozart's little boy Wolfgang, wasn't it?
Tickling the ivories at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.