Saturday, November 11, at 10:30 a.m., the Edgecomb Selectmen invite you to the dedication of the new Town Hall flag pole, complete with lighting! Our thanks to Jack French and Marcia Welch for making this project possible.
The Edgecomb Planning Board needs new recruits! Anyone with an interest may get in touch with Chair Erin Cooperrider, 882-8349. If you have experience in land planning, architecture, engineering, surveying, building or other contracting, or have been a code enforcement officer or plumbing inspector in the past, your participation would be valued, indeed.
Be sure to put this year's "Amahl and the Night Visitors" performance on your theatre schedule. Jim O'Brien on Dodge Road will be singing the role of Balthazar. A work by one of the 20th century's foremost composers, Gian Carlo Menotti, this will be a first-rate way for you to celebrate the coming holiday season, a warm story of youthful courage and hope, encouraged by three exotic but above all kindly magi! Call the Newcastle Second Congregational Church, 563-3379, for performance dates.
Next week's Tuesday no charge lunch (Nov. 14) at the Edgecomb Congo. Thrift Shop, will be roast turkey, compliments of Louise Hardina. Please plan to bring potluck contributions, small dishes will do fine.
Then, the shop itself will be closed the following week's Tuesday and Thursday (21st and 23rd) for the Thanksgiving holiday. Although the shop will be open the week after, luncheons will not resume until the 5th of December.
Ever wonder what the Hessians were eating, drinking and singing while Washington was crossing the Delaware Christmas Eve, 1776? Do you have a favorite recipe for roast turkey or trifle? Bring your seasonal songbooks, cookbooks, cherished ornaments and decorations to show off for the Edgecomb Historical Society's Thursday meeting, November 16, a bit off schedule because of the holiday. Gather ye all at 2:00 p.m. in the Edgecomb Eddy School's conference room for Holidays in History, everyone's reminiscences of Thanksgivings and Christmases and New Years of their own pasts, even famous historical and literary celebrations! (I'm thinking Charles Dickens meets Squanto!) Never fear, we will display any breakable ornaments on a table, rather than hand them round.
Feast for Thought for EHS and Edgecomb Explorers alike: What songs did the troops stationed at Fort Edgecomb sing? What past-times did they pursue while not drilling or at musket practice, etc. Does anyone know the words to "Anacreon Enters Heaven," and who knows their significance? Were they still singing "Yankee Doodle" in the 19th century? Did you know that song started as a British satire on New York colonials of Dutch descent? And the astute Yankees adopted it as their own! When given a lemon, make lemonade!
Warning: This will be our last meeting of the Fall Session. Look forward, among the signs of Spring, for the EHS Spring Session, March, April and May! In the mean time, happy digging into our Town's history (as relaxation from digging out our driveways!)
Frosting the pumpkin at 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.