SOLON & BEYOND, Week of February 23, 2017

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Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percyby Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry, be happy!

Another week has gone by since I sat writing this column, and what a week it was! With the many snowstorms, blizzard conditions and trials and tribulations!

And…now it’s one of those weeks when I sit here wondering what I can write about for recent news, wracking my brain, and can’t think of anything new to share.

However, in going through some old papers I found what I thought was very interesting. It is an old letter from Bill and Mary Rowe dated 1988 and was sent out to local residents with a business in Solon. It states, “Dear Businessperson, If you have looked around Town lately, you will have noticed the increase in the number of businesses now operating. As a matter of fact, we are sending out 30 of these letters and I’m sure we have missed someone.

“The purpose of this letter is to explore the possibility of forming a Solon Business Association. There are many benefits to organizing and the main one is to concentrate our efforts and use our combined group to attract people into Solon and into our respective business. If we act as a Town and a group, we have all kinds of State support available plus we can do things such as signs that we are unable to do individually.

We would like to invite you to an exploratory meeting on Tuesday, June 7, 1988, at 8:00 a.m. to be held on the second floor of the fire hall.

“If you are unable to come, but would like to give your input, please telephone one of us and we will let you know how this meeting turned out. Sincerely, Bill and Mary Rowe.”

I received one of these letters because at that time I had my GRAMS Shop on North Main Street. And yes, the Solon Business Association was formed.

We mustn’t forget Percy’s memoir for this week entitled Press Onward: Keep a brave spirit, and never despair; Hope brings you messages through the keen air – Good is victorious – God everywhere. Grand are the battles which you have to fight, Be not downhearted, but valiant for right; Hope, and press forward, your face to the light.

SOLON & BEYOND, Week of February 16, 2017

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Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percyby Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry, be happy!

The Solon Pine Tree 4-H Club met on Saturday, February 11, with President Michaela Marden presiding.

The members are planning to attend an officer training and record workshop in Skowhegan on February 20, at 10 a.m. One member is planning to take some of her sled dogs and do a demonstration with them.

On Saturday, March 4, the club will be doing a food sale to benefit the Solon Food Cupboard and a dinner at the Solon Elementary School on the annual Solon town meeting day to benefit the club’s activities. Hope more of you will go to these events to support them.

As one of their community projects 17 food trays with lots of homemade goodies and two fruit trays were made and delivered.

Leaders Lois Meader and Eleanor Pooler did demonstrations to show the new members what to do.

The next meeting will be on Saturday, March 11, at 9:30 a.m., at the Solon Fire Station. The members will be doing demonstrations.

As I sit writing this week’s column we are in the middle of a very bad blizzard! Have been saving the following information for just the right occasion…and this is certainly it! As I look outside, the snow is almost completely covering some of the windows and the wind is blowing a gale and snow still coming down.

Have been studying an old book that I gave to Frank for Christmas back in 1973. It is called, The Old Farmer’s Almanac Sampler. On the inside cover it states, “Along about Thanksgiving time, when turkey and pumpkin pie are gladdening the inner man, a familiar friend, The Old Farmer’s Almanac, arrives upon the scene as it has each year since 1792. Now more popular than ever before in its long history, it goes into over a million homes throughout the country and in the far corners of the world.

“From its beginning that almanac has played an intrinsic part in our nation’s life. In the homes of countless pioneers, the Almanac and the Bible constituted the entire library. It served as a calendar, weather man, agricultural adviser, medical consultant, and a great many other things. Its miscellaneous information ranged from the signs of the zodiac to the latest gags, and its well-thumbed pages were consulted daily. For The Old Farmer’s Almanac Sampler its editor has brought together for the first time a choice sampling of the wit, wisdom,and entertainment of the almanac in other years. Here, in selections reflecting the times in which they were published, are bits of homely philosophy; anecdotes, comments, and advice on the daily life of a changing America….(And this book was published in 1957.”

There is one thing I’m going to share with you, if it gets past the editor, “A country farmer, not long since, having married a second wife, complained much of the rheumatism in his hips. He asked his wife one day what was the matter with her goose, that she did not hatch; she answered shrewdly that she supposed the gander had the rheumatism in his hips.” (That saying was in a 1796 issue of the Almanac!)

I really enjoyed Debbie Walker’s column in The Town Line issue of February 9 about Old Farmer’s Almanac.

So now for Percy’s words of wisdom memoir: “Only one principle will give you COURAGE—that is the principle that no evil lasts forever nor indeed for very long.” (words by Epicurus, 271 BC).

SOLON & BEYOND, Week of February 9, 2017

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by Marilyn Rogers-Bull & Percy
grams29@tds.net
Solon, Maine 04979

Good morning, dear friends. Don’t worry, be happy!

As part of RSU #74’s participating in a Preschool Expansion Grant from the Maine Department of Education, they are forming a Community Literacy Team. With the increase in literacy demands for today’s job market, communities need to play a role in helping to promote and increase literacy skills in their citizens from birth to adulthood.

They are looking for community members who would like to be part of this team. Their plan is to meet once a month to create a literacy plan for the communities in RSU #74 to promote and expand literacy skills. Their activities need to include connections to early childhood, but they can also target people of all ages.

If you are interested in joining the team, please contact Ms. Butler at school or through e-mail at jbutler@carrabec.org. (The above is from an e-mail I received from Solon Elementary School.

Now for another apology, this time to Bill and Lori Messer… Sometimes I am either rushing to meet my deadline, or I have used up too many words already in a column, anyway… Last week in writing about their wonderful Blue Grass Show I didn’t write that they have Open Mic nights the first, third and fifth Sundays of each month from 1 to 4 p.m.

Lief and I recently traveled to Bangor where we had lunch with a former teacher of his from the “County,” Sam Coco. It was a most enjoyable time, he is a wonderful example, that no mater how old you are life can be exciting! We have been getting together with him several times and I always look forward to our get-togethers. He is a remarkable man…and he always assures me that Lief was a good boy back then.

Again, I would like to invite any of you painters, (in water colors, oils, or other mediums) to join us at Skowhegan Adult Ed for painting on Monday nights, starting on February 27, from 5:30 to 8 p.m. My faithful students and I always welcome new comers to our group of happy artists. Although I am a hard task master who loves peace and the joy of painting so my wishes are that during the few hours we are painting there won’t be any discussions about politics or religion. Please don’t let that stipulation keep you away! Many of these artists have been with me since I started this adventure many years ago, and I am proud to call them friends. You can sign up now at the Skowhegan Adult Ed office or on line, the fee is only $5.

And now for Percy’s memoir, he was a great believer in friendship: Friendship’s Token: Only a little token, Offered for Friendship’s sake – Picture and song together, Here, my greeting, take. What though on brightest pictures Time’s hand at last be lain; What though earth’s songs awaken Only to sleep again?

Voices once loved ring ever In faithful listening ears: The sacred hand of Friendship Gleams through the mist of years. (words by Ellis Walton). And Friends, like all good things in this life, can be had by any one who wants them. There is only one simple rule to follow, it is this; To have a friend, be one yourself. (that one came from my old, falling apart book “Uncle Ben’s Quotebook”. Percy and I studied that book a lot in all our years of writing, it was copyrighted in 1976. )

You guessed it…. I’m rambling, I need real news, I’m waiting to hear from you!