ICE OUT 2025? Take a guess. Win a prize!

SEND US YOUR BEST ICE OUT GUESS FOR 2025

Write down your best guess (one per person) and send it to The Town Line, PO Box 89, South China, ME 04358, or email us at townline@townline.org with the subject “ICE OUT 2025“. If more than one person guesses the correct date, a drawing will be held to determine the winner. Get your guess to The Town Line office by noon, Friday, March 21, 2025.

Email: townline@townline.org. Or use our Contact Us page!

PRIZE: To be determined

The records below, of ice out dates on China Lake, were provided by China residents Bill Foster, Captain James Allen and Theresa Plaisted.

Bill Foster brought in the ice out dates from 1874 to 1883. They came from a 215-page log/diary. In the log/diary are recorded the comings and goings from 1870 to 1883 of the F. O. Brainard Store, as well as personal notations of special and everyday events.

Captain James Allen brought in the ice out dates from 1901 to 1948. They had been recorded on the outhouse wall of the old Farnsworth house, also located in China Village.

Theresa Plaisted brought in the ice out dates from 1949 to 1991. She explained to us that a friend and neighbor, Ben Dillenbeck, had kept the record on his cellarway wall until his death on December 12, 1987.

Theresa transcribed Mr. Dillenbeck’s record and has kept the record up to date ever since.

This year, we will be checking China Lake to determine the official date for “Ice Out” in 2025. We will not be looking in hard-to-access areas for that very last crystal to melt, so the definition of “Ice Out,” for the purpose of this contest, is: “When, to the best judgment of the assigned viewer, the surface of the lake appears to be free of ice.” The judge’s decision is final.

Can you guess the day The Town Line declares China Lake free of ice?

Ice Out dates for the last 150 years!

1874 – April 22
1875 – May 6
1876 – April 30
1877 – April 16
1878 – April 12
1879 – May 3
1880 – April 21
1881 – April 19
1883 – April 29
1901 – March 27
1921 – March 28
1932 – April 27
1933 – April 20
1934 – April 19
1935 – April 25
1936 – April 4
1937 – April 20
1938 – April 20
1939 – May 4
1941 – April 16
1945 – April 2
1947 – April 12
1948 – April 8
1949 – April 6
1950 – April 14
1951 – April 9
1952 – April 19
1953 – March 19
1954 – April 19
1955 – April 13
1956 – April 27
1957 – April 10
1958 – April 16
1959 – April 22
1960 – April 21
1961 – April 30
1962 – April 20
1963 – April 22
1964 – April 21
1965 – April 18
1966 – April 18
1967 – April 29
1968 – April 13
1969 – April 23
1970 – April 23
1971 – April 30
1972 – May 1
1973 – April 8
1974 – April 2
1975 – April 23
1976 – April 11
1977 – April 18
1978 – April 21
1979 – April 12
1980 – April 10
1981 – March 18
1982 – April 22
1983 – April 1
1984 – April 17
1985 – April 6
1986 – April 8
1987 – April 6
1988 – April 6
1989 – April 22
1990 – April 11
1991 – April 8
1992 – April 15
1993 – April 21
1994 – April 20
1995 – April 9
1996 – April 5
1997 – April 23
1998 – April 9
1999 – April 2
2000 – April 4
2001 – April 27
2002 – April 6
2003 – April 21
2004 – April 14
2005 – April 16
2006 – March 26
2007 – April 23
2008 – April 17
2009 – April 11
2010 – March 19
2011 – April 17
2012 – March 21
2013 – April 6
2014 – April 19
2015 – April 22
2016 – March 15
2017 – April 17
2018 – April 23
2019 – April 12
2020 – March 27
2021 – March 30
2022 – April 2
2023 – April 12
2024 – March 11
2025 – ????????

PUBLIC NOTICES for Thursday, March 13, 2025

Notice of Public Hearings

CHINA

Notice of Public Hearing

A Public Hearing is scheduled during the Planning Board meeting Tuesday, March 25, at 6:30 p.m., at the Town Office on proposed changes to China’s Land Use Ordinance Chapters 2 & 11. You are hereby invited to attend the meeting in person or via Zoom (link posted in the Calendar of Events at chinamaine.org). Proposed changes are on the Planning Board page of our website. Written comments may also be submitted by email to ceo@chinamaine.org or to Attn: CEO Town Office 571 Lakeview Drive China, ME 04358

PALERMO

The Comprehensive planning committee will be holding a public hearing on Thursday, March 20, 2025, at 6 p.m., at the town office.

STATE OF MAINE
PROBATE COURT
COURT ST.,
SKOWHEGAN, ME
SOMERSET, ss
NOTICE TO CREDITORS
18-A MRSA sec. 3-804

The following Personal Representatives have been appointed in the Estates noted. The first publication date of this notice March 6, 2025. If you are a creditor of an Estate listed below, you must present your claim within four months of the first publication date of this Notice to Creditors or be forever barred.

You may present your claim by filing a written statement of your claim on a proper form with the Register of Probate of this Court or by delivering or mailing to the Personal Representative listed below at the address published by the Personal Representative’s name a written statement of the claim indicating the basis therefore, the name and address of the claimant and the amount claimed or in such other manner as the law may provide. See 18-C M.R.S. §3-804.

2024-403 – Estate of BLYNN C. CURRIER, late of Bingham, Maine deceased. Robert Currier, 1001 West Ridge Rd, Cornville ME 04976 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-028 – Estate of THOMAS E. SPAULDING SR., late of Anson, Maine deceased. Idell Sheehan, 16 Ash St, Madison, ME 04950 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-030 – Estate of ROSALIE C. WILLIAMS, late of Pittsfield, Maine deceased. Daniel P. Williams, 160 Memorial Dr, Winthrop, ME 04364 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-032 – Estate of GLORIA J. CHARTIER, late of Anson, Maine deceased. Donna R. Plourde, 25 Parkwoods Dr, Anson, ME 04911 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-035 – Estate of MARTHA TUDGAY, late of St. Albans, Maine deceased. Jamie Donnelly, 14 Lincoln Pkwy #1, Somerville, MA 02143 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-037 – Estate of THOMAS B. MARTIN, late of Skowhegan, Maine deceased. Julian Martin, 559 Hinckley Rd, Canaan, ME 04924 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-042 – Estate of MARILYN E. FOX, late of Athens, Maine deceased. George H. Fox, 38 Hurricane Rd, Gorham, ME 04038 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-043 – Estate of KENNETH E. KETCHUM, late of Skowhegan, Maine deceased. Ronald K. Oliver, 133 Fahi Pond Rd, North Anson, ME 04958 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-044 – Estate of BRIAN A. SCANLON, late of Canaan, Maine deceased. Janice Stringos, 618 Back Rd, Skowhegan, ME 04976 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-046 – Estate of GEORGE A. STAGGS, late of Skowhegan, Maine deceased. Kari A. Lancaster, 22 Willow St., Norridgewock, ME 04957 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-053 – Estate of GLADYS E. BENNER, late of Fairfield, Maine deceased. Deborah Benner, 50 West St., Fairfield, ME 04937 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-054 – Estate of GEORGE H. NEWHOUSE, late of Pittsfield, Maine deceased. Gregg Newhouse, 24089 Spartina Dr., Venice, FL 34293 and Brent Newhouse, 602 Main St., Pittsfield, ME 04967 appointed Co-Personal Representatives.

2025-057 – Estate of ALLEN E. BEANE, late of Norridgewock, Maine deceased. Belinda York, 24 Hanover St., Skowhegan, ME 04976 appointed Personal Representative.

2025-059 – Estate of MARK A. TINGLEY, late of Fairfield, Maine deceased. Alex Tingley, 9 Oak St., Apt. 2, Waterville, ME 04901 appointed Personal Representative.

TO BE PUBLISHED March 6, 2025 & March 13, 2025

Dated: March 6, 2025
/s/Victoria M. Hatch,
Register of Probate
(3/13)

STATE OF MAINE
PROBATE COURT
41 COURT ST.
SOMERSET, ss
SKOWHEGAN, ME
PROBATE NOTICES

TO ALL PERSONS INTERESTED IN ANY OF THE ESTATES LISTED BELOW

Notice is hereby given by the respective petitioners that they have filed petitions for appointment of personal representatives in the following estates or change of name. These matters will be heard at 10 a.m. or as soon thereafter as they may be on March 19, 2025. The requested appointments or name changes may be made on or after the hearing date if no sufficient objection be heard. This notice complies with the requirements of 18-C MRSA §3-403 and Probate Rule 4.

2024-414 – BRANDON CHRISTOFER HOECKEL-NEAL. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by Brandon C. Hoeckel-Neal, 9 Wakefield Place, Apt.16, Detroit, ME 04929 requesting name to be changed to Beatrice June Hoeckel-Neal for reasons set forth therein.

2025-04 – SIMKA SEKVEE STEPHENSON. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by Simka S. Stephenson, 9 Kelley St., Apt. 3, Fairfield, ME 04937 requesting name to be changed to Siaelyanna Simka Sekvee Stephenson for reasons set forth therein.

2025-055 – CHELSEA SIMONE KOCH. Petition for Change of Name (Adult) filed by Chelsea S. Simone, 40 Ames Rd, Cornville ME 04976 requesting name to be changed to Chelsea Simone Dickey for reasons set forth therein.

Dated: March 6, 2025
/s/ Victoria Hatch,
Register of Probate
(3/13)

Up and Down the Kennebec Valley: Windsor High Schools

by Mary Grow

Last week’s story covered primary schooling in the Town of Windsor, south of China and Vassalboro and east of Augusta in the Kennebec Valley. This week’s article will add a bit of information on Windsor high schools, plus a biographical sketch of an early area settler who was Windsor’s first primary-school teacher.

As described in previous stories in this subseries on education, the State of Maine’s 1873 Free High School Act required towns to provide high-school education. Some towns, including Windsor, did not wait for a state law.

Henry Kingsbury and C. Arlene Barton Gilbert both say Windsor’s first free high school started in 1867 in school District 1, in the municipal building at Windsor Corner (now the intersection of Routes 32 and 105).

Kingsbury’s version, in his 1892 Kennebec County history, is that town officials bought “seats and desks” for the second floor of the town house to open the school, with Horace Colburn the first teacher. Two high-school terms a year were held for about five years, he wrote (and Gilbert repeated, in her chapter on schools in Linwood H. Lowden’s 1993 Windsor history).

At a March 3, 1873, town meeting, Gilbert wrote, voters raised $200 for the high school; but they met again April 28 and rescinded the vote. To Gilbert, this sudden change of mind indicated “some dissatisfaction with the school.”

The problem was apparently resolved, because by 1877, voters were again supporting high school classes.

Gilbert quoted from Supervisor of Schools Joseph Colburn’s 1877 annual report saying District 1 had hosted two free high school terms, eight weeks in the spring, taught by Hattie King, from Whitefield, and 10 weeks in the fall, taught by Lizzie S. Milliken, from Augusta.

Colburn called the high school “very profitable to the district and vicinity, giving the scholars who attended an opportunity for improvement that they could not otherwise have had.” How many high-schoolers he did not say; the total in 13 Windsor schools that year was 400 students.

Gilbert then quoted from the 1878 report submitted by Supervisor George J. Moody, which covered only the fall term, beginning Sept. 4 and running 10 weeks. The teacher was Harry R. Thurston, of Belfast; there were 34 “scholars” (out of 376 in town), “most of them being well advanced and quite a good number having had experience as teachers.”

Moody listed 1878 high school courses as “reading, arithmetic, grammar, geography, composition, history, physiology, geometry and algebra.” He praised students and teacher; wrote that the “closing examination showed that the term had been both pleasant and profitable”; and expressed the hope “that the district will again avail itself of this opportunity.”

(Kingsbury said that Horace Colburn or Coburn [1812-1885] had three sons. Two of them taught school, starting in their teens; each of those two served as Windsor’s supervisor of schools, Joseph from 1871 to 1886 [with Moody interrupting?] and Frank in 1888 and 1889.

(For more on Windsor’s Colburn family, see the June 8, 2023, issue of The Town Line.)

Gilbert wrote that Windsor continued to support a free high school until “about 1902,” not always in District 1. In 1902, she said, there was a spring term; but by then, the town was paying tuition to a four-year out-of-town high school, which she did not name.

(The two most likely high schools were in Augusta and South China. Augusta’s Cony High School was operating well before 1902. Erskine Academy, in South China, opened in September 1883, and the Maine legislature incorporated it in 1901.)

Windsor is currently a member of Regional School Unit #12 (Sheepscot Valley). The town has its own elementary school for students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and continues to tuition out its high-school students.

The Rev. Job Chadwick

As mentioned last week, Windsor’s first elementary-school teacher was Rev. Job Chadwick. He was also the first teacher in what became China and for many years the townspeople’s “only spiritual guide” who lived in town, according to a 1931 family history compiled by Lillian Rich (McLaughlin) Gilligan, found on line.

Summary of Rev. Job Chadwick’s life

When Rev. Job Chadwick was born on 4 December 1756, in Falmouth, Barnstable, Massachusetts, United States, his father, James Chadwick, was 31 and his mother, Ruth Hatch, was 27. He married Mercy Weeks on 13 September 1784, in Harlem, Kennebec, Maine, United States. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 1 daughter. He lived in Windsor, Kennebec, Maine, United States in 1810 and Gouldsboro, Hancock, Maine, United States in 1820. He died in January 1832, in Maine, United States, at the age of 75, and was buried in Chadwick Hill Cemetery, China, Kennebec, Maine, United States.

Gilligan began with the settlement of Jones Plantation (later China) in 1774. In the spring of 1782, she wrote, James and Ruth Chadwick came from southern Massachusetts with unmarried children Job, Ichabod, Elizabeth and Judah. They were followed in 1783 by married sons John and James, with their families and youngest son Lot, who’d been considered too young to move to the wilderness the previous year.

Gilligan guessed the Chadwicks came up the Kennebec to get to their new home, and mentioned a family tradition that they stopped first in Getchell’s Corner, in Vassalboro, not far from the river, before moving inland. Their China farms were in South China, including the area known as Chadwick’s Corner on what is now Route 32, leading from South China Village south into Windsor.

Gilligan said Job and his three older brothers were all born in Falmouth, Massachusetts. Gear or Gayer (who never came to Maine – he went to Philadelphia about 1774 and then to Beaufort, North Carolina, for the rest of his life) and John were born in the late 1740s, James, Jr. in the early 1750s and Job on Dec. 4, 1756 (making him 25 in the spring of 1782).

(Henry Kingsbury’s version of the family’s arrival is that Ichabod Chadwick, with his sons Job, Judah and James, settled Chadwick’s Corner before 1797. The website WikiTree names James, Jr., Judah, Ichabod and Asa as Job’s half-brothers.)

On Dec. 13, 1784, in Harlem, Job Chadwick married Mercy Weeks, born in Falmouth Dec. 5, 1757. Gilligan said the couple settled “near the present town house” (on what is now Lakeview Drive) and had four children: Abigail, born Nov. 30, 1785, married Joseph Linn; Paul, born May 30, 1787, married Hanna or Hannah Leeman; Abraham, born May 27, 1790, never married; and Lot, 2nd (or Lott), born Sept. 24, 1792, married Sally Linn.

The FamilySearch website agrees with the information above and adds that Job Chadwick lived in Windsor in 1810 and Gouldsboro (Maine) in 1820.

Your writer found no source that explained where or when Chadwick got his religious education, if he had one. In his Windsor history, Linwood Lowden wrote that “according to his own testimony, by the year 1804, Chadwick had already spent fourteen years in the ministry.”

A summary biography in Rev. Joshua Millet’s 1845 The History of the Baptists in Maine, says Chadwick was “ord[ained] an evan[gelist] at Vassalborough, 1796.” (The entire book has been digitized and is available on line.)

Millet wrote that Vassalboro’s first Baptist church was organized around 1790. Some of its members lived in adjoining Harlem, and in 1796 a separate church was organized in southern Harlem, named the Second Baptist Church, with Chadwick its pastor from 1797 to 1805.

Millet called Chadwick and the Vassalboro pastor, Nehemiah Gould, “men…who were experienced in all the peculiarities of a new country, and therefore qualified to lead the flock of God in such times.”

(Kingsbury said the First Baptist Church of Harlem was organized in 1797, with Chadwick the first preacher; he “supplied the church for eight years, and occasionally for several years afterward.” After China was made a separate town in 1818 and reunited with Harlem in 1822, the Harlem First Baptist Church became the China Second Baptist Church.)

How Chadwick qualified as a teacher is another unknown, but he definitely served as one, first in China and then in Windsor.

The China bicentennial history says Harlem residents established their first school in 1795, on Michael Norton’s land midway of the east shore of China Lake. Classes met either in a house or in a log cabin built for a schoolhouse, and the teacher was Rev. Job Chadwick.

Kingsbury surmised Chadwick must have run a successful school, because “he continued to wield the ‘birch’ several terms in succession here.”

Lowden wrote that Windsor’s first teacher (and first resident preacher) was Rev. Job Chadwick, who had previously taught in China. In 1804, Lowden wrote, the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel sought a teacher for two small settlements, Hunts Meadow (later included in Whitefield) and Pinhook (in the southern part of what became Windsor).

Lowden quoted at length from a July 18, 1804, letter from a Wiscasset minister named Alexander McLean recommending Chadwick. McLean wrote that Chadwick planned to move his family from Harlem to Windsor; called him “well qualified to instruct children’; and added that he “has for some years been employed in the instruction of children.”

McLean explained that a recent “variety of misfortunes” had “stripped [Chadwick] of all his worldly property,” so he could probably be hired to teach “at as easy a rate as any.” He recommended a month-long term at Hunts Meadow and two months at Pinhook, if the Society could afford that much, to “moralize and civilize” the settlements, pointing out that Chadwick could double as the Sabbath preacher.

Chadwick got the job. In her chapter on education in Lowden’s history, C. Arlene Barton Gilbert wrote that his first term of school in 1804 was two month long, with an average attendance of 15 to 20 youngsters.

Chadwick was still in Windsor in the spring of 1809, Gilbert said: at an April 3 town meeting at his house, voters raised $50 for education and chose a four-man school committee.

Disagreeing with Lowden’s and Gilbert’s information, Millet, in his religious history, implied that after Chadwick finished his ministry in Harlem in 1805, he promptly became a missionary in what a reviewer of Millet’s work called “the destitute regions of Maine and on Cape Cod, Mass.”

He then became a pastor in Gouldsborough, from 1816 to 1831. He returned to Windsor, where he died Dec. 25, 1831 (according to Millet), or in January 1832 (according to other sources). The latter sources say Mercy Chadwick had died in China in 1826.

FamilySearch says Job Chadwick is buried in China’s Chadwick Hill Cemetery. Find a Grave lists 52 Chadwicks in this cemetery, none named Job or Mercy.

Family members buried here include Job’s father, James (July 5, 1725 – Sept. 6, 1786); his mother, Ruth (Hatch) (Aug. 15, 1729 – Jan. 15, 1786); two of his brothers, James, Jr. (Feb. 25, 1753 – Oct. 25, 1826) and Judah (Dec. 9, 1765 – Aug. 9, 1816); James, Jr.’s widow, Rhoda (Weeks) (1756 – Jan. 30, 1831); and Judah’s widow, Sarah “Sally” (Webber) (1766 – Feb. 25, 1854).

Also buried in Chadwick Hill Cemetery, according to Find a Grave, is Job and Mercy’s son Paul, the surveyor who worked for the Kennebec Proprietors and was killed by squatters as he worked in Malta (later Windsor) in September 1809 (see the March 7, 2024, issue of The Town Line for a summary history of the so-called Malta War).

Main sources

Kingsbury, Henry D., ed., Illustrated History of Kennebec County Maine 1625-1892 (1892).
Lowden, Linwood H., good Land & fine Contrey but Poor roads a history of Windsor, Maine (1993).

Websites, miscellaneous.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: What are dual eligible special needs plans (D-SNPs)?

You may be able to get more health care at less cost.

(NAPSI)—Over 12.5 million Americans are eligible for both Medicare and Medicaid, but many don’t realize this and could be missing out on some valuable benefits. People who qualify for both health care programs can enroll in a type of Medicare Advantage plan called a Dual Eligible Special Needs Plan (D-SNP), offered by Aetna® and other health care companies.

D-SNPs work with your Medicare and Medicaid benefits to help you maximize your benefits. They provide all the traditional benefits of a Medicare Advantage health plan, while also offering added benefits, such as flexible allowances, which can help pay for healthy food and certain over-the-counter items. Depending on the state where you live, some additional benefits that come with an Aetna D-SNP may include:

• Dental, vision and hearing coverage
• $0 co-pays for covered Part D prescriptions at in-network pharmacies
• Extra Benefits Card with a monthly allowance to use on certain everyday expenses, like healthy foods and over-the-counter items, such as aspirin and bandages
• SilverSneakers® fitness membership
• Fresh meals home-delivered after a hospital stay

D-SNPs may also come with a personal care coordinator, who can help you find in-network doctors, arrange transportation and schedule appointments. They can also connect you with programs to help beyond health care services.

D-SNPs may help save you money. Most people pay little or no cost for their coverage. Covered Part D prescription drugs are available at no cost at in-network pharmacies, and doctors’ visits may also be fully covered at no cost to you.

If you qualify, a D-SNP can offer you more complete health care coverage so you can take charge of your health and access the care you need.

To enroll in an Aetna D-SNP plan, you must apply and prove that you meet the eligibility criteria, including having both Medicare and Medicaid. You will also be required to periodically prove that you continue to meet the plan’s requirements.

For more information about D-SNPs, call Aetna at 1-844-588-0041 (TTY: 711), 7 days a week, 8 AM to 8 PM. A licensed agent may answer your call. Or visit AetnaMedicare.com/DSNP.

Aetna Medicare is an HMO, PPO plan with a Medicare contract. Our D-SNPs also have contracts with State Medicaid programs. Enrollment in our plans depends on contract renewal. See Evidence of Coverage for a complete description of plan benefits, exclusions, limitations and conditions of coverage. Plan features and availability may vary by service area.

Maine Moose 12U Tier II team wins state championship (2025)

Maine Moose 12U Tier II team wins state championship The Maine Moose 12U Tier II hockey team has been crowned the 2024-2025 Maine Amateur Hockey Association State Champions after an outstanding performance in the state tournament. The team showcased skill, determination, and teamwork, securing the title with a thrilling final victory. The Moose will now move on and represent Maine in the New England Regionals starting Friday, March 14.

State Championship Roster:

Goaltenders:

• #1 – Isak Harrington
• #48 – Gabe Loubier

Defensemen:

• #8 – Reagan Gendron
• #21 – Parker Boucher
• #27 – Lincoln Fogg
• #52 – Easton Gradie
• #87 – Austin Roderick
• #97 – Greyson Arnold

Forwards:

• #2 – Brendan Greer
• #4 – Eli Bilodeau
• #10 – Campbell McCarthy
• #22 – Bryson Johnson
• #24 – Bryson Nichols
• #63 – Isaac Turner
• #76 – Malcolm Campbell
• #82 – Landon Ward
• #88 – Wesley McPherson
• #89 – Ezra Orlandello

Coaching Staff:

• Head Coach: Brian Boucher
• Assistant Coach: Brian McCarthy

Outback Beauty owner retires

Susan White

To all my customers: It is with a heavy heart that as of March 7, 2025, I have retired. Becky will be there to carry on. Her number is 207-993-2155. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart and I will miss you. Outback Beauty / Susan White

TEAM PHOTO: 2025 SVAC champions

The Vassalboro Community School girls basketball team rolled through an undefeated season to claim the Sheepscot Valley Athletic Conference championship for 2025. (contributed photo)

Repair work taking place at Lithgow Library

photo: Friends of Lithgow Public Library

Please note that starting March 11, there will be ongoing repair work taking place in the library’s historic wing. The first phase of work will start with the Reading Room, which will be partially closed, and then will shift to the West side where the dvds, magazines and newspapers are housed. During phase two, the magazines and newspapers will be relocated to the Reference area on the 2nd floor and some of the dvds may be unavailable.

The historic wing is the library’s designated quiet area, but during this time there will be disruption. Thank you for your patience.

Lithgow Library is located at 45 Winthrop Street, in Augusta. For more information, please call the library at (207) 626-2415 or visit our website at www.lithgowlibrary.org

EVENTS: Battle of Maine on tap March 22, 2025

The 43rd Battle of Maine Martial Arts Championships will be taking place on Saturday, March 22, 2025, at Champions, in Waterville. The event kicks off at 8:30 a.m., and will feature competitions in flag sparring, full contact padded sword fighting, forms, weapons and point fighting divisions.There will also be special world champion demonstrations around 9:30 a.m. The event will go all day until around 4 p.m. Spectator Tickets are $10 each and $1 of each ticket goes to help support the Maine Children’s Cancer Program.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Truths and myths about roosters

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

You must, at sometime, heard a rooster crow in the morning. It’s pretty cool.

Roosters are often portrayed as crowing at the break of dawn and will almost start crowing before the age of four months. He can often be seen sitting on fence posts or other objects, where he crows to proclaim his territory. However, this idea is more romantic than real, as a rooster can, and will, crow at any time of the day.

Some roosters are especially vociferous, crowing almost constantly, while others only crow a few times a day. These differences are dependent both upon the rooster’s breed and individual personality. He has several other calls as well, and can cluck, similar to the hen. Roosters will occasionally make a patterned series of clucks to attract hens to a source of food, the same way a mother hen does for her chicks.

A capon is a castrated rooster. Caponization affects the disposition of the bird. The process eliminates the male hormones, lessening the male sex instincts and changing their behavior: the bird becomes more docile and less active and tends not to fight. This procedure produces a unique type of poultry meat which is favored by a specialized market.

Did you hear the one about the person who asked another, “How cold was it last night?” The second person responded, “It was so cold I saw a rooster cross the road with a cape on.” It’s corny, but you can smile.

The name rooster was coined in the United States. In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the older term cockerel is more widely used. Also known as cocks, that is more of a general name for a male of other species of bird, for example, Cock sparrow.

The rooster was an emblem of symbolic importance in Gaul at the time of the invasion of Julius Caesar and was associated with the god Lugus, a deity of the Celtic pantheon.

Roosting is the action of perching aloft to sleep at night, and is done by both sexes. The rooster is polygamous, but cannot guard several nests of eggs at once. But he sure tries.

I remember when I was just a youngster the family would travel annually to our grandfather’s farm in northern Canada, in a small mining town named Mont Brun (Brown Mountain), about eight miles north of Rouyn-Noranda, approximately 260 miles north of Ottawa) to spend two weeks. Once a prosperous silver mining town, most of the mines had been shut down by that time, and the area was depressed. It has since recovered.

It was not always fun and games as we all had chores we had to finish before we were allowed to do anything else. And, if you can picture where this farm was, there wasn’t too much else to do. (My mother would say that just over the hill was the end of the world. We didn’t dare to go find out for ourselves.)

The older boys tended the pigs, milked the cows and carried the raw milk, in buckets, by hand to a porch on the back of the house, where my younger brother and I would feed the milk to a centrifugal, hand-cranked machine that would separate the milk from the cream, and begin the process of making butter, which was one of the girls’ chores.

However, another job that my younger brother and I had was to feed the chickens in the coop. Well, there was this rooster with which to contend. He was nasty, ornery and just plain didn’t like us being around. He would hide behind the door of the coop, waiting in ambush for the unsuspecting “city kids.” I had nightmares about that rooster.

More aggressive roosters will drop and extend both wings and puff out all their body feathers to give hens and/or other cocks the impression of a larger size, and charge through the hen yard like a bull. That particular rooster would do that to my brother and I, nipped away at the back of our ankles and scared the dickens out of us. Man, how I hated that rooster.

Roosters, however, can also be extremely graceful. The cockerel “waltz,” as it is known, occurs when the rooster struts in a half circle with one wing extended down, signifying to the females his dominance, and usually, the female will submit by running or moving away from the rooster in acknowledgement. On rare occasions, the hen will attempt to fight the rooster for dominance. Once dominance is established, the rooster will rarely waltz again.When other roosters are in the hen yard, this waltz is used significantly more and most roosters will waltz together if dominance has not been established; either one will back off, or the two will fight. The rooster will waltz again if he is taken out of the pen for a period, usually 24 hours, and put back.

So, the next time you hear a rooster crow, envision two kids running across the hen yard with a rooster in hot pursuit. My grandfather thought it was funny.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

A Canadian-based NHL team has not won the Stanley Cup in 32 years (1993). Which team was that and who did they defeat?

Answer
The Montreal Canadiens won the cup in 1993 by defeating the Los Angeles Kings in five games (4-1).