Former Palermo man receives award from MDIF&W

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Zach Glidden

by Roland D. Hallee

Former local resident Zach Glidden, along with two other biologists, has been presented with the 2024 award from the Maine Department of Fisheries and Wildlife for a rescue last year.

On September 7, 2023, at approximately 3:30 p.m., retired fisheries biologist Nels Kramer took a direct phone call of a missing angler on Cold Stream Pond. The angler, an amputee of the leg, was reported missing by his wife. She called Nels, who is well known in the town, and said her husband had gone fishing on the lake and had not returned home, and was not answering his cell phone. Nels retrieved his personal boat and headed to the lake to initiate a search for the individual. While en route, Nels contacted his former colleagues in Enfield and asked for some help. Fisheries biologist Kevin Dunham and Zach Glidden immediately responded to assist in the search.

“This incident highlights that employees of MDIFW, even retirees, are truly committed to serving the public.”

– Maine Game Warden Joseph E. Bailey

About 45 minutes after the initial call, Nels, Kevin and Zach found the fisherman’s boat drifting in Sand Beach Cove with him aboard. The boater had fallen in the area of the transom and was in such a position that he was unable to get up or yell for help. He told the trio of rescuers he had fallen in the boat and later lost consciousness due to the heat.The three biologists were able to upright the fisherman and get him to shore. The estimation is that he was stuck there for up to five hours.

According to the nomination letter, “These three members of DIFW went outside of their wheelhouse to assist someone in need. Nels, Kevin and Zach acted quickly to rescue a boater in distress. Their decisive action saved the angler from further harm and potentially extended search incident by [the] warden service.”

According to Game Warden Joseph E. Bailey, who submitted the nomination letter, “this incident highlights that employees of MDIFW, even retirees, are truly committed to serving the public.”

Zach is the son of Rodney and Jane Glidden, of Palermo. He attended Erskine Academy, in South China, and was an Eagle Scout. He grew up in Palermo and now resides in Howland.

Around the Kennebec Valley: A history of Ford’s Corner, Part II

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Ford’s Corner today. (Google Earth photo)

by Andy Pottle

(Read Part I here.)

In Part 1, we explored the lives of three key families at Ford’s Corner around the turn of the 20th century: Frank & Addie Wood, Daniel & Nettie Batchelder, and Leander & Alice Bowler, all active members of the church at the corner of Chisholm Pond Road and Arnold Lane. Part 2 will explore the history of that church building and what Ford’s Corner is today.

In Lee Bowler’s obituary, it was said he was “instrumental in building the Methodist church,” but the history of the church on the corner starts about a decade and a half before he moved there.

According to Allen Goodwin’s A History of the Early Settlement of Palermo, Maine, Methodists had been meeting in North Palermo since 1830. Initially gathering at Dr. Eli Ayers’ Grove, where Level Hill Road meets North Palermo Road, and later at the “Clifford School House”, most likely somewhere around where Chisholm Pond Road meets the Hostile Valley Road.

In 1859, the congregation purchased a house, raised it off the ground, and rotated it so that the end faced the road. Once enough pledges were secured, Reverend C. E. Springer led the effort, alongside other church members, to raise the roof by 11 feet, and then ventured into the woods to cut rafters for the new roof. The interior of the newly expanded chapel was then plastered by Jason Wood, the great-uncle of Frank Wood (see part 1).

The Methodist Church, circa 1900.

By 1891, the building had deteriorated to the point of being described as “decayed and dilapidated,” and “thoroughly uncomfortable and unsuitable for use,” according to an issue of Zion’s Herald, a Methodist newspaper.

At that time, the reverend was George J. Palmer, a carpenter and architect. Palmer “knew just what needed to be done with the old structure, and the most economical way to do it.” and got to work planning the renovation.

After several church fundraisers, donations, and a loan from Lee Bowler, Palmer got to work, doing much of the renovation himself. The structure was expanded, the belfry was built with a bell installed, and the church was neatly finished and painted white.

Thanks to the efforts of Bowler, Palmer, and others, this community had a meeting place for regular Sunday services, weddings, and funerals for years to come. It also hosted various events, such as Christmas concerts and talks by traveling speakers.

In 1948, the people of the community and other towns came together again to keep the old building alive. By this time, the church grounds included a second building, the Ladies Aid building, where a supper was served to raise money for repairs to the steeple and for painting the church. Paul Wellman and Arthur Hurd donated lumber and shingles, respectively. By this time the community in North Palermo was made up of both old and new families, and some of the families documented to have helped in some way with this renovation include Besse, Brown, Bryant, Bukner, Coffin, Davis, Dowe, Dyer, Glidden, Howell, Hurd, Nelson, Norton, Palmer, Pottle, Sabin, Soule, Wellman, Willoughby, and Young.

The building mid-transformation, circa 1980.

Ten years later, in 1958, the church buildings were purchased by the North Palermo Baptist Fellowship after the First Baptist Church down the road at Carr’s Corner had been torn down a few years earlier. In an effort to revive rural churches that had fallen by the wayside, the Waldo Larger Parish assigned Miss Barbara Rozelle as pastor. She split her duties between the newly established North Palermo Baptist Church and the Second Baptist Church in East Palermo until she was succeeded by Eric Wiggin Jr. in the mid 1960s. Eric Wiggin Jr., the great-grandson of the aforementioned Frank Wood, never knew that the brother of his great-great-great-grandfather had plastered the walls of this very church over 100 years earlier when it was first converted into a chapel.

In 1968, some members of the North Palermo Baptist Church joined with members of the East Palermo Baptist and Branch Mills Union Churches to form the Palermo Christian Church. By 1969, under the leadership of Pastor Fred Williams, it became clear that the original church building was no longer adequate for the growing congregation. According to the history of the Palermo Christian Church, “about 75 Sunday School students were crowded into four classes, one of which met in the Ladies Aid House, while the other three gathered in separate corners of the small sanctuary.” The lack of running water and modern restroom facilities also contributed to the decision to construct a new church building. The new church was built on Branch Mills Road near Route 3, where the congregation continues to meet to this day.

Pastor Fred Williams recalled the challenging process of removing the old bell from the tower. Fred, along with Church members Neal Pottle and Colin Dyer had tied a rope around the heavy bell and began lowering it down the building. Halfway down, the rope snapped, causing the bell to crash down and embed itself a few inches deep into the ground below. Despite this setback, they managed to retrieve the bell and move it to the new church building, where it still resides.

In the 1970s, the building was sold and briefly owned by the Palermo American Legion. Due to its poor condition, the steeple was removed, along with most of the belfry.

View of the old church building and Christmas tree farm at Ford’s Corner from Chisholm Pond Road, 2024.

In 1979, Neal Pottle purchased the building and undertook a major overhaul to transform it into what it is today. With the help of family and friends, the building was once again lifted off the ground, this time to pour a concrete foundation, replacing the old, dilapidated wooden floor. A garage door was installed in the front wall of the sanctuary, which was repurposed as Neal’s garage. The Ladies Aid building, which had sunk into the mud over the years, was lifted, moved next to the main building, and attached as a machinist shop, equipped with a metal lathe, drill presses, and a Bridgeport mill, among other tools. The siding was replaced with wooden shingles and painted a classic barn red. The cupola and light on top of the building wouldn’t be added until 2008.

In 1985, Neal’s son Ken Pottle started a printing company in the building. A door was added to the top of what remained of the old bell tower, and the space above the former sanctuary was converted into a working print shop. A panel was cut out of the front of the building, allowing printing presses to be moved in using a hydraulic wood loader.

Pottle’s Printing, and later Archer and Pottle’s Printing after Jeff Archer joined as a partner, served local businesses by printing flyers, business cards, and other paper goods. The company also printed the town reports for Palermo from 1985 to 1988 and launched a short-lived community newspaper in 1986, predating The Town Line by three years!

After the print shop moved in 1990, Ken and Neal repurposed the space into a woodworking shop, which has been enjoyed by the Pottle family and their friends ever since. When Neal passed away in November 2023, his casket was built in the woodshop at the top of the old church. He was laid to rest in Smith Cemetery, alongside Leander and Alice Bowler, Frank and Addie Wood, Daniel and Nettie Batchelder, and many others who had lived in North Palermo and spent their time at Ford’s Corner.

Today, the only buildings still standing at the corner are the old Wood residence and the former Methodist Church. The Bowler home, and outbuildings were lost to a fire in 1932, with the Bowler Barn surviving until the ‘60s.

In 2007, Doug Wellman built North Palermo Self Storage on the back corner of what was once the Bowler farm, using lumber milled on-site where the Bowler house had once stood.

In 2022, Randy Pottle planted a Christmas tree farm with 200 trees on the site of the former house and general store, extending behind it. He plans to use the proceeds from the tree sales to buy his grandchildren, Ava and Norman, their first vehicles, by the time the trees (and the grandchildren) are big enough in 2032, 100 years after the house burned down!

The old Batchelder house, which later was home to Neal Pottle’s parents until his mother’s death in 1989, remained at the corner until 2008 when both Neal’s father and the house were lost to a fire.

In the back field behind the property there is an airstrip built by the late Gerald Pottle, brother of Neal, when he purchased his yellow Citabria airplane in 1977.

At the site where the Batchelders once held meetings for the annual Palermo Picnic a century ago, another event now brings hundreds to North Palermo each August from across Maine and beyond.

Neal and Theresa Pottle started the Family and Friends Bluegrass Festival in 2008 to showcase local talent from the Bluegrass Jam hosted at their house every Friday night. The Festival has grown over the past 17 years into a three-day event that has featured music, workshops, contra dances, kids’ activities, food trucks, and more. On the third weekend of each August, the field between the runway and the now-red Methodist church fills with campers and tents from as far away as Georgia and South Carolina.

With the sounds of Bluegrass jams coming from the campsites and laughter from the children’s area beside the old church building, Ford’s Corner once again feels like the center of a community in North Palermo, if only for one weekend a year.

Sources:

Newspaper archives of Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel, Belfast Republican Journal, Lewiston Evening Journal
Conversations with Eric Wiggin Jr., Fred Williams, Neal Pottle, Ken Pottle, Ed Hatch, Lindsey Pottle
A History of the Early Settlement of Palermo, Maine, by Allen Goodwin
Zions Herald, September 2 1891

Around the Kennebec Valley: A history of Ford’s Corner

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Ford’s Corner, Palermo.

by Andy Pottle

Part I

Andy Pottle is a resident of Palermo and writes articles about the town’s history.

In North Palermo, where Arnold Lane and Chisholm Pond Road meet, the North Palermo Road just before Wilder Young Hill goes down into Freedom, is a place once known as Ford’s Corner. You wouldn’t know it today, but over a century ago this quiet corner was the center of a bustling community in North Palermo.

The general store/post office, home, and barn of the Bowlers circa 1908. all lost to a fire in 1932.

Ford’s Corner once hosted a general store, a post office, a boarding house, and a Methodist church.

The corner was also home to many of the local residents who managed committees, organized events, and oversaw the church.

Frank Wood, 1862-1909. (photo courtesy of Pat Wiggin)

Addie Robinson Wood, 1871-1948. (photo courtesy of Pat Wiggin)

Frank and Addie Wood lived in the white house that still stands on the northwestern corner of the intersection at Ford’s Corner. It was written in the newspapers at the time that the Wood’s “kept quite a dairy” and held ice cream fundraisers to benefit the church, where they were described as “active, devoted, and industrious members”. Frank was also a beloved stagecoach driver and mail carrier from 1885 to 1904. When Frank passed away in 1909 it was written in his obituary that there was “Not a home for miles around that [could] not testify to some act of kindness from him”. Frank Wood was the son of Frank Wood Sr., a member of the 19th Maine Regiment who was tragically killed in the Civil War in 1863 when Frank Jr. was only a year old.

Daniel and Nettie (Carr) Batchelder* lived in the house that formerly stood on the southwestern corner of the intersection. Nettie was a member of the Ladies Improvement Society, which organized the annual Palermo Picnic and held its planning meetings at their home. The picnic, held every August at Prescott Pond behind Smith Cemetery on the Level Hill Road, attracted hundreds of attendees and continued for about 20 years, starting in 1900.

Pre-1870, members of the Batchelder family owned and operated a general store located across the street from Daniel and Nettie. A map of Palermo in 1859 shows the store being run by Daniel’s uncle, Cyrus Batchelder. In 1869 it was re-established as “A. & D. Batchelders” before burning down the next year.

Daniel served in the 19th Maine Regiment in the Civil War, alongside Frank Wood Sr.

Homes of the Batchelders (left) and Woods (right) circa 1907.

Leander Bowler, 1840-1923. (photo courtesy of Bill Kahrmann)

Alice (Hibbert) Bowler 1847-1927. (photo courtesy of Bill Kahrmann)

Leander and Alice Bowler, most notable among the residents of Ford’s Corner were Leander “Lee” Bowler and his wife, Alice (Hibbert) Bowler. Born in Palermo in 1840, Leander was described as “one of its most influential citizens.” He married Alice Hibbert, of Washington, the granddaughter of the namesake of Hibberts Gore, in 1870. By 1873, the couple had moved to the southeast corner of the intersection at Ford’s Corner, where the old Batchelder store once stood and had apparently been rebuilt. That same year, Leander was appointed Postmaster of North Palermo, a position he would hold for nearly 40 years. Lee was a very successful merchant, farmer, and businessman, for the next 60 years.

Lee made a comfortable living from his store, and employed several traveling salesmen with peddler’s carts that “sold goods near and far”. In addition to his success as a merchant, he was a prosperous farmer with multiple farms around Palermo. In 1897, it was reported that he exported 23,000 dozen eggs that year. Lee also held a U.S. patent for an “egg preserver” invented by himself and J. P. French, of Palermo, that could hold 2,500 dozen eggs and rotated on an axle, supposedly keeping them fresh by preventing the yolks from settling too long on the inside of the shell.

After a fire destroyed their home in 1886, Leander built the “Bowler Mansion” as it is known to some, which was described in the newspaper as “one of the finest places in town”. It was a very big home that also served as a boarding house where traveling salesman “found good meals and clean, comfortable beds in large, airy rooms”, as well as a special room reserved for any traveling ministers that were visiting the Methodist church across the street.

One of the ministers that passed through was Frank Kingdon, who arrived in the United States from London in 1913 and lived with the Bowlers while serving as the pastor of the Methodist church for the first year he was in America. Kingdon would later become (among other things) a journalist, civil rights activist, and the first chairman of the Emergency Rescue Committee, which famously saved around 2,000 people from the Holocaust during the Nazi occupation of France.

In his memoir, reflecting on his life, Kingdon had kind words for Leander and Alice.

“The presiding genius of the mansion was [Alice] “Ma” Bowler, an old and wrinkled housekeeping Fury who hated dirt as she hated the Devil, and to whom both were equally tangible. She stomped through the rooms on a crutch, her restless eye never missing any hidden speck of dust. … she was equally uncompromising in her goodness. No one ever went empty away from her door. She was first friend and confidante to the whole countryside. Boisterous, untamed of tongue, she would exchange greetings and repartee at any level with anyone who came to the store. She spared nobody from her scolding if she thought him foolish. She did not spare herself if she thought anybody in need. … She was as twisted and gnarled as an apple tree, but life was in her and many drew strength from her generous heart.”

“[Leander] had a genius for human relationships. He was a small, wiry man of some seventy years who salted all his dealings with a sprightly humor. He made a comfortable living out of the store, carried most of his neighbors on his books, and held mortgages on many of their homes. Yet he was the most honored and best beloved man in the whole section. He was the leader of the church, and also its janitor. He did not sit in a regular pew, but occupied a chair tipped against a wall up front. Here he sat and chewed tobacco religiously … By his single determination he kept the little church alive. More than in any other situation I have ever seen, this whole scattered community was held together by one man’s personality. He was the very picture of the good citizen in a democratic community, winning his undisputed place on grounds no more visible and no less irresistible than the quality of his strong character.”

(Read Part 2 of this article here.)

Sources:

Newspaper archives of Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel, Belfast Republican Journal, Lewiston Evening Journal.
Conversations with Pat Wiggin, Tony Tuttle, Bill Kahrmann
1859 map of Waldo County
Batchelder Genealogy 1898
Official Gazette of the United States Patent Office 1874
Jacob’s Ladder: The Days Of My Youth. Frank Kingdon 1943

*Different members of the Batchelder family at different times spelled their name as Batchelder, Bachelder and Bachelor, for clarity it is written here only as Batchelder.

The Town Line welcomes submissions from other writers of town history from the area.

Palermo Consolidated School receives American Heart Association grant for health resources

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For the second year in a row, the American Heart Association’s school-based youth programs, Kids Heart Challenge™ and American Heart Challenge™, has awarded Palermo Consolidated School a grant to support health resources. This year, the school received $2,199 for a Hands-on Healthy Kitchen/Cooking Mobile Unit. Over the past two years, the Association has provided the school with $4,699 in grants to help enrich the lives of their students and staff. The annual grant program supports schools by funding resources to extend school wellness programs.

“PE/health teacher Lisa Sturgis and the whole Palermo School community came out for a really fun after-school Kids Heart Challenge event with students, staff, and parents to raise awareness of heart disease, learn Hands-Only CPR, and have a good time. The fact they were awarded an American Heart Association grant was icing on the cake,” said Gary Urey, the Association’s Director of School Engagement, Maine.

The American Heart Association, a global force for healthier lives for all, is helping educators make whole-body wellness a priority by bringing more resources to school campuses. Grant recipients are now able to expand their schools’ wellness offerings with additions such as physical activity equipment, water bottle filling stations and educator training opportunities on their campuses. The application process was open to all schools who participated in the school-based programs in the 2023-2024 school year.

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ 2018 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, only 20 percent of kids get enough activity to meet physical activity recommendations.

Both the Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge are rooted in proven science, which has shown that kids who are regularly active have a better chance of a healthy adulthood.

In addition to physical health, the benefits of physical activity for children include improved grades, school attendance and classroom behavior. Physical activity can also help kids feel better, improve mental health, build self-esteem and decrease and prevent conditions such as anxiety and depression.

Funds raised by Kids Heart Challenge and American Heart Challenge participants support the American Heart Association’s scientific research and outreach programs, paving the way for improved health outcomes for healthier communities.

Schools are encouraged to register now for 2024-2025 school year. The program provides grant funding twice a year, mid-school year and year end, to provide resources in real time to students. The application for the next round of grants is December 15th if the school completes the Kids Heart Challenge by December. If not, they can apply for the second round of grants by May 31st if their school is participating in the program during the second half of the school year.

To learn more about the American Heart Association’s kid’s initiatives, or to make a donation, please visit www.heart.org/kids. To find out how to get your school involved, contact Gary Urey, the Association’s School Engagement Director for Maine, at Gary.Urey@heart.org.

PHOTO: Boat inspectors do a great job

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Sheepscot Lake’s Courtesy Boat Inspection (CBI) program was very successful again this year. A huge thank you to 2024 Courtesy Boat Inspectors Sorrel Vinci and Reid Sutter. Thanks to their hard work Sheepscot Lake remains healthy and free from invasive plants. (contributed photo)

VASSALBORO: Town receives good news of $200,000 grant for Mill Hill bridge replacement

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by Mary Grow

Vassalboro select board members began their Aug. 8 meeting with the good news of a $200,000 grant toward the Mill Hill bridge replacement project.

The Mill Hill bridge, also called the Dunlap bridge, is actually a double culvert. It carries Mill Hill Road over Seven Mile Brook, which alewives use to migrate from the Kennebec River into Webber Pond.

The Maine Department of Transportation (DOT) letter announcing the award says the $200,000 Municipal Stream Crossing Grant requires a local match of $68,000.

Lars Hammer, of Maine’s Department of Marine Resources, explained that the money comes from a federal Department of Transportation program created to repair or replace culverts in order to improve passage for anadromous fish. He said state DOT officials intend to apply for additional federal grants, perhaps including more money for the Vassalboro project. They expect to hear next spring how successful they have been.

Eric Calderwood, of Brunswick-based Calderwood Engineering, the town’s consultant, said the culverts are in bad shape and should be replaced as soon as possible. The company presented three alternative replacement plans, with different costs and grant opportunities.

Select board members were considering the possibility that this and potential future grants might require a hasty special town meeting to raise more local money. They focused on whether town funds already set aside will be enough for the required local share and when the town will be expected to make payments.

After considerable discussion, with Mill Hill Road residents and the majority of the town budget committee among a larger-then-usual audience, they concluded the project does not require voters’ action this fall.

Select board members considered two related issues. They approved Town Manager Aaron Miller’s draft request for proposals from alewife harvesters; and they reviewed plans for work at the Webber Pond dam, where Seven Mile Brook leaves the pond.

Miller said dam improvements might also be partly funded with grant money, though there is no guarantee.

Select board sets mil rate at 13.33 mils

At their Aug. 8 meeting, Vassalboro select board members set the 2024-25 local property tax rate at 13.33 mils ($13.33 for each $1,000 of valuation), in the middle of the range of possible rates presented by assessor Ellery Bane, of RJD Appraisal in Pittsfield.

Town Manager Aaron Miller said last year’s rate was 12.72 mils; so current-year taxes increase 61 cents for each $1,000 of valuation, or about 4.8 percent.

Town office staff will promptly send out tax bills. By town meeting vote, the first quarterly payment is due by the 3:30 p.m. close of business Monday, Sept. 30. Subsequent due dates are Nov. 25, 2024, and Feb. 24 and April 28, 2025.

On another issue, select board members added a local referendum question to the Nov. 5 national and state voting. They will ask voters’ approval of a revised charter for the Vassalboro Sanitary District, which maintains sewer lines in East and North Vassalboro.

The principal change discussed would be to have VSD trustees elected by the residents of the area served. If voters approve the change, Miller and board members expect VSD elections to be held with municipal elections in June 2025.

In other business Aug. 8:

— Board members and the manager discussed whether their fall meeting schedule should avoid Thanksgiving, Nov. 28, or whether they could plan to skip that meeting. They decided to plan to skip it: regular select board meetings are scheduled for Sept. 5 and 19, Oct. 3, 17 and 31 and Nov. 14 and 28.
— Miller reported that China Lake water level reports are being forwarded to state officials as requested, after the high water this spring led to on-going discussions among interested parties in Vassalboro, China and the state Department of Environmental Protection. Select board chairman Frederick “Rick” Denico, Jr., added that a newly-installed rain gauge at the town garage should provide more accurate measures of local rainfall.
— Miller said the transfer station is running smoothly under new manager Adam Daoust.

The next regular Vassalboro select board meeting is scheduled for Thursday evening, Sept. 5.

PHOTO: Beautiful flowers, beautiful day

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Lindy Sklover, of Vassalboro, snapped these peonies at Fieldstone Gardens, in Vassalboro.

CORRECTION: In the print edition, this photo was incorrectly credited to Gary Mazoki, of Palermo, in the print edition, instead of Lindy Sklover, of Vassalboro. We apologize for the error.

Palermo community foundation nets $1,970 at fundraiser barbecue

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Murielle DiBiasi and Ann Sears kick up their heels as Anthony Semenovich plays guitar. (contributed photo)

The August 3 Community Cookout wasn’t just delicious, it was great fun! Anthony Semenovich played his violin and guitar, inspiring some to dance along in the grass, as people finished their desserts and relaxed under the canopies and in the grape arbor. “I saw people scooping up the last crumbs of cornbread from the giant pan,” laughed Phil White Hawk as he helped himself to more pulled pork. Michael O’Brien and his daughter Aubrey delighted the crowd with humorous comments as they drew the raffle prizes that ranged from gift certificates to an Echo trimmer donated by The Home Depot. Many local businesses contributed to the success of the cookout, including Hussey’s General Store, Lakeview Lumber, Bass Pro Shop, and B & B Septic. Ann Sears collected many personal donations of gift cards, handmade items, and tools. There were a couple of anonymous donors as well, whose support is greatly appreciated.

The Living Communities Foundation sponsors the Palermo Community Garden, where the party took place, and next-door neighbor Mark Evasius kindly lent the use of part of his back yard for a parking area. It was a good thing he did, as it filled up quickly. The Community Garden helps to supply the food pantry with freshly-picked, organic produce. The back garden not only features the grape arbor, but also showcases interplanted herbs and vegetables in 15 raised beds. Master Gardener Connie Bellet likes to introduce colorful and unusual plants to expand the Maine diet. The Giant Kossack kohlrabi is a good example of a sweet and versatile vegetable not found in grocery stores. Another example is Mountain Red Orach, a burgundy spinach-like plant that grows to eight feet in height and is rich in anthocyanins. Both of these vegetables are offered at the food pantry, and visitors are welcome to take a tour of the garden. It is best to call Connie at 993-2294 to make sure she is around to give a tasting tour.

The Living Communities Foundation enthusiastically thanks all the volunteers and sponsors who made this event possible. Thanks to the income, the Foundation plans to resume some programs and add others, now that Covid is in the rearview mirror. Suggestions are welcome! Please give Connie a call or email her at pwhitehawk@fairpoint.net.

Guests enjoy barbecue in the Community Garden. (contributed photo)

EVENTS: Food, Fun, and Friends meet at the community cookout in Palermo

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Palermo Community Garden. (contributed photo)

The fun begins at 4 p.m., on Saturday, August 3, at 26 Veterans Way, in Palermo, as people gather for a celebration of summer in the Palermo Community Garden behind the gray mobile home. There is plenty of parking. The scent of fruitwood barbeque emanates from the Grape Arbor, where the tents and tables welcome guests with cooling beverages and home-cooked pulled pork, turkey, cornbread, cowboy beans, tempting desserts, and more. Tickets are only $10 for adults and $5 for youth 6-12. Little kids are free. Grace O’Brien will have tickets available at the gate. This will happen rain or shine, and takeouts are available. At 6 p.m., the firepit will be lit and folks can gather around it to hear Anthony Semenovich play his guitar and sing.

Meanwhile, Ann Bako and Nancy Thomas will be selling raffle tickets to those who have not already purchased them. Thanks to numerous sponsors and donors, there are dozens of prizes, including an Echo string trimmer donated by The Home Depot. Gardening tools, gift certificates, fishing rods, and more will be given away, and winners do not need to be present. Just put your name and phone number on the blue tickets and you’re in it to win it. Tickets are 6 for $5.

This cookout is a fundraiser for the Palermo Community Center, which hosts the Palermo Food Pantry, sponsors the Community Garden, and the Great ThunderChicken Teaching Drum. Drum practices are held at 7 p.m., on Tuesday evenings at the Community Center and all are welcome to join in the experience. The Community Garden helps to provide free, organic fruits, vegetables, and herbs to the Food Pantry and others in need. If you run out of dill for your pickling projects, be sure to grab some from the garden. Fresh garlic and berries are also in season. Call Connie Bellet at 993-2294 for information, volunteer opportunities, and cookout or raffle tickets. We are looking forward to seeing you!

Nonagenarian writes book, shares at reading in Palermo

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Ninety-year-old Jeannette Scates reads from her book, There Wasn’t Always Peace in the Valley. (photo by Andy Pottle)

by Mary Grow

Nonagenarian Jeannette Scates signs one of her recently published books. (photo by Andy Pottle)

Guest speaker Jeannette Wood Scates shared excerpts from her recent memoir, There Wasn’t Always Peace in the Valley, with an appreciative audience at the Palermo Library’s 22nd annual board meeting, held July 14 at the library.

The valley is Hostile Valley in eastern Palermo, where Scates and her three older siblings grew up in the house their father built around 1930. The book’s cover photo shows the Wood children: Allen, Jeannette on the lap of older sister Rachel and oldest brother Harry, with their dog, Teddy.

Asked how Hostile Valley got its name, Scates referred to a poem quoted in the book written by her “Grammie Wood,” more formally Theresa Alice Bickford Wood, when she was a columnist using the byline Molly Malone for the Kennebec Journal, in Augusta. The last two lines read:

Every Valley man has a kindly heart
And a gol durned Hostile tongue.

The book is a collection of stories and memories, from which Scates read selections, to applause, smiles and chuckles. She started with the one she called her daughter’s favorite, titled “Worldwide Travelers.”

This story tells how the travelers started with take-out from “an eatery place called ‘Mama’s Kitchen,'” where they stocked up on molasses cookies with sugar on top and soda crackers with butter and mustard. They agreed on who would drive first, and on a destination – often Boston, perhaps as far as New York, where they admired the Stone Lady in the harbor.

The story ends: “We all piled out of the old, abandoned, junk car in the backyard – AND WE WERE HOME AGAIN!” Below is a photo of a rusty two-door station wagon, glassless, with ragged fenders, amid hood-high weeds.

Illustrations throughout show family members, neighbors and other memorable figures, including the rooster who used to chase Rachel and one of Harry’s Herefords, with Harry and Rachel. Asked about the pictures, Scates said many were taken with her Brownie Hawkeye camera that Rachel gave her for her 16th birthday.

Right after the travelers’ tale is the story of Scates’ father’s 40th birthday gift to her mother. She explains that her mother had no sled, nor snowshoes, nor skates, and so was left out of the children’s winter play.

Her father somehow found the money to buy his wife a pair of skates “with silver runners” and a pair of warm stockings. He gave one skate or one stocking to each of the four children to present simultaneously.

One of Scates’ father’s jobs was driving a snowplow for the town. The book shows the “Cleartrac Tractor with a Sargent Snowplow and wings” that the town bought in 1939 and “Daddy” drove.

Themes running through the book include an appreciation of the natural world and its changes, an appreciation of family and friends and an overriding optimism. Scates does not pretend life was easy. Everyone, children included, worked hard; money was scarce; her father died when she was eight years old; and after a long, happy marriage she is a widow.

Yet she wrote in the next-to-last essay in the book, “I have been through some hard times, but I can say that the biggest part of my journey has been so rewarding and special!” In addition to generations of family and friends, she credits the Lord “who has walked beside me most of my life, and when the times got hard, He carried me as He had promised He would do.”

Asked if there would be another book, Scates was hesitant. Asked about plans for her 90th birthday, which she was to celebrate July 16, she and her son, Rudy Scates, gave vague replies. Audience members sang Happy Birthday to her, and library personnel had prepared a special birthday treat.