IF WALLS COULD TALK, Week of August 18, 2016

by Katie Ouilette

WALLS, do we hear what is said or do we interpret a statement as we think it is intended?   WALLS, this 86-years-young was
taught to listen and learn.  Yes, faithful readers who are younger than I am are expected to step into a time-machine and interpret what is said.  Well, my time-machine has a lot more information or actions than our faithful readers who are taken back only 10 or 20 or even 40 or 50 years.  Is this the USA that I grew up in?  Is my USA the one that younger folks wish for or do youngers consider those in my time-machine too old?

Delbert Corson took me back to 1936 and a few years later when he called to say he enjoyed WALLS.  Yes, our time machine took us back to our childhood when kids played hide and seek in the neighborhood or, get this, faithful readers,  ‘chums’ and us playing baseball in Mr. Devall’s cow-pasture, where Skowhegan’s Armory Building now stands.  Yup, I think the cowflaps were our bases!  That pasture on North School Street also was our sledding spot.  Why not?  Mémère Zelie just had to look out the living room window to assure our well-being and the phone number for all the neighborhood had been memorized, just in case a parent was needed.  Ah, Delly (his name to us kids), thanks for the reawakening of memories.

Speaking of ‘memories.’  Have you faithful readers visited the East Madison Historical Museum?  It’s worth the trip, you know.
There is so much memorabilia in that little building next to the East Madison Fire Station and, now, a surprise awaits when the new building that is being built is completed.  Just in case you are taking a ride up the East Madison Road on the first and third Thursdays of the month, stop by and reawake your memories of the area or learn something new.  The time?  1 – 4 p.m., the museum is open .  You may meet old friends Gary Malbon or Alfred Jackson as they drive nails for the new building or local historian Eric Lahti, who is now president.  The next monthly meeting of the EMHA is August 18, at 7 p.m.  Never to be forgotten are Marleen Brooks and the others who meet and create magnificently beautiful patchwork quilts.   The six East Madison Quilters presented the latest quilts that they made for veterans.  Yes, there were tears and applauses-a-plenty on the last day of the annual recent East Madison Days as each veteran was awarded a very special and beautifully designed quilt.  WALLS say ‘Thanks, Ladies, for your hard work and dedication.” And we are sure happy to have Merrit Burpee as a member.  Merrit grew up in East Madison and knows the rules that Lake Wesserunsett folks must follow to maintain its beauty.  Yes, we must be grateful that East Madison is ‘home.’