SOLON & BEYOND: 4-Hers preparing for upcoming fair season

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

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

Received the following information from Eleanor Pooler, the leader of the Solon Pine Tree 4-H Club for many, many years: The Solon Pine Tree 4-H Club sent 127 exhibits to the Bangor State Fair 4-H exhibition hall. (Eleanor said they will be sending more to several other upcoming fairs.) I admire Eleanor greatly, for all she does for our young people!

Janice Pooler, from Colorado, and her children AJ Giroux Jr., and Jessica Crocker and their families have been here visiting Rance and Eleanor Pooler. While here she welcomed a new grandson Josah Charles Giroux.

The monthly supper at the Embden Community Center will be on Saturday, August 10, at 5 p.m.

Regular events at the Embden Community Center are Neighbor to Neighbor Thrift Shop/Lending Library 10 a.m.- 12:30 p.m., Wed.;10:00-3:00 Fri. & Sat. Country Sunday: 1- 4 p.m./second and fourth Sunday. By donation. Sewing Class: 10 a.m. – noon/ Wednesdays; Weight Watchers: 5 – 6 p.m./Wednesdays. Come in an sign up–new members accepted. TOPS ( Take Off Pounds Sensibly) 10:30-11:30 a.m., Wednesdays. For more information you may call 566-7302.

My thanks go out to my son Peter, for getting my computer up and running again. It froze up on me from a scam and I couldn’t get it to do anything. It frustrates me some times but this was beyond that!

The above is all the recent news that I could gather up, and since you read this column now all know how old I am, I’m going to send out some great advice for older people…It is entitled Youth: Youth is not a time of life – it is a state of mind. It is not a matter of ripe cheeks, red lips and supple knees; It is a temper of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; It is a freshness of the deep springs of life. Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity, Of the appetite for adventure over love of ease. This often exists in a man of 50 more than a boy of 20. Nobody grows old by merely living a number of years; People grow old only by deserting their ideals. Years wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, doubt, self-distrust, fear and despair – these are the long, long years that bow the head and turn the growing spirit back to dust.

Whether 70 or 16, there is in every being’s heart the love Of wonder; the sweet amazement at the stars and the star-like things and thoughts; the undaunted challenge of events; the unfailing, childlike appetite for what’s next; and you are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

In the central place of your heart there is a wireless station; So long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage, grandeur and power from earth, from men, and from the Infinite – so long are your young.

When the wires are all down and all the central place of your heart is covered with the snows of pessimism and the ice of cynicism, then are you grown old? Indeed and may God have mercy on your soul.

Hope the above words inspire some of you to continue to live life to the fullest, no matter what your age. I used the same words in a column in The Town Line back on July 10, 2004. Hope you agree, and will start thinking younger.

And so for Percy’s memoir entitled, Have Faith: Have faith when others turn and run; Endure the night, there will be sun. Have faith when things are looking dim With head erect, your eyes on Him. Be not afraid to lose or fail; No ocean’s crossed until you sail… No victory’s won without a fight, No bird migrates without a flight. Faith overcomes the strongest foe and lights the path where we must go. Faith overcomes both doubt and fear; It paints a picture bright and clear, And faith is never far away…It grows each time we kneel to pray. (words by Clay Harrison.)