SOLON & BEYOND: A little knitting news

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

I’m going to start out with one of these 40 tips for a Better Life-2008.

1. Take a 10-30 minute walk every day. And while you walk, smile. It is the ultimate anti-depressant. From time to time, I will use some of these suggestions to keep you happy in these troubling times. As you can see, I used this bit of news back in 2008, but I feel it is worth repeating. Number 2 is sit in silence for at least 10 minutes each day. Buy a lock if you have to.

Now for what little recent news I have received for this week… The Embden Community Thrift Shop will be open April 17, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Masks required. No donations will be accepted that day.

The only other e-mail I received to share with you is one that starts, Local Yarn Store (LYS) Day is coming up on April 17! This day was originally established so folks could show support for their local shops, but at Happyknits we’d like to show our gratitude to you for the support you provide us all year long. We’ll be giving away a $50 gift certificate to one lucky person who makes a purchase between Saturday, April 10 and Saturday, April 17. And Berroco Yarns is throwing their hat into the ring with an offer of a free 7-pattern ebook with the purchase of any of their yarns from our shop on LYSDay.

This week, I’m going back in time, again, this time in a bit of news I had written ( it doesn’t say what paper I was writing for at that time; but it starts like this: “Mary has been cleaning in her nursery school getting ready to open it again and when she took an old linoleum in a closet, underneath was an old Independent Reporter, dated July 21, 1921. In this old paper there was one article I had written entitled, “We All Have It”(this was written 62 years ago!). Then add on all the years since that paper came out.)

At that time, I wrote “We All Have It” and it goes on to say, We mean, of course , the speed mania, wish I could print it all but it rather lengthy – written by an editor who took a drive of 180 miles to observe the speed mania on the highways. It starts out like this …..”We all have it! We mean of course, the speed mania! No one can drive the public highways without being impressed that every man and woman and many children are afflicted with speed mania. It is a dire and dangerous disease . It is just as sure to lead to death as a cannon ball. This speeding is a disease just as truly as small pox is an affliction.

It ends with…”What’s the remedy?There is but one! That is for a law prohibiting the manufacturing of cars beyond a medium speed limit. The ordinary car one meets on a highway has a speed limit of 30 to 40 miles and many of them can tear along at the death-inviting rate of 60-70 miles per hour! We hold life so cheaply that unless these high speed cars are prohibited by law, not only hundreds but thousands of our people will die upon the public highways. Mangled and bleeding amidst the sand and dirt of the earth without an opportunity to arrange one’s business or say goodbye!

That was the end of that story, and I’m sorry to say it didn’t tell who had written the story that I copied there. It goes on to tell about the following: There was a headline that said, “Officers Capture Alleged Moonshiners In Woods South of Madison.”

Now here is Percy’s memoir written by John Greenleaf Whittier: from the Eternal Goodness: I know not what the future hath Of marvel or surprise, Assured alone that life and death, His mercy underlies: And so beside the Silent Sea I wait the muffled oar; No harm from Him can come to me on ocean or on shore. I know not where His Islands lift Their fronded palms in air; I only know I cannot drift Beyond His love and care.