SOLON & BEYOND: Stroll reminded me of happy times with walk group

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

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

Today as I sit here at my computer, I’m thinking about the walk I took this afternoon; it brings back many happy days in the past. As many of you know who have been reading this column back in the good old days about a walking group I started. It was made up of many good friends over the years, and we were eventually named The Solon Chapter Beer Drinking, Chowder Eating, Marching and Singing Society, (SCB DCEMSS) by someone in Solon!

Now for some news that I received: The Embden Historical Society April 13, 2020, meeting, scheduled for 6:30 p.m., at the Embden Community Center, has been canceled (Speaker Jack Gibson’s presentation on “Properties, Trails & History” of Somerset Woods will be rescheduled in 2021). Thanks Carol, for keeping us informed.

Another e-mail that I received was from Sarah, Karla and Mary Lou of Happyknits and it states: Dear Yarn Friends, Sometimes there are events in life that force us to slow down and take stock. We recognize that the most important thing now is to help those who are out there helping others.

Starting today, Happyknits will be closed until Governor Mills’ Stay Healthy at Home order expires, currently April 30. While it will be difficult to lock the door and walk away today, it was not a difficult choice to make. Just know that we will be here for all of you once this ordeal is over, ready to see your smiling faces walk through that door. Until then, we wish all of you and all those you care about the best of health.

Let us know via Facebook or e-mail and what you are doing. What are you knitting or crocheting? Are you finishing those UFOs? Doing some deep stash diving? Reconnecting with old friends? Reach out! We love to know.

I’m going to continue with a little more about living in Flagstaff from the articles that were published. Would the pace of modern-day living have reached Flagstaff? Some of us didn’t have electricity or plumbing, and yet I don’t feel underprivileged because of the pleasant memories I treasure.

The skiing and sliding on Jim Eaton Hill, skating on Flagstaff Pond in winter and swimming in summer. Everyone in town turned out for school socials and plays. It was a wonderful place to grow up. But all during my childhood, every so often during the grown ups conversations, mention was made of a dam being built and having to move. The thought was intolerable, and yet it did come to pass, and in the fall of 1949 the people of Flagstaff and Dead River went their separate ways.

As I wrote last week, my brother Larry is very interested in what growing up in Flagstaff was like, and so that brought back lots of memories. One of them being that we didn’t have indoor plumbin, and quite a few stairs to get there. It was a three holer and quite breezy…. But what I’m getting at is for the benefit of all you people out there who are having a hard time to get enough toilet paper in this terrible situation!

Way back in those days, the Sears Robuck catalogue was used for that purpose! Don’t know if that company is still in business, but there are many other catalogs that might work! Good Luck.

And now for Percy’s memoirs, we hope to cheer you up! This one is entitled Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled: When the days are long and the way seems dark and you can’t hear the song of a bluebird or lark, May the words in this verse brighten your day and chase your worries and cares away. Whenever I am troubled and lost in deep despair I bundle all my troubles up and go to God in prayer… I tell Him I am heartsick and lost and lonely, too, that my mind is deeply burdened and I don’t know what to do… But I know He stilled the tempest and calmed the angry sea, And I humbly ask if in His love He’ll do the same for me… And then I just keep quiet and think only thoughts of Peace, and if I abide in stillness my “restless murmurings” cease. (words by Helen Steiner Rice)…..and this quick one, Even a fish wouldn’t get in trouble if it would keep it’s mouth shut.