SOLON & BEYOND, Week of September 8, 2016

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

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

I am starting this column with a much appreciated e-mail message from Emmons and Barbara Pinkham: “Many thanks for the wonderful article regarding our historical society in The Town Line edition we received today. We always read your column and were delightfully surprised to see the organization in your column. We had a wonderful reception to our invitation for people to view our new building. It has taken us about six years with the help of volunteers to see our dream come true.

“Next on the agenda will be a barn to house farm equipment and also a Blacksmith shop. We still have more work ahead of us but are willing to see the completion of this project which hopefully will benefit the citizens. of Lexington and Highland.

“Since some Historical Societies had events on September 20, we are issuing an invitation to attend a special open house on Saturday, September 10, from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., and on Sunday, September 11, from 1 – 4 p.m. Most sincerely, Emmons and Barbara Pinkham.”

My many thanks to you folks for your kind words, it is always a great pleasure to hear from those of you who read my columns. My goal has always been to give my friends, known, and unknown, words of Love and Laughter to make their lives happier. Have been trying to remember how many years I’ve been writing for several different papers, and as near as I can figure, it’s over 40! (All the other papers are no longer in business) but The Town Line is always there every Thursday, probably partly because of the great editor! (suppose I”ll get a raise for that one?)

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

Just a reminder to those interested, that the Adult Ed will be starting up at Skowhegan on Monday, September 12, for the Painting Club. I’m looking forward to old and new members!
Lief and I celebrated our fifth anniversary by going up to camp at Flagstaff last weekend. Dave and Pete were there and Peter, Sherry and Mazy went up also. The weather was perfect, blue skies and lots of sun. Lief and I love sleeping in the bunkhouse, the toilet seat in the out house was cold in the middle of the night but that’s all part of the adventure!

Came across this saved piece of history about the area that I had cut out of a Sunday paper in 2002, entitled Treasured Memories of a Place Now Covered in Water, written by William David Barry. (It was a review of the book, “There Was A Land”) And he wrote, ” On the face of it, 70 authors focusing on one subject, in one volume, does not suggest a good result. However, in the case of “There Was A Land,” a source book on life in the plantations of Flagstaff, Bigelow and Dead River before their destruction in 1949, we are given a treasure.” Later in the article he writes, “There Was A Land” might honestly be called the longest obituary ever written for a Maine community. Yet it is a story that proves as uplifting as it does wrenching. What we have in these pages is an unmatched community scrapbook – diaries, recollections, articles and photographs that describe a hardscrabble but fully functional community before the flood.”

It seems strange to me that many people still don’t know that Flagstaff Lake flows over land that was once home to several communities. When asked by the usual question, “Where did you grow up?” And I tell them Flagstaff, their mouth drops open, and they ask where it was.

OK, enough history, but I do recommend that you read the book, “There Was A Land.” – and when I get to writing about that area, you can maybe understand.
Percy’s memoir will be short this week,” “Action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.” (words by Beaconfield).