For some reason, I am not in the writing mood. The urge is go outdoors, soak up that sunshine I’m seeing out the window and, like an old barnyard hen, scratch the earth ’til I can smell spring. But I have to push myself back to writing. There are newsletters to write, a book to finish and long-overdue correspondence to answer. I must check that mailing list of 500 high school alumni association members and weed it out; pick up material for transcribing Planning Board meeting minutes and get this week’s newspaper articles completed. After all is finished, I will sit on the steps and pretend it’s August. Until the phone rings.
The arrival of spring means an end to going around pulling curtains together, changing the thermostat, making sure all the drafts are closed up. Spring will also mean the loosening up of a little more money that won’t be earmarked for fuel. It has been a stressful, challenging, very expensive winter for many, but as my old Grammy used to say, “Spring will come; it always has.”
To the many who have called asking about the Historical Society, it will be opening in April. The Society’s March 27 meeting will be at the old town house, now the Historical Museum. Hopefully at that meeting, we’ll decide the exact opening date and hours. There are a lot of exciting things going on with the Society this summer and we look forward to enticing many new members.
The annual Windham High School Alumni Association banquet will be held on Saturday, May 20 at the Middle School. Newsletters and reservation forms will be going out in a few weeks. The first planning meeting was held last week and details are being ironed out. Those attending the meeting included Ernest and Sue Nichols, Audrey Woodbrey, Betty Winslow, Bud Finley, Fred Collins (who brought coffee and brownies), Tammy Haskell, Carol Waig, Bob Miele and a few others. The next meeting will be on April 2 – a Sunday – at the Historical Society building on Windham Center Road.
Another group to which I belong, Maine Old Cemetery Association, will be holding their first meeting of the year some time in May also, and then, of course, there’s the book I’m working on and newspaper work to attend to.
I’d say that April and May are “booked” in my calendar. I’ll miss seeing the guys from the oil company drive into my yard, but am glad to be out from under the burden of fuel bills. While some of our leaders and wannabe leaders are fretting about young people leaving our state, many of us older folks have been wondering if we can afford to stay in our state!
This hasn’t been a bad winter, though. The beefed-up television storm teams and storm centers have been in drought season. It’s a little disarming to hear the background music introduction and see the flashing scenes of snow and then to get a report of one or two inches – in Laconia or somewhere out of the local area. Perhaps when all the summer folks arrive to check out their “camps” they’ll find everything where they left it, since the marauding burglers haven’t been able to use their snowmobile transportation as readily this winter. No doubt there will be lots of sales on snow equipment and toys, and businesses who depend on winter will be scrambling this summer.
Perhaps it’s time to take a break and check outside to see if it’s really as warm as it looks, and if I can add one more chore to the “To Do” list – put away the snow shovels standing at the ready.
See you next week.
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