You’d be surprised at all the spring cleaning I’ve got done this year. Before I get out of bed, while I’m “waiting to wake up,” plans go through my head as I think of all the things that need to be done. The kitchen cupboards are re-arranged, the closets are cleaned out, and boxes of rarely worn clothing are put into the car so they can be taken to the Windham Clothes Closet or Goodwill. All of this I figure out while my head is still on the pillow.
Then I actually leave the bedroom and all these organized plans and chores stay there. While I’m making the coffee, the phone rings and it’s someone who needs something researched for a book they’re writing or something typed or they want to chat about their day’s plans. Spring cleaning will have to wait another day.
Having spent nearly all of my life here in Windham, I was surprised to read in last week’s issue of this paper the quote from the Economic Development Director that the intersection of Routes 115 and 302 (known locally as Boody’s Corner) was the “most centrally located” part of town. As anyone who has traveled south of the business district knows, there’s a lot more to Windham than box stores and as far as I know, the center of town is near Windham Center, probably near the corner of Pope Road and Route 202.
When I read that article and its reference, I was reminded of a request I received a few years ago, to provide historical information for a class at Saint Joseph’s College. They were studying “how a town changes.” The instructor and most of the students had assumed that the section of Windham from Boody’s Corner to the Raymond line, was all of the town. They admitted they had never ventured far from the commercial district. They thought that was all there was.
Needless to say, when I laid out a map and planned a tour that included the lower end of River Road where the earliest settlement was, and included East Windham and all the area around South Windham, Windham Hill and Windham Center, the students and instructor had their eyes opened. They had no idea the town was so varied in its composition, and the rolling fields and historic old farmhouses surprised them.
During my far-ranging spring cleaning plans, I’ll have to include supplying maps to anyone who refers to Route 302 as Main Street, and all who are unaware that there is one town – Windham – and its boundaries reach way beyond the tiny portion that has all the stores.
See you next week.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
