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winter 2016 • vol. 19, no. 4
u
Take Time for Tea u
pressed for time
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50 shades of snow h
weeds of winter
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mulford room
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editor’s note
Editor & Publisher Laurie LaMountain Staff & Contributing Writers Leigh Macmillen Hayes, Justin Ward, Pam Ward, Susan Connolly, Perri Black, Harold Smith Photographers Ethan McNerney, Leigh Macmillen Hayes, Pam Ward, Bradford Rigby, Fryeburg Public Library Graphic Designer Dianne Lewis Proofreader/Copy Editor Leigh Macmillen Hayes Lake Living is published quarterly by Almanac Graphics, Inc., 625 Rocky Knoll Rd, Denmark, ME 04022 207-452-8005. www.lakelivingmaine.com e-mail: lakeliving@fairpoint.net ©2016. All rights reserved. Contents of this magazine may not be reproduced in any manner without written consent from the publisher. Annual subscriptions are available by sending check or money order for $20 to the above address.
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bradford rigby
winter 2016 • vol. 19, no. 4
20 6 take time for tea
by laurie lamountain
8 pressed for time
by laurie lamountain
10 fifty shades of snow
14 cover photo clipper merchant tea house by ethan mcnerney
leigh macmillen hayes
Time. It’s such a relative thing. Two of my recent experiences of counting down the minutes could not have been more different. In one instance, I was waiting for a pot of Earl Grey to steep; in the other I was trying to get to a meeting on time. In both instances, there were only five minutes involved, but waiting for that cup of tea was reminiscent of waiting for Christmas morning and trying to reach my destination on time was more like playing Beat the Clock on Christmas afternoon. On a grownup scale, the overscheduled times we live in today remind us how different our world is from a mere forty years ago. Time has become something we never seem to have enough of—unless we’re obliged to wait—and then we waste the unplanned pause fretting about how much time we’ll have to make up for later. We’ve become so accustomed to getting what we want when we want it that we have lost the exquisite experience of waiting and all that it has to offer. I’m thankful to Melinda Thomas, owner of the Clipper Merchant Tea House, for doing something that she considers subversive; placing a tea timer on the table and asking customers to wait until it runs out to pour a cup of tea. She knows that within the act of waiting there is an opportunity to reflect on what is meaningful in our lives and take pleasure in the simple act of engaging with others. It doesn’t have to be something to be gotten through, but rather something to be savored. Like a good cup of tea. Laurie LaMountain
and tips from a pro on how to ski them
by harold smith
13 nifty gifts for fifty or less 14 weeds of winter
by leigh macmillen hayes
16 once upon a winter
by the owners & staff of bridgton books
20 the mulford room
by leigh macmillen hayes
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u
Take Time for Tea u by laurie lamountain
M
elinda Thomas has a long-standing relationship with tea. When growing up in Philadelphia, her parents would take Melinda and her sister to the Crystal Tea Room on the top floor of the Wanamaker Building on Sundays. Years later, while pursuing her graduate degree abroad, she was staff manager at a Bewley’s Cafe in Dublin, Ireland, as well as having worked at a variety of tea houses in the U.K., where she learned to make Devonshire clotted cream and lemon curd. She recalls her favorite tea house in Wales as a cozy, unpretentious space where border collies flopped out on the floor and people came in at all hours. As an avocation, Melinda developed an understanding and appreciation of tea ware, specifically bone china produced in Stoke-on-Trent, and attended auctions where she selectively bid on Spode, Royal Albert, Royal Crown Derby and Royal Dalton, among others. By the time she completed her studies, she had amassed an impressive collection of fine china, as well as books and artwork, all of which she shipped back to the States. Melinda spent the next several years working in philanthropy in Holyoke, Massachusetts. A lot of her spare time was
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passed at Dobrá Tea and the Russian Tea House in West Springfield, but it wasn’t enough to fill the void and about a year and a half ago, she determined to turn her love of tea into a vocation that would afford her more interaction with people. When she saw that the Clipper Merchant Tea House (CMTH) in Limerick, Maine, was for sale, she called the owner on an instinct and drove north to have high tea with her. Excited by their meeting, she did a market study and researched codes and zoning in several Maine locations, including Portland and Mid-Coast, before finding the ideal place to relocate Clipper Merchant Tea House in Bridgton. The Victorian interior of the William Perry House on Main Hill perfectly matched the familiar model of the British tea house Melinda sought, and she took the plunge. From the time she acquired the brand in December of 2015 until she officially opened in July of 2016, she posted extensively on the Clipper Merchant Tea House site. Not only did it give her a chance to let customers know what was in store at the new location, it gave her the opportunity to give them a sense of her philosophy of tea. She posted about the teas themselves; how they are cultivated,
what they look like, how they smell, and developed a following that was eager for the Clipper Merchant to resurrect. What she was quietly cultivating within her talk of the teas themselves was the experience of tea. Learning the formalities and aspects of giving oneself in the art of serving tea had been an essential part of her Buddhist Sangha practice, and she wanted to convey how the ceremony and ritual of tea serve as more than mere formalities; how the experience of tea provides a means to connect with other people. “There’s an etiquette to tea that encourages engagement on a level that multitasking and modern life have discouraged. Time falls away. The tea gets poured and the conversations endure. You start seeing the subtleties of real conversation emerge,” says Melinda. A section of the CMTH menu devoted to tea etiquette politely states: We encourage you to visit a time when conversation and quiet reflection were considered the epitome of genteel life. If you must use your cell phone, please step into the London phone box or outside. Pots of tea arrive with a warmer and triple tea timer that counts down the minutes for the perfect cuppa; seven for tisane (herbal), five for black and three for green. Pu-erh, an intriguing category of fermented teas on the menu, have variable steeping times. Every wall is plastered with
art and each table is carefully set to serve anything from a simple tea with scones to the ultimate Tower of London, and no two are alike. Homemade Inverness Scottish Meat Pie, made with 100% organic grass-fed beef and lamb, quiche of the day, sandwiches and soups round out a culturally rich menu. It’s truly like taking a step back in time, without the stereotypical notions of class and gender. In fact, Melinda is quick to point out that in tea cultures, such as England and Ireland, there are no such restrictions; everyone takes tea and absolutely no one extends their pinky finger. To encourage a similar attitude here, she invited three men who were repairing the cupola to take tea one autumn afternoon and was pleasantly rewarded by the transformation that took place at the table. She recalls part of their conversation: “What do you like about this tea, Louis?” followed by a thoughtful pause and this response, “I like that it makes my tongue feel alive.” She makes the distinction between tea and coffee and notes that while coffee is about the jolt, tea is uplifting and enriching. Tea time is an opportunity to take a break and be present to ourselves in a way that is restorative, rather than shocking, something our American culture could sorely use. In addition to a Singles Scrabble Night, Melinda plans to offer workshops in tea etiquette and tea ceremony, and will invite local experts to share their knowledge of the medicinal benefits of tea. She is also working on a book of formal poetry about the experience of tea that includes haiku, villanelle and sonnet, all forms that mirror the ritualized aspects of tea, and will offer it
for sale in the retail shop, along with Brown Betty teapots, British tea towels, cozies, strainers and specialty foods. “Tea is my teacher,” says Melinda, who points out that many of the people in the tea trade are Buddhists. “It’s not like we’re trying to monopolize it. It’s just that we’re drawn to the meditative and contemplative side of tea itself.” To wit, the CMTH menu includes 108 teas, which intentionally coincides with the number of Buddhist prayer beads, and features select teas that can only be cultivated by Buddhist monks or very austere Hindus for whom the ritual extends back to the planting and cultivation of the tea. “I consider what I do subversive,” states Melinda. “It’s a subversive act because our whole drive-thru culture, where you don’t have to interact with people, is encouraging us to be fast and almost to be careless; to get what we can get and get it quickly. The act of having to wait five minutes for your tea to steep is a radical act. You can’t rush it. You simply have to wait and that’s why we give you the timers. We take it seriously and know the taste of the tea depends on the steeping time, but we actually want you to have the experience of looking at a timer that moves slowly. To have to wait five minutes to get what you want is a very long time.” And while life is filled with inevitable wait times, I can assure you that waiting for a cup of tea to steep at Clipper Merchant Tea House is one of the most enjoyable you’ll experience. h Clipper Merchant Tea House 32 Main Street Bridgton, Maine
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Earl Grey Lavender Chocolate Truffles (makes 20 truffles) ¾ c
heavy cream
2 tsp Earl Grey loose tea or 2 tea bags 1 tbsp dried lavender flowers ¼ tsp sea salt
12 oz semi-sweet chocolate ½ tsp pure vanilla extract
Toasted almonds, finely ground Bring cream to a boil in a saucepan.
Remove from heat and add tea and lavender. Steep for 10 minutes. Strain cream, discarding tea, lavender and any resulting milk solids. Return the infused cream to saucepan over medium heat. Add chocolate and vanilla extract, stirring until mixture is smooth and chocolate is fully melted— about 3-4 minutes. Pour mixture into a baking dish and refrigerate for 1 hour until chilled. Remove from refrigerator and beat until smooth. Allow to set for 5 minutes. Form teaspoon-size portions into balls and place on parchment paper. Refrigerate until truffles are slightly more solid, then roll in ground almonds to coat. For best results, keep truffles in refrigerator until ready to use.
m
Salted Caramel Scones (makes one dozen) 2-1/2 c unbleached flour ½ c sugar
2 tsp baking powder ½ tsp sea salt
50 g or 1.75 oz. English toffee, broken into small pieces 1/3 c butterscotch chips
½ c unsalted butter (chilled) 1 c
heavy cream
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut in the chilled butter with a pastry blender until mixture looks like small peas. Add toffee bits and butterscotch chips and mix well. Add cream and mix with large wooden spoon until mixture is moist. Pat into a large ball with hands. (Mixture will be rough due to butterscotch chips.) Turn out on pastry cloth and roll to ½ inch thickness. Cut with 2” diameter biscuit cutter or other shape. Place scones on cookie sheet covered with parchment and back at 350 degrees for 15 minutes.
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Pressed for Time by laurie lamountain
I
don’t fully trust MapQuest or Google Maps, which may have something to do with why they don’t work for me, but that’s grist for another article. Notorious for losing my way, however, I made sure to get directions from MapQuest for my visit to Norumbega Cidery in New Gloucester before I left the house one fall morning. When I ended up on a couple of remote and badly beaten up dirt roads, I pulled over to recheck them on my iPhone. Big mistake. Norumbega Cidery was not yet on Google Maps (rest assured, it is now) so it took me to the closest thing, Cider Mill Road, which wasn’t all that close. I began to feel pressed for time. When I alternatively asked for Woodman Road, off which Norumbega Cidery is located, it brought me there and I searched the road for a sign. And there it was, tacked high up on a tree at the entryway. A pair of horses and two pigs foraged in rolling pastures on either side of a long dirt driveway, along which three dogs eagerly escorted me. I had reached my destination. Hearing that I’ve “arrived” is perhaps the one thing I like about GPS. Noah Fralich emerged from the side door of a shingled barn to welcome me. He invited me to sit at a blue picnic table in the sun to talk about his pretty-much-oneman venture in making cider with heirloom apples on a piece of land that is off the grid and that Google Maps had yet to map. Noah has an engagingly matter-of-fact way of talking about the cidery that began as a family affair in 2013. Now that it’s found
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its groove, he is able to handle just about all aspects of the business on his own. With a graduate degree in sustainable agriculture that he earned in Oldenburg, Germany, and a desire to make use of it on the land where he grew up, Noah set out to learn everything he could about making cider. Through reading, research and a lot of experimentation, he learned the technique and craft of making ciders that are “dry, medium bodied, uncomplicated yet easy to drink.” Using heirloom varieties such as Esopus Spitzenburg, Ashmead’s Kernel, Calville Blanc d’Hiver, Dabinett and several others, Noah prepares fall apples for Norumbega Cider in a grinder manufactured in Ger-
many and then loads them into stainless steel presses made in Slovenia. A bladder at the top of each press forces the fruit against the slotted drum and the juices drain into a collector. The juice is then transferred to fermentation casks for conditioning and racking throughout the winter. Racking is a process of transferring the contents of one cask to another to aid the clarification process and reduce fermentation for a more favorable flavor. The rest is up to time. Come spring, the cider is bottled or kegged. It’s a pretty low tech process considering and, even off the grid, it’s likely a lot easier for Noah than it was for his ancestors. Cider has a long history. As the Norumbega Cidery Web site states, it is “America’s original beverage, borne of the necessity to preserve the apple harvest. It was therefore first and foremost a utilitarian beverage.” Before refrigeration it was one of the only options available. Of course, it probably didn’t hurt that it made it a little easier to get through long Maine winters. Following in their footsteps, Noah’s focus is on traditional, New England-style cider that, compared to other American ciders, is not sweet. He points out that incorporating bittersweet varieties, such as Dabinett, Foxwhelp and Yarlington Mill, with crossover varieties, such as Esopus Spitzenburg and Golden Russet, imparts a drier, more fullbodied quality due to higher tannin levels in the former. In that way, it’s not unlike wine. The orchard at Norumbega Cidery is planted with more than 250 dwarf apple trees of various varieties, but most of the
trees are a few years away from maturity. In the meantime, an orchard in Vermont provides the heirloom apples and a local orchard supplies the crossover varieties. Noah’s five-year plan is for most of the apples they use to come from their own orchard. With fourteen varieties to work with, he feels it will distinguish them as a highquality, traditional New England cidery. “I like to experiment, so every year I will play around with some flavor addition. So far I’ve played around with orange, ginger, hops. I’d also like to try something with pine needles. Or maybe do some wild fermentations or just all bittersweet apples for a really tannic, earthy cider? Having more of these cider varieties available will give me the opportunity for single varietals and smaller batch releases,” says Noah. “It’s a good way to build loyalty and interest and differentiate from larger cideries.” For now, Classic, Spice, Berry Medley and Honey (also known as Cyser) Ciders are bottled in 22-ounce servings with crown caps and retail for between $8 and $10 a bottle. All but the Honey, which is still, are bottle conditioned to carbonate. They can be found at around forty retail locations throughout Maine, as well as on permanent tap at Liquid Riot in Portland and Primo in Rockland. If you’re lucky, you can also find them at select farmers markets.
I was lucky enough to leave Norumbega Cidery with a bottle of Classic and one of Honey. The Honey was the highlight of a picnic lunch enjoyed with friends on Pleasant Mountain one Sunday afternoon in November. The Classic was contentedly consumed at home that very evening, not long after hearing I’d “arrived” for the second time that day. h Norumbega Cidery 380 Woodman Road New Gloucester, Maine norumbegacidery.com
The Northwood This will definitely be a sipper, but who says things are moving all that fast this time of year?! 3 Tbsp gold rum 2 Tbsp brandy 1½ Tbsp of Norumbega Classic Hard Cider 1 tsp Maine maple syrup ¾ tsp lemon juice ice cubes 2 thin apple slices Combine everything but the apple slices in a tumbler and shake until well mixed. Strain into two coupe glasses garnished with apple slices on the rim. Adapted from a recipe by David Moo for bonappetit.com.
Snakebite This classic combination is simple and delicious. It works great with bitter ales and dark stouts so mix and match your favorite brews until you find something you like. 1 part Norumbega Classic or Spice Hard Cider 1 part Ale of your choosing Pour. Drink. Enjoy! It’s that simple.
Fireball Cider Cocktail
This little concoction is a fiery jolt on a cold day. It has become all the rage in some of those bigger cities, but tastes just as good up here! 1 ½ oz Fireball Whiskey 12 oz Norumbega Classic or Spice Hard Cider Toss in some apple slices for effect if you like! Adapted from a recipe at fireballwhiskey. com.
Apple Cider Sangria This makes a great pitcher to put out on the table and will hopefully bring some of that Iberian swelter into these cold, dark days! 1 750 ml bottle pinot grigio (or white wine of your choosing) 1 22 oz bottle Norumbega Classic Hard Cider ½ c brandy 4 firm apples of your choosing 2 Tbsp grated fresh ginger Cut apples into bite-sized cubes. Combine all ingredients and chill. For lower potency, cut cider with one cup club soda. Adapted from a recipe at howsweeteats.com.
Bourbon Cider This is one of those pairings that is hard to overlook, and for this time of year hard to pass up! Serve on ice or use a chilled bottle of cider. 4 oz Norumbega Spice Hard Cider 2 oz Bourbon of your choosing 1 Tbsp sugar Orange wedge Rosemary sprig Run the orange peel around the rim of the glass. Add sugar and Bourbon to tumbler and shake. Pour mixture into glass and fill glass with cider. Serve with orange wedge and rosemary garnish. Adapted from setthetableblog.com.
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FIFTY SHADES OF SNOW AND TIPS FROM A PRO ON HOW TO SKI THEM by harold smith
I
am pretty sure I get much more excited about winter than most people. Some of it comes from the anticipation of seeing snow blanket and smooth the landscape, or the delicious excuse on a cold blustery night of doing nothing more than sitting in front of the woodstove. For me, the extra excitement comes with my seasonal job transition from woodworker to ski instructor. For the past twenty years, I’ve worked 5-6 days a week from December through April in what seems the best teaching gig imaginable: I coach skiers. I coach kids and adults, I coach timid beginners and confident eight-year-old freestylers, I coach racers looking to go 80 mph and lifelong skiers looking to ski comfortably into their 80th year and beyond. I began as a ski instructor for most of the same reasons anyone does; I liked to ski and I thought it would be fun to teach it, maybe even more the latter than the former. I come from a family of teachers. Right after college I worked at a prep school in California teaching chemistry and physics while coaching distance running and soccer. Looking back on things, as a teacher with teaching in his genes, teaching/coaching skiing really is the most rewarding version of
Powder pollows
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Frozen chicken heads
being an educator. First off, someone who comes into a ski clinic is much more motivated than even the most attentive high school student. People only take ski lessons because they have a clear goal, either to alleviate some anxiety on the slopes (Steep! Icy! Too fast!) or they think the idea of being brought uphill and then allowed to do the easy part and just slide down sounds really, really fun. While I like to think I was a pretty enthusiastic chemistry teacher, I guarantee precious few students came into the class with wide-eyed excitement to learn something about covalent bonds that would stay with them for the rest of their life. Working with skiers also offers immediate job feedback. Again, I think I did well to generate both interest and understanding of how physics works, but I’m not sure I had any student actually come up and thank me at the end of class. On the other hand, after a ski clinic a student can point to a newly refined athletic movement, or can describe the difference in how they turn on the steeps, or even just point to the bunny slope and say with pride that they just skied down that. Best of all, they do that with me right there to glory in it with them! It is true that most every job has its every day. Some days as a woodworker, it’s pretty difficult to get very excited about nailing up 800 square feet of tongue-and-groove ceiling. But there is no “every day” in ski coaching. Some days it’s a three-hour beginner lesson with nine anxious adults, but the next day might be an hour-long lesson with two 14-year-old best friends on the field hockey team looking to ski black diamond trails together, and then a six-yearold boy from Florida who has never even seen snow before but now he’s going to ski on the darn stuff. And that’s to say nothing of how the mountain changes every day. Sure some days are stormy. Yet sometimes the view from the summit is though crystal clear air, with Mt Washington seeming close enough to touch. Other times you ride up the chairlift through the clouds to pop out above it all. And skiing nearly every day in the winter, I get to see all the possible variations of snow. The legend
Becoming crud
is that Eskimos have a hundred words for snow. While that may or may not be true, ski instructors have dozens of terms for the stuff we spend so much time on: there’s corduroy and champagne powder, of course, but also crud and Sierra Cement. After a cold night, that might turn into frozen chicken heads, which get skied into death cookies. In the East, we have ice but also porcelain, the stuff that is seemingly harder and slicker than “just” ice. If it gets that scary grey color, it’s now stainless steel. More enticing are terms for softer, springtime snow: cream cheese, peanut butter, mashed potatoes and slurpee-on-the-slope. Then you have moguls, aka bumps. But icy ones become coral heads, and a steep bump run that’s been skied a lot? That’s the refrigerator and bathtub graveyard. Skiing with a coach could introduce you to these terms and more importantly how to deal with such changing snow conditions. It may surprise skiers to learn that only a portion of what we do as instructors is teach new-to-the-sport beginners. More than half of my coaching is at advanced levels, some for kids, but for lots of adults, too. Too often, I think people associate Ski/Snowboard “School” with elementary, remedial or even reform school! But for most skiers, it could better be thought of as a Graduate School of Skiing/Riding. Participating in a group or a private lesson as an adult offers the chance to ski through problems or questions specific to your own skiing/riding. Indeed, it’s one of the things that separates ski instruction in the US from that of most other countries. The major tenet of our teaching system is that it is student-centered, meaning we are asked to tailor what we do on snow to the specific needs, skills, desires and learning styles of each of the students. It’s not the stereotypical picture from the 1950s and ‘60s of a group of students lined up on the hill with a usually European gentleman out front, going through a rigid lesson plan. Instead, most lessons beyond the introduction to skiing nowadays start with the ski coach asking students what they want to get out of the lesson. But the truly inspired part of the US system is acknowledgment of differing learning styles in students. Most people are predominantly either watchers, doers, feelers or thinkers. Coaching an athletic activity, we focus much more on doers and feelers; there’s very little standing around being talked at in a ski lesson. During most lessons, I show some activity which focuses on some part of skiing (watcher), we ski a bunch (doer), then decide whether it feels more efficient, or more powerful, or smoother, or just more comfortable (feelers). Ski and snowboard lessons today address individual needs and challenges. And the feedback is immediate for both coach and student. Sounds good, right? Ask yourself, would you maybe like to ski or ride more efficiently, getting less quad burn for example?
bradford rigby
Ski instructors have dozens of terms for the stuff we spend so much time on: there’s corduroy and champagne powder, of course, but also crud and Sierra Cement . . . In the East, we have ice but also porcelain, the stuff that is seemingly harder and slicker than “just” ice. If it gets that scary grey color, it’s now stainless steel.
Clinics can be helpful for everyone, short or tall, beginner or advanced. Maybe you’d like to figure out a better way to deal with late-day, less-than-perfect snow conditions. How about just looking to develop more confidence on steeper terrain? Or what about exploring some of those tree runs your kids talk about? The first step is to talk with the Snowsport School front desk folks at your favorite area. The best deal on every mountain is a group clinic, commonly an hour-and-a-half lesson, with groups split generally on terrain; Green Circle Trails, Blue Square or Black Diamond. And the industry standard price point here in the East is only about $30. Because you’ve read this far, here’s the secret pro tip: do this mid-week (or Sunday afternoon) and your non-beginner, group lesson is likely going to be a very small group, like one or two! To guarantee a one-on-one lesson, you’re looking at a private lesson at maybe $70-$90 for an hour, although you can go with a friend or two with semi-privates being closer to about $50 per person. As a final pro tip, remember that this is your lesson, specifically the one you talk about with your coach. Be clear and open about what you want out of your time on snow. Speaking for most instructors in my profession, we’ve trained really hard to serve the skiing and riding public. We’d love the chance to increase your enjoyment of the sport and to let you enjoy it on different terrain, in different snow conditions and to enjoy it well into your 60s, 70s and even into your 80s. h
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Nifty Gifts
for Fifty or Less 1. Rogue Front Pocket Wallet ($50) in Moose and Bison Made in Maine at www.rogue-industries.com
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2. Locally-made Wooden Cutting Board ($35) and Wire Whisk ($15) at Tasteful Things in Bridgton 3. Porcelain Birch Bark
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Plate Pottery by Celia ($30) at Gallery 302 in Bridgton
4. Evergreen Down Pillow ($49) at J. Decor in Bridgton 5. Patrizia Boots by Spring Step ($49) at Firefly Boutique in Bridgton
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The Weeds of Winter text and photographs by leigh macmillen hayes
S
ome call them weeds. But according to Native American Rich Holschuh of Brattleboro, Vermont, he’s learned from those with wisdom that there is no word in their vocabulary for “weed” because there is no concept of a useless plant. Instead, said Rich, “Everything is in relationship. We need only to learn of it and honor it.” Likewise, Ralph Waldo Emerson described a weed as “a plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered.” And so, dear readers, I encourage you to behold these “weeds” in the winterscape. To pause and wonder. To admire structure and form. To take a closer look. If the snow isn’t too deep, you may see the hairy paper calyces of Selfheal or HealAll (Prunella vulgaris) striking an upright pose. As a member of the mint family, this plant features a square stem. And its whorls of now dried hooded florets stand in a tiered spike. The common names refer to its summertime resemblance to a throat with enlarged glands. As was the custom, plants were often named to correspond with a disease they might benefit. In this case, the name
derives from the plant’s wide use as an herbal remedy for throat ailments. You may have admired the dangling global flowerheads of milkweed in the summer, but equally beautiful are the emergent seeds as the vertically oriented pods split open on one or two sides. Within each pod, the large golden brown seeds are neatly ordered, arranged so that only a few are released at one time. Even in winter, it’s common to see several seeds clinging in a graceful manner to the top of the pod by their silky extensions—awaiting an opportunity to fly away on a breeze. Common Milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) pods feature warts, while Purple Milkweed (Asclepias purpurascens) pods are wartless. Then there are the showy goldenrods that grow abundantly and it’s no wonder given all their seeds. They depend on the wind and my snow pants to disperse. I refer to plants that stick to my clothes as volunteers. And if they are sticking to me, then they are also sticking the fur of wild mammals. Both goldenrods and aster seeds have small, single-seeded fruits called achenes. A receptacle holds the fruits in place until they’re ready to head off on their own. Check out the crown of hair, called a
pappus, on the aster below. These act like parachutes and enable the fruits to float along in a breeze, thus spreading the flowers far and wide. While the goldenrod flowers tend to grow in dense clusters, aster flowers are found in a single arrangement.
Goldenrod
Aster
Selfheal
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Milkweed
Black-eyed Susan
Lady’s Slipper
Meadowsweet
Hardhack
A turn to folklore explains how the goldenrods and asters are related. Two young girls talked about their future. One, who had golden hair, said she wanted to do something that would make people happy. The other, with blue eyes, said that she wanted to be with her golden-haired friend. When the two girls told a wise old lady of their dreams, she gave them some magic corn cake. After eating the cake, the girls disappeared. The next day, two new kinds of flowers appeared where the girls had walked: Asters and Goldenrods. Another favorite it the winterscape is the Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta), so named by Carl Linnaeus for his botany professor, Olaf Rudbeck. Hirta refers to the hairs that cover the shriveled bracts, leaves and stem. It’s the gum-drop shape of the Rudbeckia’s black-eyed center that offers a look reminiscent of Fibonacci numbers. The spiral arrangement provides a biological advantage maximizing the number of seeds that can be packed into a seed head. Occasionally, you might find a capsule that is woody and about two inches long. Closed at both ends, the capsule opens along slit lines–six in all. At the back end, notice a long, curved bract. And at the
Sweet-fern
front, the slipper gone by. Yes, this is Lady’s Slipper (Cypripedium acaule). And the reason you may not recognize it immediately– because it’s a rare find in the winter woods. Hardhack, aka Steeplebush, is a member of the Rosaceae family. Each flower in its dried fruit structure is replaced by five small brown follicles that open at the apex to release several slender seeds. Hardhack has two names, the first because its woody stem makes it hard to hack down; and Steeplebush because its summertime rosey-pink flowers grow in a church steeple-like form. Come fall, the flower structure turns golden brown. Hardhack (Spiraea tomentosa) grows to about twofour feet tall and features short, closelyspaced branches. I should note that we call it a wildflower, but it’s actually a shrub. Thoreau described Hardhack as one of “those unexhausted granaries which entertain the earliest birds . . . ” A relative of Hardhack is Meadowsweet (Spiraea latifolia). Growing equally as tall, Meadowsweet’s stems are reddish or purply brown. It differs from Hardhack in that the flowers tend to have a more pyramid-like structure at the ends of longer branches, forming a broader top.
Winterberry
The family resemblance, however, is visible in the five-part fruit. So how to tell them apart? Besides the fact that Hardhack branches are shorter and more closely spaced, all parts are fuzzy, whereas Meadowsweet is smooth. Sweet-fern (Comptonia peregrina) is also a shrub. Though not a fern, Sweet-fern leaves resemble the pinnules of such since they are slender and deeply cut almost to the midrib. An easy way to identify this small shrub is to look for a woody plant with hairy catkins and rusty brown leaves of the previous growing season that curl gracefully. Crush a few leaves and sniff—the spicy scent may take you back to a summer day. Sweet-fern thrives in disturbed areas because it is one of our few native plants that can convert atmospheric nitrogen into a form that is usable by the plant. While Sweet-fern can’t fix the nitrogen on its own, a specific bacteria living within its roots does the job and supplies the nitrogen to the plant in a usable form. In a mutually beneficial symbiosis, Sweet-fern provides the bacteria with necessary sugars and minerals. Finally, another shrub that deserves reverence in the winterscape is Winterberry (Ilex verticillata). As a deciduous member of the holly genus, Winterberry sheds its summer foliage, thus exposing the prolific display of scarlet berries certain to brighten your spirits. Branches loaded with berries make a delightful addition to a seasonal wreath or table arrangement. That being said, you might prefer watching birds and small mammals feast on them. All of these plants are easy to dismiss, especially if you call them weeds. I’ll admit they do grow prolifically, especially in land cleared by humans. But I hope you’ll join me to embrace the beauty of “weeds” this winter season. h
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Once Upon a Winter BOOK REVIEWS FROM BRIDGTON BOOKS
JUSTIN’S LIST Thomas Meagher is well known for his leadership of the courageous Irish Brigade during the Civil War, but that was just one chapter of his fascinating, short life. In The Immortal Irishman by Timothy Egan, Meagher (1823-1867) vividly comes to life. A fervent Irish Nationalist in his youth, he was a skilled orator and passionate leader in the fight against English oppression of his native land. Eventually convicted of sedition and sentenced to death for what is referred to now as the Young Irelander Rebellion of 1848, his sentence was later commuted to expulsion for life to an English penal colony in Van Dieman’s Land after an international outcry. From there, Meager escaped to New York City, going on to serve the Union and leading the famed Irish Brigade in some the biggest battles of the war. Finally, if that wasn’t enough, after the war Meagher was commissioned acting governor of the wild, Montana territories. Egan perfectly renders the historical context of the time in perfect detail and provides anecdotes and insights that make this a very readable biography. If you didn’t read The Rent Collector by Camron Wright when it was released in 2012, you have to give it a try. The subject matter appears difficult and depressing, about a Cambodian family who lives and scavenges for a living in a huge dump, but the novel has a wonderful and ultimately uplifting message of hope and humanity that profoundly moved me. The cruel landlord, Sopeap, surprisingly agrees to teach Sang Ly how to read and their newfound relationship uncovers secrets from the past, which they must revisit in order to improve their future. Wright’s new inspirational book The Orphan Keeper, although classified as fiction, is based on a true story of a boy who is stolen from his Indian family and sold into an orphanage, where he is adopted by an unsuspecting American family. Both of these novels are exceptional because they deliver more than just standard fare entertainment, and will leave a powerful impression on the reader. The next three novels are plot driven page-turners to wile away a winter’s day. In the WWII novel One Man, by Andrew Gross, a prominent Jewish physicist is unable to escape the Nazi dragnet in Europe
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and is sent to Auschwitz. His knowledge is crucial to the Manhattan Project and can save the allies six months in the race for nuclear supremacy. The odds are not good that he is even still alive, but with so much at stake, something must be done. Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch, is a highly entertaining novel with a science fiction twist, although no advanced degree is required to appreciate this book. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to review or recommend the book without giving away a major component of the story and ruining it for the reader, so you will have to trust my recommendation of this fast paced book, and please don’t read the dust jacket beforehand. Lastly, in Before The Fall, by Noah Hawley, a small-time painter accepts a friend’s invitation to fly off his island on a private charter plane instead of taking the ferry. When the plane crashes, and he is one of two survivors, his whole world dramatically changes. I guarantee all three of these books will be made into movies in the next few years, so make sure to read them first! You may remember author Candice Millard for her work of history River of Doubt, chronicling Teddy Roosevelt’s harrowing journey down an unknown tributary of the Amazon River. Her latest work of nonfiction, Hero Of The Empire, is all about Winston Churchill’s early war years, and it illuminates a side of him that is not only less well known, but also doesn’t depict him in the most favorable light. Highly ambitious and with a family history to live up to, Churchill used the military as his stepping stone up the career ladder. He saw action in both India and Sudan before returning to Oldham in his first run for Parliament, which he lost. From there he signed on as a correspondent to report on the Second Boer War. Constantly trying to be in the
thick of the action, he ends up getting captured and later escaping. According to Millard, many of Churchill’s decisions were based on political posturing, and his early adulthood formative years shed light on the driving forces that enabled him to be a great leader.
SUE’S SELECTIONS In Moloka’i, Alan Brennert writes a very moving story that starts with sevenyear-old Rachel as she is separated from her family and sent to Kalaupapa, a leprosy settlement. How will she survive without the love and safety of her family at this remote, inhospitable place forgotten by society? The author weaves historical facts with fiction to tell the story of so many unfortunate, ostracized people and about those that gave their lives to care for them. Kalaupapa was opened in 1866 on the island of Moloka’i and in 1980 was designated a National Historic Park, but individuals were allowed to remain there as long as they wished. As of the writing of this book there were still about 30 people afflicted with leprosy living there. After reading some recent novels by Alice Hoffman that I really enjoyed I ventured into some of her older novels and discovered Seventh Heaven, an entertaining read. The story is set in the ‘50s in a neighborhood of identical houses and idyllic families. Then one day a young, scandalous divorcee, Nora Silk, moves in with her two young sons and the once peaceful lives of her neighbors start to crumble. For those who love Louise Penny’s stories about Inspector Gamache and the tiny village of Three Pines, don’t miss her new novel, A Great Reckoning. This was by far my favorite of her series.
Pleasant Mountain from the Moose Pond Causeway, Bridgton
bridgton books hours m-sat. 9:30-5:30 sun. 11-4:30
Stevens Brook, Bridgton
PERRI’S PREFERENCES The summer and fall flew by in a blur and now, all of a sudden, it’s time for my winter book reviews. No matter how busy it is, I’ll always find time to read and here is what I recommend for your winter reading pleasure. Barkskins by Annie Proulx is my first pick, although it seems readers either love or loathe Ms. Proulx’s work. If you are a fan, like me, this epic is sure to please – I was hooked at the first page. Beginning in 1693 when two young men arrive in “New France” (Quebec) as indentured workers to help clear a forest, the book follows their lives and generations of their families up to the present, with the dramatic history of the timber industry connecting the characters over the centuries. Most of the story is set in eastern Canada and northern Maine but ranges as far as Europe and China. As always, Ms. Proulx pulls no punches; no glossing over the gritty, grueling, tragic realities of life here! Barkskins is more like Accordion Crimes than The Shipping News, with a focus on the ecological, cultural and spiritual costs of “progress.” I was absolutely blown away by Patti Smith’s memoir of her life in New York City in the 1970s as portrayed in Just Kids. I have always been a fan of Smith’s music and I knew she was also an artist, but I had no idea she is such a fabulous writer. I also knew nothing about her relationship with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe. Ms. Smith offers readers a window into the city’s art scene during the reign of Andy Warhol, as well as her life in the Chelsea Hotel and her coming of age as an artist.
This elegantly written book, complemented by numerous photos and drawings, justly deserves its National Book Award and is a must read for anyone interested in 20th century American art and music. I look forward to reading her later memoir, M Train. The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu by journalist Joshua Hammer is a great title for a great story. Librarians are not usually considered “bad-ass,” but mildmannered archivist. Thus, historian Abdel Kader Haidara was essentially a superhero when he organized a dangerous operation to rescue nearly 350,000 priceless ancient manuscripts from destruction by Al Qaeda extremists in Mali. This real-life thriller tells how Haidara inadvertently became a librarian and then how he and other ordinary citizens risked everything to save the precious volumes that represent “the beauty and imagination of their culture.” You will never think of librarians in the same way again! Fans of the epic The Secret River by Kate Grenville will enjoy The Lieutenant, her other book, smaller in scope, about early settlers in Australia. Inspired by historical events, it is the story of young astronomer, Daniel Rooke, a lieutenant in the British military who is sent to the colonies to track the return of Halley’s Comet. He befriends some local Aborigines and begins to learn about their culture, which creates trouble with his fellow soldiers and superiors, and leads to an unexpected but interesting ending. In the disturbing yet ultimately uplifting The Wonder by Emma Donoghue, Lib Wright, a nurse trained by the illustrious Florence Nightingale, accepts a position in rural Ireland to watch over Anna, an
eleven-year-old girl who has supposedly consumed nothing but a couple teaspoons of water a day for over four months, yet appears to be quite healthy. The local villagers consider her a “wonder” or miracle and, to verify this, Mrs. Wright and a nun are charged with watching the girl around the clock to make sure she isn’t secretly eating. The tale unfolds in graphic, sometimes nauseating, detail to its clever conclusion that will stick with you for some time. My followers know about my fascination with North Korea so it is not surprising that I am recommending the novel How I Became a North Korean by Krys Lee. The lives of three very different characters (including an American) intersect as they flee their pasts and end up in a small Chinese town across the border from North Korea. The story offers a unique perspective on both Koreas that I had not encountered before and it made me think about the two countries in a different way. The Sound of a Wild Snail Eating by Maine writer Elisabeth Tova Bailey is a quiet, meditative little book written when the author was bedridden by a mysterious illness and barely able to move. Bailey’s close observations of a common woodland snail that arrived on a potted plant she received from a friend describe everything you never knew you wanted to know about snails, including some fascinating insights on slime. Her studious observations ultimately help put her on the road to recovery and the delicate, soft pencil drawings of snails scattered throughout the book add to its gentle beauty. Finally, fans of Maine history will enjoy Early Gravestones in Southern Maine by Ron Romano, an intriguing history of early southern Maine as evidenced by the work of master stone-cutter Bartlett Adams. Tales of shipwrecks, sea captains and Adams’ own family abound in this very readable yet scholarly work. And, according to the book, fifteen gravestones carved by Adams are located in three cemeteries in Bridgton.
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residents have been told. Unbeknown to them, Zan the friendly witch, retrieves the abandoned babies and brings them back to her town, where loving parents raise them. This time, on her way home with a baby girl, Zan accidentally feeds her moon light that bestows magical powers. Zan raises the girl on her own but the powerful moon magic is unleashed as she grows older and Zan is frantic to get it under control. Add a swamp monster, pocket dragon, an active volcano threatening to erupt, a mother’s determination to find her lost daughter, a mean witch trying to keep the village in sorrow and preserve the secret, and a man determined to kill Zan to the plot and this magical combination is the perfect storm for a suspense-driven ending.
Ledges Trail on Pleasant Mountain, Denmark
PAM’S PIC KS FOR KIDS & YOUNG ADULTS Bunny Slopes By Claudia Rueda Ages 1+ Young children will plow right into this interactive book that guides Bunny on a thrilling ski run, while catching air along the way. Shake the book to help shower snow onto the slope. Tilt the book to jumpstart Bunny down the slope, but watch out for the ski jump ahead! Readers turn, shake and flip the book to help Bunny navigate his way through the perilous bunny slope. Find out if he safely makes it to the base or has a yard sale along the way. Pond By Jim LaMarche Ages 5+ Water trickles into an abandoned pit. Matt studies the stream and concludes that the pit had been a pond years ago. With his sister and friend, they quickly devise a plan to build a dam in hopes of resurrecting the dried-up pond. After days of moving rocks and logs, the water level rises. Animals, insects and vegetation slowly return. Follow these future naturalists, the pond and its inhabitants through four seasons. Colored pencil illustrations beautifully highlight the quiet presence of Mother Nature. Ollie’s Odyssey By William Joyce Ages 7+ Billy’s favorite toy is a bunny named Ollie that was hand-stitched with love by his mother. Billy and Ollie are inseparable. Deep in the bowels of a dilapidated carnival resides an army of broken and
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discarded toys, including an angry clown called Zorro, the most feared leader. Their mission is to steal all the kids’ favorite toys and their eyes are now on Ollie. Readers will join Billy and Ollie on their biggest adventure yet, as Billy sets out alone in the middle of the night to find his favorite toy! Maybe a Fox By Kathi Appelt & Allsion McGhee Ages 11+ Reviewed by Isabella Gerardi This captivating tale is about a young girl named Julie and a baby fox that are living in a time nicknamed “After Sylvie.” When Julie’s father makes the list that is known as the “DO NOT LIST” even bigger, Julie feels enclosed inside her town and backyard. The one rule that makes her feel the most isolated is “never ever go near ‘the slip.’” When the baby fox starts showing up in Julie’s backyard, Julie is left with unanswered questions. Meanwhile, the fox feels a connection with this strange little girl who cries for someone named Sylvie, and knows she will not rest until she has helped her. Julie and the fox learn love, loss and friendship after tragedy strikes. The only question left for the fox is if it can help the girl before it is too late. The Girl Who Drank the Moon By Kelly Barnhill Ages 11+ Cries are heard around town as an anguished mother resists giving her newborn to the council. Every year, the first born in the village is sacrificed to the wicked witch, who lives deep in the forest, in exchange for town peace and safety . . . or so the
Wolf Hollow By Lauren Wolk Ages 12+ Life in Wolf Hollow changed the day the new girl, Betty, showed up unannounced. A cruel bully, it wasn’t long before she began extorting money or gifts from Annabelle in exchange for her and her two brothers safe passage to school. Premeditated acts with intent to injure soon followed and, although Annabelle should have informed her parents, she decided to take matters into her own hands. After unsuccessfully proving Betty’s guilt, Annabelle finally confides with her parents and authorities when Betty tries to blame an accident that injures Annabelle’s best friend on an innocent town war veteran which could send him to prison for life. Winner of the 2016 Children’s New England Book Award. A Court of Thorns and Roses By Sarah J. Maas Ages 15+ Feyre is honoring her deceased mother’s request to take care of her unappreciative sisters and injured father. Food is scarce and Feyre is forced to hunt in the dangerous forest. When her arrow pierces a wolf’s heart, providing much needed food and clothing for her poor family, a beast-like creature suddenly appears and demands retribution for her killing what was really a faerie disguised as a wolf. As her captor, Tamlin, protects Feyre, her mistrust and distaste for him and the Fae legend changes. Although her fragile human form is no match for faerie strength, Feyre’s strong survival skills and determination to help save Tamlin and his clan are worth the sacrifice. h
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The Mulford Room by leigh macmillen hayes
C
larence E. Mulford, a prolific writer of Western novels, built scale models of forts, towns and wagons. He studied maps of the West and sketched his own. And he read anything and everything he could about the region, including historical and military reports, maps and pioneer diaries. From these, he jotted information on notecards about Western towns, trails, cattle trade, military posts and weapons.
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All in all, Mulford amassed a collection of over 10,000 4x6-inch notecards that filled 34 drawers with details he could refer to as he wrote. Interestingly, Mulford was never a cowboy. In fact, he reportedly only visited the West once, and didn’t particularly care for how dry, hot and dusty it was. Despite that, his passion for the Wild West was ignited by his meticulous research. It wasn’t so much experience as it was reading and note taking that defined his writing. During a recent chat with Emily Fletcher and Donnette Barnes, former and current librarians of the Fryeburg Public Library respectively, I learned that the note-taking habit was just one of Mulford’s many behaviors that bordered on obsessive compulsive tendencies. His interests were varied and also included fishing, hunting and photography—all to an extreme. The 168-square-foot Mulford Room at the library houses a delightful inventory of Western Americana memorabilia collected by the author, as well as bookcases filled with books he’d written and those by many others, some models he built that reflected modes of transportation during pioneer days, framed book jackets, World War I posters, glass negatives, photographs, favorite sayings he’d jotted down, a stamp
collection and scrapbooks filled with newspaper clippings—many about him and his works. The brightly lit room also includes a table and chairs from his home and a typewriter table he constructed. Born in Illinois, Mulford worked as a civil servant in Brooklyn, New York, for many years, and wrote short stories during some of his free time. In 1904, at age 18, he won $100 when one of his stories earned second place in a magazine contest. About that time, he also began submitting short stories about his rough and ready cowboy, Hopalong Cassidy, to Outing Magazine. And by compiling those, he developed his first book, The Bar-20, published in 1907. Mulford and his wife first came to Maine on a fishing vacation at Lovewell Pond in the early 1920s. They fell in love with the area and when a house Eva Mulford dreamed of living in went on the market, the couple decided to lease it for a year, before making the purchase. Mulford resigned from his city job and the family moved to Fryeburg. The third floor housed Mulford’s study, which contained much of what is now on display at the library. The move gave Mulford the opportunity to write at his leisure. A June 15, 1930 article published in the Portland Press Herald Telegram attributed the following quote to Mulford: “I write whenever the spirit moves me, any time of day, excepting nights,” he confessed. “Mostly, it is simply putting down what my characters do for they write their own story. After looking the country over, from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from one clime to another, I decided that Maine was the best for allthe-year-around residence; and I believe it.” Francis Nevins, Jr., author of Bar-20: The Life of Clarence E. Mulford, Creator of Hopalong Cassidy, quoted an article which contained the following: “In Brooklyn, he said, ‘The Sullivan law will not give me the opportunity to experiment with revolvers that I must have to make my books realistic. If a man in a Flatbush room fired off an old Colt .45 to see the effect on his ears, that he might describe the experience for story purposes, he would have the neighbors and police to reckon with.’” From a shooting range near the Fryeburg Fairgrounds, Mulford practiced using Colt revolvers so that he could convey trick shots made by Hopalong and other charac-
ters including Johnny Nelson, Sheriff Bob Corson and the boys of the Bar-20 ranch. Over the decades, millions of readers have enjoyed the antics of Mulford’s characters. But it may have been Hopalong who was his favorite—a character who was as different from his creator as could be and yet one with whom he related as if Hoppy was more real than fiction. Perhaps on paper, he lived vicariously through Hoppy. In reality, Mulford was much more of a recluse. Biographer Bernard A. Drew noted in his book, Hopalong Cassidy: The Clarence E. Mulford Story, that Mulford “confided that Hopalong Cassidy was in reality Wild Bill Hickok . . . and he ‘taught Cassidy not to be foolhardy. I keep him from doing superhuman feats. In fact, I practice all the trick shots before Cassidy is allowed to do them. If I can’t do the trick, then Cassidy can’t.’ Though female characters were not predominate in Mulford’s novels, the women in his life played a huge role in his success as a writer. Unfortunately, his beloved wife died unexpectedly due to heart disease at age 48 in 1933. After that, Mulford shuttered himself in the house even more. With the advent of television, there was high interest in shows about the West. The exploits of Mulford’s rough-talking Hoppy were transformed when William “Bill” Boyd began to portray him in film. The hard-drinking, rustler-fighting Hopalong suddenly become a polished, well-spoken character with a sense of fair play who interceded on behalf of others. The cleancut movie hero was hardly what Mulford
had envisioned, but Boyd had purchased the rights to the character. Nevins quoted Mulford as stating that his own Cassidy “grew up in his environment, in Texas, in the 1870s and 80s [sic]. He was the result of his environment. It shaped him. He drank whisky when he wanted to; he swore; he gambled; he bought clothes in the frontier store and not handmade by some New York or Hollywood bookmaker . . . In his gunplay he had the reflexes of Wild Bill Hickok or John Wesley Hardin.” Mulford continued, “I have a great deal of admiration for Boyd’s accomplishments. Let Bill have his Hopalong. I have mine, and I wouldn’t want to swap my Hopalong for any other cowpuncher known to man.” Dressed as Hoppy, including his everpresent black cowboy hat, Bill Boyd arrived via train in Fryeburg three times. Like the Pied Piper, school children were thrilled to see him. He encouraged the children to write to him and in return he sent a silver coin. According to Fletcher, a few residents still have the coins and cap guns they received from him. Boyd’s popularity with the locals upset Mulford, but his own solitary lifestyle hardly made him recognizable in town. In the early 1950s, Mulford gifted the Fryeburg Women’s Library Club with books and many furnishings from his study, as well as money to construct a wing at the Fryeburg Public Library to display his materials. His wife, Eva, had been an active member of the club and it seemed fitting that his memorabilia should remain intact—diagonally across the street from where he had spent the last thirty years of his life. Clarence E. Mulford died in 1956. All of this is just a smattering of the author’s story. To get a better sense of the man, it’s well worth your time to visit The Mulford Room. Even if stories of sharp shooters aren’t your favorite genre, viewing Mulford’s vast collection is a pleasant way to spend a winter afternoon. And perhaps you’ll be inspired to reread a Bar-20 story that’s been sitting on your bookshelf, or unearth that old Hoppy lunchbox. h Fryeburg Public Library 515 Main Street 207.935.2731 Call ahead for an appointment to visit The Mulford Room
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