hands and heart.....job fair coming up ......jazz at the Library

This Week in Lincolnville: Bonding Over Yarn

....the way women do it
Mon, 03/18/2019 - 3:00pm

    We call it Knitting, the weekly gathering of half a dozen friends at one house or another, though as one woman said, “some of us just hold yarn in our hands and say we’re knitting.”

    We’re really there to talk…oh, and to eat. This latest group started a couple of years ago in my living room when a casual friend came by to keep me company in the early months after Wally died.

    She’d lost her husband several years before, and as anyone in the situation will agree, only another widow knows how that really feels. Having no one to cook for anymore made the loss all the more wrenching as each afternoon inched towards evening without him.

    So we talked, maybe knitted a little, and I fed us both dinner.

    Months passed, and one day I asked another friend, an avid knitter, to join us. A few months later, still another, a neighbor, came by with her bag of yarn and needles. Pretty soon we had an email list – who’s doing the main dish, who the salad, the dessert, who’ll bring the wine?

    Seven us are on that list today; Monday is our night, usually at my house, but not always.

    Some 40 years ago I was mother to a couple of little boys, a stay-at-home mom, which I think was more common then than now. By evening I was desperate for some adult company, and luckily had a husband willing to listen. But a man home from a long day at work had only so much listening in him.

    CALENDAR 


    TUESDAY, MAR. 19

    Book Group meets, 6 p.m., Library


    WEDNESDAY, MAR. 20

    Watercolor Journaling, 4-6 p.m., Library

    Scott Cannon, Jazz Musician, 7 p.m., Library


    THURSDAY, MAR. 21

    Soup Café, Noon-1 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road


    EVERY WEEK

    AA meetings, Tuesdays & Fridays at 12:15 p.m., Wednesdays & Sundays at 6 p.m., United Christian Church

    Lincolnville Community Library, open Tuesdays 4-7, Wednesdays, 2-7, Fridays and Saturdays, 9 a.m.-noon. For information call 706-3896.

    Soup Café, every Thursday, noon—1p.m., Community Building, Sponsored by United Christian Church. Free, though donations to the Community Building are appreciated

    Schoolhouse Museum open by appointment, 789-5984.

    Bayshore Baptist Church, Sunday School for all ages, 9:30 a.m., Worship Service at 11 a.m., Atlantic Highway

    United Christian Church, Worship Service 9:30 a.m., Children’s Church during service, 18 Searsmont Road

    COMING UP

    March 30: Hook-in Workshop

    April 27: Writer’s Workshop

    I also had a spinning wheel, as did several other women around town, and we were all learning to use them. Looking back I can’t imagine why we wanted to spin, but we did. A friend, Nancy Ford, and I went with high hopes to an Extension meeting at the Lincolnville Improvement Association one night, a meeting advertised to bring together women wanting to learn various crafts. When the leader sent a paper around the room asking who wanted to learn what, one person had written “spinning”. We tracked her down – Hermoine “Hoppi” Graham – and as soon as we could politely leave, the three of us took off.

    We got together with our wheels and spent a futile evening or two trying to make the wheels make yarn. Eventually we found a teacher, Nancy Terrell of Camden, who showed us the basics, and we were off!

    Within a fairly short time there was a solid group of seventeen to twenty spinners getting together every other week in the evening.

    We were all ages including an eighteen-year-old high school student all the way up to the ancient 70+ year olds. We took turns at each other’s houses, carrying our wheels in the backseat, parking all over muddy dooryards, and along the shoulder of country roads. One memorable night we counted a dozen spinning wheels in somebody’s living room.

    It was my introduction to living in a multi-generational community, where 30-somethings made strong friendships with women old enough to be their mothers. Women who were not their mothers. Or grandmothers. Over the years we were joined by women from other Midcoast towns, from Camden, St. George, Friendship even.

    Hoppi, the only woman in her class in the early 1940s at UMass majoring in horticulture, moved here from Reading in her 60s to finally live her dream of a Maine farm with acres and acres of woods and streams, all hers. Hoppi who, when finally stricken with a stroke that left her nearly immobile and speechless, nevertheless managed to make all the arrangements necessary to see that her assets were disposed of in a way beneficial to her two sons. Her property was by then surrounded on three sides by MBNA’s Point Lookout. Today Ginley Hall stands on the site of her house, her favorite “quiet garden” buried under the pristine roads and cottages that cover her land.

    Ruth Lindquist, living with her husband Wally, on the shore of Penobscot Bay, where she tended gardens, wove and spun, and one night served us hot fudge sundaes. But of most interest to us spinners, they kept a goose named Max. Max, after watching the TV news with Ruth and Wally, slept every night in their kitchen, well protected with plenty of newspapers and a baby gate. He roamed their property by day, Ruth teaching him to fly by running ahead of him spreading her “wings”, taking him for baths in their stream. Once when a fox grabbed him, Wally pounced, grabbing Max right out of its mouth. Ruth and Wally’s house is today’s Inn at Sunrise Point.

    Helen Rayer, whose farmhouse in Friendship was surrounded by an amazing rock garden, planted with dozens of rare plants she’d started from seed. For years I kept alive in my garden some gorgeous little bright blue gentians she’d raised. Helen was a weaver, a knitter, a spinner. After her husband died, after she’d nearly died herself in a battle with cancer, she hopped in her little yellow convertible and drove herself alone to Arizona to a fiber show.

    Whoever hosted us provided the refreshments – tea or coffee (can’t imagine why we never thought of wine), and some sort of dessert. Our first meeting featured a brown paper bag of gingersnaps; at the last one that I remember we were served baked Alaska! Yes, dessert did become a competition, always homemade, always delicious. In those days anything I didn’t have to cook tasted delicious; McDonald’s could send me over the moon.

    Funny how perspective changes.

    When hands are busy the mind is free to roam. A woman sitting alone with needle and fiber may literally work her sorrow, anger, joy, or contentment into the project in her lap. Looking at that work years later the emotions rush back in. I can’t always remember the specifics, but certain pieces that I made always evoke strong feelings.

    But sit down with a knitting group, a spinning group, a quilting party, with a group of women whose hands are at work and the talk flows freely. We tell secrets, reveal intimacies, share worries as if we’re truly in a safe place. It’s one of women’s strongest qualities, the ability to share and make connections. We tend to trust each other. I sometimes wonder if more women in positions of power would mean less fear in our world.

    Every other Tuesday afternoon the teakettle is on at the Library and needleworkers gather with yarn, fabric, needles, scissors, all the tools women need to get the conversation going. Yes, some knitting and sewing gets done, but I’m guessing it’s the conversation, the camaraderie that keeps them coming.


    Town

    The Waldo County Emergency Management Agency will test the Wireless Emergency Alert(WEA) on Friday, March 22, 2019, at 3 p.m.Test to cover all of Waldo County. Activation of the WEA system will send a short text message to every cellphone located in the County. The WEA test message will read: “This is a test of the Waldo County Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is required.”

    Dave Kinney sent this out: “The Maine Department of Labor and more than 40 regional employers are holding a job fair on Wednesday, April 3 between the hours of 3:30 and 6:30 p.m. at the Hutchinson Center in Belfast. As I understand it there is additional employer space available as well.  Employers seeking space should contact David Grima.” 

    John Collins of the Census Bureau sent this along: “We [the Census Bureau] will be there as well with local jobs, $16.50/hour plus $0.58/mile.” Very good and enjoyable part-time work while it lasts, he says.  

    The Trustees of the Lincolnville Sewer District will meet next on Tuesday, March 26 at 6:15 p.m. at the LIA Building on Beach Road. 

    All LSD meetings are open to the public. You’re encouraged to attend if you have any questions or concerns. For more information contact Jennifer Temple, 542-0505.


    Library

    Tuesday, March 19, 6 p.m. the Library Book Group will discuss Patti Callahan’s book Becoming Mrs. Lewis: The Improbable Love Story of Joy Davidman and C. S. Lewis.  Newcomers welcomed whether you’ve read the book or not.

    Wednesday, March 20, 4-6 p.m. is Watercolor Journaling. Bring your own supplies: watercolor paints and brushes, pencil, black fine line permanent pen, small container for water, paper towels or towel scrap, and journal. The group meets every first and third Wednesday. 

    Also Wednesday at 7 p.m. jazz musician Scot Cannon will give a free concert. A talented singer and guitarist, Cannon performs his own acoustic versions of jazz and pop standards from the 1920s to 1940s. He also plays lively tunes of his own, which he says often inspire his audiences to move along. Many people will recognize him from his entertaining performances at area farmers markets.

    Cannon has a degree from the Berklee College of Music in music education, instrumental arranging and guitar. Now a resident of Belfast, he hosts the Family Radio Hour on WERU.


    Lent at United Christian Church

    Sunday March 24 Rev. Kate Braestrup will be preaching at the 9:30 a.m. service. That afternoon at 4 p.m. HeartSong will be performing at a service of Music and Reflection for Lent.


    Hook-In

    Saturday, March 30 a day-long “Hook-In” will be held at the Community Building, 9:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. Come spend the day with fellow [rug] hookers. Enjoy a day of fellowship, camaraderie and creativity. Questions? shoekstra@hotmail.com or call 908-509-1475 and ask for Susan. Seating is limited to 66 people. Registration form PDF to print out and return. 


    A Personal Note

    I will be on the Channel 2/6 show “207” this Friday at 7 p.m. talking about my book, “Half of Every Couple.”