So what do we do on New Year’s Day? Besides watch football, which, since my house no longer holds an avid fan, has left my radar. How about looking back at the year that’s just left, much as TV’s talking heads do, tallying up the highs and lows in our tiny corner of the world?

Here we are, on January 1, 2018 in the middle of the most brutally cold spell I can remember. Day after day of temperatures way below zero and the weatherman seeing no end in sight. Maybe the ticks are packing up to move south, or better yet, being frozen in their woodsy lairs even now.

Just a few weeks earlier we’d been enjoying the most languid, warm fall weather ever, days and weeks that stretched on after summer was done. First frost never seemed to come, and when it did, did anyone notice?

The night of Oct. 27, when the Lincolnville General Store finally opened its doors, was beautiful as some 1,000 people (a widespread guess at the crowd size) gathered in the road, on the porches, in and out of the brilliantly lit building, listening to music, excited just to be there on such a long-anticipated night. Briar and Jon Fishman and their enthusiastic crew pulled off a feat that already makes the Center feel like a new place.

On another notable day, a really hot day last summer, the new solar array built to power our municipal electricity needs was dedicated with ice cream sundaes and speeches.  Yes, we’ll save tax-payer money, always a win, but as a neighbor pointed out when I said that at the Soup Café last week, it’s the right thing to do for the environment. The energetic ad hoc Energy Committee barely paused to celebrate their accomplishment before getting back to work.

Speaking of busy committees, there’s a Veterans Park Committee working pretty much out of the public eye, though their project is right at the entrance to the Center for all to see. First the historic wooden World War II memorial was dismantled and then reconstructed by Cecil Dennison and Walt Simmons, and installed at the corner of Norton Pond Road and Main Street, all in time for Memorial Day 2017. A flag pole, granite walkways and landscaping came next.

You’ve probably noticed two side pieces which are under construction. Committee members are painstakingly compiling the list of people who enlisted from Lincolnville in our country’s other oh-so-many wars: I count eight, leaving out WW II. The Civil War is proving particularly challenging as there were over 100 men at least, and several of those paid substitutes to go for them. Oh my!

And by the way, the Veterans Park was just a gleam in Rosey Gerry’s eye a couple of years ago, a perfect example of how one person’s vision can become reality.

2017 marked another year of a quiet event, the weekly Soup Café held at the Community Building and sponsored by United Christian Church. Skipping only Thanksgiving Day the free soup/bread/fruit/dessert meal is held noon to 1 p.m. every Thursday and is open to any of us. Three, sometimes four, homemade soups – one vegetarian, breads – Dot’s at the Beach often donates this, and lots of good company as well as a regular background of harmonica music make it a fun and companionable hour. Come by some Thursday; you’ll be warmly welcomed.

Meanwhile, Lincolnville’s predictable calendar of annual events kept us busy:

Grange suppers, starting with their Spring Fling Variety Show

Bayshore Baptist’s Easter Sunrise service and breakfast

King David Lodge’s Easter Breakfast

Memorial Day parade

Old-timers Lunch

United Christian Church’s Strawberry Festival

The Library’s Picnic Supper and Auction

Lincolnville Improvement Association’s Blueberry Wingding

Lincolnville Business Group’s Pickle and Preserves Festival

The Library’s monthly author/musician programs

The Center’s Halloween night trick or treating

Beach Christmas Tree Lighting and Bonfire

Bayshore Baptist and UCC’s Christmas Eve Candlelight services

Wreaths Across America

Many LCS programs: concerts, plays, soccer, basketball, softball, cross country, wrestling throughout the school year

What have I missed?

And as all of this was happening in our town, people have been living their daily lives, getting up before dawn to drive long miles to work. Or getting lunches made, children fed and on the bus. Putting supper in the crockpot, a final load of laundry in the dryer, all before leaving for work. Juggling work schedules to get a chance to see a kid’s soccer game or wrestling match.

Work has a different meaning for those of us retired from regular employment. Just figuring out how to get to a doctor’s appointment or to the grocery store can be a chore for someone who can no longer drive. Finding someone to mow the lawn or clean the house or shovel the snow is a different kind of work. Managing alone, living in an empty house, after decades of vibrant family life. Retirement is not all days on the golf course.

For my family all the days of this past year have unspooled from the last week-end of last January, the bittersweet days when we gathered around Wally, to physically care for him, to open our hearts to him and to each other, to say good-bye to the man who was at the center of our lives. That experience is one that will never leave us, his sons, their wives, our grandchildren, and especially me.

We were joined during those days by so many of you, our neighbors, friends and extended family. He, and we, were blessed by that experience.

And then, as if made hyper-aware of the reality of death (easy to push it to the back of our minds when it’s not front-and-center), it seemed as if every other household held a new-made widow or widower. It was no epidemic, just the regular ticking away of time and circumstance taking people from the circle of their loved ones.

It‘s what I love best about our small town. We know each other in surprising ways. We notice cars in driveways, often know who’s staying with whom, or think we do. We needn’t even really be acquainted to know who lives in the house around the corner, or who owns a business we frequent, or who has suffered a terrible loss.

Everyone is invited to an illustrated talk by Tyler Dunham and Seth Brown on their new book “The Cuba Unknown” on Wednesday, January 3, 7 p.m. at the Lincolnville Community Library.

Tyler and Seth are part of Makewild, a team of documentary filmmakers and photographers that also includes Marco Bava and Corey McLean. Tyler, Seth and Corey – Lincolnville childhood friends --  spent five months in Cuba over the past two years filming a feature about surfing on the island. They’ve gathered the beautiful photos they took and stories they collected into a book that includes treasure maps and travel tips for visitors. They’ll be signing copies of their book that evening.

Family music program

Sympathy to the family, friends and students of Donna Heal, long-time Lincolnville resident and CHRHS math teacher. Donna passed away after a long illness a week or so before Christmas.