Congin third-graders visit Historical Society

On Wednesday and Thursday, April 27 and 28, third-grade students from Westbrook’s Congin School, with their teachers, came to the Westbrook Historical Society headquarters on the second floor of the Dunn Street Legion Hall to view the many exhibits there. Their teachers on Wednesday were Maryanne Giggey, Deb Durgin and Cathy Cruz, and on Thursday, Craig Ahem, Rhonda Remick, and Mary Ellen Doherty. A group of 10 or so youngsters gather, one group at a time, with society members volunteering to explain the exhibits; the military uniforms and equipment, fire and police uniforms; kitchen utensils (the apple peeler, which peels and slices the apples, which the youngsters then enjoy eating; the meat and vegetable grinder, with carrots to grind up; the soap saver, and the dish of water for the children to work it with. Then the toy table is a popular place, with a kaleidscope, Jacob’s Ladder game, Pick up Sticks, slates and chalk to write with, ball and cup games (difficult but fun), and small carts, one filled with blocks, with alphabet letters on them. Bob Gordon also showed the exhibit of small flags, with the dates telling the changes in years of our American flag. Children’s early clothing is on view, too, and pictures of youngsters in early costumes. The girls of course wore no slacks in those days.

In a short lecture of early schools, they saw the wooden desks with chairs attached, and an ink-well in each desk. Berta Morrill told them that female teachers were not allowed to be married; teachers boarded in homes of the students; the children helped stoke the stoves in the schoolroom, and often brought wood from their homes. One teacher taught every grade, all in the same room together.

After the talk, the students printed their first name on a paper bag, using a quill pen (with feathers on top), dipping it in ink. A volunteer filled the bag with a baked molasses cookie, a red pencil marked “Westbrook Historical Society,” and a printed short history of Westbrook, with illustrations. One young girl, as her bag was being filled, asked “What is molasses?”, and one of the boys asked if there was milk in the cookie, as he is allergic to milk.

The volunteers enjoy these visits, and the children surely do, too.

Gounod’s “Faust” broadcast Saturday

If you’re an opera fan, you must have enjoyed the production of Gounod’s “Faust,” heard Saturday afternoon on radio station W-Bach. Although it is a tragedy, the arias are beautiful and familiar. Among the many librettos we have, I found a copy printed in 1864 by Oliver Ditson & Co., Boston; the title page said “containing the Italian text, with an English Translation,” and “The Music of all the Principal Airs.” I especially enjoy following the music during the arias I am most familiar with. The Met production is sung in French.

Christian music festival well attended

Last Saturday night’s concert of Christian music, from 7 to 9:30 p.m., was a great success. The Woodfords Congregational Church sanctuary was packed, and it was filled with beautiful music and singing. This was the 15th annual spring festival, and it benefits the Protestant Hospital Ministry, an ecumenical non-profit group that supports the Protestant chaplaincy program at Maine Medical Center. Free-will offerings were accepted.

Radio personality Bud Sawyer was the host, Harold Stover, organist and choir director at the Woodfords Church, was the guest organist. The Rev. Judith Blanchard, chaplain at the Medical Center, opened the meeting and also gave the benediction.

Groups and individuals singing were Beth Harmon, soprano; Maineblend, Trinity Lutheran Church Choir; Meetinghouse Singers; Gloria Ledoux, soprano; Bannish Misfortune; First Assembly of God Choir; Healing Arts Chorus; Choir for Higher; Weining Zaho, a Chinese lady, who sang a Traditional Irish Melody to the tune of “Danny Boy”; Buxton United Methodist Church choir; First Baptist Church from Yarmouth; Clark Memorial United Methodist Church Adult Choir; and a Group from Central Square Baptist Church.

It was a treat to hear guitarist Gary Richardson playing his instrument. It looks so difficult, but he is very proficient, and we heard beautiful music from his guitar.

Members of several choirs wore long, handsome robes; some groups wore dark blue colors, one was in dark green, and one was in red, with white satin stripes on the shoulders. There was a period of hymn singing by the audience. Also as the choirs sang, the audience was invited to clap during some of the songs.

It was an inspiring musical evening, which took much careful planning.

Colunist urges reading “Paul Revere’s Ride”

I was interested in Jim Brunelle’s column in the April 18 Portland Press Herald. He wrote about Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s well-known story, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” about the Concord and Lexington battles in Massachusetts in the American Revolution.

I am still a Longfellow admirer, and recite his lines from “My Lost Youth” each time I drive along Portland’s Baxter Boulevard and gaze over the water towards the Portland skyline.

“Often I think of the beautiful town

That is seated by the sea;

Often in thought go up and down

The pleasant streets of that dear old town,

And my youth comes back to me.”

Also his “Children’s Hour” is one I’ve memorized.

Brunelle wrote that Longfellow’s “weightier stuff (Evangeline, The Courtship of Miles Standish, The Song of Hiawatha), epic verses were used by public school teachers of the late 19th and early 20th century to torture their young charges by forcing their memorized recitations.”

Well, I think that “torture” is too strong a word for that. It wouldn’t harm today’s youth if they got to know Longfellow’s poetry and memorize some of them.

But I do approve of Brunelle’s suggestion that Patriot’s Day would be a good day to celebrate “an obscure holiday by reading or rereading one of this now obscure poet’s lengthy verses that many of our parents and grandparents can still quote, as they used to say, ‘by heart’.”

So I hope that you readers may now want to look up “Paul Revere’s Ride,” enjoy it, and admire Longfellow’s writing. He doesn’t remain obscure to my thinking.

We Hope to See The Daffodils This Week

Margaret Boyden and her White Rock Extension group, two cars of them, drove to Saco’s Laurel Hill Cemetery last week to see the daffodil display. They enjoyed it, although some of the plants were not in full bloom. They then drove down to Wormwood’s at Camp Ellis for a pleasant lunch.

I plan to drive this week for my annual visit, hoping for a warm, sunlit day there, and walk in the nearby wooded section to look for the marsh marigolds there.

Recipe

I heard a boy outside the ice cream shop at Deering Center telling a friend that he had an Indian pudding ice cream cone. Maybe I should try one, out of curiosity, but I would rather have a serving of baked Indian pudding. Here is a recipe.

This is from the cookbook of the famous New Hampshire columnist, Hayden S. Pearson. His book is “Country Flavor Cookbook.”

He writes “Indian Pudding, hot, tangy and fragrant, is one of the world’s top ten puddings on my score board. I like it just as well when it is warmed up the next day.”

6 Tbls. yellow corn meal

1/2 cup molasses

3-1/2 cups hot milk

3.4 cup cold milk

1/3 cup plus 1 Tbls. sugar

1/4 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs beaten

2 Tbls. butter or margarine

3/4 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. ginger

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. all spice

Mix the corn meal and molasses. Add hot milk. Cook this over medium heat until the consistency of light gruel, stirring all the time. Add everything except the cold milk and mix well. Pour mixture into a greased baking dish. Bake at 300 for 45 minutes, but be sure to stir mixture well at the 20 minute mark. After 45 minutes from the beginning baking time stir in the cold milk, and again mix well. Bake at 300 for about 2 hours more. It may take a few minutes over the two hours, but watch carefully the last few minutes. An over-baked Indian pudding is an egregious disappointment.