Lady Bird Johnson died last week. I always think “billboard” when I hear her name. Probably half the people reading this never heard of her, but when she was one of our first ladies, she was an environmentalist before it became fashionable.

She was almost single-handedly responsible for the elimination of billboards from the roadsides throughout America. Who remembers billboards? The year that they “came down,” L.C. Andrew, a Windham company where I was in charge of advertising and marketing, had just made arrangements to have huge billboards put up on the highway leading to the recent acquisition of a building material and lumberyard in Topsham. After Lady Bird accomplished her goal, I remember what a time I had to cancel contracts, or try to, and scuffle around trying to come up with something as effective as billboards. Nevertheless, the store opened and thrived for many years.

Today, of course, we take for granted high road bankings filled with flowers and a view of beauty, instead of billboards, and for that we need to remember Lady Bird.

Sadly, we lose a few of our antique homes each year in town. Either they burn or are torn down to make room for something new. But as folks move in, they seem to be fascinated by Windham’s old homes. The Windham Historical Society will present a program on them at their next meeting on Monday, July 23 at the society. All are welcome to attend; the program follows a short business meeting, at 7 p.m. There is no fee, but donations would be most welcome to help in maintenance of the society. The historical society is the red brick building beside the school superintendent’s office, on Windham Center Road.

On Saturday, July 28, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. a yard sale will be held at Windham Human Services on Route 202, across from the Friends’ Church. The sale will raise funds to be used for the Windham Food Pantry. Donations would be greatly appreciated and may be dropped off Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. No clothing will be included as all clothing comes under the umbrella of the clothes closet. If help is needed getting articles to the Human Resources building, call Madeleine Roberts at 892-1931.

The food pantry serves hundreds of Windham residents of all ages and is funded partly by the town, but mostly by donations and fund-raising efforts. It’s open to those in need on Monday evenings, 5:30 to 7 p.m. And senior citizens may also visit on the first Thursday morning each month.

I hear blueberries are ripe and notice that a lady up the street has her sign out and many baskets of berries for sale. Think of blueberry pies, muffins and cake. Most of my old blueberry haunts are now covered with houses and manicured lawns, so I’ll really have to think hard about a place to pick.

When I was growing up, picking berries was one of the routine things our family did in the summer. Packed our lunch, a few jugs of lemonade packed in ice and all wrapped around with newspaper to preserve the cold and away we went to what we considered faraway places in Standish, Limington, and Bridgton.

In later years, Windham blueberry picking was wonderful on the Land of Nod Road, and up by Jim Pratt’s on Inland Farm Road and always on a pole line somewhere – one of those places where some utility company had cut down all the scrub making room for the blueberry plants. My latest ventures were at what we locally call the swamp (Claman Reserve) where high bush berries grew to the size of small trees. Wonderful picking if you could ignore the bees, birds and other critters and I think, since it’s a reserve, it will escape development.

Well, off to the blueberry patch. See you next week.