Exploring Traditions – September, 2024

Meandering Around the Grange Way of Life

Abandoning Traditions

By Walter Boomsma, Guest Columnist

A tradition I haven’t abandoned is keeping an eye and ear out for community service opportunities. I also have some appreciation for burial traditions, so it was quite natural that I jumped at the chance to join a restoration project undertaken by the Abbot Historical Society. Volunteers are meeting for a couple of hours each week to clean and restore the stones in Abbot’s oldest cemetery. It’s a fun project—one where you can immediately see the results of your work. It makes you think. It makes you feel good.

My first “assignment” included an almost illegible stone that read simply, “Baby.” When I told my friend Jack what I’d done, he replied, “Everyone does their best to make life work… Keeping gravestones clean is a nice reminder of how the system works. Not a bad spiritual exercise.”

Before and after. Interestingly, some markers show signs of silver paint, others green. The marker reads “Grange No 329” across the top and includes the sheaf, sickle, and “P of H” binding the sheaf.

I’m always a “flag holder straightener” and it didn’t take long to notice there were many opportunities. While doing that, I noticed many short holders without flags. I didn’t count, but in the section I was working in, there were a lot of them! A closer look revealed that they were all Grange flag holders! On the one hand, it wasn’t a surprise. At one time, Abbot had a very active Grange (#329—right on the holder). The surprise was how many there were! Since these were custom-made with the Grange number, one might assume that Abbot Grange maintained a tradition of providing one whenever a member passed. I have tried to visualize blue Grange flags flying. Since this cemetery is right across from the town hall, on the main highway through town, what an amazing display it must have been.

Unfortunately, the tradition and Grange are gone. But at least part of it remains, and I’ve decided to “restore” every marker with some cleaning and painting. Like the stones, this is definitely a long-range project and “not a bad spiritual (and Grange) exercise.”

I’m reminded of another Grange sign that must have existed for a while. Frankly, I’m still kicking myself for not buying this when I saw it. It was a slightly rusted green and white sign that probably was made to hang on a barn that declared Grange Membership. I don’t recall the exact wording, but it was something like, “This is a Grange Farm.”

In life and death, as the song proclaims, “It’s a good thing to be a Granger.” Traditions such as these served as a visual reminder of the Grange Way of Life.

Of course, traditions change. We could probably have an interesting discussion (lecturer’s program?) about the burial customs. Tillers International (where I learned to communicate with oxen) is offering a workshop during which students will build their own caskets in anticipation of an environmentally friendly burial. Until needed, it serves as a bookcase.

If, as Jack suggests, “Everyone does their best to make life work,” a reasonable question might be how the Grange supports that. Perhaps some of our traditions and ritual do so and maintaining them is “a nice reminder of how the system works.” I have always valued our connection with the earth—the biggest system we live in.

We may abandon some of the Grange’s traditional practices for many reasons, but we should do so thoughtfully and deliberately. A word that comes to mind is “legacy,” defined as something handed down from the past. Flag holders and farm signs are simple reminders of our legacy. These flag holders are reminders of a time when everyone knew what the Grange was and what it was about. I know that painting and making them more visible isn’t enough to preserve the memory and meaning, but it may trigger people’s interest. Besides, it’s not a bad spiritual exercise.

(Grange flag holders (slightly different) and flags are still available through the Monroe Classics Grange Store.)

Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-sixth edition of the 2013 Subordinate Grange Manual or the most recent edition of the Pomona Grange Manual. The views and opinions expressed in “Exploring Traditions” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine and policy of the Grange. Information about the book “Exploring Traditions—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life” can be found at http://abbotvillagepress.com, on Mr. Boomsma’s Amazon Author Page, or by contacting the author.

Parkman Grange Scholarship Supper Celebrates Students

The Parkman Grange awarded six MSAD#4-area college students Minnie Welts Bridge Scholarships of $500 each for the 2024-25 school year. Winners this year include Anna Zimmerman, Guilford, a Psychology major at the University of Maine at Farmington; Cadence Clukey, Abbot, a Counseling major at Grand Canyon University; Emma Calnan, Parkman, a Nursing major at Husson University; Elizabeth Kendall, Guilford, an Education major at the University of Maine at Farmington; Kendall Kimball, Parkman, an Interdisciplinary Global Studies major at the University of South Florida; and, Hannah Dow, Guilford, an Education major at University of the University of Maine at Presque Isle. 

Parkman Grange Master Susan Manchester was joined by recipients Emma Calnan and Hannah Dow (l-r) took a break from their studies to share their career plans.

The six 2024 recipients were celebrated at a Minnie Welts Bridge Scholarship Supper on Saturday, September 14, 2024, from 4:30 to 6:00 p.m. Attendees enjoyed pork loin, potatoes, salads, and assorted desserts. All proceeds will go to the Scholarship Fund for future awards. Donations may be made to Parkman Grange at PO Box 114, Guilford, ME 04443. Note Scholarship Fund on the memo line.

Minnie Welts Bridge was a lifelong Parkman resident, a teacher, and a Grange member. She passed away in 2011 at the age of 102. Since then, the Parkman Grange has awarded a total of $18,000 in scholarships in her memory.

View from the Farm – September 2024

Webmaster’s note: The format of this column includes all of the Quill’s Endians participating at various times and in various ways! Phil writes this month’s column.

Pull Up a Stump

Bruce Springsteen’s song Glory Days, though catchy, has always rubbed me a little sideways.  As someone who lives in the present, it is hard for me to comprehend longing for the past. 

However, I came to understand how that can be circumstantial.  Every week for nearly a decade, on my way to Tuesday deliveries at the old grammar school in Deer Isle, I’ve dropped in on Garfield Eaton.  He bought two gallons of milk for himself every week.  Upon my arrival, Garfield would instruct me to “pull up a stump,” and for 15 minutes, we’d talk, mostly about farming, always about how it used to be, and sometimes of what was to come.
 

An agriculturist by nature, he was suspicious of human institutions and painted a fair picture of the past he recalled and yearned for.  He knew what he’d like to have, but also knew that time, his glory days, was past.  His physical labor was what he’d had to offer, and he no longer was able. 
 

Garfield suffered a “widow maker” heart attack when he was 42 years old and was on disability for the rest of his life, a life that he mostly lived alone.
 

I first met him through Ken Rose Farm in North Blue Hill in the early 2000s. Back then, he put his energy into homesteading. He kept a large garden. He kept hogs, sheep, hens, meat birds, and dairy cows. He met Kendall and Flossie Howard at Ken Rose to secure himself a fresh milk supply after he’d discontinued milking.
 

He was always spinning a yarn and dropping off extra produce back then—a five-gallon bucket of this or that for Flossie to can, rutabagas so big there were only a few in a full bucket. Kendall would say to (mid-fifties) Garfield, “Too bad I didn’t meet you sooner… I could have made something out of you.”
 

Garfield stopped crossing the bridge on a regular basis after 2010.  Driving over 35 miles an hour didn’t suit him.  Kendall stopped milking before his death in 2013.  When Garfield heard that Quill’s End would deliver milk, he was sold.  When we met, he found me a solid BS partner.   Often, he’d start our conversations by asking, “What lies are we going to tell today, Phil?”   Our weekly stump sitting became important to us both.  I listened with new ears to tales of glory days. 

The last few months found him nearing his end here, and I’d like to think he was prepared.  As a curmudgeonly-hippie-native of Deer Isle, leaving the appropriate people pissed off was important.  Leaving before the future he envisioned came to his Island was important.  Leaving before he was “a waste of space” was important.

I pray you rest well, Garfield Eaton.

Heather and Phil Retberg and their three children run Quill’s End Farm, a 105-acre property in Penobscot that they bought in 2004. They use rotational grazing on their fifteen open acres and are renovating thirty more acres from woods to pasture to increase grazing for their pigs, grass-fed cattle, lambs, laying hens, and goats. Heather is Vice President of Halcyon Grange #345 and writes a newsletter for their farm’s buying club of farmers in her area and has generously permitted us to share some of their columns with Grangers. Visit the Quill’s End Farm Facebook Page for more information.

Community Service/FHH – September 2024

By Brenda Dyer, MSG Community Service/FHH Director
(207) 608-9193

As autumn approaches and a new Grange year begins, I would like to thank the Granges that submitted Community Service Books, Community Service Reports, Family Health & Hearing Reports, Police, Firefighter/EMT and Educator of the Year, and Maine State Grange Community Service Granger of the Year. Winners will be announced at the State Grange Session in October.

The Community Service and Family, Health & Hearing Program will be available at the Maine State Grange Session at the Community Service Table. 

The Family, Health & Hearing suggested topics for September and October are:

September 2024
Classical Music Month
Chicken Month
Baby Safety Month
Self-Improvement Month

October 2024
Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Adopt a Shelter Dog Month
National Diabetes Month
Domestic Violence Month

Start your new books, reports, etc. for the upcoming year. 

Keep up the good work! 

Thank you to all for the phone calls, cards, texts, food, and thoughtfulness to me and my family. Gloria (Mom) loved the Grange and what it stands for. Thank you! 

Membership Moments – September 2024

By Rick Grotton,
Membership Committee Director
207 582-5915

September and October are my favorite months of the year. The warm days and cool nights are refreshing and the colors of the changing foliage (also football games) are my favorites. State Grange session is almost upon us. This is also a great time for Autumn events at your Grange. Also, many of us spend much of our time at various agricultural fairs displaying our crops and handiwork to compete for that elusive blue ribbon and cash to fund our projects.  Publicity runs high in these two months and we should be proud of our products out there for public view. Be proud of displaying your wares and be grateful for the admiration of others who enjoy the result of your hard work throughout the year. I have seen some beautiful displays, and they make me proud to be a Granger. Also, harvest suppers and “trunk or treat” Halloween gatherings are fun for the community and for ourselves.  Keep up the good work, Brothers and Sisters!

Remember, adding new members is a top priority and should be a constant venture. Without water, we and other living things wither up and die; without new members, our Grangers do the same. Membership is our lifeblood, and we should constantly work to increase it. Does your Grange have a membership committee? If not, you should. No matter how small or large your membership is, adding new membership is always needed, just as the blood pumps through our veins and the sunlight helps our plants to grow.

Congratulations to those Granges who were recently mentioned for membership net gains this past year. Please have representation at the State Grange banquet where you will receive your recognition. Keep up the good work, and continue to bring in members!!  How did you come about becoming a member? If you joined other than by family, you were recruited as was I. My life changed for the better immediately as I had a whole new family to meet and to create lasting friendships. Growing and learning were constant and I felt grateful for the changes that I endured (some beyond my control). Early on, I had not envisioned myself as a leader or a public speaker and especially as a State Grange Master (President).  Think of your own experiences. Wouldn’t you want others to feel like you do about Grange? The passion when speaking to others will certainly be noticed and felt by them. Encourage them to visit and invite them to events. Even ask them for their ideas about how to run a particular project or their opinions about an event. Make them welcome and be open to their ideas. Positive energy yields positive results. So, get out there with a smile and a goal to bring in the new members! I hope to see you at the State Grange Session in October.

Grange Today! 9-13-2024

The Newsletter of the National Grange

Articles in this edition include:

  • Building Community, one zucchini at a time
  • T-Mobile to give one small town
    a $2 million high school football
    field makeover
  • Your best shot for a health winter available at The Big E
  • Rio Linda’s zucchini racers zoom to victory
  • Grange Foundation seeks Board of Directors Candidates
  • Grange Youth T-Shirt Design Contest Voting
  • National Grange & Rural Minds present webinar
  • Join Membership Matters
  • Register for National Grange Convention
  • Grange Benefits & Store

Click the button below to read and/or subscribe to Grange Today!

Read THE Current Issue
Subscribe to Grange Today!

Note that all recent issues are available on the National Grange Website. To save space, we only post the table of contents on the MSG Website.

Communications Column – September 2024 (CORRECTED!)

By Walter Boomsma
207 343-1842
Communications Director

Annual Report, 2023-24

Oops! It seems a bit ironic that I accidentally sent last month’s column about communication instead of thus month’s!

The Communications and Website Annual Report is posted on the site. For this month’s column, it seems appropriate to include a  few important excerpts from it. I certainly encourage you to read the full report and welcome your comments and questions!

There have been 17,985 site views from September 1, 2023, through August 31, 2024—an average of nearly 1,500 monthly. However, these visits do not include subscribers receiving the posts without visiting the site. While this represents a significant decrease from the previous year, the number of actual visitors hasn’t changed much. One could rightly conclude that a similar number of visitors are viewing fewer pages and posts.

Considering the decline in Granges and Grange membership, the site is doing well. Some of that success can be attributed to the site design and content. The site is resource-rich and appeals to both members and non-members. The top pages visited are the information pages, such as the directory of Granges, program books and information, etc. This year, the Grange Event Calendar received the third most visits.

During this past year, I have continued to add resource documents and tools to our collection of communication resources available on the site. There is value in our website.

Several significant accomplishments this year include:

  • Added additional resources for Grangers, including timely posts that seem to be of interest to them on a variety of subjects.
  • Completed interviews with media representatives and researchers. One example is a favorable feature article in the Bangor Daily News and Piscataquis Observer.
  • Completed another significant purge of the website’s oldest posts and images.  This makes the site much more manageable and saves server space and remains an ongoing focus.
  • Continued to work with an editorial calendar to ensure regular, consistent posting. This includes Grange Heirlooms and Why I Love the Grange.
  • Continued to make “under the hood” improvements to the site.
  • Continued posting of “special events” being sponsored or hosted by Granges. These events have also been added to the MSG Calendar Page.
  • Continued to facilitate an email service that allows information to be sent directly to officers, directors, and deputies on short notice.

Looking ahead to 2024-2025, some objectives include:

  • Continue researching options for a site subscription. The current process is time-consuming, and more automation is needed.
  • Continuing to keep communication positive, helpful, and engaging.
  • Investigate the feasibility of sponsoring at least one virtual roundtable discussion. Due to time limitations, this was not achieved last year. I am upgrading my computer system and hope this becomes more feasible soon.
  • Continue to research further connections between the MSG website and social media.
  • Continue searching for resources, including additional guest columnists and regular topical information that can be reposted with attribution.

I believe the primary role of any state position or function is to support Subordinate and Pomona Granges and their members. But communication is not a “one-person job.” Individuals, Community/Subordinate, and Pomona Granges can best support our communications efforts by providing positive news and information.

I will continue encouraging open communication throughout our Order and with the public. We must generate interest and excitement among our communities, prospective members, and ourselves.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help you and your Grange.

Thank you for your continued confidence and support.

► FACT: The events page on the website continues to be one of the most frequently visited pages on the site! Are you submitting your programs and events?

Find the button representing how and where you want to share a post.
Tell us why you love the grange
Submit an Event or News

Getting Grounded

Guest Article by Walter Boomsma

September is Suicide Prevention Prevention Month. As many know, I am a big promoter of preventing suicide.1 Our approach to preventing suicide seems to be one of waiting until a crisis develops. I have long suspected that suicidal tendencies develop pretty early on, and we would be better served to take preventative steps before we reach the crisis point.

Thanks to the media, we’re not only becoming more aware of the issue of suicide-we are also being confronted with examples of mental health issues. COVID certainly contributed. We are easily overwhelmed by the complexity and intensity. In February 2021, 37.5% of adults in Maine reported symptoms of anxiety and depression2.

Since I do not intend to add to the complexity and intensity, I’d like to propose a simple exercise in Emotional Hygiene. In 17 minutes, Guy Winch provides a good foundation in an entertaining and non-clinical way that will also have you laughing.

At one of the mental health workshops I attended some years ago, the instructor asked us to share how we “centered” or grounded ourselves. It was interesting that he gave us some time to think before answering, suggesting that we may not be immediately aware of it. Being grounded generally refers to achieving a state of being emotionally and mentally stable and having a sense of connection to reality. In non-clinical terms, some refer to it as “going to my happy place.”

Life can easily throw us off balance. If we catch our balance soon enough, we can avoid unintentionally going somewhere (mentally and emotionally) that isn’t helpful. That somewhere may involve depression or anxiety. In simple, non-clinical terms, mental hygiene prevents mental health issues that can lead to suicide. But it’s not just about preventing suicide. It’s about living fully and happily.

“Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside awakens.”

Carl Jung

  1. I am a Certified NAMI Mental Health First Aid Responder, a teacher of Suicide Prevention Workshops, and an instructor in Beal University’s Addiction Counseling Program. Additional mental health resources are available on my Brain Leaks and Musings website. ↩︎
  2. State of Maine Mental Health Factsheet. ↩︎

National Suicide Prevention Month

September is being observed as National Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. This observance is designed to reach out to those affected by suicide, raising awareness and connecting individuals with suicidal ideation to treatment services. We can all help individuals, friends, and families have access to the resources they need to discuss suicide prevention.

Seek help immediately if you or someone you know is talking about suicide, feelings of hopelessness or unbearable pain, or about being a burden to others.

If you are experiencing a medical emergency, call 911.

For those in need of immediate support:

Call or text 988. This suicide and behavioral health crisis hotline is answered 24 hours a day, seven days a week, by trained crisis specialists who offer free, confidential support for anyone. Specialists can also respond by chat at 988lifeline.org. Information for the deaf and hard of hearing is available here.

National Alliance on Mental Illness: Suicide Prevention Awareness Month

National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: National Suicide Prevention Month

Suicide Prevention Resource Center

The State of Maine has a dedicated webpage with many behavioral health resources including online support and resources for children and familiies.

CWA Report – September 2024

By Margaret Henderson, Director
Committee on Women’s Activities
207 948-2762

Committee on Women’s Activities

It sure seems like the leaves started changing colors early this year. Our CWA Conference went very well. I heard many positive comments.

We have two new members on our committee. Welcome, Judy Meserve and Kathy Ward. Kathy helped present a demonstration on mosaic art. We all got to make something. I think everyone enjoyed doing this. Thank you, Kathy. A big thank you to all of the ladies on the committee. I am so thankful for all that you do. You are all so helpful with everything from setting up to cleaning up.

Here is a list of the winners:

Baking: Blueberry Cake: Carl Moon
Class A: Afghans: Elmira Collins
Class B: Doilies: Grace Weste
Class C: Embroidery: Gail Butterfield
Class D: 3 Piece Baby Set: Nancy Gowen
Class E: Plastic Canvas: Elmira Collins
Class G: Adult Garments: Kathy Gowen
Class I: Quilted Wall Hanging: Jackie Morgan
Class J: Stuffed Toy: Ann Burns
Class K: Baby Afghan: Elmira Collins
Class L: Children’s Garments: Laurie McBurnie
Class M: Table runners: Rachel Nelson
Class N: Miscellaneous: Rachel Nelson
Class O: Decorated Item: Sherri Applebees
Class P: Wooden Item: Phil Parsons – Juniors:  Sebastian Nickerson

Class Q: Tote Bags: Kathy Gowen

Quilts
Class B: Machine Quilted: Rachel Nelson
Class D: Pieced by Entrant/Quilted by someone else: Karen McCarrick
Class E: Baby Quilt: Elmira Collins
Best of Show: Kathy Gowen

The winning entries in Classes A-K were sent to Eastern States for judging in the New England area. All the entries were awesome! I hope that we will have more next year. Thank you to everyone who entered. I will look forward to seeing your entries next year. You all do amazing work.

Thank you to all of the Granges who have made contributions to Home for Little Wanderers, House in the Woods, and for the prize money for the contests. These donations are greatly appreciated.