Tony and I took Eli the Wonder Pup for a hike along the Sanborn River and around Overset Pond last Thursday morning. I never get tired of those trails, and neither does Eli, since he gets to take as many cool dips in the river and pond as he wants along the way.
Tony’s brother and sister-in-law, Howard and Macky Chapman, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary on Saturday with a party at the family camp on North Pond hosted by their niece, Tracy Walker. There was a great crowd of well-wishers, and it was fun to see everyone. I also enjoyed looking at the many old photos Tracy had assembled and put on display, especially a few that included a much-younger Tony.
I’ve known Macky’s family longer than I’ve known the Chapmans, as her parents, Pip and Ada Cummings, were friends of my father’s, and everyone knew and loved Macky’s wonderful “Mimi,” Ada Balentine, whom my mother called “Big Ada.” In the early 1950s, before my parents built our camp, they rented Ada’s camp a couple of times, and on one of those vacations, when it rained all week, my father built the kitchen cupboards that I think are still there. My sister used to play with Macky and her sister, Debbie, during the summer when we were at camp, and I used to walk down to the Balentine camp from our camp with my mother to visit with Ada when I was little. She always had a big garden in the field near her camp, and I remember once sitting on the porch helping to shell peas while she and my mom chatted.
Last weekend was our last one at camp for the season, and, as she does every year, my friend Donna came up from Portsmouth to spend it with us, and to make sure we moved home in an orderly fashion. She’s great at making lists and ensuring that everything gets done just right, and I must admit that the process goes much more smoothly than it would if she weren’t here to help.
The weather for our last camp weekend couldn’t have been more perfect. I went for an hour-long swim early on Sunday morning when the lake was “just like glass,” as my mom liked to say. There were no boats out, and only a few of the camps I swam by were still occupied.
The end of summer is always bittersweet for me, but I do enjoy the cooler fall weather, and we have lots of projects we’ve been neglecting at home, from painting both inside and out to sawing, splitting, and stacking our firewood.
Hope to see you at the Greenwood Farmers’ Market this Friday from 4-6 p.m. at the Town Hall. Along with pies, whoopie pies, and cookies, rumor has it that lemon-filled, lemon-frosted lemon cupcakes will be making a reappearance!
If you have news to share, email me at amy.w.chapman@gmail.com, call me at 890-4812, or find me on Facebook.
“And all at once, summer collapsed into fall.” — Oscar Wilde
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