A date with spring

According to poet John Clare, by March, "winter seems half weary of its toil," and all but the most avid skiers are more than half weary of winter. So what better time to look ahead a few days, weeks, and months and spy what one's fellow citizens are plotting for diversions?

But first, congratulations are in order to the Farmington Chapter of A.A., which celebrated its fifth anniversary on Monday, Feb. 29, at the Community Center. It is extremely pleasing to watch this organization go from strength to strength at their weekly meetings in a tremendous atmosphere of fellowship and warmth. And congratulations, also, to the Community Center itself, which officially opened its doors on March 1, 1984.

This week, in the Town Hall, on Wednesday 2nd, Thursday 3rd and Saturday 5th, a Ballbouncing Tournament will pound away, with 10 junior high-aged teams competing, drawn from Alton, Winnesquam, Wakefield, Somersworth, Rochester, New Durham and Farmington. Admission is $1 for adults, 50 cents for students. Come and bawl at ref Russell Lainey.

If three days of that does not give you a headache, the 500 Boys Club is staging another contest next week (call Jim Black for details). And, for real action, the Men's Ballbouncing League playoffs will come to a frenzied climax on the 19th and 20th of March.

Another sign of spring will be the L.L. Girls Softball sign-ups at the Community Center on 5th and 12th March from 10 a.m. until noon, and on 10th March from 6:30 p.m. until 8:30 p.m....and from these dates it is hoped to attract enough youngsters to expand their league from six up to eight teams. Already the T-ball has swelled to four teams, from last year's initial two, making the need for a storage building-cum-concession stand all the more pressing.

If activities involving spherical objects are not for you, perhaps a good musical can do the trick in the shape of Charlie Brown, which is shaping into a humdinger of a production, if the budget is anything to go by. Lights, music, costumes, props, set construction and publicity...it might prove cheaper to take the town to Broadway...but being a show so perfectly geared for "family entertainment" the company is hopeful of big crowds on April 8th, 9th and 10th.

More artistic treats are in the offering, this spring, to enable folk to truly declare Farmington to be the Athens of New Hampshire. At the end of April comes the ever-popular Clementines Show of choral singing. On May 14th, the second annual Variety Show will be on the Town Hall stage, featuring the High School players in Constitutional skits alongside the multifaceted entertainers of Farmington. Call 2405, incidentally, if you are interested in making a contribution...anything from birdcalls to fire-eating, talking dogs to plate-spinning. Clowns, jugglers and musicians. All welcome. But this year - a shorter, sharper show...two hours with intermission! No midnight marathons.

On Feb. 10, Past State Master Rank Hayes and his wife, Virginia, Past State Ceres and a member of the Assembly of Demeter (is this a poetry reading?) were among the visitors to the hall on Mechanic Street. Bunny Eastman won first place for a Valentine verse, the contest being part of their literary program. Other highlights included Jack Howard of Crown Point Grange singing the old favorite, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee."

On Feb. 24 the Grange held a pot-luck supper and a discussion - Washington: His Day and Times.

On Feb. 25, I spent several hours deciphering the press release. You would make a wonderful doctor, Alice, with the inpenetrable handwriting.

As an astonishing tribute to the generosity and civic pride of local citizens, Jeanne Radcliffe's piano fund for the purchase of a Baldwin upright for the Town Hall stage has reached over 2/3 of its goal. With $1880 donated and pledged, $920 remains to be found and still a few organizations have yet to meet and discuss Jeanne's request. Helping to turn the exciting possibility into reality have been Farmington Business Association, the Woman's Club, the Lions, the Booster Club, Main Street Educational Fund, the Puddledock Press, Peewee Cheering, Farmington Gas Company and the Community Center. The beautiful instrument is already in the Town Hall, having been rented for "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," and the Variety Show, with this fee going against the purchase price if sufficient funds are raised. Knowing that the last few hundred dollars are the hardest to obtain, sometimes, please consider this worthy cause that comes with a warranty stretching to 2013 AD. Your grandchildren will love you.

Scarce a week goes by without this column attracting some weird response or other and, on occasion, these are sufficiently meritorious to deserve an acknowledgement. Others are better ignored. Jeannie Blinkinsop-Blinkinsop is a regularly bizarre contributor who can fall in either camp, depending on one's mood.

Last week, I received, from an anonymous source, Douglas R. Hofstadter's tome, Metamagical Thomas: A Quest for the Essence and Pattern of Mind, with attention being drawn to the section exploring anagrams. Thank you, anonymous person, and I hope that you approve of my donating it to the Goodwin Library as I am already in possession of a copy.

Corny Ju Wizendup, an oddball from the Wolfeboro area, forwarded, for my delight, a Maine Chain Saw (dog leash where a blade should be), which I will hang next to Blinkinsop-Blinkinsop's infamous Moon of the Popping Trees, in an obscure corner of the barn.

Finally, older readers may recall that crank of yore, Scotty from Denver. He's getting worse, folks, and has taken to bugging Mexicans, Canadians and the Irish, in addition to Farmington Corner. A truly international eccentric, who in the past months has invented a stilt marathon in Aguiles Cerdan, to beat the rattlesnake problem, and has improved the lot of the Galway housewife, by introducing the mechanical bellows for a peat fire. With this track record, I am sure Scotty could beat Lyndon Larouche hands down, who so far only talks about Mars, but refuses to go.

As a citizen in the town of Farmington, I am writing to express my opinion of John Nolan's column known as Farmington Corner.

In my opinion this is a literary, muck-slinging, mentally lilliputaous piece of allocuous refuse.

When people choose their place of residence, be it town, city, state or county, they normally weigh the pros against the cons, and if the negative comes out on top, they decide against becoming a resident of that particular habitat.

If the place of choice does not fit an individual's expectation of respectability they move on. They do not stay to insult, degrade and belittle the people who reside there.

John Nolan is still here. Which would lead a person to believe it is not as degenerative a town as his column decrees Farmington to be.

Having lived here the thirty-four years of my life, I would like whoever reads the insinuatory remarks written in the column known as Farmington Corner to know "It is not!"