Wednesday

It's Recyclables Day!

47 degrees and drippy.

The meteorologist at WKTV predicts that, after a rainy night: "We'll take a temporary break from the unsettled weather today, but more rain is expected tonight.

Another area of low pressure has developed to the south of the region along an old frontal boundary. This weak storm will pass east, and will drag any leftover rain showers this morning with it. The steadier rain showers will end by 7 AM this morning. Slow but gradual improvements are expected as we head into the afternoon. Increasing sunshine, with afternoon highs in the upper 60s.

Our break in the weather won't last. Another storm system will bring in rain later on tonight. Rain will fall heavy at times early tomorrow morning, with a rumble of thunder possible. Overnight lows only in the mid 50s. Clouds and showers for Thursday, with highs in the mid 60s."

**********************

WELCOME HOME!

to The Kelleys of Sangerhill Road

and Mr. Browne and Mrs. Mizener of E. Bacon Street!


**********************

IN YESTERDAY'S MAIL

An E-note from Village Clerk-Treasurer Lorena Lenard:

"The Village Board is looking for ideas as to where the KIOSK should go.

They are inviting the public to come to the June 1st meeting with their ideas."


(Save June 1st on your calendar, but also watch for a complete description with specifications or the designer's drawing of the kiosk, without which it's hard to be objective!)


*******************************

Is this YOUR house?

This picture postcard and accompanying note came from Connie Bocko, who wrote:

"I have a photo that I would be willing to give someone if they live in the house that is pictured. I collect Waterville stuff, but it would mean more if this were my house. If you'd like to post it, I'd be glad to give the original to someone, if they recognize their porch."

************************

A Special Announcement and Invitation

****

The public is cordially invited

to a

JOYFUL CELEBRATION

of

REDEDICATION

at

SOUTHGATE MINISTRIES


Saturday, May 9th at 1pm


Chicken BBQ meal for attendees following the service


*****************

Here's another wonderful story about the Sanger Mansion and its eccentric owner, William Cary Sanger, Jr., sent by Helen Tower Brunet.

"Bill Sanger, who lived in the Sanger 'Mansion' in Waterville, had known my father growing up in Waterville. In the l940’s he was sometimes invited for Sunday dinner at our house at the Tower Homestead. My father picked him up in the car, as Bill did not drive.

He was thin and balding, with pasty white skin. My parents enjoyed him because he was well educated and a good conversationalist and they knew he must be lonely living the life of a recluse. He would arrive looking disheveled and a bit nervous with a stack of NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC magazines for my brother and me.

After dinner, as soon as he had left, and before we had even had a chance to look through the magazines, we would be told once again to never go to his house without a grown up. My brother had no particular interest in seeing his house, but I did. I talked my two best friends, Murney Tyler, and Carolyn Tester, into biking up to see him one Saturday in spring. We were about twelve years old and we loved adventure. And, we knew that just about anything our parents told us not to do was worth doing.

We were breathless by the time we had pedaled up the hill. As we rode into the courtyard, the house seemed bigger than ever before. It was built of grey stone and could have been used in the filming of WUTHERING HEIGHTS. Gazing up at the parapets, I began to wonder if this had been such a good idea after all. But we three prided ourselves on being fearless, so we banged on the front door with the knocker and waited.

Finally the door was opened by Bill, who seemed surprised but very pleased that we had come.

He showed us through the house, room by room. The living room, dining room, library, pantries, kitchen, all the bedrooms upstairs and even the attic. It was not the haunted house that we had imagined. There were suits of armor in the corners of the hall and armor displayed on the walls. The furniture was old and worn, but the sun shown through the lead glass windows and the views were breathtaking. Bill was obviously enjoying the chance to show it off.

The tour ended in the basement game room where we all played billiards. It was damp in the billiard room; shelves of books in the bookcase has fused together in the dampness. Before we left he served us ginger ale from not very clean glasses and we promised we would visit again.

We discussed every detail of the experience on the way home. Of course, we could never tell our parents or any of our friends. We agreed on a code word for discussing this adventure on the phone in case the operator was listening.

The code word was "Armor."

******

"Tides of Commerce," a collection of poems by Wm. Cary Sanger, Jr. can be read in its entirety at Google Books. The obituary of Col. William Cary Sanger, who built the "mansion," is posted on "Heaps of History."

Helen Tower Brunet is the author of "Nellie and Charlie: a Family Memoir of the Gilded Age," published in 2005, which is available at the Waterville Public Library, and also from Amazon.com. AND (I just discovered that much of it can be read, and photographs viewed, at Google Books by clicking HERE!)

************

The Baltimore Orioles and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks have arrived at the Heidels, East of the Village, and at Whiskey Hollow and, presumably, to points between.

The ornamental pear trees along West Main Street are blooming as are bright Azaleas at the Kelley residence on Sangerhill Road ...........

......... and the home of Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Plourde on Tower Street.

This brick residence seems to me to be of the "Federal" style of architecture and was built by (or for) one of the Terry family quite early in the 1800s.

Other Federal style buildings in the area are the white apartment house in Sangerfield that always shows up in the background of "Gas" photographs ..........




and it's twin ......

........ the former "Sangerfield Exchange," both of which were built by Jotham Tower in 1798 or 99, and where renovations are well under way for the future location of "Michael's Fine Food & Spirits."

********************

FOR THE RECORD

Have a Good Day, Everyone!