Yay Yay Avenue: Lincoln Academy senior Charlotte Harris, sophomores Avery Genus, Lydia Harris and Johanna Neeson, all high honors for the second trimester. Lydia Harris for excellence in French, and Johanna for excellence in Spanish. And a special yay for Ryan Peters, member of Bentley University's ultimate frisbee team "Ice House," which placed first in the National Championship Division 3 of USA Ultimate championships. Ryan is a sophomore at Bentley, which is in Waltham, Mass.

Although Center for Teaching and Learning eighth graders Noah Jordan and Teddy Matel are not from Edgecomb, they are to be congratulated for winning silver keys from the Scholastic Alliance for Young Artists and Writers' national competition. They will receive their keys at Carnegie Hall, New York City, in June. CTL also fielded 16 students at Maine's 16th annual Model UN Conference, hosted by the University of Southern Maine. Edgecombites among them were Parker Elkins and  Amelia Genus.

The Edgecomb Eddy School spring concert is coming on Thursday, June 5, starting at 6 p.m. It’s last day of school, with graduation for the sixth grade, will be Friday, June 16. Call the school at 207-882-5515 for details.

The Schmid Preserve stewards have rescheduled last month's canceled work party for Sunday, June 8, at 9 a.m. For those of you generous to supply chain saw assistance, please bring them with you — we're not sure we'll use them, but best to be prepared! We are sure the black flies will be joining us, so come prepared! Contact 207-882-6265 or dsondergaard@myfairpoint.net for details.

Unlike most reunions, by class year, the Salt Marsh School Reunion, Sunday, May 18, gathered together several students from different years at the little red brick one-room schoolhouse on the River Road. Joyce Pinkham Tuttle of Nobleboro, Bob Reed and Joanna Clarke Cameron of Edgecomb, Bob Brown of Edgecomb and Dade City, Fla., were glad to include Amy Poole of Edgecomb as an honorary alumna, since she married Donald Poole, one of four brothers who attended the school in the late 1930s, early 1940s.

Susie Stephenson, Tom Blackford and their son Nat showed us their improvements to the old building, which dates from the 1840s. Once the restoration is completed, Susie plans a teaching studio in hooked rug artistry. Thus, education returns as a function for the small, wood stove-heated institution of learning! 

Bob Reed explained that the duty of starting the stove every morning was handed down from eight grade to eighth grade. We all remembered the smell of wet wool as our mittens dried out, and sometimes scorched, on the top of the stove, while our boots and galoshes were lined up underneath it. We found what appears to be Joyce's initials carved in the entry, which served as a coatroom, as well as for storing the wood for the stove.

We talked of sledding on the River Road, sometimes able to coast most of the way, some of us living two or three miles from the school. Joyce's family had a kick sled, long runners with a small straight-backed seat centered on it. They used it to do shopping at Burnham's store, as well. It came to a bad end when Joyce got cocky, and it swerved off the road.

I had talked to Warren Page on the phone the week before, who remembered that Allen Brown, Bob's father, took kids from the north end of East Edgecomb to school in a built-up box on his truck, but Bob himself has no recollection of that aspect of his family's involvement. Joyce reminded me of Play Day, which must have been a county-wide or school district-wide  ritual, requiring girls to wear white dresses, which doesn't make much sense if we were supposed to be playing!

I dimly remember a maypole we had to twine around. We all recalled the games during recess, like "Take a Giant Step" or "Kick the Can," and lying in the clear meadows just below the building during warm early summer afternoons, picking and eating wild strawberries.

This was a wonderful nostalgic celebration for us all. The Salt Marsh Alumni Association, such as it is, give our warm thanks to Susie, Tom and Nat for their hospitality. Susie would like to collect more reminiscences, and if anyone has small mementos of their school days, perhaps she can put together a time capsule, to be secreted on the premises, for finding and opening 100 years from now? If any of the above named people or any descendants of Salt Marsh students are interested in sharing lore, please let me know, at the contact information below. I can get you in touch with Susie.

Playing in the fields of yesteryear at 234 River Road, 207–633-2978 and jocam@tidewater.net. This column appears at www.edgecombme.com.