Saturday evening and Sunday brought us right back into winter. By Sunday afternoon, trees were sagging, heavy with new snow. It was quiet and beautiful.  Seems though we’re in a cycle of a few days of winter bother and then hints of spring, and then more winter? Heard encouraging news of pussy willows spotted along the East Shore Road.  

Do you have ideas or concerns about the current state budget? There’s a forum open to the public this week, Thursday, Feb. 28, at Lincoln County’s Communication Center from 6:30-8 p.m. It is sponsored by area legislators, including Senator Chris Johnson and Representatives Bruce MacDonald and Timothy Marks. 

This will be a good exchange of information and ideas, the legislators want to hear from you and local officials with suggestions about what could be done, and how you see the proposed budget impacting you. Don’t be shy.  

The Westport Community Association invites us to bring our game faces and skills to their second annual Game Day, Sunday, March 10, from 2-4 p.m. at the Town Hall. There’ll be refreshments (yum) and a nice variety of board games for all ages. We’ve got some enthusiastic cribbage players in town, and many families have grown up playing Candyland, Apples to Apples, Monopoly, Dungeons and Dragons, Scattergories, and all sorts of trivia games. 

True, some of us didn’t always play by the rules, but that just made the games more spontaneous.  Let’s see how many families and friends can fill the Hall with laughs and cheers.

Each week, often on Tuesdays, History Committee members and friends meet at the Town Office to scan a fascinating set of letters written to Sarah Tarbox from the 1830s to 1850s. This is part of a Maine Memory Network project which in another six months or so will be online and available to the public. 

Sarah was a daughter of Samuel Tarbox (namesake for our favorite inn and organic farm), and a grand-daughter of Cornelius Tarbox who was the first Tarbox on Jeremy Squam. Sarah was born in 1823, married Wilmot Greenleaf in 1852, and unfortunately died in 1859. Wilmot was a blacksmith and also owned a shingle machine at Greenleaf Cove. 

As a young person, Sarah attended Mrs. Fields School in Topsham and her future husband went to the Methodist Episcopal Academy in Kents Hill. The scanning crew now turns to perfecting transcripts for this set of 40 letters and adding descriptive information required before the material can be put online. If you’re curious about this, you’re welcome to catch up with Gaye Wagner or myself, and we can let you know when another work session is planned. 

Pouring over Tarbox genealogy and our town history lately (thanks Cora!), I realized the importance of a special date about to pass by, the 185th anniversary of Westport becoming a town. 

OK, maybe a parade in February isn’t the best idea, but think about the traditions we’re carrying on. After much to-do, the Legislature approved the island’s petitions and Westport was incorporated on February 5, 1828, holding our first town meeting (separate from Edgecomb) on March 20. To the descendants of the Greenleafs, Hodgdons, Duntons, Parsons, Webbers, Knights, Tarboxes, Colbys, Fowles, Jewetts, Brookses, Cromwells, Heals, McKinneys, Shattucks, Rineses, and many other families who helped create this town long ago; we appreciate the struggles and leadership of your ancestors.

Shovel ready, raincoat too; let’s flip that calendar and see what comes in.