Wow! We haven't had spring, and already it's Summer Supper time at the Edgecomb Congregational Church. It really sneaked up on me this time. The first ECC supper will be this Saturday, May 18. Doors open at 4 p.m. but the serving won't start until 5 p.m. (you can chat with neighbors or inspect the Thrift Shop while you wait) and ends at 6:30, or whenever the food runs out.

Truly traditional New England, the menu offers several kinds of baked beans, other casseroles, salads and desserts. If you wish to contribute a dish, help with clean-up, or other assistance, leave word with the church, 207-882-4060, and someone will get back to you with details. These suppers raise funds for the ECC's outreach programs, local, national, even international. The cost for adults is $7, $3 for children.  

Edgecomb Eddy School has received an A in Gov. LePage's school rating schema, a total of 332.2 points out of a possible 400.  We should be justly proud of our school, for its own virtues, not for any artificial scale of values applied to it. I noted, on the spreadsheet provided by the Portland Press Herald on-line, that another near-by elementary school was given a C so close to a B rating, it seemed ridiculous.

Schools were judged on only two parameters, Math/Math Improvement and Reading/Reading Improvement. This is nothing new, but when applied to SAT scores, reveals personal strengths, not a whole school's standing. My recommendation, certainly not original, is to teach Reading in every single other subject course, and teach basic Economics in Math, showing how fractions, decimals, algebra and geometry help figure out job challenges and practical problems.

Meanwhile, The Center for Teaching and Learning celebrated Earth Day with weeding, clearing gutters, hanging bird nesting boxes, and raking lawns. I thought all that was done on Labor Day. The Deck House School will be observing its annual Prize Day exercises on Saturday, June 1.

Flowers of the Forest: We salute the passing of Alzuma Lux of Alamogordo, N.M., who was here, visiting her daughter Marie Cooper. Our deepest sympathies go to Ms. Cooper and the rest of Mrs. Lux' family.

Folks have asked me, “Why do you say ‘Flowers of the Forest' to acknowledge people's passings?” And I've always mumbled something about “ancient Scottish tradition.”  I've just lucked onto the source, “Lament for Flodden,” by J. Elliott, which begins,

“I've heard them lilting at our ewe-milking,

Lasses a'lilting before dawn o' day;

But now they are moaning on ilka green loaning –

The Flowers of the Forest are a'wede away.”

Being an “ancient ballad,” it goes on and on, but basically, it's a dirge for those who were killed at the Battle of Flodden Field. I do not know what “a'wede” means, nor “loaning.”  If anyone wants to have the whole poem, please contact me, as given below. The book is “A Golden Treasury of Songs and Lyrics,” edited by F. Palgrave, published by Macmillan in 1909.   

Going through the old books at 234 River Road, 207-633-2978, and jocam@tidewater.net/.