Message from our President

Dear Members and Friends,

The weather has turned warm again and the view from my window is one of sunshine dancing on the golden leaves of fall. The Japanese maples are garnet-colored and glowing in the sun. Fall is at its height and we all are savoring the beauty of the season. Soon my window view will be brown and grey waiting for the white snows of winter to descend. This change marks the passage of another season of what I have termed the Covid Captivity which has turned Senior College into web-based learning and a Zoom community. We are all anxiously waiting for a return to normalcy and the delight of in-person classes at the Hutchinson Center.

Unfortunately with the Covid Delta variant present in Maine and the number of cases remaining high we are more than likely looking at another session of Zoom classes. The Winterim Curriculum is shaping up to be a varied one with challenging and exciting classes featuring literature to current events. We are hopeful to have the courses pinned down early in December to post on the Website. As always we will miss the coffee and convivial gathering in the Hutch’s Atrium but we can still get together before classes in the comfort of our warm homes. Winterim is a good time to stay in and enjoy new and varied presentations.

At its November meeting, the Board of Trustees voted to plant a tree in Belfast as well as a tree in Israel in memory of our friend, Al Arthur. We are issuing an RFP for services to replace the work that Al had performed for us for many years and we will hopefully have someone in place by the first of the year.

A number of us gathered earlier in the month to bid farewell to Arlin Larson off to live in Georgia. We enjoyed reminiscing with Arlin and hearing his stories of the early days of Senior College. He has a wealth of information about Senior College and it will be good to know that he is just an email away. Before leaving, he completed the compilation of the first year of the Corona Chronicles into a single edition. Our friends at the Hutchinson Center will make a color copy of the May 2020 through August 2021 Corona Chronicles. We will let you know the price of a copy if you would like to have one.

I am sure you are making plans for family dinners and visits on Thanksgiving. I for one will have some family members visit for the annual feast and I am glad because I always enjoy preparing the traditional dishes requested over and over again. Nutmeg muffins always get a number of votes and sweet potatoes with candied pecans runs a close second. Even with vegans and vegetarians in the family I still cook a turkey with dressing or stuffing as we called it in Virginia. If oysters are available I will make oyster dressing which is my favorite. Thanks to a Senior College friend I have quince chutney in my freezer as well as poached quince which adds a wonderful, tartness to apple pie and sweet quince jelly for morning toast.

Whatever your plans are for this holiday I wish each of you a wonderful time with family and friends. Langston Hughes, famous poet of the Harlem renaissance, captured the time of Thanksgiving so perfectly in his poem.

Thanksgiving Time

When the night winds whistle through the trees and blow the crisp brown leaves a-crackling down,
When the autumn moon is big and yellow-orange and round,
When old Jack Frost is sparkling on the ground,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!

When the pantry jars are full of mince-meat and the shelves are laden with sweet spices for a cake,
When the butcher man sends up a turkey nice and fat to bake,
When the stores are crammed with everything ingenious cooks can make,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!

When the gales of coming winter outside your window howl,
When the air is sharp and cheery so it drives away your scowl,
When one’s appetite craves turkey and will have no other fowl,
It’s Thanksgiving Time!