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Walden Pond is a wonderful place to visit if you don't follow the masses. For those of you who do not know, Walden Pond was the residence of Henry David Thoreau from 1845 to 1847. Conservationists regularly quote his book Walden which is inspiring. It is a treatise on simple living in nature. As a kid we were taught how difficult it must have been for him to live in a one room house (replica shown here). Now as an adult sometimes I wish for such an existence. This quote from Walden is particularly inspiring:
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, to discover that I had not lived.
The worst time to visit Walden, because it will be least inspiring, is on hot summer days. People from all over flock here to swim. You will have many babies in diapers, tons of noise, and full parking lots. If you want to experience the tranquility of this place like Thoreau did, come here during the off season. Fall is the best time to visit. Bring a canoe or hike along the perimeter of the pond. Winter is another good season to visit and you should make sure to bring your snowshoes.
Thoreau grew up in Concord, attended Harvard, and became friends with Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson introduced him to other famous Concord authors, Alcott, Fuller, and Hawthorne being the most prominent, and he followed their Trascendental Movement. This movement subscribed to the philosophy that personal intuition rather than religion allowed one to achieve insight. Thoreau was a principled man. He refused to pay taxes for several years over his opposition to slavery and the Mexican-American War. Try to do that now!
If you make a trip to Walden, be sure to visit downtown Concord and the Sleepy Hollow Cemetery. Thoreau is buried at Author's Ridge, along with many other famous authors. If you have time, visit the Concord Museum which is just outside downtown Concord.The park has many activities scheduled for August. These include guided hikes, nature crafts, and kayaking. To view the schedule, click on the Events and Programs link on the Walden Pond homepage below.
Links: Walden Pond Reservation
School may be out for the summer, but local libraries are definitely in! At the opening of Randall Library's Summer Reading Program in Stow, children's librarian Denise Flynn once again brought back the fun moonwalks. This year, the reading program kicked off on the last day of school. Children signed up for the program inside the library, received their packets with reading logs, and then went off to have fun. One child (you know who you were) was even reading on the lawn! Children receive points for how many books they read (or listen to) and get prizes at the end of the summer. In addition, there are a number of events scheduled including a magic show, dinosaur presentation, jungle encounters, and Three Apple Storytelling.
Outside of Stow, the Concord Free Public Library is having their own summer reading program where young readers write short reviews of books online. The library website also lists the Concord Public School's reading lists for incoming first through eighth graders. On Wednesday evenings the library hosts a "Music on the Lawn" concert series featuring bluegrass, reggae, and afro pop. Sudbury's Goodnow Library has a Wednesday evening book discussion group for 4th-6th graders. Truck Day is July 16th where kids (and adults) get to see and touch all the trucks owned by the town. Lincoln Public Library is hosting "Wild Times" on Wednesdays at 11am featuring presentations about animals. Hudson Public Library hosts their own reading club, a weekly Monday morning Bingo contest, picnics for kids 5 and under, and more. The Marlborough Public Library has a "knights" theme to most of their events. They have a number of activities that require registration and are limited to a small number of children. If your little one is interested in magical creatures or "Harry Potter", you will not want to miss the activities in Marlborough. Finally, in Harvard you can find reading lists for Bromfield School students, participate in an online reading log club, and attend a variety of activities.
There are lots of summer activities. See the Stow Musings calendar for a full listing of events (with many from local libraries). Don't be limited by what's being offered in your home town. Venture out a bit and see what's being offered nearby! You will be glad you did.
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The social and entertainment event of the year in our neck of the woods has to be the Battle of the Bands at Nashoba Regional High School in Bolton. This is the second annual event and proceeds benefit the Friends of Sudanese, an organization that assists Sudanese refugees who were brought to the Boston area in 2001 by the State Department after 9 years in a Kenyan refugee camp. Last year we had the opportunity to meet one of these people who told us how different things are here and helped us to appreciate just how great this country is.
Destination ImagiNation (aka DI) is a wonderful program that encourages creativity and problem-solving skills. Kids work in teams, grouped by age, and are lead by Team Managers who provide the problems each week and guide the team as it works on its challenges. There were several Stow teams who competed at Regionals ranging from kindergarten through high school. Yours truly was honored to have managed a K-2 team (called History Kids) who did an exceptional job in the non-competitive Rising Stars division.
There are basically two components to DI: the Instant Challenges and Central Challenge. Instant Challenges are tasks that the team needs to solve in a short time interval. For example, when we were preparing for our regional competition, most of the Stow teams got together and were given an Instant Challenge by some older kids who had been to Globals in years past. My kids were given a strange looking object and were supposed to make a skit that answered "What it was?", "Why it was here?", "How it works?", etc. The Central Challenge is a long term project that teams work on throughout the season and perform at the competition. Our team's challenge was to take something from history, make a prop that will change history, make a play about it, and sing a song. Our team chose Abraham Lincoln's assassination as the period of history and decided to change it by inventing a TV remote control and having Paul Revere come riding in on a horse to scare away John Wilkes Booth.
Christopher McGillicuddy was one of many children checking out books at Pompo's book fair. During parent-teacher conference days in winter and spring, the Pompo library is host to Scholastic Books, which raises money for the elementary schools to buy books. Kara Wilson, Pompo Librarian, told me that the book fair has been running for many years. They used to run it at Center School in the gym/cafeteria, but then switched to the Pompo Library, both because it is a larger space and because the fair is run by library personnel and the proceeds go to support the library, so the Library seemed the most logical place to have the fair. In recent years, parent Maryanne Talpey has run the fair, but now that there is a full-time, certified librarian (Wilson), it is now being run once again by library personnel, but Talpey was there checking patrons out! About $1600 cash profit was raised and will be used to purchase library books. Wilson said: "The generosity of the citizens of Stow is simply astounding!"
Tragedy struck Stow last week with the death of Frankie DeMeo in an automobile accident. Frankie was a star wrestler for the Nashoba-Clinton varsity wrestling squad in the 112-pound weight class. DeMeo was a hard working student who struggled with learning but succeeded in the classroom and on the wrestling mat. Memorials are listed on Facebook.com and on MassWrestling.com. Pictured are Frankie's teammates at sectionals last weekend. See Jordana Foster's article from The Stow Independent.
