Ashland Speaks by Lula Anderson - 12 April 2026

April:  The month that is so changeable as far as weather goes.  One day it's 70 and sunny, the next it's 20 with snow.  Easter Sunday my first daffodil bloomed.  I was able to look at my spring flowers popping through the ground.  Now I'm watching them pop through the snow.  Forsythia is starting to bloom and the trees are starting to show that they are once again alive.  Truly a month of resurrection.

I've been looking through old picture albums lately, and thinking,again, about how precious these printed memories are.  Everyone has pictures on their phones, but does it really replace the actual picture that you hold in your hand?  We take pictures of our food, we take pictures of clouds, and pictures of what is in front of us.  But, do these pictures mean as much as those that we took and had to wait for them to be developed?  I feel that the pictures on my phone belong to me, while a developed picture belongs to everyone.  The same with reading the paper on the computer.  If there is an article that you want to save, you have to print it out, but it doesn't have the same "feel" as the articles that we so carefully cut out and saved.  We always made sure the date from the paper was on the article so it was actual proof that it was actually dispersed to the public.  When the picture of the WAJPL leaders was in the Windham Weekly, we still looked for someone with the actual printed page to bring it to a meeting so we could show everyone how good we looked.  Thanks Mike.

Don't forget to call or text Annie J to reserve your spot at the Pasta Dinner fundraiser for LIFEWISE 518-947-0033.

AS I REMEMBER IT

I recently came across some WAJERIANs from 1965,66,67,and 68.  While looking through the elementary grades, I noticed many boys in Cub Scout uniforms.  My sons were in Cub Scouts, and always proud to wear the uniform.  Meeting day was special as it meant something fun was going to happen.  Windham and Ashland each had their own Pack, while Jewett just had Boy Scouts.  In the late '70's and early '80's, Jay and Carole Truesdell were leaders of my son's den.  Field Trips were held on Saturdays, one I remember was a hike to Pratt Rock to see the horse.  At the time it was a huge walk as there were no trails to get there.  We hiked up this steep mountain to see the carvings at the top.  Now, they can be seen from the road, which takes away some of the mystique.  We held a paper drive, hoping to make money.  A man in Hensonville who lived next door to Una McKeen, had a cellar full of tied up newspapers and magazines.  We took the boys and filled a pickup truck, and his basement was clean.  When we got to the recycling bin, it was too much, so now we had to figure out what to do with the rest.  Kent Hunt owned the building where the Ashland Post Office is, and he had a cellar that wasn't being used, so we cleaned his cellar and stored the papers in there until the next pickup day.  

The  most popular event of the Cub Scout Year was PineWood Derby Day.  In January, each boy was given a kit which contained a block of wood, two axles and 4 wheels.  My husband wasn't around, so I had to show the boys how to make the car, which didn't turn out very well.  For those who don't know, a large track was set up on an incline with slats to make grooves for the cars to stay on it.  The boys would line up the cars, the wooden gate would be removed and the cars would shoot down the track.  The winner would be set aside to race again until the last race.  The time spent on these cars!  They would be shaped, painted, decaled and decorated.  Fathers would check to see if "theirs" was aerodynamically correct.  There was a weight limit of 5 ounces, but some would shave off too much, then add lead weights to add weight.  It got so competitive that when Judy's sons competed, they had to have a special race just for the dads.  Dads would show up for the weighing in with complete tool kits to modify the cars.  My one memory is the dad who added so much weight to the car, he had to keep drilling holes in it to bring it to 5 ounces.  The son had spent so much time trying to make it look like the Bat Mobile.  It soon looked like swiss cheese.  I just told the little fellow that The Joker had shot it up, but Bat Man survived.