Digging, with a Purpose

Sunday was a big day in our little town of Copper City. We had a townwide potluck in the fire hall (very well attended I am happy to say). The Copper City Community Improvement Association used the lure of food to try and harness resident's pent-up-cabin-fever energy (really, it was a very long, hard winter this year) and nabbed them as volunteers for everything from the fire department to the 4th of July parade committee.

Long-time residents appreciated the poster board displays created by our village president and covered with old town photos, many showing current residents as children. Some photos going back as far as the 1931 dedication of a row of maples by the town's school kids. The newspaper clipping gave their names and the names of the US presidents they named the trees in honor of. Poems were read (imagine that), songs were sung.

The two story school building and the trees are gone...the empty lot where the school used to stand is part of the park we are working on improving...but it was wonderful to hear people talk about what the town was like 60 and 70 years ago.

And the older residents never cease to amaze me. I found out that my next door neighbor, Ruth, was a volunteer fire fighter in this town for 20 years. So at a time when women in more urban areas were fighting for the right to serve on fire departments, Ruth was donning a fireman's helmet over her hair curlers in the middle of the night to climb a ladder and put out a chimney fire! Man do I feel like a slacker.

Jack did his best to join in any way he could. He snatched up a dropped soda cup and instantly set about tying my sister in knots with his leash. And while he didn't get to help dig the hole for our park's new tree, he did give it his approval and got a belly scratch for his trouble.

Next potluck we will finish up the beautiful, homemade sign that we started with the help of our current crop of Copper City kids. And we will also dedicate our new little tree...the first to replace that long-ago row of maples.