A View of the Town, Episode 3: The Christmas Pageant

Welcome to A View of the Town, the adventures of Dr. Willis Fletcher in a small coastal town in Maine.  Offering tidbits of local color and the lay of the land, we now return to Dr. Fletcher and The Christmas Pageant of 1928.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by...  "Snow.  White, bright, wet, and slick. It can mount up fast. It melt down slow.  Snow.  It's just water waiting to happen."

And now on with A View of the Town, Episode 3...

Now the folks of Misty Cove take the holidays seriously here.  Starting with Halloween all the ways to New Year's Day.  One celebration after another.  But one of my favorite memories was The Annual Christmas Pageant put on by the school.  And the performance in 1928 proved to be the most memorable.

Mrs. Amy-Jane Hawkins, the local school teacher, who often left town for a month and another teacher had to fill in.  In any other town, this might be grounds for firing, but here, not in a long shot. Amy-Jane always made up for with the best pageants ever.  The first one I ever attended was actually the 11th one produced. The eleventh would be prove to be the most memorable all because of one not-properly-tied rope.

It was held on the Friday evening of the week before Christmas.  Snow had come.  We only had a few inches. Lucky we were that Christmas.  I had been invited, among a few other select, over to Mayor Archie and Caroline Switcher's for dinner before the pageant.  Now the school housed all eight grades.  High schoolers traveled ten miles down to the school in a neighboring town.  So, the cast for 1928 had thirteen young actors and actresses.

The pageant began well -- a jolly chorus of several favorites, then onto a brief recitation of "A Visit from Saint Nick," a few more songs, then onto the finale of the Story of the Christmas.  The scene started out beautifully.  The oldest students, Agnes Williams and Lester Holt, played Joseph and Mary.   The next oldest played the three Wise Men.  The younger ones filled in as farm animals.  And last, the skinny Raymond Victors had the honor of playing the angel of the Lord, mainly because he was the only one who fit into the harness they used to lower him from Heaven.

The stage had been simply set with a make-shift manger, some bales of straw, and a painted cardboard star. Lester came on stage pulling Agnes on Benny, the smallest donkey Mr. Rankins owns on his farm.  All was going well until they reached the center stage.  Now at this time, the narrator had brought us to the Angel of the Lord to come down from Heaven and say unto thee... But what really happened was this.

Poor skinny Lester was all harnessed and ready to be lowered by Franklin Henry, the appointed stage manager.  Old Henry had a good gripe on the rope.  Forgetting about an empty pale, Old Henry kicked the bucket, lost his gripe on the rope, just as Lester stepped off the small platform just above the manager.  In his angel costume, six-foot wing span and all, Lester swung a little and landed on the back of Benny who in turn bucked up his back legs send the make-manager to fly into pieces.

Now Agnes had been holding the baby Jesus, played by Ida Bell's rag doll, but when the manager flew so did the baby Jesus.  Straight up in the air, out over the audience, and right into the fireplace on the outside wall.  Poof!  That poor baby Jesus went up in smoke in front of poor Ida Bell who screamed and passed out at the doll's demise.

Back on stage, costumed animals scrambled in all directions.  Pieces of manager flew in every direction.  Hay bales tumbled, busting apart.  A cloud made up of straw, chaff, and dust erupted like a volcano spreading all over the stage, forming a dense cloud.

Now we as the audience just watched as the from the thick cloud emerged bucking Benny with an angel with spread wings.  Benny leaped off the stage into the middle aisle and ran to the back doors, kicked one open and ran out into the street.  Poor Lester held on for dear life.  Now trailing behind that donkey was the rope still attached to the harness.  And at the end of that rope, also holding tight was Old Henry.  Covered in straw from being drug through it on the stage, Old Henry looked like a Halloween scarecrow being dragged behind.  He was smart enough to let go before that donkey took to the streets.

Some people saw what happened that night was a Christmas miracle,  For you see, Benny ran down Main Street right towards Leroy Snude, who was notorious for being the town drunk, to give it to you bluntly.  However, Leroy had staggered out into the center of Main Street, completely buck naked. Not a great sight since he could have been mistaken for a bear.

Leroy saw Benny racing toward him and when Benny got within a few feet, Lester sat straight up. His angels wings flew out and rustled in the breeze.  He didn't realize that foil-covered cardboard star was stuck to the back of his head.  So just imagine what drunken naked Leroy saw.   A angel, flapping wings, and a shining star behind him.

From that day, Leroy went on to divinity school and came back to take up the Gospel at the town church.  As for the audience, we had the best time even though it wasn't true to the story.  It was still the best Christmas Pageant ever.  The Christmas Pageant of 1928.

Join us again next time, when Dr. Fletcher tells us about the Witch's Woods and how it came to be known as the scariest place not in town.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by...  "Snow.  White, bright, wet, and slick. It can mount up fast. It melt down slow.  Snow.  Snowmen are waiting to be built."   

A View of the Town, Episode 2: July 4th, 1920

In our first episode, we met Dr. Willis Fletcher, a new arrival in Misty Cove, Maine.   Offering tidbits of local color and the lay of the land, we now return to Dr. Fletcher and The Sawmill Incident.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by...  "Ink.  Black, Blue, Red, or Green.  Ink is always seen.  Ink.  It does a writer good."

And now on with A View of the Town, Episode 2.  So, sit back and let's hear from Dr. Fletcher himself tell the tale of The Sawmill Incident.

July 14th, 1920.  That was the day I arrived in Misty Cove. Well, here it was two weeks later, I've settled in.  I've been welcomed.  And my patient roster is growing. Such a nice, pleasant little coastal town with such an interesting and sordid underground of life you would never have guessed.  I don't think I'll ever forget my first trip over to Slumberman's Sawmill.

Now in order to understand this story, first, I've got to take you on a side trip.  On March 15, 1820, Maine became the 23rd state, under the Missouri Compromise, admitted to the United States.  If you've never experienced a Maine winter, they can be colder than a witch's teat.  So, the March celebrations of Maine's centennial was left for warmer weather.  Come July 4th, Misty Cove set out to whoop it up.  This whooping-up included the largest fireworks display ever seen in the city. However, one firework made its way to a storage shed behind Slumberman's Sawmill.

Lewis Hardy, the man in charge of the fireworks display, had decided to outfox the previous years fireworks thief. The past few years, the largest firework for the display had been absconded by a teenager who I'll tell you more about sometime later.  Well, Hardy had stashed the firework in a shed to the east side of the sawmill.  And was promptly forgotten.  Hardy could be a little absent-minded.

On that warm Monday afternoon, here I stood at the Slumberman's where Luke Jankins, our local handyman and employee of the sawmill, had brought my new sign and had my freshly cut two-by-four.  Now growing up on a farm in Ohio had taught me a few things about being a handyman myself.  Not only can I use a scalpel, but I can also use a hammer.  So, Jankins and I stood out front and debated of who would hang the sign and fix the back step.  Now, just I was about to add my points of the debate, we heard the loudest whistle fizzing from the shed.  And what happened next is hard to describe, but here goes.

The shed had a small square four-pane skylight in it so you could see when you went in.   Well, the skylight's glass busted out as that forgotten lone firework burst its way through.  I can only assume that since its path had been cut short was why about twenty-feet up it did its job.  Boom!  That firework went off only twenty feet off the ground.  Sparks flew in every direction.  Jankins and I hit the ground waking a cloud of dust soon mixed with embers and dying stars of fire.  I had covered my head, but poor old Jankins found his hair aflame.  I was lucky and only a few burn holes showed up on the back of my jacket.  Jankins jumped up and ran for the nearest horse trough.  Several nearby windows shattered. The whole town seemed to stand still after the sound of the blast.

Slumberman's Sawmill on the other hand came to life. In fact, ablaze.  Being a sawmill, there were piles of sawdust, wood shavings, and stacked lumber.   The men had already grabbed buckets and began to put out whatever they could.    And just when all seemed lost... Well, let me put it this way.  Nobody had noticed the clouds that had moved in.   And wouldn't you know it, we had a downpour. Curls of smoke began to rise everywhere.  And we had a little help from Mother Nature herself.  And from that day forth, Lewis Hardy was asked to keep the fireworks in one place.  They decided the second empty bank vault was the place.

What could have been a major disaster for Misty Cove actually turned out to be the biggest mystery the town have ever known.   Just how did the fuse on that firework get lite.  Well, let me tell you.  I know.  It involved a splinter, a bench, and a sigh of relief.

You've been reading A View of the Town with Dr. Willis Fletcher.  One doctor's view of a small town.  Join us next time for a whole new episode where Dr. Fletcher tells the tale of the Christmas Pageant.

This episode of A View of the Town is brought to you by...  "Ink.  Green, Red, Blue, or Black. Ink forms to words.  Ink.  A writer's best friend."

A View of the Town, Episode 1: My Arrival

Welcome to my new installment story, A View of the Town, where you meet Dr. Willis Fletcher, a new arrival in a small coastal town in Maine.  Who knows where he will take us?  What tales he will tell us?  (I don't even know and I'm the author.)  This first installment, entitled My Arrival, brings the town to light.

This first episode is brought to you by... "Paper.  You've felt it.  You've written on it. Paper...  A clean sheet will do wonders for you."

And now on with A View of the Town.  So, sit back and let's hear from Dr. Fletcher himself...

I remember arriving as if it were just yesterday.  I stepped off the early afternoon train onto the weathered platform.  My rear-end was sore from sitting for so many hours.  It's a long trip from Xenia, Ohio.  But, now I was a new arrival in a new town that I would eventually call my home. Maybe. Even at age twenty-seven, I still got butterflies in my stomach. New place. New people. I got nervous. Medical school was behind me.  The War to end all wars was over.  And on my calendar, I had marked July 14th, 1920, as the start of my professional life.

To the end of the platform, around the corner to my right, and there it was. Misty Cove, Maine. Your typical coastal town on the Atlantic shore. I could smell that salty and fishy air I had read about. Seagulls circling. Small clapboard houses all neat and white.  Population 329 1/2.  Really 330, but I'll tell you about the "half" later.

My new office was directly across from Whitman's Grocery and Dry Goods on East Street.  East Street ran north and south; so not to confuse you, it was named after Jedediah Cork East, the founding father of Misty Cove.  In fact, my office stood where the first cabin was built in 1854, by Old East himself on land owned by his Grandfather Cork. The Corks had purchased and settled the land about 15 miles to the south, but it was Old East who had platted out Misty Cove. The cabin now gone, but not forgotten as noted by the wood plaque that stood in my new office's window.

When you stand facing east in the center of the street in the center of town, you see out to the Atlantic Ocean.  If you turn south, you'll see the road curve west due to a steep wooded hill.  Many Misty Cove citizens thought of the hill as the town picnic area during any major summer celebrations giving them full view of any fireworks.  Many like to tell of the time, Jesse Cork rode his sled down the hill so fast in the winter of '04 that's what caused him to became that automobile racer.  Or at least that's what his mother blamed it on.  Looking west, you'll see such sites as Slumberman's Sawmill and the Fluke's Fishery.  And north, you'll see the road disappear into Birdwhistle woods.  Or as it is known by to the youngsters "The Witch's Forest."

Anyways.  The Misty Cove Post Office conveniently stood to the west of my office. The post office building had just been built last year in '19.  Mr. Hank Hawkins was the post master. Mr. Hawkins was the most organized man in town, despite the fact of holding the prize for being the most oddest. "Hawk-eyed" was what students had nicknamed him.   He was know for being able to spot a truant student a mile away.  Even worse, he could spot a candy snatcher by simple putting his nose in the air and taking a deep sniff.

My more logical explanation was that his wife was the school teacher, Mrs. Amy-Jane Hawkins. Rumor had it that she had married Hawk-eyed for one reason.  He had a hundred acres of virgin pine ten miles outside of town.  Each year, she'd try to pull one over on her husband and try to sell some to the loggers. And each year, he'd get wise and intervened.  He always won and she'd leave town for a month before coming back.  Her absence put a damper on student lessons and Ms. Ferule would jaunt over from the nearby town and fill in.

But I really want to tell you about the time that Slumberman's Sawmill nearly caught fire and burnt to the ground.  You see it all started when I stopped by to get a two-by-four to fix a porch step out back of my office and I also had to pick up my new sign with my name on it to hang in the window -- Dr. Willis C.B. Fletcher.

Well, folks, that's the end of the first episode.  Stay tuned for the next installment of "A View of the Town" and just exactly how Slumberman's Sawmill almost burnt down.

And now a word from our sponsor...  "Feel it.  Love it.  Use it.  Paper...  It's always lined up, just for you.  Clean, crisp white paper."

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