The Lincoln Squirrel – News, features and photos from Lincoln, Mass.

News acorns

Lincoln middle schoolers perform “Guys and Dolls Jr.”

Considered by many to be the perfect musical comedy, “Guys and Dolls” is set in Depression-era New York City and follows the overlapping adventures of a group of gangsters, gamblers, showgirls, and mission workers. Performances are Wednesday, March 13 at 3 p.m. and Thursday and Friday, March 14–15 at 7 p.m. in the Donaldson Auditorium. Appropriate for all ages; best suited for 8+. Tickets available at the door ($10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors).

Learn about life at the high school

“Life at L-S,” a parent-to-parent conversation about the 8th-to-9th-grade transition with Lincoln School Principal Sharon Hobbs and L-S veteran parents and administrators, will take place on Monday, March 18 (rescheduled from two previous dates due to snow) from 7–8:30 p.m. in the Hartwell multipurpose room. The program will focus on extracurricular elements of a busy high-schooler’s life so families have contextual knowledge prior to the L-S course selection process in March.

Woolapalooza coming to Drumlin Farm

Celebrate the coming of spring with Woolapalooza — Mass Audubon Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary‘s annual festival featuring fiber, food, and fun — on Saturday, March 30 from 10 a.m.–4 p.m. Visitors can meet new baby animals, shop local artisans, explore the sanctuary, and learn the history of wool and sheep. Festival highlights include

  • Sheep-shearing demonstrations
  • Sheep-herding with border collies (weather permitting)
  • A “sheep-to-sweater” interpretive trail — learn how wool becomes yarn and make a craft to take home
  • Homemade lamb and vegetarian chili for additional purchase
  • Local artisans demonstrating and selling handmade products

The event takes place rain or shine (or in light snow). No advance ticket purchase; walk-ins only. Tickets are $15 for Mass Audubon members, $17 for nonmembers, free for children under age 2. Parking is limited—please arrive close to 10 a.m. or after 12:30 p.m. for a better chance to get a spot.

News acorns

L-S Pops Concert on Thursday

The L-S Music Department presents its annual Pops Concert on Thursday, March 14 at 7:30 p.m. in the L-S auditorium. Performing groups include the orchestra, concert band, symphonic band, concert choir and more. The concert will feature the combined music ensembles performing “The Circle of Life” under the direction of new orchestra director Kyung-Nam Oh. Free and open to the public.

11th annual Wild & Scenic Film Festival on tap

OARS, a nonprofit that works to protect, improve and preserve the Assabet, Sudbury, and Concord Rivers, their tributaries and watersheds, is hosting an evening of award-winning films from the largest environmental film festival in the nation on Wednesday, March 27 from 7–10 p.m. (doors open at 6:15 p.m.) in Maynard’s Fine Arts Theatre Place (19 Summer St.). Enjoy fabulous film making, gorgeous cinematography and wonderful storytelling that celebrates the wild and fragile beauty of our environment, the animals and plants that populate it and the people that work to protect and preserve it. Tickets are $15; buy online at oars3rivers.org as seats sell out every year. Questions? Call OARS at 978-369-3956 or email office@oars3rivers.org.

Recycle electronics and support L-S softball

The L-S softball program and Friends of Lincoln-Sudbury Softball (FOLSS) is sponsoring an electronics recycling fundraiser on Saturday, March 30 from 9 a.m.–2 p.m. at Chiswick Park (490 Boston Post Rd., Sudbury). Safely dispose of electronics such as computer equipment, office equipment, and small appliances/electronics. Large appliances and items containing chemicals/hazardous waste materials cannot be accepted. Questions? Email FriendsofLSSoftball@gmail.com. 

Mushroom-growing seminar offered

Want to learn how to grow mushrooms? The Lincoln Agricultural Commission is sponsoring a seminar on the cultivation of edible mushrooms on Thursday, April 4 at 7 p.m. in Bemis Hall, Lincoln. Elizabeth Almeida, owner of Fat Moon Farm, will discuss small-scale commercial mushroom farming of a variety of fungi species. Her presentation will be followed by a workshop led by Lincoln’s Louise Bergeron demonstrating techniques for growing shiitake mushrooms in inoculated wood logs in your backyard.  

Screening of “Lucky” coming up

The Lincoln Library Film Society will screen “Lucky” (2017, not rated) on Thursday, April 4 at 6 p.m. in the library’s Tarbell Room. Directed by John Carroll Lynch and starring Harry Dean Stanton, David Lynch, Ron Livingston, Ed Begley Jr., and Tom Skerritt, the movie follows the spiritual journey of a 90-year-old atheist, and the quirky characters that inhabit his off-the-map desert town. Free and open to all.

Help tidy up Battle Road Trail

On Saturday, April 6, join fellow volunteers for Park Day 2019 at Minute Man National Historical Park and assist with landscape rehabilitation along the Battle Road Trail. Activities include removing invasive plants, raking leaves, and improving trails to prepare for commemorative tactical demonstrations and reenactments. The day will start at 9 a.m. in the Minute Man Visitor Center (3113 Marrett Rd., Lexington). The park will provide tools, safety gear, and a free T-shirt for the first 100 registrants, and refreshments, as well as an overview of the site’s history.

DeCordova prepares for 2019 Biennial opening

One of the pieces that will be featured in the deCordova Biennial: Eva Lundsager, “Invitation 29” (2018). Photo by Clements Photography and Design.

The deCordova and Museum building is temporarily closed as it installs deCordova New England Biennial 2019, which opens on April 5. The exhibition will feature works of art and newly commissioned installations by 23 New England-based artists, showcasing the dynamism, variety, and quality of art making in the region.

Featuring work across diverse media including painting, sculpture, video, photography, fiber art, and ceramics, the Biennial will occupy all galleries of the museum and extend into the Sculpture Park with new site-specific commissions. It will be on view through September 15, 2019. An accompanying publication and a full slate of public programming and performances will enrich the show’s presentation.

The 2019 deCordova Biennial artists are Mildred Beltré, William Binnie, Bradley Borthwick, Jenny Brillhart, Eli Brown, Carl D’Alvia, Anoka Faruqee and David Driscoll, Ken Grimes, Yoav Horesh, Erin Johnson, George Longfish, Eva Lundsager, Jonathan Mess, Zoe Pettijohn Schade, Jordan Seaberry, Alexandria Smith, Sheida Soleimani, Emilie Stark-Menneg, Chanel Thervil, Stephen Tourlentes, Elizabeth Tubergen, and Bhakti Ziek.

Exhibition organizers are Sarah Montross, curator; Sam Adams, Koch curatorial fellow; Elizabeth Upenieks, curatorial assistant; Martina Tanga, former Koch curatorial fellow; and Scout Hutchinson, former curatorial assistant. 

While the museum building is closed, the deCordova is offering half-price admission to the Sculpture Park. The museum will reopen April 5 when the Biennial goes on view to the public, but the Cafe and Store will be open daily with normal hours during this time.

Obituaries

Theresa Panetta

Jennie Ciraso, 95 (February 24) — click here for obituary.

Richard Norcross Close, 95 (February 23) — click here for obituary.

Theresa Panetta (February 21) — click here for obituary.

Richard Johnson, 81 (January 31) — click here for obituary.

John Lee, 79 (January 29) — click here for obituary.

Richard Johnson

John Lee

Play highlights Lincoln woman’s role in American Revolution

Palmer Faran holds a copy of “Heroine of the Battle Road.”

A newly digitized short play, available royalty-free on a town website, dramatizes the little-known role of Lincoln’s Mary Hartwell in the dramatic events that began the American Revolution.

The idea for the play, Heroine of the Battle Road, came about “because I’ve always been interested in the lives of ordinary people caught up in the events of history—those who fell through the cracks. Ordinary people were an important part of that,” said author and Lincoln resident Palmer Faran.

Mary Hartwell was the wife of Samuel Hartwell, a farmer and a Lincoln Minute Man. On the evening of April 18, 1775, she played a crucial role in passing the word about the British troops marching from Boston. Fast-forward to the early 1990s, when Mary Ann Hales suggested to her friend Faran, a veteran of Houghton Mifflin and American Heritage, that she write something about Mary.

After doing some research with the help of Lincoln town historian Jack MacLean, Faran realized there wasn’t enough material for a biography of Hartwell, so she wrote the story as a short play that could be read and performed in schools. Hales — a librarian and the owner of the Cottage Press in Lincoln — published Heroine of the Battle Road as  paperback in 1995. The play was carried by the Minute National Historical Park and by several stores in Concord and Lincoln.

The cover of “Heroine of the Battle Road.”

In 1996, the play was performed at the Lincoln School, “and it was very much a successful community effort,” Faran said. Eventually the book went out of print, and work began on making it available to a larger audience via an online version. Jim Cunningham (like Faran, a Lincoln Historical Society board member, scanned illustrations and formatted the book (retyped by Celina Zanjewski) for the LHS website.

On Patriots’ Day in April, people will once again recall how Paul Revere was captured in Lincoln — but they can also learn how Mary Hartwell was a crucial link in the chain, warning Lincoln Minute Men Captain William Smith about the advancing British as her husband rode off to prepare for the coming fight.

As Mary Hartwell’s grandson George proudly notes in Heroine of the Battle Road, “The Lincoln Minute Men were the first to arrive at Concord and the North Bridge. That was because of Grandma.”

Clarification

An item about a March 19 book talk and signing with author Amy Bass in the March 6 News Acorns was unclear about admission coat for the event. The event is free and open to all, but a $15 donation is suggested to go toward Birches School financial aid fund. Copies of her book, One Goal: A Coach, A Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together, are $10 when purchased online until March 18 at www.birchesschool.org and will be sold for $15 at the event. The original Acorn and calendar listing have been corrected. Click here for more information.

I heart birds (Lincoln Through the Lens)

A bluebird seems to keep watch while some goldfinches grab a bite. Photo by Tricia Deck.

Readers may submit photos for consideration for Lincoln Through the Lens by emailing them to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. If your photo is published, you’ll receive credit in the Squirrel. Photos must be taken in Lincoln and include the date, location, and names of any people who are identifiable in the photo. Previously published photos can be viewed on the Lincoln Through the Lens page of the Lincoln Squirrel.

Letter to the editor: concerns about leaf blower proposal

To the editor:

I offer three of my own concerns about the leaf blower bylaw proposal for your consideration. If you share my concerns, I hope you will vote against this bylaw, regardless of its form or substance, at the Town Meeting.

  • This will cost you money. By definition, this will limit the pool of contractors you can hire from, severely limiting your ability to price shop those services. It’s hard enough to find cost-effective landscaping services here in town; can you imagine how much it’s going to cost when you need to hire one of the handful of “specialty contractors” who only use battery-powered equipment?
  • Not all gas leaf blowers are the same. There are portable ones, powerful push models, and older guzzlers. The largest ones sound like a snow blower or a lawn mower (four-cycle)… are we only limiting the small (two-cycle) ones? If we limit the larger ones, shouldn’t we also limit lawnmower use and snow blower use? What about smaller wood chippers? And larger wood chippers? What about blowers used for tick and mosquito spraying (basically leaf blowers with a tank on the back). Are those restricted? They aren’t technically leaf blowers, but the apparatus is essentially identical. My point is very simple: this rapidly becomes problematic in some pretty obvious ways.
  • Is this a good use of our time? Do we really want the town involved in restricting things like this? It’s a slippery slope. Especially in a town with large lots and large attendant maintenance requirements, we are setting a scary precedent. I personally feel there are many more pressing issues we can attend to.

Sincerely,

Seth Rosen
53 Bedford Rd., Lincoln

Letters to the editor must be signed with the writer’s name and street address and sent via email to lincolnsquirrelnews@gmail.com. Letters will be edited for punctuation, spelling, style, etc., and will be published at the discretion of the editor. Letters containing personal attacks, errors of fact or other inappropriate material will not be published.

Town holds forum on actions regarding climate change

There will be a community forum on “Preparing for Climate Change in Lincoln” on Monday, April 1 from 7–8:30 p.m. in the Town Office Building.

The forum will present the results of a Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness workshop that was held on February 25 by the town of Lincoln with the assistance of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council. The workshop brought together town board and committee members, municipal staff, local businesses, and nonprofit organizations to identify how Lincoln may be vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, as well as the town’s strengths and actions it could take to increase its resilience.

Residents, businesses, and civic organizations are invited to attend and provide their input as part of this ongoing effort to plan for Lincoln’s future. For more information contact Jennifer Burney, Director of Planning and Land Use at 781-259-2610 ext. 8124 or burneyj@lincolntown.org.