By Patricia Barker

Bob Whitmore warned me, when I called for a collection date at Palermo on November 9, that I might be pushing my luck weather-wise. I agreed, but I was still thinking about all the lovely weather we had in 2001, right through and into December. Well, so much for wishful thinking!

On Tuesday night and into Wednesday we got 6 or 7 inches of snow. Wednesday we got one inch more. On brutally cold Thursday, I cancelled the field trips planned for the Presidential Club, The Saco Valley Club and the Friends of Quincy Bog in Rumney.

Friday I got a series of sad little calls from would-be field trippers telling me that on Saturday the temperature was supposed to be up in the 50 to 60 degree range. I called Bob, and he said he had heard the same weather report and had changed his mind and planned to be up at the mine. – So – I called the three trip leaders back, and somewhat nervously, reinstated the field trip. After all, I thought, there are only a small group of nine people who had expressed an interest.

Later on that evening Lori Chapelaine called and asked about directions – she would make #10. I said I would meet her at Plain Jane’s Diner at 8:45 a.m. Saturday morning I awoke to find it pretty cold with some snow left around my house and icy stretches on the road.

At Plain Jane’s I was waiting for Lori when suddenly Bill Lessard appeared – now there were 11. In rapid order Lori arrived, followed by Tanya and Dave Tellman and four other Presidential Club members – 12, 13, 14, 15. Jim Holmes arrived too. Gene Dunu was waiting in the parking lot – #16. The long caravan wound its way up to the Palermo gate. The gate was open, but eight inches of slush faced wimpy me.

After we abandoned Lori and Jim’s vehicles, they got into the flat bed of one of the trucks. At the meadow parking lot, Bill Lessard and I chickened out and left our cars there. I loaded all my gear, including coffee carafe, munchkins, and cookies into the Tellman’s truck where I immediately spilled coffee all over Dave’s front seat. (No good deed should go unpunished. Forgive me Tellmans!) The four wheel drive trucks went up smoothly.

Believing that Bob Whitmore was alone up there, I told the remaining vehicles to drive right up. To my astonishment there were already 5 vehicles up there! Bob ordered me to move the trucks at once. Oh dear! The Tellmans organized the retreat. After we unloaded our gear, the trucks were driven down to the lower dump parking lot. Apparently this was "mine equipment moving day," with four trucks and a flat bed waiting to take all the mine furnishings away for the winter.

The arrival of Slim Spafford and his delightful cousin, Eunice Zittum, restored Bob to good humor. Eunice, in her youth, had been a mica splitter, (called a "rifter") at the mica mill in Plymouth. She was such a pleasant visitor. She and her cousin, Slim are great fun. Bob will record her experiences at the mill.

Bob Whitmore brought out a zip-lock bag of minerals from Palermo that he had sent to China to be carved into animals, beads and laser pictures. These were greeted with delighted ooh’s and ah’s.

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