Tag Archives: freedom

This is 68!

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Sunday, July 26, 2026

Well, I’m not sure I believe that I’ve had another birthday! I was talking to my aunt today and she said that she’s 83 and I’m 68? How the heck did that happen? Neither one of us should be that old. And we sure don’t feel this old! Regardless, I had a most remarkable, memorable birthday! My daughter asked me to do an errand for her and pick up something she had made by an artist in Freedom, Maine. When I was thinking about going to pick it up (we’d agreed on Sunday morning) it occurred to me that we’d be close to the Lost Kitchen and had heard they were serving lunch on a “first come first served” basis. BUT they were closed on Sunday so we reached out to the artist and switched it to Saturday morning and figured we’d head to TLK after that. And we did.

The bridge to The Lost Kitchen, Freedom, Maine

We were 15th in line waiting for their 11am opening. Unsure about whether the dogs would be ok (they are) and what to expect about waiting because we read it could be a wait of up to 3 hours, we took our spot in line at 10:15-ish and forty-five minutes later, we were crossing the bridge.

They managed the line, which was longer behind us than ahead of us by 11am, efficiently and with care. Once across, we headed into the Little Lost Kitchen to order our food. We ordered one of each item on the list and tried their house-made drinks – unsweet iced tea, a fruit shrub and a lemonade. Everything was presented beautifully and everything was delicious. We seem to have neglected taking a photo of the vanilla custard dessert which was all of our favorite. We all shared all the dishes and we all had our favorites: the fried chicken was one as was the roasted vegetable focacia. The caesar salad (also un-photographed) was gorgeous and delicious. Overall it was an extraordinary experience. 10 out of 10. Highly recommend!

The Birthday Adventure Team

We went on to Liberty to visit Liberty Tool and Liberty Graphics, got iced cream at Johns and then headed home. Everything fell into place on my special day and I was so grateful that my son and his girlfriend and their dogs came all the way up to celebrate witThe h me. We had a Dairy Queen cake after the kids made “ramen” for dinner with all sorts of leftovers from the fridge. We are well-fed with full hearts, too.

I haven’t been knitting much! I’ve worked a few rounds on my Lochside socks and have taken several rounds back to correct mistakes that I made. Ha! Ha! The pattern is so simple but when I get involved in conversations … oops! I’ve got a few more inches on the foot and then I’ll knit the second sock. I’m not a huge fan of the yarn as it seems “fuzzy” and my needles are so pointy that it’s splitting a lot, too. So, it’s slow going but it’s moving along. Progress is being made.

I’ve gotten some time this afternoon to work on the Easy Folded Poncho, too. I’m getting close to the 50 inches of fabric and then it’ll be blocked and seamed and ready to wear when the weather starts to cool off. We’ve had some lovely cool nights that are perfect for sleeping! My body has been healing from my pneumonia “adventure” and I find I am sleeping more and even napping. I seldom nap.

Tomorrow I’m going to try to finish the front of my tabard and get the pieces blocked before they’re seamed. I will have to make the ties that hold the sides together, too, but that’s not big deal. Once that’s finished (I have only one side of the front shoulder to finish) I am going to cast on my Sabai Top. I have some black linen for my Sabai and I am planning to knit the ribbed neckline. I think it’ll be a great top to make and wear. In early September, I’ll measure my daughter and pick up her Levitate Wrap. I don’t want to knit further before I am sure it’s going to fit – frogging anything with mohair is a monster!

August is going to be a busy month for work, volunteering at school and my knitting life, too. So, for now I’m going to sign off … gone knitting!

About Decency

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I may have to admit to being old. I feel like I’m starting to sound like my parents or maybe it’s just that I am finding my voice at 60+. Regardless, there is something afoot on “my” lake that is aggravating my moral and ethical self and that is making me question the society that we live in in the good old US of A.

A Couple of Sunrises Ago …

I am on the board of trustees of a public charter school here in Maine and I have listened to educators and others say that our children are disrespectful and rude and have no manners and are selfish, etc. None of these are wrong but we, the adults, have to look at our own behavior as the examples that our youth follow and (maybe) look up to. Who are we? Who are we as an adult society? How do we behave? Are we respectful and polite? Do we set the example for our youth by behaving well, by saying “please” and “thank you”? Do we use our turn signals? Are we generous with our time and talents? Do we take our hats off inside? Do we watch our own language use?

This morning there is a large group of what appear to be adults (to be fair they’re over a mile away) who are out ice fishing on the lake. Ice fishing in Maine is a long-standing tradition, often a generational (family) event, that is a wonderful outside activity for adults and children. Lots of people I know take their kiddos fishing in the winter. In fact, I just found out that there are child-sized snowmobiles! How cool is that?!

While I was sitting at the table eating my breakfast, I thought I saw that they had a flag flying over the group so I got the binoculars out and had a look to see what clever flag some family had created. Boy, am I sorry I did. There was a “F#*@ Biden” flag, a big one, flying with a Trump sign. I have no problem with the latter flag. We get to support who we want to in this country. But the former flag, the one with the obscene word and the name of the president of these United States, that one I take offense to … strongly.

We need to do better. Children will see that sign today and ask their mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, “what does F@#* mean?” because children READ! If we ever wonder why our youth today has no idea what appropriate language is about, this is one of the reasons why. We need to bring back the respect of the office. You don’t have to like the president, but the office must be respected. Only by demonstrating good behavior can we teach it. I am disgusted by this group and I hope someone, a mom or dad or another adult, will ask this group to take the flag down. What are we teaching our children?

I went out and put my American flag up this morning with a sadness that I haven’t felt for awhile and with a pride that I often feel. We can do better. We must do better.

Gone knitting.

Memorial Day (and Every Day) Gratitude

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Boathouse ... Our Flag Flies Every Day

Ned painted the flag on the side of our boathouse several years ago. Some days we go about our business without so much as a glance. Days like today, however, I look at it and feel so grateful to my father and the other Veterans (and soldiers) who have fought and are fighting for our freedom.

My father fought on a battleship in World War II. He was a gunnery soldier and shared stories about living on the ship where they had a pet monkey and the men dressed in drag to perform plays for fun. Dad didn’t like monkeys (they were dirty) and he never ate another hotdog, having had them “up to here” during his service.

The captain of Dad’s ship was a “drunkard” and I have pages and pages in his handwriting of charges that dad would have filed against the man. We may never know if any of those charges of abuse, drunk and disorderly, etc. were officially filed or if my dad just wrote them down for himself. (He did become a lawyer, after all!) Somewhere I have a map of his tour of the South Pacific that he made and I’m sorry to have given away or sold his uniforms and the “treasures” that he brought back with him. Only now do I recognize their value. Family heirlooms today that I would be grateful to hold and preserve for my family.

Many of my Rockwell forebears were also soldiers. Bits and pieces of historical documents  are in my safe-keeping and one day I’ll get them scanned and shared in another blog. One a soldier in the Revolutionary War who was called to duty in the summer of 1776 … check this out! From the State of Connecticut 1907. I believe that Julia L. Rockwell was my grandfather’s sister or his mother making the soldier my great or great-great-grandfather … though I don’t have the genealogy to confirm that here! (I will confirm at a later date.)

What!? You can’t read the old handwriting?! 🙂 I had to work at it, but here is what I think it says:

Oct. 24,1907 

Dear Madam, 

Enclosed find corrected certificate. (a clerical error in former) Records at best are somewhat meagre, Troops were hastily summoned from the floors and the workshops and in this particular case company with, other was raised to serve “until the exigency was over” In summer of 1776. Washington was in need of a large force to meet the enemy’s threatened attack upon New York.

 Very Rightly, (?)

 William EF Landers

Adjutant General

Cool, yes?

Suffice it to say that I am proud to be American today – and every day. I am grateful to my family members who have answered the call. My father, my great- or great-great-grandfather (?), Bud King (who is the Grand Marshal of the Oakland, ME parade today … he’s the oldest living veteran in Oakland) and Bethany, Jordan, and all the rest who have served or are serving  … Thank you for your service!

Gone knitting!