NH Secrets Legends and Lore Wayne D. King

Move Over Ed Abby, Sy Montgomery’s Newest Book Exercises her Story-telling Chops and Her Inner Philosopher in a Big Way.

“(To) Wait . . . an ironic verb, an action word, used to describe inaction. Derived from the French “to wake, to become alert to” To wait and to wake are not opposites but twins. We love NOW because it IS now. “Now” holds at once all of time in its fullness”  ~ Sy Montgomery, “Of Time and Turtles”

Turtles have been around since the time of the dinosaurs, more than 200 million years ago. Even then they may have been subject to the whims of “traffic” but they have, nonetheless, withstood the test of time.

To many Native American nations, from the Navajo of the southwestern US to the Abenaki and Iroquois in my own northeast lineage, North America’s indigenous people are tied to turtles. The continent itself is often referred to as Turtle Island based on various legends that Turtle delivered North America to earth upon its back. 

So you may presume, rightly, that I would eagerly anticipate this latest book by New Hampshire’s own Sy Montgomery. 

After having read, listened to, and reread Sy Montgomery’s newest book, “Of Time and Turtles - Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell,” I am thoroughly convinced that had she been born into the Iroquois Nation, a matrilinial society, she would have been seen as a mystic and given a fitting honorific, something akin to “Speaks with Turtles.”  
Of Time and Turtles - Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell
Written by Sy Montgomery, Illustrated by Matt Patterson

This year witnessed the passing of one icon of the early days of broadcasting, Marty Engstrom, whose residence in Fryeburg, Maine was but one place that he planted his flag but not the one for which he will be most remembered. That local was at 6,288 feet above sea level inside and outside of the Mount Washington Weather observatory atop New England's highest peak Mount Washington, known as Agiocochook by the Abenaki people.
The Smile that Charmed Northern New England
Marty Engstrom ended his weather forecast every night except his very first this way.
Though his nightly weather forecast from the top of Mount Washington was rarely more than one minute long, it was a minute that charmed the folks of the tri-state region to the extent that today, more than 20 years since his retirement, he is remembered with such fondness. Marty was, for all intents and purposes, our very first rock star. 

What began as a project to tell the story of Waterville Valley as the birthplace of Freestyle skiing quickly morped into Waterville Valley as a crucible of cultural vision and change. In the coming weeks we'll take you into the lives of JD Nelson and his friend Jack Sanders who took a young Wayne Wong, Floyd Wilkie and George Askevold under their wings to make sure that they were not taken advantage of as they began their journey to superstardom in the brand new world of Hotdog Skiing - soon to be called "Freestyle". 
You'll meet Frank Dubois, the first certified African American ski instructor in America, Jerry Dunfey who intersected with their lives from his perch at the Parker House Hotel in Boston and the slopes of Waterville. as well as John and Donni Hughes, Bernie Weichsel, Executive Director of the first professional Freestyle association The International Freestyle Skiers Association, and others. 
Through it all Tom Gross, trusted friend to Olympic superstar and Waterville Valley founder Tom Cochran, was often at the center of the media storm. He was there at the beginning, announced races and competitions all over the country, and hobnobbed with celebrities (He's the only person I know who actually got Bill Russell to autograph something for him.)
Whenever I would engage someone from Waterville Valley the conversation would invariably lead to Tom Gross who has forgotten more about Waterville Valley than the rest of us know.
He's a great storyteller on top of it all. 

David Watters laughs off the moniker of Renaissance man of the Senate but there's a lot of truth to it. A mutual friend wrote me with the following:
"David is an expert on all kinds of things: New England graveyards, the New England Primer, hornbooks of New England, clown history, Shaker history (particularly African American Shakers), African American history and literature, slavery in New Hampshire, New Hampshire African American history, Grace Metalious, Robert Frost, human rights (he was active in a local chapter of Amnesty International and I think headed that chapter) and more. He also is interested in Native American history and has sponsored legislation on behalf of Natives in this state." 
This podcast focuses on his work in the Senate but I suspect we will do a future podcast where we explore some of these other passions of this very interesting fellow.

Peter Powell has been in the Real Estate business in Lancaster NH for 50 years now and he's very well respected and talented at it. But ask him what he lives for and he will begin to spin stories of family, New Hampshire, and his community, both local and in the broader sense NH and the US, long before he gets to his business career.
I think it's that focus on community that allows Peter to have been the choice of both Republican and Democratic leaders in the US and in NH as a leader they can count on to build bridges. . . and if there is anything we need desperately these days its a restoration of a sense of community. From his heartfelt call to the legendary US Senate Republican Leader Mark Hatfield at one of the most trying points of his life to simply say, I'm proud of you. Keep on." To the moment that Democratic candidate for President Fritz Hollings poked his head into a latenight bull session at a local store in Lancaster and asked "Anyone here know Peter Powell? Tell him Fritz Hollings says hello!" There followed appointments to prestigious state panels in the humanities, the Trust for NH Lands, The NH Charitable Fund and so many other state honors that it would take too much time to mention.
Peter spent a few years working in Washington after college, working for Norris Cotton and the Senate Commerce Committee as well as congressman Louis Wyman before deciding he wanted the country life and making the move to Lancaster. His father Wes Powell was governor of NH for two terms and of course that invites hundreds of stories into the conversation so we are going to schedule another podcast in a month or two so we can get in a few more of those. Wes was from the rough and tumble area of Puddledock in Portsmouth which seems to play prominently into many of those stories.

SAVE THE DATE: THURSDAY, JANUARY 18, 2024

IN THE RAMP-UP TO THE 2024 NEW HAMPSHIRE PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY, STUDENTS AND PUBLIC FIGURES WILL EXPLORE POLICIES AND SOLUTIONS FOR BUILDING A ROBUST AND RESILIENT CLIMATE ECONOMY WHILE HIGHLIGHTING THE IMPORTANCE OF CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND VOTING