You're invited to a party!  Mark your calendar on July 15the at 1 p.m.  That's when the tiny library in West Danville will be opened to the public again for the first time since being renovated and updated.  Pam Hebert tells me they hope to have media there and perhaps Representative Kitty Toll and her sister, Senator Jane Kitchell - and who know who else might show up!?   There will be light refreshments and media.  Sounds like it will be a great party.
After the opening on the 15th of July, they hope to be open afternoons throughout the rest of the summer.  Pam said community support has been wonderful, and friends of the library from way beyond the immediate community have extended support.

The committee gathered so many raffle items, they've decided to continue selling tickets through the end of the summer.  The library itself is so small, they are thinking they'll use the pavilion at the beach when finalizing all the raffle winnings.

Pam also wrote of discoveries found as they were cleaning out the little building.  As we have previously told you, the building was one of West Danville's first gas stations.  Pam said there is a frosted glass window in the back, a door that has been boarded up, and holes in the floor (for plumbing, no doubt), all evidence of it's former life close to 100 years ago.

The little gas station was located at the end of the bridge, on the little triangel of land where Route 2 and Route 15 meet and where the town landing is today.  This photo, taken perhaps in the 1940s, shows the back of the little white building, far left, when it was a gas station.

Changing to a more recent event - today our oldest granddaughter, JoAnn, graduated from White Mountain School.  We were all there - grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends.  I can't begin to describe how cold it was over there in the mountains in that tent!  I'm sure it was in the low 40s and there was occasional wind and rain showers.  There were some side curtains, but really only one side - mostly it was open, and even though there were mounds of blankets available and the place was packed by the time the ceremony began, no amount of body heat could make it comfortable in there.  I felt sorry for the graduates, especially the girls in their lovely white dresses - most with short sleeves and bare legs.  They all looked lovely, but I know they had to be freezing.  We had dressed warmly, but even with fleece,  long pants and a blanket over our knees, we were still numb by the time the diplomas were handed out.  Do you know how painful it is to clap your hands when your fingers are so cold you think your fingers are going to drop off?  
 All that aside, we wouldn't have missed it.  This is our group - Tangeni is in lower front next to me with my back to camea, then Theresa in black and Bob just beyond and friends Debbie and Doug; then in next row behind me, Jamie, Marie, Monika and Bill.  Fred was taking the picture.  The next picture shows the graduates marching across the campus to the tent.  I don't know if they were already feeling the chill of the weather; being young and excited about having reached such an important milestone, I expedt they were mostly oblivious to the weather.  There were 28 in the class and girls outnumbered the boys almost 2 to 1.  Jo-Ann is in the middle of the picture wearing a knee-length dress and walking with a girl in a long dress.

Here, Jo-Ann received her diploma; below, classmate and friend, Edner Oloo from Kenya receives hers.  Edner will spend the summer with JoAnn and her family in Waterford.  It isn't possible for her to go home to Kenya, and she will be entering college in the fall, so she will be part of our family for the summer.  We love her - she spent Christmas with us this year. 

After we got inside and warmed up a little, we got lots of pictures of everyone with everyone, but I particularly liked this one of Monika, Jo-Ann, Tangeni and Bill - this was after the tears and emotional "goodbyes" JoAnn shared with her classmates.  

From here we went upstairs to the dining hall and had lunch - relaxed a bit in the warmth, and chatted.  Tangeni is very at home at the school, having spent lots of time there with her sister at family dinners and other events, so she is looking forward to going to high school there in a few years.  She will "graduate" from kindergarten this year, so in what will seem like the blink of an eye, we'll be attending another graduation at White Mountain School, God willing - I just hope the weather is warmer then . . . !

For now, we're going to enjoy both JoAnn and Edner this summer, and of course our other little graduate, Tangeni, who is looking forward to being in first grade.  As our friend, Debbie said today, "Seems like she was just born!"   We feel the same way about JoAnn - it seems like only a year or two ago we were meeting her for the first time when she arrived from Namibia, a bright, energetic 10 year old - our first granddaughter!  Time sure does slip by quickly - except when you're chilled to the bone like today; then every minute is an eternity.