We actually saw the sun today, but it didn't warm up much.  There was that cold, icy wind, too, but not much snow to deal with - just cold and ice.  This will go down as the winter of huge temperature swings, I guess.  There have been some serious consequences of the severe weather.  On one hand, there have been more fires of one sort or another, and then there are the frozen water pipes and septic systems, and of course the hazardous road conditions.  Now we're told some towns are running out of sand and salt already, and we've hardly begun winter weather.

We had dinner with Bill and Diane Rossi last night - Diane always very kindly remembers birthdays, this time Fred's, and we had a lovely time.  In the course of conversation, we talked about schools no longer teaching students to write - that is, everyone prints.  The cursive writing most of us learned in school is considered obsolete and unnecessary because students use computers - everything is printed.  I have run into this problem recently when a youngster looked blankly at one of our carefully preserved documents at the Cabot Historical Society.  At the time I thought the difficulty was due to the spelling being slightly "off" on some of the words, and an "f" appears in place of "s" in the really old documents, whether printed or written in cursive.  However, later I spoke with a young school teacher who confessed she "never learned cursive."  I'm seeing more articles bemoaning the fact cursive, or script, is no longer taught in schools; and rebuttals proclaiming cursive is dead, unnecessary in this computer age, no longer needed.

We pretty much decided these young people will miss a lot, being unable to read letters, documents or journals written in long hand.  The Constitution, the original copy of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, or any of the important hand-drafted documents that make up our history - let alone a note from their grandparents or, in most cases, even their parents.  Who is going to take the time to print everything out for them?  Of course, students today have at their fingertips all kinds of gadgets to transcribe, describe and provide whatever information they need, so they'll probably never miss what they don't know.  It's sad, though, and I truly hope this trend will reverse.  Otherwise, future generations will be unable to read any of the beautifully written documents that we've been so careful to preserve over the years.  Makes those efforts seem pretty useless, doesn't it?

Then today I received an e-mail from a friend who had recently received a note from one of the ladies at the Open Door in Danville - and guess what?  It was written in beautiful cursive.  My friend didn't know who actually wrote it, but she said she'd like to express her thanks - seeing that lovely writing made her day.

I've been scanning photos for our West Danville History Project today.  Monday Jane Larrabee brought us a family album with lots of old pictures in it - and I mean lots of them.  213, to be exact.  I finished scanning them tonight.  Of course, not all of them are appropriate for our project, but we have yet to make choices, and I'm sure Jane will enjoy having digital copies of the photos in that old album.  We will be collecting more photos and information, of course, and would love to hear from anyone who remembers things like going to school in W. Danville, the railroad station, when the road was paved, the new bridge put in, changes in town, characters, events - whatever.  Any recollections may be just what we're looking for, so get in touch with Jane Larrabee, Dot Larrabee, Patty Conley, or me.  We plan to meet at the Danville Historical Society building on the first Monday of every month, and we'd welcome your information, or your presence, if you have the inclination.  We'd love to hear your stories.