Runaway Ladder and a Bean Hole Feast!

NOTICE: A wooden raft or dock ladder washed up on our beach at Sandy Cove. 1159 West Shore Rd. That is the Hamilton/Underwood cottage, not Ned and Carolyn's. 

While I'm here to post the above, I will also report on the Bean Hole Supper. Diane and I got there a little before 12:30, but the beans had been taken out of the bean hole early - for whatever reason. Perhaps they suspected they would be over-cooked if they left them until 12:30 - we just don't know. Lots of folks were disappointed. That said - it would be difficult to be disappointed in the quality or quantity of the food! Diane and I came away absolutely stuffed. 

There were perhaps five very large pots of beans, each made by a different cook, and each cook served their own beans. There were large beans, small beans, some dark and some lighter beans - all sweet and delicious. I lost track of how many salads there were, but the choice ranged large among potato salad or pasta salad. There was homemade bread, corn bread, and plenty of hotdogs, rolls and condiments. And blueberry cobbler if you had room. I had iced tea with mine, plus there was coffee and water available. The tables were filled with happy people and we were told they sold out of tickets. I'm sure they didn't run out of food! It was really quite a spread with tables and chairs set up under several canopies !

Diane and I saw a lot of Joe's Pond folks there, and I got to chat with several friends I hadn't seen in a while. Peggy Pearl was one - it's been a while since I've seen her, and I met Susan Tollman for the first time. Patty Conly was there - Patty is not only co-author with me of the West Danville history book, she is also director of the Danville Historical Society that sponsors the bean hole supper each year.

The weather was really perfect. The sun wasn't beating down on us, but it wasn't raining, either. Just a very warm, pleasant, cloudy afternoon - perfect for a meal by a country road, next to a brook where once stood a large wool processing mill in the middle of a thriving town. Now, just granite markers and a replica of the original covered bridge remain, along with some of the stonework from the mill foundation still evident by the brook. 

It crossed my mind several times while I was there that I was walking on land my great grandfather, John Bolton, once owned - where he built his small woolen mill. After his death, the Bolton mill was sold in 1849 to Benjamin Greenbanks who upgraded it to accommodate the increasing demand for wool processing and cloth.  The big five-story mill burned to the ground in 1885, along with much of the surrounding town. Greenbank moved his business to Enfield, New Hampshire, and within a short time, most of the remaining residents of Greenbank's Hollow had also left. The school, the last remnant of the little community, closed in 1912. The replica covered bridge is a reminder of how it used to be, when there was a bustling mill town beside Joe's Brook, in South Danville.