HOULTON, Maine — The Houlton Rotary Club met for its luncheon meeting on Monday, Jan. 22, with four guests attending. Allison Gooding was a guest of Rotarian Matthew Nightingale. Richard Ford was a guest of Rotarian Chris Carmichael. Jane York and Sharyn Walker were guests of Rotarian Meg York.
Gooding thanked the club for its donation of $1,000 for the Healthy Houlton organization under Maine Health Access Foundation. The umbrella organization is Aroostook County Action Program.
The largest health issue facing Houlton is the obesity in children. Partnering with Adopt a Block, Healthy Houlton will provide cooking classes with families whose children have weight control issues. This request for cooking classes came from a parent who suggested the idea of healthy cooking education. This idea couples with the concept of families sitting down and eating together. Having meals together as opposed to snacking all day not only builds healthy eating habits to prevent obesity but also builds healthier communities.
Walker thanked the Rotary club for its donation to the Hodgdon Middle-High School drama productions. Walker spoke about the benefit of art and drama education in low socioeconomic communities. It has been proven that immersion in the arts increases student performance in the classroom as confidence is built.
Last year SAD 70 supported a drama production with a zero budget. SAD 29 loaned costumes, props and scripts. Walker credited Kevin Mania with his generous support. Walker accepted the $3,000 check from the Houlton Rotary Club that will be used to purchase stage microphones for the students. This year’s production will be “The Lion King” on April 6 and 7.
The guest speaker of the meeting was Rotarian Max Lynds. Lynds shared his slideshow entitled “Your Trash My Treasures” also called “Junk He Collects”.
From the age of seven, Lynds has been collecting rare and interesting artifacts mostly from Aroostook County and its history. He began with a penny from his grandmother dated 1908. Lynds shared slide pictures of some of his coins that he collects by type. He showed a Liberty Dollar from 1799 made from a silver spoon owned by Martha Washington
Lynds showed images of “rip off” dollars from the New England Bank in Fairmont, Maine as well as real notes from the First National Bank of Houlton. He showed an 1882 $5 dollar note from a first charter.
From a third charter he shared a 1902 dollar bill with the serial number one. Those dollar bills were larger than today’s bills.
Something else that Lynds collects is paper such as letters. Frequenting collector’s shows in places like Augusta has led Lynds to rare finds. A letter from Abraham Pearce of Houlton addressed to Samuel Putnam was a such a purchase as well as a letter written by Joseph Houlton complaining of a sickness that turned out to be “gold fever” on Houlton’s way to California in 1850.
Sending letters is an intriguing topic since before the pony express there were other ways to send mail. There were no envelopes originally but letters were folded over and sealed with wax and a stamp.
There was a business called the Vidette express and Lynds showed its postmark on one letter. A postmaster would mark on a letter the cost of sending and the stage coach would add a cent for the driver. For example, on June 25, 1826 a letter cost 13 and one half cents allowing 12 and one half cents for the post office and one cent for the stagecoach driver. Lynds’s most valuable possession he showed is a one hundred trillion dollar bill from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Asked its value, Lynds responded “about one dollar.”
