Efficiency Maine is coming to Caribou! This is a wonderful opportunity for small business owners to get an assessment of their lighting needs and upgrade to energy efficient and cost savings on such lighting with incentives to cover 75 percent or more of the costs of doing so. Efficiency Maine rotates to different communities each year and three Aroostook County cities and towns have been chosen: Caribou, Fort Kent and Madawaska.
Carlisle Electric has been contracted by Efficiency Maine to perform a lighting assessment of your business and help you through the process of signing on with the program to make the switch to something more efficient and therefore, less costly. You can call Carlisle or call Efficiency Maine directly at
1-866-376-2463.
Also, the Caribou Area Chamber of Commerce and Efficiency Maine will be sponsoring an information meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 10 from 5 to 7 p.m. Being a good steward of our resources and saving money while we do so is a win-win.
We had a spectacular last Thursdays on Sweden last week and the crowds were incredible. French Toast is an amazing band and the crowd stayed strong right up until nine o’clock. What an amazing feeling to see such a wonderful event happen right downtown in Caribou. I can’t wait until next summer!
Interest is very high in the Caribou Fall Arts & Crafts Festival with calls coming in daily from artists and crafters wanting to come to the show. The show’s reputation sells itself as it is one of the best in the state and has been for a long time. The October 25 and 26 event is very nearly booked up and only a couple of spaces are available in the cafeteria.
Costs associated with the show increase every year and the past two years, we have increased the price it costs vendors to come to the show. That is a burden on them and we would like to give them a break from increases. At the same time, as the Chamber is on its own now, every effort needs to be made to help us stay in business.
Our thought is to charge one solitary dollar per adult to attend the show. With each paid admission, the entrant will be registered for one of the hourly door prizes. So you can kind of consider it the cost of a raffle ticket.
I currently have a poll going on our Facebook page about the dollar to enter idea. This would be a good way to express your concern or your acceptance of such a plan. Golly, the cost of this newspaper you are reading is a dollar so it’s not like a lot of money we are talking about here.
Burger Boy updated its sign by the side of the road of their establishment that reflects the business’ new logo. It’s a nice addition. You can check it out August 31 when there will be an antique car show at Burger Boy. Those are always fantastic!
There are only a few days left for August’s Immunization Awareness Month and a few days to get a coupon for a free ice cream cone at Houlton Farms Dairy bar by calling Pines Health Center (492-3456) for information. It all ends August 29, so hurry!
Deb Goodwin grew up in Caribou and now lives and works in Westbrook. A cherished item that was passed down in her family from her grandmother was a 1909 cookbook put together by the Ladies Aid Society of the Universalist Church. Deb will not have anyone to pass the book on to and wanted it to come home to Caribou. I received it more than a week ago.
The book is quite the collection of recipes with additions from Deb’s family written long hand on blank pages. But it is also a time capsule of sorts with advertisers from Caribou businesses at the time the book was published in 1909. During the next couple of weeks, I am going to share some of those businesses.
The Garden family came from the York area of New Brunswick in the late 1800s. The patriarch was Charles E. Garden who was born in 1829 and died in Caribou in 1910. Charles and two of his sons had businesses in Caribou in 1909. There is a great picture of the Garden Clothing Company on Sweden Street that was started by Charles and apparently later run by his son, Arthur Absolan Garden (b. 1866). The circa 1890 picture can be seen on the history section of the Caribou Public Library website.
Arthur, or A.A. Garden married Adelaide Libby and always was involved in business. He also sold fire insurance, which, by 1930, was his primary occupation.
Another son, John G. Garden, who was younger than Arthur, married Bertha Brown and his ad is in the cookbook as running J.G. Garden & Company, a grocery store. A year after the 1909 publication of the cookbook, John and Bertha Garden moved to the state of Washington where after a brief farming enterprise, continued in business there for many years.
Charles and John Garden lived on Collins Street and Arthur on High Street. Arthur stayed in Caribou until his death in 1957 after a good, long life. A brief search of the Internet and in the phone books does not show any persons by the name “Garden” in Aroostook County. Arthur and Adelaide had one son, Arthur, and he moved to Queens, New York.
Have a good week!
Executive Director William Tasker may be reached in the CACC office at 498-6156 or email him at cacc@cariboumaine.net.
