Issues → July/August 2009 → Features →
Old Home Days: A New England Tradition
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But to be honest, in the throng of people crowding the common and the village square, I recognized only a small percentage of the faces, and almost none, like me, who had returned to visit. Walpole, like so many towns in New England, has reversed the emptying out that threatened their existence a century ago. What threatens the town's wholesomeness today is growth: not too many cellar holes, but too many houses.
Most of those attending Old Home Days were residents new to the town. Most of them commute to jobs somewhere else. The celebration is intended to bring them together. Chuck Bingaman, who co-chaired the publicity committee with his wife, Sue, moved to Walpole six years ago from Illinois. He told me that working on the Old Home Days celebration has allowed him to get to know all kinds of people around town, folks with whom he likely wouldn't have interacted otherwise. The work has given him a powerful, geographical sense of community, not just the selective community of like-minded friends and acquaintances he'd found in the various places he'd lived. It has given him the old-fashioned feeling of being home. He's not planning to move again.
Ironically, Old Home Days still serves its original purpose, but from an opposite direction. Its power of nostalgia and connection no longer entices former residents to return, but current ones to stay.
An Old Home Days Summer Sampling
CONNECTICUT
July 9-11
East Hampton Old Home Days, 860-267-8533; easthamptonoldhomedays.org
September 19
Canterbury Old Home Day, 860-546-9377; canterburyhistorical.org
MAINE
July 10-12
Harrison Old Home Days, 207-892-8265; sebagolakeschamber.com
July 31-August 9
Calais Homecoming, 207-454-2308; visitstcroixvalley.com
August 16-23
Phillips Old Home Days, 207-864-5364; rangeleymaine.com
MASSACHUSETTS
July 31-August 9
Beverly Homecoming, 978-232-9559; beverlyhomecoming.com
August 7-9
Scituate Heritage Days, 508-747-0100; seeplymouth.com
September 25-27
Lee Founders Weekend, 413-243-0852; leechamber.org
NEW HAMPSHIRE
July 4
Franconia Old Home Day, 603-823-5661; franconianotch.org
August 15
Pittsburg Old Home Day, 603-237-8939, 603-538-6536; northcountrychamber.org
August 15
Hancock Old Home Day, 603-525-9379; hancocknh.org/hhs/index.htm
RHODE ISLAND
July 4
Scituate Old Home Day, 401-647-3366; scituateri.org
July 24-26
Foster Old Home Day, 401-397-5687; fosterpreservationsociety.org
VERMONT
July 31-August 2
Rockingham Old Home Days, 802-463-4280; gfrcc.org
August 1
Plymouth Old Home Day, 802-228-5830, 802-672-3773; yourplaceinvermont.com, historicvermont.org/coolidge
For additional Old Home Day events, go to: Old Home Days 2009
Reader Comments
Comment from Kathy Bass on August 12, 2009
LOVED this article! We've been traveling from Texas to New England for the fall foliage for 24 years, and New Hampshire is by far our favorite NE state! If we could live anywhere but Galveston Island, TX, it would be somewhere in New Hampshire!!! We love the Kanc area and the Lakes area and everything about NH. We have monthly block parties in the East End Historical District where we live and this article reminds me very much of our events. We also have weekly band concerts in the park pavillion and it is a "Norman Rockwell" event, much like the one in this article. I love the way this takes you back to the simpler, family oriented days. Keep up the good work, YANKEE Magazine...we've been a subscriber since our first trip to NE in 1985! We can't wait for the next issue to arrive and can't wait until our next trip to NE. THANK YOU for sharing this wonderful part of the US with us.
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