David Feoli, Abigail Warren, Bentley Poulin, George Nieves, John Warren, Cody Provost, and Colby Jones enjoyed examining Road Agent John Thompson’s excavator during Andover Libraries’ 2016 Library Camp. The kids (plus Patch Armstrong, who was not in the photo) spent a week learning about many different businesses in Andover. Photo: Charlie Darling
Boy, did we have fun, and I mean boy! With six boys and one imported granddaughter, we ran around the town trying to discover how businesses operated in Andover.
Our active group convened each morning at the Andover Public Library for stories, games, and questions, all of which we employed, for example, at Ragged Mountain Physical Therapy and Lake Sunapee Bank. Diane Fowler of Ragged Mountain Physical Therapy kept us busy with exercise equipment for healthy bodies, while Amy Dillon at Lake Sunapee Bank exercised our money brains with a loan example: how to buy a motorcycle with help from the bank.
After playing with the logistics of “Backgammon” and “Traffic Jam,” we were primed for Brian Reynolds and his cool facts about computers. Did you know that Google stopped producing its Google Glasses after concerns arose about the ease of hacking, and that the small memory card in my old laptop is the size of the latest computer?
Next we did the rented Town excavator, the ultimate in kid fun. Road Agent Tiny Thompson, after safely stowing away the key, explained everything except how to get the grease out of clothes that have crawled over every inch of the machine. Boy, was that ever fun!
The train tracks we rebuilt each day on the library floor prompted questions about train service from Boston, since the town now has to go farther afield for replacement parts for all the road machines.
We made it to Friday, when Librarian Priscilla Poulin handed out pencils, journals, and free books for all. Mary Lloyd-Evans, proprietor (with her husband Peter Zak) of Highland Lake Apple Farm, read aloud from her book about Willy the cat, who actually acts as the farm’s accountant. Mackenzie Donovan brought in her sniffer dog, Rue, who demonstrated the marvelous nose of a German Shepard trained to locate plant and pest scents.
We were discovering so much about jobs in Andover, but the week wasn’t over yet. Kurt Weber, veterinarian, horse dentist, and horse chiropractor, appeared with his assistant, Danielle Ladd, and the very mellow Black Lab, Cricket. We learned about horses’ teeth, zebra skulls, ear infections, and the familiar lub-dub heard through a stethoscope.
Unfortunately, Cricket wasn’t available for our trip to Naughty Nellies, where Dennis brought us behind the counter to view and soon taste the many wonderful flavors of Richardsons’ homemade ice cream. And a good time was had by all; yum yum!
Thank you, Caroline Moulton and Priscilla Poulin for your assistance and energy and patience in running this program. The book describing the camp adventures will be available in the library later in the summer.