Here’s some old news from the Andover, East Andover, West Andover, Potter Place, and Cilleyville “gossip” columns of the Franklin Journal Transcript, selected by Heather Makechnie.
April 4, 1963
Miss Betty-Jean Basset has been inspired by the great work of Leonardo da Vinci, his painting The Last Supper, to paint that now-famous subject herself. She presented her idea to the annual meeting of the members of the East Andover Congregational Church and received their wholehearted approval to go ahead and paint the picture on the rear wall of the meetinghouse.
The just-finished painting, which is 8′ by 16′, was unveiled at a special service of public worship on Maunday Thursday, just in time for Easter.
Ole Erickson of Brooklyn, New York and East Andover, accidentally shot himself while working on the magazine of his automatic pistol in his home on Tucker Mountain Road. Mr. Erickson was reported in good condition at the Franklin Hospital over the weekend.
April 11, 1963
Beginning next fall, high school students in Andover will be sent to either Franklin or New London high school on a tuition basis. That decision was made Tuesday night when residents of Andover voted by almost a two-to-one majority to discontinue the operation of Andover High School and to send its students to Franklin or New London.
Parents of the approximately 60 high school students will have to choose the high school, either Franklin or New London, that their children will attend, while the Andover School Board will have to decide if transportation is to be furnished to Franklin only, to New London only, or to both.
David Henderson has been discharged from the service and arrived home this week. David has been in service for five years. Welcome home, David.
On Friday, March 29 some students of the chemistry class attended a lecture on relativity at Dartmouth College. Those who attended were Mary Bentley, Nancy Stevens, Marsha Kimball, Albion Guptill, James Hershey, and Rufus Stacy, accompanied by Mr. Bates and Mr. Sanders of the faculty.
Charles Sargent has taken the position of clerk at the post office in New London. Mrs. John Rivers has taken his place in the Andover Post Office until a new clerk is employed.
Scotty Jeffie and Chuck Scott, sons of Mr. and Mrs. Wallace Scott, and Dottie Rowell, will appear on the Uncle Gus TV show on April 19.
April 18, 1963
Comes a note this week from the Selectmen of the Town of Andover: In the very near future, the Andover town dump on the Plains will be operated on a restricted basis, and its use will be limited to those hours when the popular “sanitation engineer,” Gerald Smith, will be on duty to receive contributions and to oversee their proper disposal.
The gate will be open on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday from 9 to 5 and also on Sunday from 1 to 5 as a further convenience to those who are gainfully employed during the week and also for the weekend summer residents.
A second restriction will limit the use of the dump to residents of Andover only. Ever since the neighboring towns have seen fit to keep their own public dumps open only on certain days and certain hours, their residents have been more than generous in patronizing the conveniently open Andover Plains dump whenever fancy strikes them. If this dump were a savings bank, the daily and nightly deposits would make Andover a comparatively wealthy town. Unfortunately, this is not so, and some careful checking would seem to indicate that Andover is running instead a free rubbish disposal plant for the whole surrounding area.
There are contributors from Danbury, Wilmot, Salisbury, yes, and even from the city of Franklin who are generously donating their largess by night and by day, often by the truck load, for Andover to burn, bulldoze, bury, and otherwise dispose of at considerable expense.
It is nice to know that our neighbors regard Andover folks as friendly and accommodating people, willing to help them out by taking care of their refuse free of charge. But those same friendly people are beginning to wonder if their good-nature and generosity is not being imposed upon. Cold, hard fact indicates that about one half of the total material left at the dump originates out of town; that our good-neighbor policy seems to have become a one-way street; and that the time has come to make some changes.
Call us mean, unfriendly, discriminating, or what you will, from this time henceforth the Andover Plains dump will be for Andover people only.
To comply with the new regulations of the state Forestry department on fire safety, there will be a fence and a gate across the entrance road. When that gate is closed after visiting hours, there must be no dumping over it, under it, in front of it, or elsewhere in the vicinity.
Congratulations go to Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Cloutier on the Flaghole road on the birth of a daughter, Jacklin Ann, weighing 6 lbs. 11 oz. at the Franklin Hospital on April 12.
The ice went out on Highland Lake on Wednesday, April 17.
A special meeting of the church was held after church services last Sunday, and the name for the church will be officially the Andover Congregational Church.
Lee and Nancy Stevens, Donna Fortune, Wanda Prescott, Sandra Harding, Barbara and David Jewett, Barbara Jean Klotz, Rufus Stacey, and Sharon Prince, accompanied by Mrs. Lee Locke, left Sunday morning by chartered bus to Washington, DC for a week to the New Hampshire Council of World Affairs. The group has an appointment with Congressman James Cleveland.