President Donald Trump is the oldest person ever elected to a first term as president. He was 70 years old when he was inaugurated (a year older than Ronald Reagan), is 72 years old today, and will be 74 on Election Day of 2020. Were he to win, he will be 78 years old when he leaves office.

Earlier this week, Gov. Janet Mills announced her intention to create a 10-year strategic economic development plan for the state. It’s a good idea -- if it doesn’t fall victim to politics and the great divide between rural and urban areas.

Those of us who winter over in the South get spoiled in a lot of ways. For one thing, we tend to take the sun for granted. Day after day that big bright orb comes up in the eastern sky in the morning and then drops below the western horizon late in the day.

The public is cordially invited to the Foxcroft Academy Spring Student Recital on Sunday, June 2 at 2 p.m. at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church (please note the new time).

Dear members of the Milo, Bowerbank and Sebec fire departments, we the members of the Three Rivers Kiwanis are sending this letter as a thank you and a well-earned pat on the back for the super job rescuing a racer in our annual Sebec River Canoe Race on May 18.

The Monson Public Library is gearing up for an exciting summer. The library will be changing its hours of operation starting Saturday, June 1. The new hours will be Tuesday 12:30–4:30 p.m., Thursday 2:30–6:30 p.m. and Saturday 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The library is located at the Monson Arts Center, 35 Greenville Road.

Chadbourne-Merrill American Legion Post 29 will be conducting a Memorial Day parade in Dover-Foxcroft at 10 a.m. on Monday, May 27.

Memorial Day, Decoration Day, all one in the same. Originally May 30, 1868, a day set aside by the Grand Army of the Republic to decorate the graves of Civil War dead.

Upcoming events around the region.

These days we seem to have never-ending election cycles. Do you know your ancestors’ political leanings? Genealogists may assume their family was always Republican or Democrat. This isn’t true. These parties came into being at the advent of the Civil War. Republicans favored the fight for the Union. Democrats, also known at the time as Copperheads, opposed the war. There were entire areas in Maine where Republican draft officers didn’t dare go.