Standish toddlers hike and learn

This fall, Standish Recreation created a new program for area toddlers and their parents named Tot Hike, designed to teach children ages 2-4 all about nature.

The group, which consists of no more than 20 toddlers and their parents, hikes and explores a different area each week. The hikes include hands-on activities, and the tots are encouraged to use their five senses along the trail.

The weekly hikes are led by Standish Recreation Programmer Brett Levin on Thursdays from 10-11 a.m. Those interested may sign up for one class or several. The cost is $4 per hike. The program is currently underway and runs until Nov. 8. For more information or to sign up your toddler, contact Levin at 642-2875.

Town business

Applications are now being accepted for two newly created seats on the Community Building Development and Planning Committee as well as for the newly created Open Space and Conservation Ad-Hoc Committee.

The Appointments Committee of the Standish Town Council continues to accept applications for Historic Resources Commission. At this time there is one vacancy for an alternate member for a two-year seat.

Story hour at Steep Falls Library

The preschool story hour is sponsored by the Steep Falls Library. This one-hour (10-11 a.m.) program includes a story, art project and snack and is free of charge. The library is located on Route 113 in Steep Falls Village. For more information contact the Steep Falls Library directly at 675-3132

Swim programs at St. Joe’s College

Through a partnership with Standish Recreation and St. Joseph’s College, residents can sign up for swim classes at the Alfond Center. There are multiple classes offered for babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Contact St. Joseph’s Aquatics Program at 893-6669 for specific class times and cost information.

Flag football anyone?

Standish Recreation Department staffers are interested in starting an adult flag football league. But before they do, they want to find out the community’s interest level to determine if a league is the way to go this first year, or if an every Saturday scheduled pick-up game is the way to start out in order to generate enough interest to start a league.

If you’re 18 years old or older and are interested in playing flag football send an e-mail to Brett Levin at fishteach@roadrunner.com or call him at 642-2875 and get your name on the list. To start a league, there would need to be at least four teams of seven people each. If there are not enough players for a league then this year will start out with an every-Saturday pick-up game at Standish Memorial Park.

Bonny Eagle community news

Jeff Mullin, guidance counselor at Bonny Eagle High School, will be running on Oct. 14 in the Mount Desert Island Marathon and he is looking for people to sponsor the run. All the money raised will be donated to the Bonny Eagle High School Aspirations Endowment, which will help students visit colleges, take college courses during high school, and fund scholarships for graduating seniors. All checks need to be made out to MSAD 6 and sent to: Jeff Mullin, Bonny Eagle High School, 700 Saco Rd., Standish, ME 04084.

The SAD 6 Board of School Directors has confirmed the appointment of Douglas Parker to serve as area assistant principal for the Standish schools. Parker has been employed by SAD 6 since 1989. His career has included experience as both an elementary and middle school teacher. He has served as head teacher at George E. Jack Elementary School since 1998.

The Scene

Friday

Don’t miss Bonny Eagle’s Varsity Homecoming Football game. The undefeated Scots take on the Noble Knights under the lights starting at 7 p.m.

Memory Lane Music Hall welcomes the Jenny Woodman Band. Doors open at 4p.m.

Saturday

Memory Lane Music Hall welcomes the Jenny Woodman Band. Doors open at 4p.m.

Heidi’s Take

The “Classics”

I don’t know about you, but everywhere I turn lately I seem to be hearing references to the “classics,” and how the classics have been renewed and intensified for the new generation. What? Classics are just that, classic. Slapping a “new and improved” label on them doesn’t make them classic; it makes them new, thereby defeating the entire meaning of the word classic.

I am not sure why this particular reference bothers me. Maybe it’s because I am getting older and changing what I have been accustomed to for 30 years sticks in my craw, or maybe it’s because I hate that advertising companies think the American public is stupid enough to believe that because the word classic is slapped on the side of a product it has to be good. Maybe I just feel comfortable with the familiar and don’t want to change my ways, whatever it is I just don’t like it. That being said here is a list of the classics that I feel just should not have been touched, altered, or improved.

1. Coca-Cola. Remember in the 1980s when they came out with “New Coke?” I do, it was terrible. A few years later when sales dropped dramatically, Coke reintroduced Coca-Cola Classic. Soda drinkers of all ages rushed to the stores to buy the original drink. Joke was on us, it was not the original. The Original Coke was made with sugar; Coca-Cola Classic is made with corn syrup. Not even close, people.

2. Crullers from Dunkin Donuts. Mmmm, crullers are an original Dunkin Donuts staple. A delicious treat made from donut batter but twisted into a long braided design twice as fun to eat as a boring old circle donut. These were discontinued in 2003 and replaced with the “stick.” Who wants to eat a stick? Bring back the Cruller!

3. The Pontiac GTO. Growing up, my dad had a 1966 candy apple red Pontiac GTO. The seats were black leather, and the dash was woodgrain. The entire engine was shiny chrome, and I felt like the coolest girl in town riding around in that beautiful machine. You couldn’t pay me to ride in the new GTO. Touted as a “modern interpretation of the classic,” the new GTO looks nothing like the muscle car of yesteryear and more like last year’s Pontiac Grand Am. The new GTO does offer a state-of-the-art surround sound system the original didn’t have, but then in the classic car all you really wanted to hear was the engine.

4. Movies. I hate it when they re-make classic movies. Why is this necessary? Is there so little imagination and talent in Hollywood now-a-days that movies need to be remade? The one that really bugs me is the 1998 remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.” The whole idea of that is ridiculous. Anne Heche can’t hold a candle to Vivien Leigh, and Vince Vaughn was certainly no Anthony Perkins. What kind of psycho do you have to be to think you can direct a thriller as good as Alfred Hitchcock?

I could add to this list all day. I haven’t even started on classic song remakes, but what is the point? We are hooked, and they know it. Will we stop buying coffee at Dunkin Donuts now that the cruller’s gone? No, probably not, and I am sure some of you are drinking Coke while reading this column, and at least one newly irritated reader probably drives a new GTO.

We, as consumers, long for what we know and once we’re hooked they can call it whatever they want and we’ll accept it. Sad, but true. I just hope someday years from now my grandkids aren’t rushing out to buy the classic songs of Patsy Cline sung by Britany Spears. Yikes.