Travels With Becky

Lesson Learned

Nice visit with folks at the Litchfield Senior Center, where the minutes for the meeting will read: “Strawberry shortcake was enjoyed by all.”

Ken told the story of being a kid on Peaks Island in Maine. One day he traveled with his father to Boston. It was quite a trip from the boat to the bus in Portland to the train station then on the train to Boston.  

They got there all right. For a treat, they stopped at a deli to get some lunch. Ken spotted a big turkey leg in the case. He wanted that leg. The deli man said, “That kid’ll never eat that whole leg.” Ken’s father had his doubts, too. But Ken swore he could, begged for the leg, got the leg, and dug in.

Sure enough, he got that leg about half consumed and could eat no more. Father, being from Maine and therefore frugal, said there was no sense wasting a good half of a turkey leg. So the leg was placed in a paper bag and Ken had to carry it: to Fenway Park and the Red Sox game, then to the train station, then all the way to Portland on the train, then on the bus to the landing, then on the boat to Peaks Island.

By the time the day was done, he was awful sick of that turkey leg. Lesson learned.

As my grandmother would have said: “His eyes were bigger than his stomach.”

Wa’n’t I scay-ed!

At Del Rossi’s Trattoria in Dublin last week, we swapped a few stories and ate some deeeee-licious Italian food (highly recommended, nice people too), I heard the story of Nancy coming off steep Bingham Hill in Lempster when the brakes on the truck failed. Her husband was driving. They white-knuckled it down the hill, across the bridge, and finally coasted to a stop about a half-mile farther down the road when the land leveled off.  

Nancy’s comment: “My how we went!”

Which reminded me of a story David Emerson used to tell about his neighbors in Stow, Maine (sister city to Chatham, NH). The elderly couple—Bill and Nellie—were notorious for driving real slow on narrow back roads. If you got behind them, you’d be awhile getting to where you wanted to go.  

Seems they got a new secondhand Buick with a lot of hosses under the hood, and Bill got a little excited, pressed the pedal to the metal, and revved that Buick up to about 45 miles an hour, maybe even fifty coming off the hill and around the turn.

Nellie’s comment:  “Wa’n’t I scay-ed!”

Bonus: What is Chatham, NH, famous for?

Think about it . . . 

It’s the only town in NH that you can’t get to from NH. You have to go into Maine and double back. Well, locals say, you could take Hurricane Mountain Road out of Conway, but they wouldn’t recommend it.

Point of Order!

And here are the answers to last week's “How Much Do You Know About NH Town Meeting?” Quiz:

1) Far as we know the first Town Meeting was held in (a) Dover (b) Colebrook (c) Effingham (d) Exeter.  

Answer is EXETER.

2) And that meeting took place in the year (a) 1639 (b) 1704 (c) 1776 (d) 1930. 

Answer is 1639.

3) Town Meetings are run according to Robert’s Rules of Order written by General Henry Robert in 1876, and based on the parliamentary procedure used in the US House of Representatives. (a) Yes (b) No.  

Nope. Moderators may use Robert’s Rules or they may use other rules. Or mix and match. It's up to the individual moderator.

4) The amount of time spent on an article is inversely proportional to the amount of money being raised by that article. (a) always (b) usually (c) sometimes (d) never.  

This is kind of a joke, but not really. Sometimes we spend a very long time on a very small money item.

5) Town meeting is traditionally held on (a) the third Monday in January (b) the second Tuesday in March (c) the fourth Saturday in May (d) the day after Labor Day.  

Answer is the second Tuesday in March, though some towns opt for a March Saturday. Others wait until June when the snowbirds return. And under SB2 there is no town meeting, just a deliberative session in January or February (to deliberate and monkey around with figures) followed a few weeks later by a ballot vote.

6) A secret or paper ballot vote must be requested prior to a hand or voice vote and will be honored if (a) any voter asks (b) at least five voters ask (c) at least ten voters (d) a majority of voters present ask (e) varies town to town. 

The law says at five (I recently heard this from a sponsor of the original bill that set the number at five), however Moderators may choose to hold a ballot vote if even one voter calls for it.  

7) A tythingman (a) decides who is eligible to vote (b) is the Moderator’s deputy (c) ensures that people eschew debauchery, profanity, night walking, idleness or uncivil or rude practices, and seizes unlicensed liquors (d) leads the Pledge of Allegiance.  

The answer is C.

8) The difference between a motion to “indefinitely postpone” and a motion to “table” is  __________.  

Indefinitely postpone kills the article. An article that is tabled is placed on the table, that is, it may be picked up again later in the meeting.

9) The town with the record for the most town meetings in the same hall is (a) Union (b) Freedom (c) Orange (d) Langdon.  

It’s Dear Little Langdon!

10) The only request for action that may legitimately interrupt a pending motion without a vote is (a) Call the question (b) Call to limit debate (c) Point of Order (d) Amend the article.  

Shout “Point of Order” and everything stops. To call a Point of Order is to question the process, and suggests a technical misstep that must by addressed for debate to continue.  Something like: You can’t amend an amendment. Or, this requires a 2/3rds vote not a simple majority. Or, we’re debating the wrong article. Any of these would constitute a Point of Order.

Town Meeting

I’ve enjoyed presenting my program, “Moved and Seconded: NH Town Meeting, the present, the past, the future,” at historical societies around the state. It’s based on my book, Moved and Seconded: NH Town Meeting, the present, the past, the future. Only instead of a 350 page read, you get a 45 minute talk followed by (often) lively discussion. People love their town meetings! And they love to hate them. But mostly they respect the tradition. The ones who come to my program, anyway—admittedly a skewed sampling.

Here are some of the observations and comments that have come my way the last few weeks:

“Town meeting is local color at its best.”

“It’s where you get to see men wearing flannel shirts and ties.”

“Way too long.”

“Direct democracy. And chaos.”

“It’s like family.”

“It’s where sometimes you get people to change their minds.”

“Some don’t have minds to change.”

At each program I hand out a quiz. Here it is. Try your luck. Answers in my next blog. Also in my book, Moved and Seconded: NH Town Meeting, the present, the past, future, soon to be a major motion picture.

How much do You know about NH Town Meeting?

1) Far as we know the first Town Meeting was held in (a) Dover (b) Colebrook (c) Effingham (d) Exeter.

2) And that meeting took place in the year (a) 1639 (b) 1704 (c) 1776 (d) 1930.

3) Town Meetings are run according to Robert’s Rules of Order written by General Henry Robert in 1876, and based on the parliamentary procedure used in the US House of Representatives. (a) Yes (b) No.

4) The amount of time spent on an article is inversely proportional to the amount of money being raised by that article. (a) always (b) usually (c) sometimes (d) never.

5) Town meeting is traditionally held on (a) the third Monday in January (b) the second Tuesday in March (c) the fourth Saturday in May (d) the day after Labor Day.

6) A secret or paper ballot vote must be requested prior to a hand or voice vote and will be honored if (a) any voter asks (b) at least five voters ask (c) at least ten voters (d) a majority of voters present ask (e) varies town to town.

7) A tythingman (a) decides who is eligible to vote (b) is the Moderator’s deputy (c) ensures that people eschew debauchery, profanity, night walking, idleness or uncivil or rude practices, and seizes unlicensed liquors (d) leads the Pledge of Allegiance.

8) The difference between a motion to “indefinitely postpone” and a motion to “table” is  ______________________.

9)  The town with the record for the most town meetings in the same hall is (a) Union (b) Freedom (c) Orange (d) Langdon.

10) The only request for action that may legitimately interrupt a pending motion without a vote is (a) Call the question (b) Call to limit debate (c) Point of Order (d) Amend the article.