BATSTO - Mark your Calendars

This jsust in from the Batsto Citizens Committee Newsletter

9/24/2023 ~ Fall Antique and Bottle Show 10/15/2023 ~ Country Living Fair

10/29/2023 ~ Haunting in the Pines

12/3/2023 ~ Winter in the Pines

Sadly since my eyesight has deteriorated along with knees, etc. I don't get out to the pines as often as I used to. I made weekly trips to Pakim Pond up until the Pandemic, when the age of my car as well as other concerns, put a damper on my hiking aaround the pond. Since then, I have bought a new car, but as mentioned above arthritis has been the restriction on my activities these days.

Still, Batsto was one of my favorite places to visit since my teens when neighborhood kids all piled into Joe McGuigan's car and drove out to the pines to hike and walk around the village. I so fondly recall the early days when the workers houses had actual artisans practicing their crafts, the potter, the weaver, the duck decoy carver, herbal medicine distilling, sheep sheering. Probably that was in the late 1960's or early 1970's.

While my daughter was growing up and after I got my first car, a gift from my Mother who wasn't driving any long, I made Batsto a favorite seasonal visit and hiked with my daughter on the trail along the lake and watched the sawmill buzzing through the tree trunks. We visited the Nature Center and learned about owls, beaver and turtles.

Again, in retirement, I returned to Batsto, and Atsion and all my favorite woodland haunts, most especially Pakim Pond! A couple of other things kind of drove me away, however, the hunters whose presence all along the road to the pond with their guns pointed into the woods made me nervous, and the ticks!

But I still celebrate the beauty and the history of the pineslands and in fact today I will be lunching with my old friend who has written three books about the pines, Barbara Solem. Her books include Batsto: Jewel of the Pines, Ghosttowns and Other Quirky Places in the Pinebarrens, and The Forks. W made many happy hikes to the hidden and mysterious places in our natural treasure that is the Pinebarrens.

If you go to any of the events, they are enormously popular, so be prepared to go early or park far away and make a hike to get there.

Happy Trails! Jo Ann wrightj45@yahoo.com