Bob Emmons of South Bristol says, "I know a rose from a peony, but I'm not a flower person. I'm a pest person. I know insects and diseases. I can identify the plants by what pests they have."

 

This makes him exactly the right person to offer a new course at Coastal Senior College this spring: "Mary, Mary, How Does Your Garden Grow? (If it's lousy, come to this class!)"  

 

For more than 30 years, Bob was Professor of Plant Science at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Cobleskill. He taught entomology and plant pathology, and is an expert in integrated pest management. This approach means controlling pests using few or no traditional pesticides and relying instead on monitoring for pest problems, cultural techniques, resistant cultivars, nontoxic materials such as soaps and oils, beneficial insects, and other ecofriendly methods. This is the approach he'll emphasize in class.

 

SUNY at Cobleskill is a teaching and agricultural technology college. Through his work at SUNY Emmons has been involved in pest management projects throughout the country, conducting tree disease projects for the U. S. Department of Agriculture, and supervising student interns.

 

The course "Mary, Mary. . . , " he says, "will be real practical. We'll talk about Maine soil and do some soil testing. We'll discuss the usual suspects -- Japanese beetles, grasshoppers, slugs, squash borers, the hemlock woolly adelgid, late blight on tomatoes. I'll ask class members to talk about the problems they have, and we'll address those specific problems.

 

"By the end of the class," he adds, "we'll be getting into spring. Hopefully we can get outside to see if we can find some early insect problems or diseases."

 

Bob grew up in Winchester, MA, and graduated from Boston University intending to be a lawyer. He volunteered for the Army, and spent a year in Viet Nam. Ultimately, he decided to study plant science instead of law. He had to re-do a lot of his undergraduate work, then earned his master's from the University of New Hampshire (UNH).

 

Bob Emmons (right) of South Bristol hikes in Florida with his son, Lee, who lives in Damariscotta. This spring, Bob is teaching a new gardening class at Coastal Senior College that focuses on integrated plant management.

At UNH, Bob met his wife Holly, who was his lab partner in biochemistry class. Holly is the flower person in the family, he says. She's a floriculture specialist, and an expert in garden and floral design, who frequently gives presentations at the Damariscotta River Association. They taught in the same department at SUNY. During some summers their family vacationed in South Bristol, where Holly's parents had a home. In 2006, the couple moved to Maine.

 

Besides offering this new Senior College class, Bob volunteers at Chase Point Assisted Living in Damariscotta and the Carpenter's Boat Shop in Pemaquid. He's a math tutor at South Bristol School and serves on the boards of Communities Against Substance Abuse and the Rutherford Library in South Bristol. Bob is also the Saturday postmaster in South Bristol. He has won several awards for teaching excellence and has written articles for Horticultural Magazine and the New York Times.

 

Bob is looking forward to the new class. "It's always fun working with adults," he says. "They're the best students. They ask the best questions."

 

- Submitted by Janice Lindsay for Coastal Senior College, Rockland 

The 2010 MSCN Poet Laureate Contest was so popular we are offering it again this year.

Do you write poetry? Are you a member of a Maine senior college? Then you could be the 2011 MSCN Poet Laureate! It's easy to enter -- just submit a piece of your work (one poem per person, please) to: MSCN, Attention: Kyle Allen, P.O. Box 9300, Portland, ME 04104, or email your poem to Kyle at kallen@usm.maine.edu. Be sure to include your name, contact information, and note which Maine Senior College you belong to.
 
The deadline for submissions is November 1, 2011. The winner will be announced and their poem will be included in the December MSCN Newsletter, and the 2011 MSCN Poet Laureate will receive an Amazon Kindle e-book reader. We are looking forward to reading some fine poetry!

It's hard to imagine running the Gold LEAF office without its student workers, and one of them in particular. Sara Burton, a junior majoring in Early Childhood Education at the University of Maine in Farmington, has worked in the office for three years. She's Gold LEAF's longest continuous employee, works anywhere from eight to twelve hours a week, and is also a frequent occupant of the Dean's list.

Around the office Sara does a little bit of everything: answering phone calls and e-mails, preparing correspondence, helping coordinate the production of the course booklet, communicating with the Senior College network, tending to the various filing, copying, and distribution jobs that attend office work, and assisting during Gold LEAF meetings and social events.

Though she admits it's a lot of work, Sara likes the job. For one, hours are flexible and she can work them around her class schedule. For another, she enjoys the people. "Everyone is so nice," she says. "I haven't met anyone I didn't like." But more than that, Sara values what she calls the "generational differences." From time to time, she says, Gold LEAF members have offered her "good advice and support in my personal life."

While Gold LEAF often employs more than one student worker through the university's work-study program, this semester Sara's the only student in the office, a fact that has increased her workload. She takes it all in stride though. In any event, her work for Gold LEAF doesn't seem to interfere with her outside-the-office life: she takes a full course load each semester, she's a member of the university's Dance Team that performs at sports events, next semester she'll do her student teaching, and -- incidentally -- she found time to get married this past October.

- Submitted by Richard Matthews for Gold LEAF at University of Maine at Farmington.

Calling all shutterbugs! This year, in addition the Poet Laureate contest,  MSCN is also holding a photography contest. The theme of the contest is "Outdoor Maine": photos taken of the natural world in our beautiful state. If you are a member of a Maine Senior College you are eligible to enter. One entry per person; photos must be submitted in digital format. Please email your entry as an attachment to Kyle Allen at kallen@usm.maine.edu. Be sure to include your name, where your photo was taken, and tell us which Maine Senior College you belong to. Deadline for entries is November 1. The photographer of the image judged the top pick will receive a digital photo frame, and the winner will be announced in the December MSCN newsletter.

So many people in the Machias area of Downeast Maine have told me how much Sunrise Senior College means to them. Those of us old enough to enjoy the courses and the camaraderie know what a great time we are having laughing and learning together. But, have you ever wondered what the younger set in the community is thinking? 

Sunrise Senior College meets at the University of Maine Machias campus. We have a great relationship with this school. Recently, during our spring semester I heard and witnessed the impact we are having on the college-age students and their professors. 

Our senior college French class was in session.  Ably lead by Dick Hoyt, we were singing Alouette while learning the parts of the body. I was standing so I could see the hallway. As the college students were leaving their classes, they stopped and smiled at us. I hope they realized that learning is a lifelong pursuit and that just being yourself makes it fun. This is one woman's opinion, but if there is anything we can teach the younger generation it might be this: that being yourself and enjoying your life opens up every day as a learning experience. 

This semester we were once again offering Ukrainian egg decorating. I heard from a member of the class that they got this feedback from one of the college students passing by the door:  "Darn, I wish we could have a class like that and have so much fun."  Sorry, you need to be over 50; age does have its privileges. 

Speaking of age, there have been a few times when I have been asked by those 49½ years old if they could please take an SSC course. I was tickled that someone would be so eager to be older just to take a senior college class!  Funny, I said, you sound like 50 over the telephone. We are building community here with people eager to join. This is a bit of good news that makes us look forward to aging and all its rewards.

- Submitted by Gail Peters for Sunrise Senior College, Machias