“Should auld acquaintance be forgot, And auld lang syne!”

— Robert Burns

Already, 2026 has begun on an interesting note, with the United States abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores.

This followed several months of blowing small boats out of the water with drone-borne explosive devices launched from a fleet of U.S. warships near Venezuela. What next?

But at the new year we tend to look backward as well as forward.

The universal New Year sentiment in 2021 was, “Thank God 2020 is over!” The year of COVID, the global pandemic that brought fear, illness and death, was at an end. There was great rejoicing on the earth–celebrants mostly out of doors, masked and standing six feet apart, of course.

I’ve come across a manila envelope of columns and news stories I wrote more than a quarter of a century ago. Let’s look back at Keene, for old time’s sake.

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A look back …

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Remember insects? I know that many of us are tired of snow, but the longer winter lasts, the longer we go without a lot of troublesome insect and arachnid pests. (Note: This was before the deer tick/lyme disease invasion!) Bill Curran, also known as Billy Belt Buckle, was here for the Ausable Inn’s annual St. Patrick’s Day dance last weekend, but he regrets to inform us that he will not be working on our bridges this summer. Instead, he will help to supervise the building of a bridge over the Hudson River…

The last Sunday in April dawned bright and clear for the Whitewater Derby, which began as usual at noon on water that was, by common consensus, just right, not too high and not too low. Common consensus is actually uncommon in Keene, but I think people were in a good mood because of the weather, and willing to let things go a little. The event was a tad underattended, some people said because Purdy’s was still closed. Traditionally, Purdy’s opens the day of the Whitewater Derby. I don’t know why Purdy’s didn’t open. Many people, including Ron Purdy, gave reasons, but nobody believed anybody else’s reason. … Some strict traditionalists rush from the Keene soccer field, where the race starts, to the Lacy Bridge, the better to drop cans of beer into the canoes of their loved ones as they speed by below, a difficult feat to achieve. I heard a rumor that once Scott McClelland reached out so far to catch a falling beer that he overturned his canoe–but he did catch it! … It was probably a little disappointing for some people that no one capsized coming around the treacherous rocky bend behind the Ark in Upper Jay, where a crowd always gathers to watch.

Lorie Gregory’s maple sugar cake recipe, as printed in this column, has been disputed by Ms. Gregory herself, who has asked “What’s this one quarter cup sugar?” The way Lorie does it, she boils one cup of maple syrup until it reaches the soft-boil stage. … It is at this stage that you slowly pour the syrup into three stiffly beaten egg whites, beating as you go. Then you continue beating for a long time until the icing is cool and fluffy and beautiful.

The town of Keene, whose motto is Home of the High Peaks, has sent a contingent to the somewhat higher peaks of the Himalaya, including Ed Palen, Anita and Peter Sayers and Landon (Rocky) and Heidi Rockwell.

My friend Lorie should be happy I haven’t mentioned syrup once. … She has been looking forward to the day the sap quits running and I stop writing about syrup.

Overheard at the Keene Valley Library, Connie Miller on changing times: “I firmly believe in the Victorian practice of having a chaperone at every young people’s party. In every age, there are always some fringe people who do not know how to behave. Now, of course, girls learn karate.”

The day after Labor Day! It was a heady moment, a sudden, golden silence in which you could hear a cluster fly drop. Storekeepers here are still reeling from the summer rush. Bob Andrews summed up the present atmosphere of Keene Valley at eight in the morning, when he lay down on the double yellow line of state Route 73 between his house and the Valley Grocery.

Some people already have their Christmas lights up. Some people STILL have their Christmas lights up, which is subtly different.

Have a good week.

(Martha Allen, of Keene Valley, has been writing for the News since 1996.)