03781 - Plainfield, N.H.
The Meriden Grange, founded in 1890, struggles to keep active as it deals with a steadily declining membership and a building in need of repair. The following is an edited interview with Gary Ward, deputy state master and Meriden Grange steward.
Cascadnac in Hartford and Morning Star in Lyme, they both went out. Claremont's Grange is a private residence now. Canaan, Mascoma, Lebanon, West Lebanon, Hartland, North Hartland, there's more of them gone than still around.
Even into the ‘60s and ‘70s people used to come out. They'd have a meeting or gather the surplus from their gardens to share a meal. After it was over, they'd put up the tables and chairs and dance to some old-time piano-and-fiddle music.
I'm not sure why people started to drift away. The younger kids went to college and few of them came back. The older people started passing away. We had upwards of a hundred members at one time; there were 41 members 20 years ago, and now we have seven that are still active. We're trying a lot of things to get people to come out, and people just don't respond. I don't know how we can draw them in.
The hall itself needs some work. The exterior was painted three years ago, but we only did the bottom half of it. The older people couldn't get up the ladders so we painted as far as we could reach. The painting and flashing needs to be done on the roof and there's spots around the dormers where water's leaking in.
A lot of people move to rural New England so they can find something like this. Maybe they want a little bit of a slower pace where they can get together with townspeople, have some fun, and come together as a community. It just seems that people would be really interested in what Grange used to be, but we're not seeing it.
There's that Grange we went to one time in Vermont, the Middle Branch Grange. The hall was just beautiful, and all the people that came to that one meeting, I couldn't get over it. They had a dinner and music afterward, and it was packed. It shows it can be done.
As far as the number of residents in town, I certainly think Plainfield can support it. As far as the level of interest, that remains to be seen. I know we're competing with a lot. Internet, cable television, sports — people don't need to come to Grange meetings for their entertainment and social interaction. Life finds other things to revolve around.
We need some new ideas, some new things to happen. We know we can't do things the way we've always done them, because that doesn't work for people anymore. My feeling is that local Granges have to find out what's viable in their community and work with that. It's just a matter of keeping body and soul together as we figure something out.