Unity celebrates community at Old Home Day

By BILL CHAISSON
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UNITY — On Saturday, Unity Old Home Day began with the vendors setting up their booths along the town common, a triangular piece of real estate that defines Unity Center. One corner of the common is anchored by a large octagonal gazebo, which is decorative most days of the year, but which got some use this past weekend.

There were all kinds of vendors. Some of them were very much in the spirit of “old home” in that they are home-based businesses, like Northern Light Etching (etched glass), Unity Mountain Herbs, someone selling “nature-based” products (soaps etc.), and the Moonlight Crafter, who produces all kinds of decorative objects. There was a nonprofit seeking donations to send to overseas troops and an ATV club with an on-site simulator to entice you into membership.

There was food too. French fries and onions, and burgers; an all-American selection.

The music is all-American too. The band, Route 66 from Georges Mills, was a four-piece, that classic combo of bass, drums, guitar and keyboards, and their repertoire was heavy with twang and reverb. They covered everyone from Roy Orbison (daring, considering his vocal range) to the Hollies.

The parade caused the most hub-bub at Old Home Day. They mustered at the fire station — which had hosted a pancake breakfast to kick things off that morning — and then drove the half-mile up to the elementary school, where there is room to turn around, and then they drove back down 2nd N.H. Turnpike again. It begins with a procession of venerable tractors — some John Deeres, a few Farm-Alls, and even an old Allis-Chalmers — followed by a “train” with cars decked out to look like old stage coaches, carriages and trucks and filled with children. Next came the elected officials, Democrats first and then the Republicans. The fire engines were the largest and most impressive entrants (although the tractors had a sort of gravitas), four vehicles from the Unity department and one from Lempster. Bringing up the rear was another tractor, but this one was pulling an outhouse — toilet paper streaming behind it — and there was a guy next to the privy dressed like a leprechaun and throwing candy to the crowd. As a handful of Tootsie Rolls hit the sand in front of the historic town hall, a girl headed for the scoop-up and her mother shouted after her, “Get some for me!”

In the old town hall, the Unity Historical Society presented three tables full of historical and contemporary photos called “Unity, Then and Now.” The images mostly documented built structures — houses, barns, inns — many of them still standing, but there were also photos of residents of the town who lived and worked during the 19th and 20th centuries.

The day concluded with a spaghetti dinner at the fire station and a country-and-western dance band at the town hall. 

According to Old Home Day organizer Jim Callum, the spaghetti dinner was well-attended, so much so that the firefighters stepped in to supplement the staff of veteran volunteers in order to keep up with the flow of diners.

One of the objects of Old Home Day, said Callum, was to raise money to purchase and put in place a stone monument to veterans. The town would like to replace the wooden kiosk next to the flagpole on the common. Callum said that this year’s events raised $800 toward the cause.