Soccer tryouts for Wiscasset Middle School students will take place on August 25 and 26. If you would like more information, there are registration forms located just outside the office at WMS. Call the school's business office at 882-7767.

"Love a Parade!" Join the Morris Farm for a celebration of Summer Days with costumes, animals, flags galore! Call 882-4080 or www. morrisfarm.org for more information. Limited scholarships are available. You can sign up for several weeks, or only one at a time. Most of these programs are for ages six through 10; the week of July 28 through Aug. 4 will be for older children, 11 through 14.

Familiar faces in the recent LCCT production of The Odd Couple — Female Version, Phyllis McQuaide as one of the leads, Debby Beam as one of the Trivial Pursuit ladies.

Legendary quests in search of magic to save a threatened world! What could be more hot fun in the summer sun than the Dragon's Eye mythical adventure for kids, July 7 through 18, for grades two through four, Riddle Ravelers, and later, July 28 through August 8 for grades five through seven, Mavens of Mystery? For more information, call River Arts in Damariscotta, 563-1507 or www.riverartsme.org .

Hope you will all troop over to the Edgecomb Congregational Church this Saturday, June 28, to feast on home-made casseroles and desserts from 5 p.m. to whenever the food runs out!

And a valedictory to Deb Boucher as she leaves her church work for the more nubbly pastures of public service as our new tax collector!

I am composing this column from afar, in the wilds of Connecticut wherein reside a pair of grandchildren whose parents have gone off exploring Boston. We have had a fine time, with the high point going to the Dinosaur State Park in the town of Rocky Hill. In 1968, ground was being cleared for a new state office building, when a bulldozer hit a stretch of ledge. No surprise there, plenty of ledge in New England! But this stretch was of sandstone, crisscrossed like a busy Main Street with three-toed footprints! Over 2,000 tracks were found, identified as a small Jurassic carnivore named Eubrontes. Only 500 are on display under a huge geodesic dome; the rest have been covered over for preservation.

In addition, colorful murals and dioramas show the Jurassic and Triassic environments. Slabs of tracks from elsewhere in Connecticut are on display, include one showing clear impressions of skin. Finding fossil skin is rare, and helps us visualize these ancient creatures a bit better.

Outside, the grounds are an arboretum featuring plants and trees descended from the typical vegetation of 200,000,000 years ago. We hiked several trails around a swamp. Aside from the mosquitoes (which have probably not changed from Jurassic times!), the kids enjoyed the adventure.

Swatting Jurassic mosquitoes in humid modern-day Connecticut, far from the granite ledges of 234 River Road, 633-2978, jocam@ midcoast.com !

This column appears in the Boothbay Register, the Lincoln County News, the Wiscasset News-paper and at www.edgecomb.org .