NAOMI FLETCHER, LECTURER
14685 25.75 Road
Rapid River, MI 49878
Tel: 906-399-2815
Naomi.fletcher54@gmail.com
JULY/AUGUST 2026 GRANGE NEWS
How did you celebrate our nation’s 250th Birthday?? Write it down, journal it, scrapbook it, poster board it, and bring it to state session to show off!! And don’t forget that Patriotic Centerpiece part of the Lecturer’s Contests!! After they are judged, we will hopefully use them as centerpieces at our Celebration banquet!
Give an example of each of the following: cereal, legume, root crop, tuber, bulb, fiber crop, forage crop. How are forage crops mainly used?
Write a few lines from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Where was this speech delivered? (Everyone should know the second part.)
Happy Birthday America!!!!
How did you celebrate our nation’s 250th Birthday?? Write it down, journal it, scrapbook it, poster board it, and bring it to state session to show off!! And don’t forget that Patriotic Centerpiece part of the Lecturer’s Contests!! After they are judged, we will hopefully use them as centerpieces at our Celebration banquet!
Eugene, my trusty back seat companion, and I returned recently from the Mid-West State’s Grange Conference held on the Boone County Fairgrounds in Belvidere, Illinois. The grounds were beautiful, and we were able to tour the old-fashioned schoolhouse museum and the newly built Grange Hall Museum. Very interesting with a lot of Grange memorabilia donated by families across Illinois. If you’re ever in the area, give them a shout and I’m sure they’d be happy to open up the museum for you. They are closed in the winter months, well, because winter…..
One unique document I discovered in the Schoolhouse was the matriculation examination from 1927. A few of the questions on the test were as follows - can you answer them?
Give an example of each of the following: cereal, legume, root crop, tuber, bulb, fiber crop, forage crop. How are forage crops mainly used?
Write a few lines from Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Where was this speech delivered? (Everyone should know the second part.)
“Books are full of friends,” the poet says. What friends have you enjoyed in “Reading and Living?” (Have you ever read this book?)
I sent the full test to my daughter, and she’s never read some of the books where writing prompts are asked. (there are about 25 questions on the full test) My daughter was born in 1978, I was born in 1954. The test was from 1927! I’m not sure anyone could answer many of the questions on the test.
And then, at the end of the test, is this quote from Alfred Tennyson:
“And out again I curve and flow
To join the brimming river:
For men may come and men may go
But I go on forever.”
Grangers, can you write a paragraph on the meaning of this short poem? Present it at your Grange as part of the Lecturer’s program. Ask others how they interpret it. I see a quiet brook flowing over river stones, meeting up with it’s parent river, on to the great lake or sea. Does your stream continue on into the great lake or sea, or does it just stop in the little pond? Does your Grange ebb and flow like the lowly stream? Things to ponder for your Grange’s future. Until we meet again…..I remain your humble Lecturer
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2026 GRANGE NEWS
I can’t believe Annual Session is just around the corner!!! This year has gone by so fast, and yet so slow. Some of you may know my husband has been battling with one health crisis after another since March. I think we have him settled down now for a while. Two helicopter rides to major trauma centers including Green Bay and Marquette in four months, seem to be his idea of having fun. He used to be in the Air Force, so riding around in flying tubes was his career for 15 years.
I can’t believe Annual Session is just around the corner!!! This year has gone by so fast, and yet so slow. Some of you may know my husband has been battling with one health crisis after another since March. I think we have him settled down now for a while. Two helicopter rides to major trauma centers including Green Bay and Marquette in four months, seem to be his idea of having fun. He used to be in the Air Force, so riding around in flying tubes was his career for 15 years.
But I digress. As we lead into this year’s session, I want you to be aware of the small things. Little ducks. Pretend you’re on a cruise (some of you were in November). Out of the corner of your eye, you see a little duck. Not the Jeep kind. These are no larger than a quarter. Your challenge at session is to find as many as you can. Share them with others, trade them for your favorite color, and at the end of session, we’ll see who has collected the most. You can pick up your duck collecting bag at the Lecturer’s Station. Prizes are involved!
My new desk-cot (desk mascot) will be a little polka-dot long horn. Take him on an adventure throughout session and post his pictures on the Michigan State Grange Facebook page! Tell his story! Let’s have some real Grange fun!!!
And, as always, there will be puzzles to solve, and maybe even a little competitive game of Feud! Hope to see you all in Three Rivers soon.
One more note-from a leaflet published when postage was only 3 cents (can you guess when?) by the National Grange:
“Today is Rural America’s hour of opportunity. Lots of its people are pulling on the oars, but too many slackers are still in the boat.”
This quote sounds more true today than it ever has. Are you on the oars, or in the boat? Be the change
