Bethel Citizen article 3/27/14

Prime Time Ski Club News for Bethel Citizen 3/27/14

More epic than the additional foot of snow that Sunday River Ski Resort received this past Thursday was Wednesday’s  “Retro Day” for the Prime Time Ski Club with some members showing up on the slopes with ski clothes they wore in the 80’s and 90’s. A nearly 30-year old neon pink jacket with purple, black and white geometric designs was a hit with the lifties who said it was so memorable that they only needed to check the wearer’s ticket once at the beginning of the day. It was also a great conversation starter while in the lift line and easy to spot from almost anywhere on the mountain.

There was also a lighter pink one-piece suit with matching hat (remember when we wore those instead of helmets?) and matching pink mittens.  A blue tie-dyed one-piece suit reminded some of us of our “hippie” years and another member wore a 90’s instructor jacket and pants from another mountain. Short, fur-trimmed jackets and timeless down parkas also found their way out of the closet.  It was impressive that the owners could still fit into these vintage clothes since, as one member stated, clothes tend to shrink if you leave them in storage too long.

How appropriate that the day after the ski club’s retro day, the Ski Museum of Maine’s board of directors voted to form a committee to establish a museum location in the Bethel area. (We may have already found our first vintage clothing donations!!) The Ski Museum of Maine was founded in 1995 to preserve and publicize the business of skiing in Maine, while celebrating Maine’s ski history and heritage. The board has undertaken a number of projects to identify and preserve our skiing heritage and to share this heritage with the younger generation, including the formation of the Maine Ski Hall of Fame in 2003. Since 2010 the Ski Museum of Maine has been headquartered on Main Street in Kingfield, located in the Sugarloaf Sports Outlet building, only a few miles from Sugarloaf Mountain. Here you can find a collection of artifacts, documents and memorabilia along with working and archiving space for staff and volunteers.

The newly-formed Bethel area ski museum committee is charged with finding space, developing a collection and staffing the museum’s satellite site. The committee is chaired by Prime Time Ski Club member Wende Gray of Bethel, also a member of the museum’s board of directors. So far committee members include museum board members Michele Varuolo Cole of Bethel, ski columnist Dave Irons of Westbrook and Viking Village, Jill Ducharme of Wayne, museum executive director Bruce Miles of Carrabassett Valley, and Scott Andrews of Portland, the museum’s consulting curator, research director, newsletter editor and board member. Also on the committee is Prime Time member Terri Messer of Falmouth and Newry. There will be more committee members to be named and more information to come. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, if you want to enjoy the remainder of the ski season by skiing with some new friends, why not give Prime Time Ski Club a try. Just show up weekdays at North Peak Lodge at 10 a.m. (upper level, right-hand side). After a brief time for announcements, members (who are 50 years or older) usually break into small groups of from four to eight skiers, based primarily on skiing ability and terrain preference. Check out our website at www.primetimeskiclub.com or just show up at North Peak Lodge and ski a few runs with us.