Dave LaBelle, of Kingfield, stopped by the other day to pick up our bottles and grab the latest edition of The Irregular (which happened to include a photo of him dressed in shorts during a snowstorm). We always have fun chatting with Dave, and give each other an equally “hard time.”

We chatted about his bottle collecting “business” and he lamented, “Now everybody’s doing it. Why don’t they wait until I’m dead?! I started the business.”

‘Nuf said. Guess we better stay off Dave’s “bottle turf”! Apparently that’s about as sacred as a reporter’s beat!

Sounds like Mike Lane of Kingfield had a great time celebrating his birthday last weekend. Friends and family got together at Mike’s house for a good ole party. We know everyone is wondering how old Mike is, well he’s 18 with 32 years experience (that’s 50). Happy birthday Mike!

The Franklin County Weight Loss Challenge in Strong will be ending this week. We’re anxious to find out who won the challenge and lost the most weight and inches. The next challenge will begin Nov. 5 at 6 p.m. at Mt. Abram High School. Soon we’ll be announcing who won the Strong challenge, stayed tuned!

Formerly called Readstown, Strong was settled in 1784, incorporated Jan. 31, 1801 and named for Gov. Strong of Massachusetts, according to the 1938-39 Maine Register. In 1856, a portion of the town was annexed to New Vineyard. Strong’s population was 1109 in 1800, 1008 in 1850, 634 in 1870, 637 in 1900, 720 in 1914, 779 in 1920 and 877 in 1930. In 1938, Allie H. Richards was the postmaster. The selectmen were James W. Davis, A.J. Chandler and Neil G. Luce; the town clerk was Raymond Norris. Hervey B. Jennings served as treasurer, collector and constable; John M. Rounds was also constable. Freemont Allen was the road commissioner. The school committee comprised James W. Davis, Elizabeth Starbird and Holman Daggett.