June 13 – 19, 2025Vol. 27, No. 1

Welcome to Summertime!

Never far from a lake: Cordell, Esther, and Ethan Perne. Photo by Kevin Couture.

Dear Readers:

Welcome to the summer of 2025 and to the pages of Summertime in the Belgrades — our 34^th season of inviting visitors, vacationers and residents to step out the door and into the fabulous surroundings of open waters, secluded woods, scenic heights, and historic downtowns…an invitation that includes, as well, sociable times at seasonal celebrations, local fare in friendly eateries and visits to shops and stores and one-of-a-kind museums.

In early issues of the publication we assured readers that the newspaper would remain refreshingly the same each season — wholesome, unpretentious and uniquely oriented to family, community and lake area news, views, happenings and opportunities. Even as the world around us is changing in ways large and small — in weather and economics, in construction and electronics, in turbulence and tempo, there is still in this region a quality of tranquility and changelessness to be discovered and enjoyed.

In Summertime in the Belgrades, we bring these qualities of changelessness to you in weekly columns and calendars, notes and news, recollections of history and highlights of conservation — and in ads and listings for the region’s best goods and services. As each season starts we are ever thankful for our advertisers whose support makes Summertime in the Belgrades possible and who are a helpful source of local information, directions and advice.

We also thank our columnists and contributors and everyone who contacts Summertime in the Belgrades with notes of appreciation, newsworthy information and enthusiasm for the region.

And we thank you, our readers, who have picked up this first copy of Summertime in the Belgrades for 2025 and are turning the pages to another summer of stepping out the door into a world of great natural beauty, of bountiful recreational opportunities and of a quality of tranquility and changelessss to be discovered and enjoyed.