For centuries, believers across the world have reported seeing the image of the Virgin Mary from the shadows on walls to the middle of corn fields. He may not be the Madonna, but for many New Hampshire residents, the Old Man of the Mountain took on almost spiritual importance. So maybe it shouldn't surprise Granite Staters if they start hearing about Old Man sightings.
For centuries, believers across the world have reported seeing the image of the Virgin Mary from the shadows on walls to the middle of corn fields.
He may not be the Madonna, but for many New Hampshire residents, the Old Man of the Mountain took on almost spiritual importance.
So maybe it shouldn't surprise Granite Staters if they start hearing about Old Man sightings.
As New Hampshire Public Radio's Rebecca Kaufman reports, one has already occurred in Merrimack.
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The story goes like this.
This past summer, roofers were replacing Merrimack town hall's slate roof.
As they removed the old shingles, most broke into fragments.
But about 150 of the 131 year old shingles remained in tact.
Members of Merrimack's Heritage Commission decided to keep the preserved ones and sell each for a 25 dollar donation.
The money would help preserve historic buildings in the town.
The slate was collected and stored in the town hall garage.
And the Heritage Commission members spent three days preparing them to sell.
Members Ruth Roulx and Florence Brown took the lead.
Track 2
3:30 we went over to the town garage and rolled up our sleeves and cleaned those slates
Florence: not too much Ruth: yeah, we left enough for it to be authentic
And on the third day, one slate caught Ruth Roulx's eye.
3:52 the third time it was just Florence and I and we were down to the bottom of the slates by then and all of sudden I picked up a slate and I said I don't believe this and it was the slate that looked like the old man...and I didn't quite believe... I had to look three or four times to make sure it was really that good
For 131 years old, the 10 by 16 inch slate is nearly flawless.
But one side has been chipped a few times, creating an uncanny resemblance to the Old Man of the Mountain.
Track 5 :it seems mother nature through the wisdom of her child named gravity chose to recreate the cherished symbol of New Hampshire on a very special roof slate
Ruth Roulx reads from Merrimack's proclamation to their Old Man.
1:28 to add to the uniqueness of this chance creation, one of the holes that was originally drilled into the slate to fasten it to the roof appears as the eye of the recreated Old Man right under the eyebrow ridge formed when the roof slate met the earth
Ruth Roulx and Florence Brown were so excited by the discovery they kept it a secret for nearly two months.
During that time, Ruth kept the Old Man carefully tucked between two pillows at her home.
But the find was too good to keep hidden away forever.
One day they shared their secret with groundskeeper supervisor Phil Meschino.
He was responsible for collecting the preserved slates for the Heritage Commission.
track 6
1:36 Ruth: this is one of the ones you saved... no don't look there..look up
Phil: okay... oh the old man of the mountain ¦laugh...that's good..that's pretty good¦ so now you can get extra money for that¦ Ruth: that's what we're hoping for
They've put their Old Man of Merrimack on e-bay.
For NHPR news, I'm RK
