“You can’t get there from here” is a very New England expression.  It doesn’t mean literally, but it just means that there’s no direct way and it’ll take you forever.  So we decided to take a drive down to Shaftsburg and Arlington (pictures and details to come in a future post!) and I looked at the map and thought, “Well, we may as well fit in Sandgate since I have no idea why we’d ever go there aside from 251”.  So I started looking at maps trying to figure out where to go and what to see while we were there.  I guess, there’s not a lot going on in Sandgate. They have no school, no Catholic church, no fire station or police station, no historical society.  So, we went to the town clerk’s office.  

Of course, we arrived on a Friday and the clerk’s office was closed.  But we were puttering around the gravel parking lot and a man standing nearby said one of the members of the town select board was inside.  Her name was Linda, and she was super sweet and very kind to take time out of what she was doing to chat with a stranger for a few minutes. She answered a few questions about Sandgate, and mentioned the old firehouse that was right across the parking lot from the office.  Apparently it is full of antique fire equipment from when they had their own fire department”.  She also said that Sandgate used to have a school, but it is closed too.  The library in Arlington has information on Sandgate, and there’s a brief history of the town on the library’s website.

The kids’ favorite part was the fact that the sign read, “Sandgate Town Hall: NO OUTLET you can’t get there from here”.