We live in Plymouth, and as soon as we heard the news at noon on Saturday we went up to the Notch to see with our own eyes that it was true. We were there early enough that there was plenty of room in the Profile Lake parking lot, so we walked in to Profile Lake, saw the helicopter and the roped climbers, the turnbuckles hanging in the air, and yes, it was true. After a few tears, which surprised us, as we drove home we chatted about the best way it could be remembered, be memorialized. Celia suggested that rather than any attempt to re-create it in stone, or fake stone (I was suggesting the Disney Imagineers could figure out how and do a very realistic job, but...it wouldn't be the same), it would be better to do a simple but meaningful silhouette, done in black steel (or some such alloy), but just the outline of the profile from the side, not solid, visible only from the exact angle the Old Man himself was visible from. The wind could blow through, the anchors could be regularly checked and easily tightened, and it surely could be done less expensively than a re-creation. I can't send a picture with this message tonight, but her vision can be simply described as similar to what you would get if you took a picture of the remaining cliff from the old viewing angle, and traced onto it with a single line of black marker the profile outline of the Old Man as it would have projected out were it still there. Not a re-creation, a memorial, steel anchored to granite, a pretty good symbol to remind us of the Old Man in our roots. I suspect we are not alone in this idea; already today I've heard that a friend of a friend wants a similar memorial structure. I think it meets the desire to remember what was there without trivializing it with a fake re-creation. Thanks for taking the time to read this.
Wendy Palmquist (state resident since 1981)
Celia Gibbs (native, for many generations back on both her father and her mother's sides)
Plymouth, NH