Rebecca Rule has been to several New Hampshire towns and cities over the last 10 years for her series “Our Hometown” with NH PBS, but Warner had a charm that was unique.
“Warner just jumped out, in part because of its vibrant nature,” she said. “It’s such a small town, and there’s so much going on here.”
Rule traveled to the town of 3,000 residents in late March with her producer, Schuyler Scribner, and spent four days interviewing over 40 community members. She said everyone was very accommodating, offering the team places to stay, to record interviews and to eat lunch.
She once saw the community spirit again when over 100 residents came to see the showing of “Our Hometown Warner,” as well as some un-aired interviews, on Nov. 6 in Warner Town Hall.
Before the program started, musician Colin Nevins played his original song “Border Town Bottle Redemption Blues” to the crowd, the same song he played on the PBS program. The 32-year-old taught himself how to play the acoustic guitar after learning how to play the piano and saxophone from his grandmother.
Growing up in Warner his whole life, Nevins has drawn a lot of inspiration from the community when writing his own music. He loosely based the song he played on a local celebrity named Charlie Brown, who would gather up bottles and cans and take them over to Vermont to take advantage of bottle redemption programs.
“I’m interested in place-based music, and my favorite songwriters are people like John Prine who really capture kind of the mundane, every day goings-on of the community and put it to song,” Nevins said. “A lot of good stories can come out of a small town.”
Barbara and Don Lassonde have been in the maple syrup business for 55 years. The couple lived in Concord for decades before moving to Warner, where they searched high and low for a maple tree grove that would help them continue their business.
Living in the community for 20 years, the Lassondes sell their maple syrup locally in a sugar house built by their son.
Barbara said she enjoyed seeing the community come together and viewing the interviews that didn’t make it into the final program.
“Warner is a very supportive town,” Barbara Lassonde said. “When there’s something going on, people turn out. They show up and they support it. And so I wasn’t surprised that there was a good turnout, because that’s how Warner people are.”
Sixteen un-aired interviews were shown during the event, discussing topics like town museums to local farms to individual experiences growing up — or moving — to Warner.
Matt Esenwine, a children’s book author, chose to focus on the wide range of people in town. As a creative person, he grew close with other authors and illustrators but also enjoyed having conversations with people that have lived in Warner their whole lives or people with professional careers.
“It’s a creative town, but it’s a very diverse town, because you have all kinds of folks,” he said.
Rule said it was “magical” to sit behind the camera and hear people tell their stories. In the few days they were in town, dozens of people spoke to Rule and Schuyler Scribner for 20 to 30 minutes each.
She was glad to see so many people at the showing on Thursday.
“Wasn’t it wonderful to feel the energy in a room where everybody knows each other and they’re seeing their friends and neighbors and family on screen together? How often does that happen?” Rule said. “I just I felt so honored to be part of this.”