Grafton Historical Society takes a step back in time with Pie Social fundraiser

Slices of heaven are laid out along a table as patrons chose. The $5 a slice fundraiser benefits the Grafton Historical Society. Click photo to launch gallery. All photos by A.J. Wein.

By Paul Wein
© 2026 Telegraph Publishing LLC

As summer gives way to fall, sometimes there’s just the perfect day when nature turns the page. Everyone feels it. The breeze is a little more decisive, the leaves begin rustling down to Earth faster than can be counted. Sweaters and jackets are pulled from closets and furnaces are tested.

It’s time to take a breath, sit for a moment with our neighbors, and revel in the pleasure of living in one of the most beautiful places and seasons on Earth.

This past Sunday, Oct. 4, was such a day in tiny Grafton. The weather was splendid, the band was in tune, and the pie was fresh and tasty. This was Grafton Pie Social Sunday, a tasty fund-raiser to benefit the Grafton Historical Society, followed by an outdoor performance of the Grafton Cornet Band.

The $5 a slice fundraiser will help the for the Grafton Historical Society pay its bills during the winter months.

Cornet Band flautist Hayley Kolding makes short work of apple and peach-raspberry slices.

The gorgeous slices of pie filled a long, linen-clad table in their yard, along with smaller tables and plenty of chairs to relax in. Eating pie is, after all, hard work, especially when there was so much to choose from including lemon meringue, pumpkin, blueberry, apple and cherry. Informal estimates tallied well over 100 slices sold.

There was laughter and lemonade, conversation and coffee, tourists and toddlers. Grafton is incredibly beautiful year-round, but this day was better.

The band started playing right at 3 p.m. on the sun-soaked Grafton Library lawn, as it has for the past 159 years. Locals and guests made their way to seats in the soft grass, balancing a bounty of pie in their laps. No need for jackets, no need for hats to keep away mosquitoes; the appreciative audience listened along, tapping their toes to Civil War tunes and Disney medleys.

The Grafton Cornet Band kicks off the music precisely at 3 p.m. under lovely fall skies.

The mood was relaxed, tranquil and laced with a quiet joy, all could feel, but none could name. It was the spirit of an earlier time: pie and a town band, friendly neighbors and the same stunning beauty of a time gone by, repeated for us all, one more time.  One more perfect autumn day in Grafton.

The Grafton Historical Society will close to the public on this coming Monday, Indigenous People’s Day, and open again on Memorial Day, Monday, May 31, 2027. The historical society will open for research upon request. It will also be open for its Holiday Gala and Sugar on Snow events in the winter. Keep track of these on its website by clicking here.