The gathering outside the Collier Inn is reminiscent of the Grand Opening New Years party back in 1977. Maybe not as formal, but guests dressed up and milling about, catching up with old friends. Reminiscing is what they are doing mostly. Forty or fifty of them, and still more coming, gathered in small groups outside the front entrance, waiting for the doors to open and the festivities to begin.

What you are enjoying most is your ability to eavesdrop on conversations. What you're discovering in those snippets, is the backfill for things you once witnessed, yet could not get close enough to know all the details. One story in particular about Robert Frost catches your attention.
"Frost sold his farm and took his family to Gloucestershire, England."
"When was that?"
"Early nineteen hundreds. The First World War is cranking up when he goes over and England is already involved when he decides to move back to Franconia, New Hampshire. Before he left the U.S., he wasn't getting much attention, but after his stay in England where he got some notoriety, publishers in the States were interested. Atlantic Monthly actually printed what they had previously rejected."
"The Road Not Taken."
"Yes, what most people now call The Road Less Traveled. The irony is between those two titles. It was first published in the August 1915 edition. But here's the twist…"
You lean in listening more intently, when a man looks at you and says, "I'm sorry but this is a plot point in the book and since you've not read it yet, I don't want to spoil the ending for you."
You sheepishly nod, and move on to eavesdrop on another conversation about someone skinny-dipping down by the village.