OLD ORCHARD BEACH — When Louie Ladakakos was a young boy, he spent a lot of time on the sand at Old Orchard Beach with his friends, playing beach volleyball, games like chase, and venturing into the water.

“One day it was nice and calm,” the retired teacher told a Loranger Memorial School student in an interview. “In those days, the lifeguard had rowboats. One day the lifeguard took me out to where the water was just over my head, and he threw me out of the boat. He was right there, so I wasn’t going to drown.”

The lifeguard thought it was time Ladakakos learned to swim. He did, that day.

“I’m a beach person,” Ladakakos told the student. “The beach is a big part of my life.”

Alice Jenkins remembers when Old Orchard Beach’s famous pier was longer than it is now.

“The pier was awesome when I was growing up, you could walk out and see all the beautiful ocean on the right side and on the left, there were concessions … games, little gift shops and a takeout restaurant with the best cheeseburgers,” she said. “After the arcade, there was a big dance hall with big bands, then at 9 p.m. you could go out to a deck with open air movies.”

Those memories and reminisces of Jenkins and Ladakakos and around 30 more of Old Orchard Beach’s older population are now preserved, for viewing now, or in the future.

“Making Memories, Stories from OOB” is a seven-part video series, available through Libby Memorial Library’s You Tube channel at: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbOQ1xtUVMCTA6S1iDokhMg

It is a work made by many hands, including the Old Orchard Beach Community Friendly Connection, or CFC, students and educators at Loranger Memorial School, the Town of Old Orchard Beach, the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society, Libby Memorial Library — and those who graciously agreed to talk about life in this seaside community when they were young.

Some participants were not initially sure they would have much information to relay, said RSU 23 Director of Instruction JoAnne Dowd.

“Most were very humble, thinking they didn’t have much to contribute, but once they got warmed up, and they saw folks they knew at the school, they realized they all had wonderful stories to tell,” said Dowd.

The project has its roots with the CFC, who wanted to make sure the stories of how life used to be, in the 1940s and later, were preserved, said its former facilitator, Pat Brown.

Dowd said she was at a CFC meeting, and as the members talked about how to encourage seniors to be interviewed, she knew from a past documentary-style project they had done that the students could help.

Casey Rossignol, who teaches grade six language arts, volunteered, and the project evolved. The grade six students had learned about the history of the town through a trip to the Harmon Museum. They practiced writing and asking questions and using iPads to film the interviews — and then it took off.

“I think the kids were nervous at first but really bought into the project and had a blast with the seniors,” said Cathy Chiasson, a CFC co-chair and the group’s liaison with the schools.

A retired teacher, Chiasson said the project was “real life learning integrated with educational standards.”

“Original source material is so much more meaningful, and these students were part of creating it. I also, as a resident, enjoyed seeing seniors reliving memories and feeling valued,” said Chiasson.

“I loved having the seniors visit the school and have a positive interaction with middle school students, and the ‘celebratory’ feel to it all,” said Dowd. There were home visits for some who could not come to the school to be interviewed.

Libby Memorial Library Director Lee Koenigs remembers volunteering with the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society several years ago, and an oral history was talked about at that time.

“Fast-forward … and the ‘Making Memories’ project moves from wonderful idea to reality, under the dynamic leadership of Pat Brown, from OOB’s Age-Friendly group (called) Community Friendly Connection, and with the collaboration of Loranger Memorial School’s sixth grade educators and students. Many other community partnerships rounded out the group that made this project finally happen, Libby Memorial Library included,” Koenigs said. “The Library’s goal was to make sure that there was broad, obvious and uncomplicated availability of the interviews, through the Library website (and YouTube Channel) and to extend the marketing, and therefore awareness, of ‘Making Memories’ through the Library’s promotional process.”

There were two years of interviews, interrupted by COVID, but at the end of 2021, “Making Memories, Stories of OOB” was finished and online.

Among the interviewees was resident Tony Eramo, who  was working at St. Margaret’s Church one night in 1969 when the electricity went out. He walked outside and saw a massive fire in the area near what is now the Grand Victorian, he said. Many of the amusements in the area burned, he told his young interviewer.

When recounting his memory of the fire, he talked about an amusement called Noah’s Ark, and underneath it, the “coal mines,” featuring donkey rides. After the rides were over for the day, the workers would walk the donkeys to a barn in the location of the present-day fire station. In those days, that area was farmland, said Eramo. Noah’s Ark was among the amusements that burned that night.

Jeanne Guerin was among the interviewees, as was her husband Arthur, a retired OOB firefighter.

“It gave the students an insight,” said Arthur, who was born in Biddeford and moved to Old Orchard Beach 60 years ago, when he and Jeanne married. The couple is active in the Old Orchard Beach Historical Society.

Jeanne, was raised by her grandparents, a couple who had a hotel on the beachfront on East Grand Avenue.

“I still have a kindergarten report card that said I was quite shy at the beginning of the year, and by Christmas it said I wouldn’t stop talking,” she told her interviewer with a chuckle in her voice. It was all because by Christmas, the French-speaking 5-year-old had learned English. When she entered kindergarten, she explained, the teacher, Miss Taylor, told her grandmother which lessons would be coming up. Each night her grandmother went over the lessons with her, in English and then French, so she would be prepared when she went to school the next day.

Jeanne said she enjoyed chatting with the students.

“It’s great,” she said. “It gives the kids experience in interviewing people and writing things down and will help them keep the history of Old Orchard Beach,” she said — and by interviewing 30 or more seniors, she noted they learn about the town’s history from more than one viewpoint. “It’s an excellent way for the children to get involved and learn history,” she said. “I think they retain it a lot more,” and in the future, as adults, may become involved locally.

Rossignol, the students’ teacher, said the interactions between the seniors and students were wonderful.

“Watching the reactions students had when they heard these unbelievably amazing stories about their very own town was priceless,” said Rossignol. “It was a powerful example of relating academics and learning to ‘real life.’ One of my favorite memories was watching three students get to interview their own grandfather. It was extremely special and a family memory they have on film to cherish. “

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