When I first started gifting new, free books door to door, I never expected I’d baby-sit a reader’s snake on the family’s front steps while the reader was busy ordering titles. But these are the kinds of surprising adventures that pop up in my day now. Walking Books Library, which gives new books, offers a […]
Meetinghouse
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
David Agan, Wells: ‘Governor Baxter would like to speak with you’
It’s a cool, cloudy Tuesday in late August 1966. Alone near dusk in the new park, I’m a lucky guy. I made it through my first year of college and have this summer job as a state park ranger in my hometown. They hired a bunch of us to help open the new park at […]
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Kathleen Sullivan, Freeport: Can it all have been a dream?
This is the year when the word “reunion” feels nostalgic and impossibly far off, like a mountain on the other side of a mountain or a dream about an old lover who boards a train that leaves before you can reunite. For this is the year of disunion. The disunion began slowly for me. First, […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Nancye Tuttle, Wells: Reunion brings new spark to an old friendship before it’s too late
If Peter Pan had had a twin sister, she would have been like my late college roommate, Carol Ann Hough. Called “Huff” or “Huffy” by those who knew and loved her during our college days in the 1960s, she was free-spirited, adventurous, a fun-filled sprite. My fellow Glassboro State College friends and I dubbed her […]
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Jenny McKendry, Hallowell: The family that Zooms together finds a lifeline
Our family didn’t discover that using Zoom to talk with each other was a good idea until quite recently. I can’t believe that the virus is still dominating our lives and that its influence has vastly changed us. Last spring we’d privately taken part in online business meetings, but as far as using this tool […]
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Jamie Cypher, Otisfield: Waning days of childhood
“Sweet Adeline … my Ad-e-line.” The entertainment portion of our family get-together had begun. My Uncle Mike started things off with a few notes of this perennial favorite. My father and my other two uncles joined in one at a time, the beginning of the song repeated until all were somewhat in tune with each […]
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Dennise Dullea Whitley, Norway: The Maine places where my family stories come from
Daniel Francis Dullea came from Peabody, Massachusetts, to Norway, Maine, to live in 1900 and to work for the B.F. Spinney Co., a shoe manufacturing firm. The selectmen of Norway had pooled their own personal funds to construct a four-story factory building to specifically attract workers from that shoe factory in Peabody. Imagine that in […]
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Annunziata Graziano, Readfield: Face to face with my guardian angel
Someone recently asked me if religion is a big part of my life. I tried to highlight all the ways I stay connected to my faith, but there are moments that are unexplainable even to me. I have trusted my life in God’s hands since the day I was born. My faith has faltered, and […]
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Beatrice Talmage, Portland: Sweetly reunited with Dad
When my father came home on weekends, my younger brother and I darted to the door at the sound of his footsteps. That rattling of the door handle was, perhaps, the only force – besides a mother’s scolding – that could release our fingers from our Nintendo controllers. “Dad’s home!” we squealed. Excitement radiated from […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Buddy Doyle, Gardiner; A step into the past leads to a new life
In 1998 I turned 50. I was residing in California – keenly aware of (still) being very single, even though I’d certainly had my share of fun over the years. A classmate called regarding a multi-class reunion brewing in New Jersey. It was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Morris Catholic High School, organized by […]