It’s the winter of 1979 and I’m sitting in a booth in some godforsaken little diner outside of Windham, and he says it again – for the umpteenth time – by way of introducing the next thing he feels like talking about. “As a matter of little or no interest …,” he says, before going […]
Meetinghouse
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
John E. Lawrence, Winslow: Real Mainers come from all over
What is a Real Mainer? My initial response to that question is that many of us have been and still are survivors and strivers. What else do you call a man who went into the woods with an ax and a rifle and made a living? How about the ones who went to sea, built […]
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Paula J. Currie-Raymond, Waterville: Helping the lost find faith in themselves
I have been in education for nearly 30 years under several hats. For the first 10 years, I worked among the support personnel. As I earned my degrees, I functioned as a lead teacher in special education and principal of a Christian school. And for the past 11 years, I have hung my bonnet in […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Bonnie Sammons, Belgrade: For the cost of a call, an illuminating Christmas gift
“Package for you, Bon.” That’s my dad announcing the mail from the front door. He stamps the snow off his boots and heads to the dining room, where the rest of us are crowded around the kitchen table chattering about Christmas and New Year’s plans. A package for me? Who would be sending me a […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Elizabeth Dostie, Fairfield Center: Treasures in the old cookbooks
All of my cookbooks had copyright dates from 1964 to 1971. The ones I mostly used, anyway. The decidedly not new “New Better Homes & Gardens” (Better Homes & Gardens, 1968) with the three-package cream cheese cheesecake recipe (p. 216) and the beef stroganoff (p. 238) with the 2 tablespoons of wine in it, which, […]
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Jody Rich, Waterville: As clear as the nose on my face
Errand list in hand. Good. Purse on shoulder. Good. Keys in other hand. Good to go. I put my hand on the doorknob to leave when something didn’t feel right. Criminy, I didn’t have my glasses. I chuckle at the thought of driving around town without them. All fuzzy-edged. The idea of the headache I […]
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Kassie Dwyer, Athens: Even a rusty tractor wheel can be a precious ring
It was like a scene out of a romantic movie … he was down on one knee in the pouring rain, asking me to be his wife. But instead of a ring, he had a rusty tractor wheel (it was the closest thing at hand); I was holding a weed wacker. My high school sweetheart […]
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Carl Little, Somesville: An eagle at Echo Lake
This past March, early in the month, on a Saturday, the day before a big snowstorm, I decided to get outside. This time of year you need to get cold and walk on snow and ice or you’ll go stale, was my thinking. At the end of the driveway I put on snowshoes and set […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Mary Capobianco, Scarborough: All in a day’s work
I recently attended a Catholic church in northern Maine, built in 1937. When the service ended, the pastor asked those present to consider a donation toward the needed furnace. And by the way, he wondered, did anyone know someone who might remember how they got the furnace into the basement in the first place? The […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Pete Coughlan, Randolph: Treasure at the bottom of Moosehead Lake
It was July 1970 when the Viet Nam War was raging, and as a high schooler in South Portland, I found that our local VFW hall was selling “POW bracelets” for $3. These bracelets were sold with the name of a soldier who was missing in action or lost in combat. The pledge was to […]