I was eager to go to the grand opening of a new grocery store at Cook’s Corner in Brunswick. I was expecting free food samples or free helium balloons. I didn’t get either one, but I did receive a $2 coupon for cheddar cheese from a cheerful greeter as I pushed my cart into the […]

The Lincoln County News started a discourse with the Damariscotta Historical Society story about old houses in my hometown. One, long ago torn down for a new highway, belonged to the Alexander Yates family: merchants, shippers and one missionary. Reportedly, they exported rum to western Africa “in exchange for profitable and valuable cargo.” That set […]

Can a hometown be not the town you grew up in, but the town you feel the most at home in? If so, Rumford is that town for me. I grew up in South Portland and moved back for almost 10 years, but I don’t feel the attachment to it that I do to Rumford. Rumford […]

On weekend mornings Jon and I sometimes walk down the hill to the Bayou Kitchen. Enjoying a Huey P. Long and blueberry cornbread at the counter, we chat with the dishwasher as the owner warms our coffee. Paintings of bougainvillea dripping off the balconies of Creole homes, images of gators and swamp scenes fill the […]