It was frigid, midwinter 1991. I was 35 years old. The all-women’s party had been on the calendar for weeks. These parties, dear reader, were underground celebrations. Dozens of women from all over the area and all walks of life could stand around with a beer in one hand and talk softball, politics, work, tell […]
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Posted inMeetinghouse, Op-Eds, Opinion
Peter Gordon, Portland: Hope is just a phone call away
I’ll never forget the search coordinator’s first words after I picked up the phone: “Peter, are you sitting down?” Well, I was at the time, but when she broke the news, I jumped out of my seat screaming and punching my fist in the air, then dissolved into tears and sobs. When I called my […]
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Posted inMeetinghouse, Op-Eds, Opinion
J. Lauren Sangster, Portland: A voice from the past still soothes
When I think of a phone call that means something to me, I think of a voicemail from Mike. I found it sometime after Mike passed away, still sitting in the in-box on my phone since the day he left it, Aug. 8, 2018. For a while I listened to the words, “I saw you […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Candy Guerette, Topsham: A diploma for the happiest voice in the choir
The moment the band began playing “Pomp and Circumstance,” I reached into my purse for a tissue. Today closed a chapter in my daughter Aimee’s life, our life, as she marched into the auditorium for her high school graduation. She held her head high, trying to look serious. That wasn’t possible, it wasn’t her nature. […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
John E. Lawrence, Winslow: Speech showed not all knowledge is power
In this season, graduations are happening all around. This topic got me to think of the four of which I was a participant – in particular, the one at Schenck School in 1960. For the “honor” of having the highest grades in our class of 16, I was told by our teaching principal, Kenneth Taylor, […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Cheryl Stringer, New Gloucester: Leaving it all behind and discovering what lies ahead
It was a June evening in 1982, at Gray-New Gloucester High School. I zipped the flimsy graduation robe over my white and navy dress. I remember it was sailor-style; in retrospect a bit juvenile, but I was still more child than woman. I draped the yellow stole and the double-tasseled cord around my shoulders, then […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Richard W. Perkins, Ogunquit: Firing up the wood stove
I recently read that as we grow older, we are only older on the outside; inside we are forever young. In reflection of that adage, I wholeheartedly agree. As I approach my 89th birthday on Aug. 25, it seems only yesterday that I was a barefoot boy with a mop of blonde curls and blue […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
David M. Carew, Waterville: A matter of little or no interest
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 […]
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 […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Paula Sparks, Windham: Turning over pieces in a puzzle
I’m a Mainer. I have lived my entire life in two Maine towns. I married my hubby here and we raised our family here and hopefully will return to dust here. I go to bean “suppahs,” make whoopie pies and needhams, eat “original” Italian sandwiches, red hot dogs, lobster rolls with mayo and fried clams […]