Last month, I went up to the attic in search of Christmas lights to hang around the kitchen window, or my bedroom. Or both. Something festive. Frivolous. Too late, I remembered I’d tossed them all – a bulb or two had gone out on most strings and the lights so old they weren’t the kind […]
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Steven Price, Kennebunkport: Laughing hides the fear of forgetting
On long car trips, my wife and I play a memory game called “In My Grandmother’s Attic.” If you’re not familiar with this game, it goes like this: The person to start the game says, “In my grandmother’s attic I found a …” and that person must name something that starts with the letter “A,” […]
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Nancye Tuttle, Wells: What nature abhors is upstairs
I’m a sucker for old stuff. Dishes, cookbooks, toys, teapots, bric-a-brac – you call it junk and relegate it to the recycle bin or dump. But it’s treasure to me, and I refuse to part with it, despite my noble efforts to downsize and rid myself of all things old. My husband and I took […]
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Peter Vose, Falmouth: Where there’s a hinge, there’s a way
I fished in the pockets of my running shorts for the key. Not there. I felt urgently for the key. Still nothing. I groped urgently for the key. Nothing.Then I turned the pockets inside out, saw the hole and understood that I was locked out. I did not panic. Yet. I simply retraced my steps, […]
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Lee Van Dyke, Portland; Flirting with a life of crime
I learned about breaking in from the movies. When the crook was locked out of a massive vault, he’d file his fingers for increased sensitivity, and “crack that safe.” So I did the same when I was around 14. I had been hired to work in a mail room. I had to push boxes of […]
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Jody Rich, Waterville: Cooler, and younger, heads prevail
Summer of 2019, remember that? People came to visit and we got together to enjoy one another? It was during that time when my good friend Hattie had both of her adult children home for one such visit. I like to leave families alone at times when they can get together so they aren’t distracted […]
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Gary Moore, Cumberland: Be careful what you wish for
Being youngsters in the third grade of a grammar school in Maine, we were always hopeful that the next winter storm would give us a day off. Perhaps we would spend the day with the firemen at Portland’s Engine No. 11 nearby. It seemed especially delicious because the fire barn was right next door to […]
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Jenny McKendry, Hallowell: Amid downed limbs, a clear path emerges
The Ice Storm of ’98 was a catalyst for change in my life. It brought to a head the dissatisfaction I’d felt in my marriage, which I’d roiled against for years. Having avoided grabbing ahold of a choice to make my own, finally I saw the lay of the land from a new angle. It […]
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Nancye Tuttle, Wells: Danger from out of nowhere
“Don’t pick up the baby. Whatever you do, don’t pick up the baby.” My father-in-law’s voice boomed over the intercom from the flying bridge of his vessel, the Marnie II, as I sat frozen in fear in the salon below. The 32-foot-long boat tossed and turned in 10-foot seas as rain pounded down, thunder crashed […]
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Lee Van Dyke, Portland; Parents legacy is what they teach
But not everything passes from one generation to the next.