John E. Lawrence, Winslow: Real Mainers come from all over

Paula Sparks, Windham: Turning over pieces in a puzzle

Jon Dubois, Sidney: No line is safe to touch – ever!

Elizabeth Dostie, Fairfield: Roots that go deep

Annunziata Graziano, South Portland: Learning how to be a Mainer

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, […]

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 […]

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 […]

John Lawrence, Winslow: Hiding out from Mom and Dad

In 1950, when I was 4 and my sister was 3, we were in the Ben Franklin Store on Main Street in Madison, Maine. Our mother had taken us there on a fine fall afternoon while our father was out deer hunting. For little kids, it was a pretty good walk from Nichols Street and […]

Walking through the woods of memory

One cold, quiet morning last autumn, I went out to the woods behind my family’s house in rural New Hampshire for solitude and fresh air. It was an intense and emotional week. I’d retuned home to to be with my father and sister to help take care of my mother, who was in hospice and […]