My Aunt Mary was quite deaf from a young age. We loved the story she told of what happened early in her teaching career. A boy raised his hand and asked, “Is it all right if I go over to John and hit him on the head?” My aunt’s response, “Yes, if you do it […]
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Joseph Beardsley, Poland: Listening for the call of freedom
South Jersey, where I grew up, is marked by waterways, within and all around. Waterways and stories of freedom. All kinds of sounds are carried over the flat terrain. Rumors, signals, warnings, pointers – they kept listeners alert. Sounds were music to ears that were trained in hearing – and in overhearing. Keen listening was […]
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Amanda Russell, Edgecomb: A space big enough to hold the truth
The words I overheard that moment sent me under my big, black bed where I often went to be alone, to figure things out, to hide. I didn’t know exactly what the repercussions of the words were, but I knew that they were about what my family was going through. I couldn’t even put it […]
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Marilyn Weymouth Seguin, Gray: Setting a place for those who came before
There are more guests at the table than the hosts Invited; the illuminated hall Is thronged with quiet, inoffensive ghosts, As silent as the pictures on the wall. – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Haunted Houses” When we bought our camp on Little Sebago Lake in 1996, it came furnished – comfortable musty furniture, cooking pots and […]
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Steven Price, Kennebunkport: Ghost in the machine
I’m a materialist, so I don’t believe in ghosts. I do, however, believe in ghost stories, and one of the best is Shirley Jackson’s “The Haunting of Hill House,” on par with Henry James’ “The Turn of the Screw.” In these two stories, the emphasis is less on the supernatural and more on the psychological […]
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Joan Newkirk, Bath: The presence of a loyal dog won’t fade away
Even now, years later, it happens. I can be walking on a familiar trail and I will look back to see if she is following me. Sometimes I think that I see her black form running jauntily in and out of the woods. Although I expect her to race up to greet me, I know […]
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Amanda Russell, Edgecomb: Learning how to fly
For 50 years, one ghostly memory has haunted me. I sometimes wonder if it ever happened at all. Yet, I know the killdeer in the field was real, and it was the killdeer’s nest that inspired me for the moment I am about to tell you about. I was 12. That summer my mother allowed […]
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Gregory Greenleaf, Harpswell: Ghosts live in the internet
I see dead people. The first sighting occurred while watching a Charlie Chaplin film made in 1915 when I realized every actor who came on the screen – everyone – was now dead but also now alive and spooling along in a grainy black and white digitized film. The Tramp, dead. His love interest, dead. […]
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Kay Wheeler, Raymond: Mr. Moulton’s legacy
Back in 1965, my husband and I bought a new house in New Hampshire. I had no friends in the new neighborhood but was so busy with my 2- and 4-year-old children that I didn’t give it much thought. The house we bought was lovely and surrounded by woods. At the end of the block […]
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Lynne Benoit-Vachon, Wells: Getting healthier, two hours at a time
Next year marks the 20th anniversary of my friendship with Fred. My “Fred-ship.” He still wears the oversized T-shirts and baggy sweatpants he did when I first spied him in Pilates class. Bearded and baseball-capped, leg circling in the air, sneaker laces dangling. Side by side, we went through the movements and motions, still strangers. […]