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, […]
Meetinghouse
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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 […]
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Jaime Cypher, Otisfield: When the angels take up bowling
A father’s calm explanation made all the later storms of life easier to take.
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Lee Van Dyke, Portland: Hurricane leaves behind memory of shared jokes, feasts
People in Alabama remember hurricanes by name. Katrina (2005) spread devastation from New Orleans to Mississippi, leaving Gulf Shores looking like a war zone. Ivan (2004) dropped 4 inches of rain on Mobile Bay going one way, then circled back and dropped 8 more. Neighbors always ask newcomers if you were here and remember the last […]
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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.
Posted inMeetinghouse, Opinion
Anne Holliday Abbott, Portland: My father passed down blue eyes, and a singular outlook
My father, Samuel Holliday, had deep-set blue eyes that were the kind that threw you off. You never knew what he was thinking. Statistically only 8 percent of the world’s population has blue eyes, and it is believed that all blue-eyed people have one common European ancestor. These rarities fit well with the mercurial and […]
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