By Ted Sylvester

(Aunt Fanny was a fictitious person Ted used to write to in this column. She resided up in Aroostook County when Ted used to work up that way for the BDN. Note the school controversy. Sound familiar?)

Dear Aunt Fanny:

It’s been a year since our last correspondence. We are sending greetings and holiday wishes from the good folks of Midcoast Maine. All in all, it has been a pretty good year along this, the best section of the coast. Sure, we’ve had some difficulties, controversies, and tragedies, but we are all looking forward to a happy and prosperous new year.

The tourist season along the coast was superb, judging from all the traffic along Route 1 that at times was backed up from here to Bath and beyond. There was plenty of economic development hereabouts. The industrial park continued to attract tenants. There was construction of a brand new shopping center that opened in full force this year, and the enlargement of a competing supermarket in a shopping center down the street.

Unemployment was at an all-time low. In fact, Knox County had the lowest unemployment rate in the state at last report. Even the weather cooperated most of the year. Oh sure, we had some heavy storms last winter and more than our share of snow. But the summer was especially nice, and we always seem to be spared the disastrous storms. The major flood in April virtually avoided us.

Some of the major events of the year involved a number of subjects, ranging from fish odors to school board reapportionment. At year’s end, the fish odor controversy was far from over, but the school apportionment issue was finally settled after court battles, school board battles, and a final decision by the State Board of Education. During the controversy, the towns of Owls Head and South Thomaston considered withdrawing from the district. These efforts fizzled when they failed to gain voter support.

On the city level, the major developments, or non-developments, during 1987, besides the continuing controversy over whether Seapro should be allowed to continue its fish-rendering operations, included indecision and the lack of a fish-pier operation, numerous court battles with developer Theodore Stone, and a furor over whether a small public park should have been used for a new playground. It was, and is, used extensively. The community effort to collect more than a million pennies for the project was the most commendable example of public spirit this city has seen for many years.

The basketball and golf teams from Rockland also created considerable excitement this year. Both the boys and girls basketball teams went to the Eastern Maine finals against teams from Mt. View. While the local teams didn’t capture the gold, their efforts were outstanding. And as usual, nobody in the state can touch the RDHS Gold Team.

There were so many changes in personnel this year, at both the city and school levels, one needed a score card to keep track. Some of the changes in SAD 5 included a new superintendent, new principal, and new football and basketball coaches. At City Hall, newcomers included an assessor, a finance director, and a public works director. At year’s end, both the city clerk and city attorney had announced their resignations to be effective early in 1988.

There also was a changing of the guard on the elected boards. The council and school board saw two new faces being seated on each. As the two bodies looked at the new year, leaders promised that cohesiveness and cooperation would be the order of the day. On the city level, it appeared that a restructuring of departments was in the making, with the addition of a city planner and a full-time city attorney.

Well, Aunt Fanny, that’s just touching some of the highlights of the year. I couldn’t close though without reporting on the trials and tribulations of the Friendly Do-It-Yourselfer. Overall, he had a pretty darn good year if one overlooks just a couple of deeds, like his self-inflicted gout with a spade, falling face first, naked, onto the floor of the shower room at the Trade Winds, and a bout with wifemate’s car in attempting to hook up a clock.

Happy New Year, Aunt Fanny, and have a Cool Yule.

Ted

Note: I believe that the following year, my nephew, Stuart Sylvester, Ted’s son, applied for and got the job of City Clerk since the position became vacant in 1987. He celebrated 25 years of service in 2012 I believe.

Kendall Merriam was born and raised in Rockland, Maine. He has a history degree from Gordon College in Wenham, MA and graduate studies in military and maritime history at the University of Maine at Orono and Mystic Seaport in Mystic, Conn. He also received grants to study historical research at Colonial Williamsburg and the National Archives in Washington, D.C. Merriam has been widely published, including in Katyn W Literaturze(Katyn in Literature), a Polish anthology of literary works about the WWII Katyn Forest Massacre by 120 international authors, including Czeslaw Milosz. Merriam has written more than twenty books and plays. Most of Merriam’s work has a definite muse – family, friends, and strangers – with life’s larger themes of work, love, loss and death. On April 29, 2010, Merriam was appointed Rockland, Maine’s Inaugural Poet Laureate, an honor from his hometown Merriam cherishes.

SNOW MOON

For Shubhra

A foot of heavy shoveling snow                       

every time clouds

let down their

heavy white tears

after shoveling, supper

a walk in the crisp moonlight

wearing boots, not sandals

kids sliding up the street

something I did at age ten

and came back

to the same warm house

with moon looking in on

a worn carpet

where now we have

bare spruce wood

Thai elephants

and calla lilies

from the supermarket

our two tiny tigers

prefer the heat

after years outside

someday, in full moon

you will meet them

Kendall Merriam, Home, 12/16/13  6:42 PM

Listening to a CD “Folk Songs of the World”

SOLSTICE MOON

                     For Ruth Barnett

As we were walking

To Joan’s house

For a pre-Christmas dinner

The full moon rose

A golden globe

Up from the harbor

Now, later on, it’s silver

Casting its light

On three feet of snow

Tomorrow we leave for Florida

I wonder if they have

A moon there

To glisten over the orange tree

In Nick’s backyard

In whose house we will be staying a week

He told us on the phone yesterday

It was in the 80’s

Here it was 6 degrees

And the plumes of sea smoke

Reminded Phyllis of of pictures

She had seen of Old Faithful

There are so many

Moon sightings

On Mechanic Street

I fill books with them

I think you are in England

Doing important work

For the Roma and Sinti

What do they offer you

As moon lore

Please write and tell me

So I will be accurate

Kendall Merriam, Home, 12/18/13   10:46 PM

Listening to Phyllis feed Girl Cat

SKY RIDE

Did Li Bai

anticipate airplanes

or did he fly on

heated yellow wine?

Would he be able

to dash off a poem

above the clouds

and receive bags

of silver

from merchants

who cannot write

but want something

to prize

for a long life?

Kendall Merriam 12.26.2013

Aboard Southwest Airlines between Orlando and Baltimore

POEM FOR VLADIMIR MAYAKOVSKY

I’ve sent poems to this town twice

They were ripped up

By girls who didn’t know

How to put a bullet through the heart

Here in my black and yellow blouse

You laugh at the radish

And don’t know the hole

You tore in my undershirt

I don’t curse you, you unknowing

You who have lost the key

To my identity

I am just filing a complaint

To the Complaint Bureau

To get back my poems

Since I still own the literary rights

You, Brik

And you, Lila

You have stolen my words

And for what

Not the revolution

You don’t care a fart for that

Not that

But to give me grief

And to hold on to some other man’s

Body in a tantric trance

You, your husband, the publisher of goatskin books

Who drinks light beer to my dark

He has never gripped your hair in his face

As I have

Or cupped your Swedish face

In his bad left hand

This town has a jail

And I’ve been in it

And while I told of my orchidectomy

You or some representative of you

Screamed in the next room

“My God, My God, I didn’t know, I didn’t know!”

No you didn’t, how could you

My sweet whisperer of secret prayerbooks

Not found or given to Checka by your husband

If I returned to Kiev

And read your secret prayerbook

On stage with Burluik and the piano

Who would laugh then, these bourgoise

These apple eaters, horse beaters

And if I added my own words to yours

They would knash their teeth to splinters

To hear us fight

Out of loneliness

And not of love

You have offered me nothing but a glimpse

Of your breasts beneath your undershirt

While I have immortalized you

In words

God’s precious ants

If you burnt it up

That’s not my fault

For me,

I’ll have a raspberry liqueur

Kendall Merriam, time, place, date unknown

Published in Contact II  NYC

Sonny’s

Sunshine Corner

Happy New Year to all of you out there who continue to enjoy “Beyond the South End” blogs every month. Readership is now over 39,000. Thank you very much. Thank you also for your feedback. Many of you have contacted me on Facebook or by email, especially in the past month. I appreciate your comments. Contact me by FB, email at southendstories@aol.com, or just type a comment at the end of a story you like on the blog. Once I read and approve it, it will appear in that space.

Nanci and I went to see “Frozen,” the Disney film, on Christmas. Going to the movies on Christmas has become a tradition with us. We enjoyed the movie very much and we both highly recommend it for people of all ages. The detail in the film was exquisite and shows how much Disney has come technically since the first animated Disney film I saw, “Cinderella,” which I re-watched on TV during the holiday season.

We also decided to give ourselves a break and pick an easy Christmas dinner. We choose baby back ribs from a local BBQ place. The South does BBQ the best of anyone, and we wanted to take advantage of it one more time before we eventually leave these parts. We added vegetables and apple pie and we were all set.

Speaking of apples, I recently met up with a Facebook friend from home, Ruth Wade, up at Starbucks off I-85. It was pouring rain but Nanci and I met with Ruth to pick up some Macintosh apples and Maine yellow-eyed beans, which I forgot to pick up this summer. You can’t buy either of them down here and she was nice enough to bring me both when she saw I was bemoaning that fact on Facebook. She was making a trip down to North Carolina and said she wouldn’t mind bringing me some. God Bless, Ruth and God Bless Facebook!

As for the year just passed, we lost three people we know: Mrs. Norma Tiffany, a high school teacher; Darold Poulin, a 1959 classmate; and Linda Knowlton Stanley, sister of one of my best friends in high school. We were happy, however, when our dear Aunt Virginia, who turned 103 on December 7, is back home after a fall sent her to the hospital and nursing home care for a while. We look forward to having her with us in the New Year.

Nanci and I followed another tradition of ours and went to the calendar store at the mall on New Year’s Eve day to pick up new calendars for the coming year. We always put up a cat calendar on the wall in the kitchen/dining area. This year we have Maine coon cats. Nanci picked up another Harry Potter daily calendar and I got my small pocket-sized appointment calendar to keep track of my appointments.

This past year my book, “The South End” continued to sell. I thank you all for that too. I am still working on the next book. One note about the story in December’s blog, “A Boy and his Dog…A Christmas Story.” The story is entirely fictional. I did use local references and the paper route is the actual route my brother Ted took when he had a paper route for the Courier when he was a kid about the same age as Quint. The name Quint also did come from a swimming instructor I had as a camper at Methodist Church Camp.

Coming up in the blog, once I can coordinate everything, I will bring you some of the research Austin Nagel has sent me concerning his connection to the Pillsbury family, long-time seafarers from Rockland.

If I get the information in time and am able to travel downeast, I may end up at my 50^th college class reunion at University of Maine at Machias, which was called Washington State Teachers College when I attended. We’ll see how it goes.

I leave you with a couple of fun things you might want to look into. The first is the sweepstakes for HGTV’s new vacation home in Lake Tahoe. You can enter in two places online: www.frontdoor.com/dreamhome; pick up the other link from there to HGTV’s site and don’t forget the second chance drawing for a GMC car. You can enter every day.

The other fun thing I just did online is a test to see what character you are most alike on Downton Abbey, which returns to TV soon. The link is www.buzzfeed.com. I came out as Anna. Nanci came out as Anna’s Mr. Bates. How’d that happen?

They describe me in relation to Anna as: “You have a heart of gold and are willing to look past physical attributes like pudginess and uneven walking ability. You even stand by your SO (whatever that means) when they’re convicted of murder. You’re Grade-A wifey material!”

So there you have it. Have fun and I wish you and yours a healthy, happy, and prosperous New Year. And please, won’t someone go down to my brother Ted’s house and unclog their frozen pipes. He says they’ve been that way for two days. Brrrr.

Butchie wishes everyone a begrudgingly good New Year.

Thomaston Library News

Intergenerational Book Club to Discuss The News from Spain

On Tuesday, January 21st, at 2:30 PM, the Intergenerational Book Club will discuss The News from Spain by Joan Wickersham.

The News From Spain is a collection of seven stories, or variations, by Joan Wickersham. Each of the stories is called The News From Spain, though none take place in nor really relate to the country, and as a whole they are concerned with heartbreak, regret, and intimacy. In one story, a paralyzed ballet dancer, married to an unfaithful choreographer, finds emotional respite with her caregiver. In another, a wife, discovering her husband is an adulterer, worries about how easily she and he are falling, in spite of everything, back into stride.

The collection is ultimately a nuanced look at relationships: at what makes them and what causes them to come apart.

On the third Tuesday of every month, the Intergenerational Book Club, a group of men and women of all ages, comes together to share their opinions and ideas about the book selection. Extra copies of the books are purchased by the Friends of the Thomaston Public Library from the Annual Appeal funds. We thank you for your donations. All are welcome at the Thomaston Library on January 21st at 2:30  p.m.

If you live in Thomaston and need a ride to the discussion, please call the library at 354-2453.

Friday Night Films are open to the public and free of charge, but donations are gratefully accepted.    The Thomaston Academy Building is handicapped accessible from the parking lot Light refreshments will be served. For more information call the library at 354-2453.

 Assistant Librarian, Joanna Hynd, reading to children.

Thursday is Children’s Story Hour

The Children’s Room has a number of new themes slated for Thursday Story Hour in January. We will be starting the month with a block party, that is, a party of building with blocks. Have fun finding hidden shapes in the Children’s Room and make your own picture frame. We will read a shape-finding story by Eric Carle. The next week join us for a fun pizza craft and to read Jamberry by Bruce Degen during a “yummy” themed Story Hour. We will play alphabet games and read about letters the following week. Then join us for a pajama party when we will be doing a glow stick/firefly craft. The last week in January we will be “Going on a Bear Hunt!” and eating a yummy panda bear snack.

            January 2^nd- What Shape is it?

            January 9^th- Yummy Yummy

            January 16^th- Now I Know My ABC’s

            January 23^rd- Tuck Me In

            January 30^th- Going on a Bear Hunt

The Thomaston Public Library is located at the old Academy Building at 60 Main St. in Thomaston. Parking is located at the rear. Story Hour is every Thursday starting at 11am. We request that all children under the age of 13 visit the library with a parent or guardian. Hope to see you there.

Bernard Langlais Art Reception

Friday, January 24, 5:00 to 6:30 PM

The Thomaston Public Library will host a reception on January 24th to display the wood-sculptured artworks of Maine artist Bernard Langlais, which were gifted to the library late in 2013 and will now be on permanent display. The pieces are wood-relief wall hangings, two of them abstract and three figurative.

In 2010, Colby College received a large bequest of artworks by Bernard “Blackie” Langlais (born in Old Town, Maine) from the artist’s widow, Helen Langlais, along with the couple's 90-acre property in Cushing. Recognizing the site's importance, Colby contacted Kohler Foundation of Wisconsin about possible preservation of the collection and site.

Colby made a gift of nearly 3,000 Langlais artworks to Kohler Foundation, who preserved and gifted these works, which include wood reliefs, paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, to non-profit institutions throughout Maine and the United States. Thomaston Public Library is pleased to be one of those recipients.

Kohler Foundation is also conserving the outdoor sculptures on the Cushing property. A portion of the estate will be preserved as a sculpture park and will be named in honor of Bernard and Helen Langlais. The Georges River Land Trust of Rockland, Maine, will take ownership of the property and will collaborate with the Colby Museum on programming at the site.

The reception at the library on Friday, January 24, will provide the first opportunity for the local community to see the Langlais pieces the library has acquired. The reception will also feature detailed information about Bernard Langlais's life and work.

 

 

 

Saltwater Film Society Screening of Waiting for Guffman,

 Thursday, January 23, 6:30 PM

The title an obvious reference to Beckett's play Waiting for Godot, Waiting For Guffman is a mockumentary film by actor/director Christopher Guest of Spinal Tap fame. The film centers on the fictional town of Blaine, Missouri. A group of delusional townspeople, led by the eccentric director Corky St. Clair (played by Guest), are preparing to put on a show entitled Red, White, and Blaine, a musical chronicling the town's history to be performed in honor of the town's sesquicentennial.

The film follows the comically disastrous results of St. Clair's attempts to put on a show with no talent and a shoe-string budget, with musical numbers like "Nothing Ever Happens on Mars," a reference to the town's one-time UFO visitation, and "Stool Boom," a song that explains the town's epithet, "the stool capital of the United States."

The film will be shown in Room 200 of the Thomaston Academy Building.

For more information about the Saltwater Film Society, please see their website, http://www.saltwaterfilmsociety.org/.

Library to Participate in 6th Annual MLK Jr. Food Drive
The Thomaston Public Library is pleased to be a collection point for the 6th annual Martin Luther King, Jr., Food Drive for Local Food Pantries. Starting Tuesday, January 21st, two large receptacles will be in place in the main room of the library for your nonperishable food items. We will continue to collect for the food drive through the end of February.

Anyone preferring to make a monetary donation can drop off checks at the library's Circulation Desk. Please make out your checks to Thomaston Food Pantry.