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growinguponcolumbusstreet 
Darlene Kelly, I just finished reading your story “The Story Teller is You” and some of your father’s early life roughly parallels my fathers’. His mother was born in Fort Fairfield, ME, and his father was born in Mars Hill, ME. Sometime after my father retired in 1976 from teaching Vocational Agriculture at Rockville High School in Vernon, CT, he sat at my parents kitchen table and began to write his memoirs, which he called his “Memory Book”. He also grew up in Northern Maine, bring born in 1910 in the little town of Easton, about 3 miles from the New Brunswick border. Dad had 2 brothers, Carleton, born 12 years before in 1898, and Vernon, born in 1902, but unfortunately,Dad was not able to know Vernon because he died in 1908, and Dad’s father died in 1915 from TB, when Dad was 5 yrs. old. Dad’s brother, Carleton went to the University of Maine in Presque Isle, and taught high school in Caribou, I think. Dad’s Memory Book is full of stories of his own immediate family, his grandparents’, aunts and uncles, and lots of cousins,on both sides of his parents’ families. Since he didn’t know his father very well, he learned a great deal about him from his family relations and friends of the family. Dad’s “Memory Book” is a looseleaf notebook 1-1/2 inches thick filled with handwritten lined notebook paper, business-sized envelopes if he ran out of lined paper. Four years ago, I began to photocopy some of the pages he wrote about his grandfather Landers for my nieces and nephew, and my 2 sisters, because after my father’s death in 1996, my nephew was given the tools and tool chest that my nephew’s 2nd Great-grandfather Landers used to build his first home in Phillips, ME around 18551-1852, and his 2nd home in Mars Hill, ME, after 1868. My mother also wrote of her memories, not in the same way as Dad but also in longhand, sometimes in shorthand, and typewritten. Her mother was born in the house next door to me here in Ellington, CT, and her father was a mid-Westerner, born in south-western Iowa. Her stories are just as interesting as Dad’s, and here again, some come down from both sides of heer parents’ families, and to add to all this, I have added stories that my aunt, Mom’s twin, told me over the many years I lived with her in this home that was hers, and is now mine. I didn’t mean to write so much, but it is very hard to condense, and I certainly didn’t mean to take away from your very interesting story. I must close and go to bed. the clock seems to stand still when I’m on these sites.
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Joan, thanks for taking the time to write. Both your mother and father wrote things down! What a treasure trove you have. Thanks for taking the time to share with me.
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Darlene, I found your wonderful stories by accident…a very happy, unexpected accident and I’ve been enjoying them for days! You are really a gifted, talented wr. When I’m reading about your childhood, your aunties and most especially, your party, I’m right there, in the cabin, in the kitchen, at the beach. Please, please keep these stories coming! They’ve been the highlight of my week!
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Hi, thanks so much for letting me know. The blog has about 350 stories. Should keep you busy for a while. Enjoy!
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