When you open a local newspaper or news website, which section do you invariably read? The Obituaries? The Court News? Police Log? Divorces? I’ll bet all of them, because most of us are naturally nosy. When we don’t find our own names, or one of our loved ones, we give a primitive sigh of relief. At least none of ours are in trouble. Or dead. Our reaction, when we do come upon a familiar name in these journalistic lists of human misery, is a bit more complicated, ranging from real shock to uncharitable gloating. Perhaps it’s a nasty, but gratifying thought – that kid was nothing but trouble from the start or serves her right, or more emphathetically, oh, his parents must be heartbroken or their poor children!

The thing is, we actually almost always know someone. Now think about reading The Boston Globe or The New York Times; probably not much chance you’d ever know anybody listed in their annals of misfortune. My brother, who lived in Washington, D.C., for most of his working life, used to say he came to Maine to get cocktail party conversation for the rest of the year.

“The stuff that happens around here,” he’d say, “never happens in Washington.”

Of course, it’s not that so much happens here, (it really doesn’t, right?), but that so often the bad things, as well as the good things, happen to people we actually know. And that brings me to my theme: the state of Maine is really just a big, small town. Wally and I watch the local TV news nearly every night, we take the Bangor Daily News, (it’s delivered out front at about 1:30 a.m. six days a week), and read the PenBay Pilot and Village Soup faithfully. Not much gets by us.

At least once a week, someone appears on the TV news that one of us knows. It could be a former student (we both taught in the area, he for 33 years and I for just four).  We regularly watched, from afar, as the children we taught grew up and began collecting summons to court: OUIs, shoplifting, speeding, failure to have car insurance, terrorizing, you name it.

There was a drowning in Rockland Harbor, a handful of AIDs deaths, suicides. Of course, there were marriages and birth announcements, followed too often by divorce. Notices of new businesses, military enlistments, charitable work, a sports award, even a guy with a big buck allowed us to share in their achievements. We rarely spot our former students in the lists of misery anymore; they’ve aged out of all that stuff, we say.

There are those random sightings too.

“That guy dated my sister,” Wally will say, or we recognize a friend of one of our sons, or, during political season I spot my cousin’s husband at a press conference.

A commercial for a lumberyard comes on, and there’s a guy Wally grew up with; during the high school basketball tournaments in February he almost always knows some of the referees and coaches. Even if you’ve only lived here for a couple of years, I’ll bet you’re starting to spot folks the same way.

But a story that’s made the rounds of local press this past week or so is in another catagory altogether. It’s the thirty year anniversary recap of the Waldo County cocaine bust; you can read about it, even listen to the author read it aloud, in Downeast Magazine or in last Saturday’s Bangor Daily News. A fictionalized version of this story was written by Stephen Dobyns in 1989, A Boat Off the Coast. I always thought this book was exaggerating the situation out of proportion, but now I’m not so sure.

For those of us who were living in Lincolnville, or in Waldo County, in 1985, these articles not only bring it all back, but in reading these accounts we learn more detail than most of us knew at the time. Some who were involved include a former student of Wally’s, a couple of our milk customers, and a neighbor. An entire family from Lincolnville entered the Witness Protection Program.  But most tragically, Scott LaCombe, who grew up in Lincolnville, was murdered in Northport the night before he was to appear in court.

This is where living in a small place can be so poignant, and so enriching. For it’s not just that we recognize names and faces in the news, but we actually know so much about one another; we know our neighbors’ failings (and they know ours). But we also know their best qualities. Scott was in college, studying to be a social worker; he was engaged to be married, and was hopeful that he would move beyond his involvement with cocaine.

A fellow signing his name as “Jim” posted this comment on the above-mentioned Bangor Daily News article:

“I was involved in that mess thirty years ago. I got hooked on cocaine … meeting Columbians … on woods roads. Boy was I nervous. … When I read this article the hair on my arms stood up. I thank God I got out of it when I did and I thank God I am alive today after what I read. Yes I was in it big time then … The addiction is real and bad. I tried it once … and got addicted instantly …. I could make a movie of those days that have gone by. To anyone who reads this please know that it is a bad road to go down. Yes I am clean today and have been since the late 80s.”

People can be frozen in time. Do something dumb, really dumb, when you’re young, and there’s always somebody who remembers. Well, I’m pretty sure the Scott I remember, friendly and open, looking forward to his future, would have been able to say with Jim, yes, it’s a bad road to go down, but I’m clean today…

This Wednesday at 7 p.m. the January Winter Presentation & Concert program at the Lincolnville Library will feature, as speaker, Tom Sadowski, Lincolnville’s own local humorist, Free Press columnist, and all around interesting guy. He’ll be followed by the playing of ragtime pianist Richard Kinney of Waldoboro. As of this writing there are still a few tickets left, $10 each. Contact Rosey Gerry, 975-5432 to reserve yours. Don’t miss this one!

Every Wednesday at 10-11:15 a.m. and Thursday at 1:15-2 p.m. at the Community Building, fitness instructor Becky Dunton leads classes in cardio fitness, strength, balance and flexibility. Donations are gratefully accepted. Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothing, and bring a yoga mat for the Thursday class. I’ve been attending pretty regularly, and highly recommend it!

The weekly Soup Cafe at the Community Building welcomes everyone to stop by for a free lunch: choice of three homemade soups (always one vegetarian), bread, fruit, and dessert. The Soup Cafe is a project of United Christian Church, and a great way to use the Community Building. Many will remember this building, which was built mostly with volunteer labor back in the 1960s, was given to the church after a gymnasium was built for the school.

The building was essentially a basketball court, and in pretty rough shape – holes in the walls, drafty windows covered with heavy wire, and a cavernous, chilly feel. Step into it today after a two-year renovation project, and see the changes. The ceiling has been lowered, new lighting installed, double paned windows replace those old ones, and the walls have been repaired and painted. The newly-insulated ceiling makes the whole building warmer. Next up, Phase II of the renovation, will be a handicapped-accessible bathroom and a kitchen. Which brings me back to the Soup Cafe. Bit by bit that kitchen is becoming a reality as a meal is being served weekly. The latest addition is a refrigerator, donated by Melissa Carr and Art Durity of Dot’s at the Beach.

     The guest preacher at United Christian Church this coming Sunday at 9:30 a.m. will be Rev. Kate Braestrup, a popular speaker and best-selling author, also one of “Lincolnville’s own.” All are welcome. What a lot of talent we have living in Lincolnville Center!

     A week from Friday, January 30, the first in a series of Fifth Friday Contra Dances will be held at the Community Building at 7 p.m. Mark your calendar, even if you’ve never done it before. Contra dancing is a lot of fun, good exercise, all ages can do it, and all dances are taught.

     Here’s an intriguing, upcoming workshop: A Brush with Fire Coaching and Expressive Arts will be holding a workshop on Atlantic Highway at Ducktrap on four Saturdays in February for anyone who has suffered significant loss of any sort: “Moving Grief: Telling Our Stories through paint, story, mask-making, music, collage, and writing.” Contact Kali 315-5616 for more information.

      Sympathy to the family and friends of Merv Taylor who passed away last week. You may have seen Merv in his favorite role: directing traffic. Places you’d have seen him were the day we moved the old schoolhouse, at several Strawberry Festivals, and most recently at last summer’s Library Picnic & Auction. Thanks for all the help, Merv.

 “When in Doubt, Call Us Out”

     Isn’t this the perfect motto for the Lincolnville Fire Department? You can repeat it to yourself when trying to decide if you should call for help for whatever situation’s going on around your place that has you worried – a whoosh up the chimney that sounds like a jet engine, but is probably a blazing stack of creosote, or a suspicious smell of burning electrical something.

     Thanks to the Fire Department’s Facebook page we learn that yes, do call. When in doubt, call us out. I’ll take that they mean it. By the way, if you’ve been Facebook-phobic, this is a public site that anyone can look at, as opposed to being “friends” with people. Think of it as the LFD’s website.

Whoever writes it, and I’m told a certain former fire chief has taken it on, has a great style. Looking back on the page for the past couple of weeks, I see that our firemen were called out for a rollover accident on Masalin Road late on Christmas Eve, then for a truck fire at the Beach New Year’s Eve morning. On Jan. 8 they responded to a 1:43 a.m. fire alarm on Mullens Bog Road; there was no fire, but a burst pipe. The good news was the temperature was 20º, not the -10º of the day before. A week later they were called to a serious accident in Northport to do traffic control (“we sent out our two best looking guys, Don and Todd”). Two days later, in the evening, a chimney fire on Miller Town Road kept them busy, chaining the chimney; “a bit of smoke in the house, but all is well. 
The homeowner did the right thing by calling. We would much rather come put out a chimney fire than come put out a chimney fire that turned into a house fire. Kudos to Joe Homeowner.” A couple of days after that found the guys doing cold water rescue training.

     At their recent annual meeting officers were elected: Chief – Ben Hazen, Deputy Chief – Don Fullinton III, Asst. Chief – A.J. Weed, Asst. Chief – Don Fullington Jr. Stepping down from Deputy and Assistant Chief were Pete Rollins and Mike Eugley. Again from the FB page: “what it means for the Department is some young energetic people willing to put the time in to “make it work”. Being in a leadership role comes with responsibilities and some headaches. Dealing with 20 – 30 personnel, the public (our customers) and making it work can be challenging. These two, A.J. and Donnie can do it. A can do attitude with a friendly disposition and common sense, it’s what it takes.”

The Five Town CSD School Board is hosting three listening sessions for staff, parents, and community members to discuss the qualities they would like in the next superintendent. See the Calendar (sidebar) for dates, times, and places.

 With basketball winding down the next Middle School sport is wrestling, always popular among our Lincolnville students. The 2015 Mid-Coast Wrestling Club Youth Program starts Tuesday, Jan. 20 and will meet every Tuesday and Thursday through early April in the Camden-Rockport Elementary School Gym. For more information, check out the article on the school’s newsletter, the latest Lynx or contact Jessica Chester, 230-9157 or Dwight Collins, 322-9751.

The other day the last of our old hens died; these Pearly White Leghorns definitely live up their billing. According to the Murray McMurray  catalog (the place to order chicks through the mail), these Pearly Whites “weigh about 4 lbs at maturity and start laying white eggs at 18 to 22 weeks. The feed to egg conversion ratio is excellent.  If you need a real egg producer in your backyard or small farm flock, the Pearl White Leghorn is the way to go.” And lay they do, so bountifully that by the time they’re two years old they’re completely done in. When we find one with her usually large, red comb drooping, shoulders hunched, sitting in a corner, we know she’ll be gone by morning. As we do with all our animals when they pass away, we put her out behind the henhouse to feed whoever comes by. It was a pair of ravens who found this last old girl, and fortunately she was in full view of our shop window. I stood with binoculars for a long time the other morning, watching those wonderful birds with their huge beaks tearing at the frozen carcass. Have you read Bernd Heinrich’s Ravens in Winter ? It makes you want to make a study of ravens. If the Library doesn’t have it, Sheila can order it from another library for you.

Anyway, now we’re no longer running an old hen home, but rather something that resembles a college dormitory on date night. All the sweet, young things (fresh white feathers, smooth legs, bright, alert combs) are giggling and preening, and competing for best nest box, while Chico Garcia, the enormous rooster Rose Thomas gave us last spring, lords over them all. Oh yes, plenty of eggs in the shop at Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs; help yourself -- $3 dozen.