A few weeks ago someone asked, via text/FB/email – I can’t remember which or who – if the Historical Society had a photo of Breezemere, the dance hall that once stood at the head of Nortons Pond, the park that today has its name. I said I’d keep an eye out, and sure enough, Friday, at our weekly inventory workshop at the Schoolhouse Museum, we came upon John Knight’s Breezemere scrapbook.

Now scrapbooks were popular back in the day, when most households took a newspaper or two, the young or the old with time on their hands, loved cutting and pasting. They filled faux leather-bound scrapbooks to bursting with the ephemera they found, usually not pertinent to Lincolnville unfortunately, with quirky articles, cartoons, silly sayings. Think of it as the Facebook of the day, a place to show, if not the world, at least yourself how sharp you were at spotting the latest trend.

What I think of as the grand prize winner of scrapbooks is the one my son plucked out of the dump, or rather was handed to him by one of the fellows working the commercial hopper. At nearly 12 inches thick, it has over 1,000 pages (I didn’t count, but the forgotten person who assembled it did and made note near the front), and documents World War II start to finish in clippings, maps, and photos gleaned from the newspapers and magazines.

It has no connection to Lincolnville that I can see, but it’s currently on display as one of our curiosities. Soon to join it is the 8 x 10 photo of a local fellow mounted in a toilet seat. I figure it’s the prerogative of the Museum’s curators to decide what stays and what goes. Before long we’ll be re-working our “accession policy”, and that will, sadly, probably take care of the random odd item.

But back to the Breezemere scrapbook. There it was, lying in an archival box, wrapped in a muslin bag, the ones we make to hold fragile items. It’s accession number led us to its catalog file where we saw it had been donated in 2005 by John Knight.

John was one of the elders, as I think of them, the old folks I met when I was still too young to know what to ask. Not that John didn’t share his stories, several of which turn up in Jackie Watt’s own “scrapbook histories” as she called her three histories of Lincolnville. I suspect we’ll find him telling tales in the collection of Founders Day videos Jackie so carefully recorded and saved.

Trouble is, those stories are on videotape. Until we get around to digitizing them, they’re silent, lining on a shelf in our office. Anybody willing or able to take on that task??

John and his sister, Ruth Knight Ziroika, were born at the Barrett farmstead on the Turnpike, but spent a good deal of their childhood with their grandfather, Avans Piper Knight, at his farm on Searsmont Road. In later years John spent summers at his Pitcher Pond camp, like so many of the oldtimers I remember, always keeping a connection to his hometown.

Here’s how he described it to the doubters in the Legislature he met in Augusta when he was up there to testify for or against several bills: they apparently loved teasing him, saying they’d never heard of Lincolnville.

“Why, Lincolnville is bounded on the East.” John told them, “by the high and low tides of the Atlantic Ocean and the Penobscot Bay. On the North it is bordered by Searsmont and the gentle slopes of Moody Mountain. On the South it is bounded by the sovereign town of Camden and the beautiful Camden hills. On the West it is bounded by the land of Hope and the sunset rays of the Day of Judgement!” 

With his eloquent wording it’s obvious (to those of us busily transcribing their writings) that John Knight was the nephew of Arno Knight, our town’s most prolific journal writer, and cousin to Arne Knight, a poet relentless in  praise of his town.

The scrapbook is slim, neat and to the point. Its pages are filled with several photos of the building and its environs, but sadly, none of the dances themselves. Newspaper clippings announce the coming dances which were held every Saturday and Wednesday evenings through the summer. It appears to cover the 1930s, though there are few dates giving the year. I’m guessing that Priscilla Knight, John’s aunt, did the clipping and pasting, recording the years she and her husband, Ben, ran the place.

Here’s what John had to say about Breezemere and its connection to his family:

Members of my family were involved in its operation during the middle 30s. The dance hall was built around 1930. The man who had it built was Alphonso Wentworth, popularly known as “Phon”. The structure was strongly built by a few local boys, under the direction of Freddy Gray. [He of the above-mentioned toilet seat framed photo] I don’t know who the first operators of the dance hall were, but I believe that Phon always owned it until Freddy became the owner. 

About 1934 or 1935 my Uncle Ben and Aunt Priscilla (Mr. and Mrs. B.J. Knight) started running the dances at Breezemere, and did so for the next few years. They also operated the roadside lunchroom or snack shop and managed the cottages on the shore of the pond.  

During those summers they lived in the old Wentworth house, which still stands on the height of land beside Route 52. I don’t recall what arrangement they had with Mr. Wentworth but I guess that today it would be called a package deal.

On nights when there was a dance, there was a lunch counter or “snack bar” at the end of the dance hall. Uncle Ben and Aunt Priscilla also ran that, although I see to recall that one season they sublet it to another couple.

My brother Joe used to work there summers, and he stayed up at the Wentworth place. There one or two young women who worked around the snack bar part-time. There were a couple of fellows …. who helped out around the hall on dance nights. The only ones I can name today are my brother, Joe Knight, and Gordon Scruton. [Does anyone know who these people were?]

There was a good deal of “action” outside of the dance hall during intermission; however, as I recall, nobody every got seriously hurt and most of the incidents ended with a handshake.

 Actually, I remember it as a fun place. There was little vandalism or theft, even though times were tougher then. I never knew of any muggings or assaults. A lot of us, and I was one, couldn’t dance, so we’d hang around outside and listen to the music. It was great fun, and inexpensive.

There didn’t seem to be any more drinking around Breezemere than there was around any other dance hall in Knox or Waldo counties, but the name itself seemed to be ripe for parody. It was considered hilarious if you referred to it as “Boozemere”.

There were two evenings a week of roller skating, with music provided by a record player. On Saturday there would be a live band and dancing. One woman described it as a romantic place, but went on to tell about the fights that went on outside. Still, she had good memories of Breezemere. In later years Freddy Gray was using the it as a carpentry shop.

Fire finally claimed the building in 1960 during Hurricane Donna. A live wire that led to an outside light apparently came free and sparked the blaze. Millard Eugley remembered burning shingles blowing all over the Center during the fire, some landing far up Wentworth Road.

School

The biggest event this week is the student covid vaccination clinic to be held at the school Tuesday, Nov. 9. As was done for students 12 and over, this in-school clinic will be for children 5-11. In addition, the school committee approved an opt-in only pooled testing program beginning with staff members. If all goes well this trial will be moved on to students who want to participate.

As an aside, the Bangor Daily News this morning wrote about the stress unvaccinated patients with Covid are putting on LifeFlight, the nonprofit that transports Maine people to hospitals. There is worry that Maine’s Covid numbers are not going down. The good news is the CDC’s approval of vaccination for 5-11 year-olds.

School will be dismissed after lunch on Wednesday with the afternoon given over to teacher-parent conferences. No school on Thursday as it’s Veterans Day.

Read school news, basketball starting up, and the PTO’s wreath sale on this week’s Lynx.

Cemetery Fence Repaired

A couple of years ago a motorist went off the road and destroyed the iron fence along Union Cemetery on Belfast (Route 52) Road. Thanks to Ben Leavitt, of Hope, the 1881 ironwork has been replicated. Ben, who produces a wide array of hand-forged metal items from railings to gates, furniture and sign brackets, sculpture and fences – works out of his shop across from the Hope General Store. Next time you drive by Union Cemetery, located just before the Slab City intersection heading towards Belfast, stop and take a look. Better yet, get out and wander through this handsome old cemetery. Use your phone to click on the QR code sign near the entrance and learn its history and a list of burials.

It’s Back!

The annual Holiday Antique and Gift Show will be held once again at the Community Building in the Center, 18 Searsmont Road, Saturday, November 20 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Come by for antiques and curiosties, handcrafted gifts, seasonal decorations and lots of good food. Pianist Peter Saladino will be playing to add to the festive atmosphere.