Presque Isle native Melissa Crowe laments some of the changes that have disguised the downtown she knew in the 1970s and ‘80s, but she applauds the conversion of the old Wight Furniture building into the Wintergreen Arts Center. Writing for the current edition of Echoes magazine, released Oct. 2, she compares the gradual transformation of downtown Presque Isle to artistic “pentimento” – a new picture painted on top of the old.
Contributed photo
FRESH OFF THE PRESS — Stunning photos of twin deer and a “country kitchen” on the front and back covers of the 86th edition of Echoes magazine are the work of Ashland photographer Mike McNally. The latest edition of the Caribou-based magazine hit newsstands Oct. 3.
Crowe’s feelings about downtown are echoed by Ann Wight and Audrey Thibodeau as they tour the Wight building with art center director Lara Cannon and urge her not to spoil it in her restoration plans.
“It occurs to me as I listen to these recorded voices,” Crowe writes, “that what is being made of the old Wight Furniture building might be a perfect example of the kind of collaboration that could result in a reinvigorated downtown that feels like home to all of us.” She affirms that with its mission of “providing art and community to folks of all ages” the arts center “could become a beautiful new layer to the story of the Wight Building and of downtown Presque Isle.”
Crowe’s essay is one of several in the new Echoes, including one by Glenna Johnson Smith of Presque Isle reflecting on the significance of ancient calendars that end in 2012. Titled “Predictions,” her piece details the experiences of her son following an auto accident and is accompanied by his poem “Pocomoonshine.”
Houlton native John Dombek probes the process of self discovery in an essay titled “Something Greater,” and the writers of three life stories take readers into their childhoods for adventures climbing trees, picnicking on the Maine coast and mocking Eleanor Roosevelt.
In her regular “Old County Woman” column, Smith exercises her imagination in “The Newlywed and the Hired Man,” while editor Kathryn Olmstead’s “First Person Plural” column traces the events inspired by Echoes articles on Presque Isle’s famed race horse John R. Braden.
Echoes No. 86 also contains a profile of an artist from Frenchville with a career in Portland, a visit to a community garden in Orono that helps feed local senior citizens and a summary of life stories collected by the Maine Folklife Center’s Story Bank.
Another feature chronicles the life and death of Houlton soldier Harold Hoskin, from his youth as an Eagle Scout and leader at Houlton High School, through his marriage and military service, to his burial in 2007 in Arlington National Cemetery. In a tribute to members of what journalist Tom Brokaw called “the greatest generation,” writer and historian David Bergquist of Hermon, Maine, quotes those who knew Hoskin and describes the dogged determination of the man who finally brought him home 60 years after his death in 1944.
In the third of a series of life stories, former musher Lucy Leaf of Surry, Maine, continues documenting her 1990s sled dog expeditions in Labrador with her then husband Sam Woodward. Echoes 84 traced the couple’s 1,200-mile journey in Labrador and Quebec in 1990, which inspired the Labrador 400 Sled Dog race, featured in Echoes 85. “Journey on Sea Ice” in Issue 86 recounts their offshore adventures mushing among the caribou following trails of Inuit hunters along the rugged north coast. Leaf complements her Labrador story with a review of “Partridgeberry, Redberry, Lingonberry, Too”, by Maine children’s book author Ellen Bryan Obed who lived and taught in Labrador for 12 years.
Stunning photos of twin deer and a “country kitchen” on the front and back covers of Echoes 86 are the work of Ashland photographer Mike McNally.
Published quarterly in Caribou and printed in Presque Isle by Printworks, Echoes is in its 22nd year of “rediscovering community” by celebrating qualities of life at risk in today’s world. The magazine is available by subscription and on newsstands throughout northern Maine.
