When members of the Presque Isle Community Band boarded a train for day trip to Searsport July 28, 1911, they had no idea the day would end in tragedy. The story of the collision at Grindstone that killed seven people and injured 15 unfolds on the pages of the new Echoes magazine released this month.
Contributed photo
The summer issue of Echoes is now available
“It became a night of unspeakable horror and chaos,” writes Alan Boone, a Presque Isle native who researched what he calls a “forgotten tragedy,” collecting poignant photos from the period. His uncle, Ralph Boone, was among the surviving passengers who saw “many acts of selflessness and even heroism.”
Wrapped in a cover painting of a farm in Frenchville by William Duncan of Stockholm, Issue 93 also features the history of Long Lake’s Pelletier Island in excerpts from an article by Paul Marin of Madawaska. Another feature presents the written responses of third-grade students in Augusta to a reading of Ethel Pochocki’s classic book “A Penny for a Hundred.”
In stories of youth Bob Fields, Roger Parent and Gary Cameron recall memories of growing up. Fields predicted his life would be “Just like in the movies” when he moved from Houlton to Connecticut just out of high school to try and get a high paying factory job. When he arrived he found life less than glamorous. Homeless with only $50 dollars to his name, Fields tells us the story of how a northern Maine kid survived in the big city.
In part VII of the series “From Maine to Thailand” Parent of Lille recounts how his Peace Corps assignment in Thailand brought him out of the shyness that plagued him since childhood. “The Thais taught me that my shyness was just fine, and from them I learned to accept myself more fully…”
Cameron of Caribou spills his heart in a piece titled “True Love” written about his first love that he met when he was 13 years old, but this short story has an unexpected twist.
Columnist Glenna Smith of Presque Isle attempts to find out just what exactly a paraben is in Old County Woman, and Kathryn Olmstead introduces Echoes magazine’s 2011 summer intern, Shannon Butler of Caribou, in “Imagining Magic.”
Two essays reflect on growing old and watching loved ones grow old. In “Golden Gratitude” Leonard Hutchins of Chapman pays tribute to his mother as he recounts her battle with Alzheimer’s disease. Columnist John Dombek also shares his experiences with growing older in his humorous piece “Getting Personal,” which describes a stay in the hospital.
Barbara Shaw of Willamstown, N.B., reminds us that people are not the only things that age. In “Ghosts of the Pasts” Shaw remembers the majestic barns that once dotted the northern landscape now falling into ruin.
Echoes jumps into summer with fresh stories about planting and nourishing backyard gardens. In a column about letting nothing go to waste, Lucy Leaf describes how she gardens with “humanure.” “Human waste, if handled well, turns into perfect soil,” says Leaf, who uses every resource available to her.
John Jemison, a soil and water specialist tells of the importance of having a garden to reduce the consumption of oil required to ship food from every corner of the world to our neighborhood grocery stores. Jemison suggests that the concept of the victory garden be resurrected to replace food from away with local goods.
Poetry by 12 writers from all over illuminates the visible beauty of northern Maine as well as the intangible beauty of personal experiences here.
In “The Mystique of Katahdin” Paul A. Lucey pays tribute to one of Maine’s most prominent and well-known geological features.
Published quarterly in Caribou and printed at Northeast Publishing Co. in Presque Isle, Echoes is dedicated to rediscovering community and preserving qualities of life at risk in today’s society: echoesofmaine.com.