‘Young girl’s memory’ was 10 years in the making
HOULTON — Lynn Olsen Brown, school health coordinator for SAD 29, will sign copies of her first book, “Alice, Frankenstein and Saturday Night Beans … a young girl’s memory of Bradford Farm,” at Cary Memorial Library in Houlton from 5 -7 p.m., this Friday, Dec. 4.
Brown doesn’t consider herself a writer. In fact, mathematics is her real forte. Yet following the death in 1996 of her aunt, Irene A. Bradford of Patten, Brown says she felt compelled to take up the pen, as it were, and become an author.
“Irene was a remarkable, caring woman,” says Brown, as she relaxes on the couch in her living room with a cat nestled in her lap. “I didn’t want her to be forgotten. She touched so many lives that I just thought her memory should last.’’
Now, 10 years after she first began the project, Brown’s collection of stories recall her experiences with her sister, Andrea Olsen Thurlow. They stayed with their aunt on a 100-year-old farm in Patten and became involved in the farm life of chores, chickens, cattle, pigs, hay, people and yes, even ghosts.
FIRST BOOK — Lynn Olsen Brown, school health coordinator for SAD 29, will sign copies of her first book, “Alice, Frankenstein and Saturday Night Beans … a young girl’s memory of Bradford Farm,” at Cary Memorial Library in Houlton from 5 -7 p.m., this Friday, Dec. 4.
“I also wanted to do this for my children,’’ adds Brown. “Farm life as it was then is now lost. Today, there are so few farms. By telling these stories, people will know, or remember, how it was: the sights, the sounds, the smells.”
Her aunt had always talked about writing the history of Patten. Having studied history in college and later teaching it at Patten Academy, it seemed natural. But she never did. After she died, Brown says she felt obliged to tell at least some small part of that history, even if it was through the eyes of a little girl.
The first chapter, “Little Women,” was written in 1999, but then Brown says she stopped. “I had to be in the right frame of mind,’’ she recalls. “I wrote subsequent chapters as ideas came to me. I had to wait until the ideas like the egg route, the cattle and her (Irene’s) dog Lady came to me. One by one I wrote the 14 chapters that way,’’ she adds with a smile.
She confesses that although the project was like writing, “a research paper 14 times,” and that there were many times that she thought about giving up, she continued because, “This was such a personal task. I just had to write this book.”
Brown says that as she recalled her experiences at the farm, it was like living them again. “It was like the present time,” she reminisces. “It was like I was a 10-year-old girl; like I was back in time. It was very enjoyable in that respect.”
But on more than one occasion she became discouraged, especially when she submitted the book to publishing companies and it was rejected.
“There were times when I thought, ‘I just can’t do this,’ and I thought, ‘Just forget it.’ “ It wasn’t until this year that she decided to publish the book herself.
Brown says she doesn’t see herself writing books in the future, but instead wants to take her time to promote this book. She adds that she would eventually like to align it with the Maine Learning Results so that it can be used as part of school curriculums.
“These are simple stories that might give children an understanding of what farm life used to be like,’’ she smiles.
The book was self-published locally through Aroostook Print Shop in Houlton. Brown can be reached at lynnolsenbrown@yahoo.com.
