(Original Post) During our 2003 visit to New England, Monte and I met many people connected with our hometowns or with some aspect of our history. Below is my journal page I composed about these chance meetings. One night I left our room in Lamoine, Maine, to do laundry. A couple leaving the next room asked me if I could recommend an eating-place. I asked where they were from and they said Pittsburgh. “Oh, where in Pittsburgh,” I probed further. “Butler,” was the response. Well, most of you know of our Slippery Rock connection. Butler is 15 miles from there. These people were our neighbors. My laundry plans changed pronto as we became their tour guide: we picked up a take-out meal from a favorite-of-locals restaurant, Jordan’s, and enjoyed it at Lamoine Beach during sunset.
We arrived at the Jessup Library in Bar Harbor during a book-sale clearance-sale (give us credit, we came out with only three books). The woman who checked us out is a native of Connellsville. Library volunteer, Arlene Ringer Love, lived in S. Connellsville where her mother (DePolo) had a large grocery store, but she hasn’t returned to Connellsville since 1991 when her mother died. Her sister, Connie still lives there.
While I talked with Arlene Monte spoke to another librarian who was from Youngstown, Ohio. She said her neighbors had moved to Mount Desert Island from Ligonier (three miles from our new home) a while ago. The librarian suspects the Pennsylvanians won’t stay in Maine long because they are homesick.
We took a side trip to Castine to see Nancy and Will, friends from Boyers, Pa. whom we rarely see. He is now retired, but Nancy, on sabbatical, still teaches at Clarion, University. They are staying in Castine to give a big push on the construction of a home on there. We interrupted Will’s work laying brick for a fireplace hearth, but he graciously showed us their project. Nancy had been out when we arrived, but on her return we sat on their patio and chatted while Will returned to his bricklaying. Then Nancy said she would go with us to the general store where we planned on getting a sandwich. She walked since we have NO room for passengers in our car. She told me the store makes the best lobster roll---and my experience so far has proven her assessment correct.
David Smith spoke to us at the Bath United Methodist Church. The Hempfield High School graduate moved to Maine from Irwin in 1977. Another man came from New Kensington. Too many interruptions occurred to follow through on the conversations.
INTERESTING CONNECTIONS
In Castine, Monte wore a Pittsburgh Penguin hockey shirt. A woman sitting on a bench said something to him about it, and it turns out she lives on a mountain in Mexico during the summer. She planned on visiting her daughter who lives in Portsmouth, N. H., the weekend of Aug. 17. We told her Monte was preaching there on Mexico that day and we invited her to attend (her family normally attends the Episcopalian church). She said she might do that (but she didn’t).
On returning from Lamoine Beach after a sunset picnic I noticed people working on the house my great-grandfather owned. I made Monte stop so I could nose about to see who currently owned it, as it had been VERY recently sold. The owner wasn’t there, but the head construction worker remodeling the home is from Ithaca, NY. He is great friends with the (grand)son and namesake of Ezra Cornell, founder of Cornell University. I told him I could give him some information to “tease” Ezra with, because I know about the ancestors of the Cornell family (I descended from the same Cornell line). If we go back far enough there’s a common ancestor (from a side branch) of note: Lizzy Borden. I also gave him the name of the book, Killed Strangely, the Murder of Rebecca Cornell, an occurrence in 1673. I suggested he use this as a Christmas gift to his friend Ezra. Needless to say, we departed friends. Read other posts on Carolyn's New England travels. Click on www.ProBlogs.com/CarolynCHolland and enter the category NEW ENGLAND. Add us to your "favs" list to click on regularly for items posted in numerous categories. |
