Maine Soul

BY;COLIN,SARGEN! ' .

FYOUJREsearch~ngf6r th~s~ul of Maine, all you need is a telephone.>You see, NEE magazine discovered the Soul of Maine in 1948, way lip on PeriQPs~otBay,.yanked him out of spiritus mt!ndi, and dressed>him up ib,woolen ski pants, hand-knitted~scarf, and mit~:n~whetlh~.~as· {iyeyears old -green :yes inblack & white screeQ'pl,'inting -,....£ ~Qnt cover·of their February 2 issue. Babbytojman, Maine school~oy ... LIFE Watks.Home With A Main~Schootboy •.. Of! a tefsurety ~ad1!fniNreJhrough sn

1 drive out to the ,beach and h¢ar the wave~ crash against the suspended decades. . '.' . . :'

The sparkles glisten below Cassiopeia:' "

The danger of ruining what you're searching for ...

Look - you've .got his phone number" ~.,•.you,call.him.

ALL RIGHT, all right, I I'm calling him right now One '.. .'know the story could have Evening in Maine, rehearsing ended there, should have elementary profundities so the first ended there, but DON'T CALL question won't be so, oh, you THAT NUMBER! . know: ''!was just fascinated about

It's the Soul of Maine's uncle's catching up with you now because number. (To protect the innocent, Maine is changing so much, and ... we've changed the nutriber even as what brought you out there?" Iask you read. If you dial it,.you'll get the five ,"year-old snow boy who's the meat department at the Lin- 15years older than I am. colnville Shop' n Save.)

The sours Uncle is a nice guy. "No," he says, "he's my brother's son, and he lives in California now."

Black resignation stones me on the back of the head. '""

Ohno.

The telephone is slimy, heavy, a dead cusk in mypand.

The Soul of Maine has moved to California? "He's lived in California for three or four years now. I think he's a kind of small contractor, on his own. I haven't$een himEor a couple of years," smiles the elderly voice of Uncle Soul.

Of ~aine, that is. . " "He came here with his wife and two sons a couple years ago..Stayed a few days. Had to go back:',

Ithink of the Soul of Ma~ne.ip. his new habitat -". the image grotesquely transmogrified' ill Claymation -.su~glasses,qjlor, a suntanned voice, the. birch trees of his black and white Maine childhood long behind him.

No snow to meander in. No cobalt-blue Penobscot Bay...

The Soul of Maine's uncle gives , me Soul's mother's number in

Union.

It's busy.

But when ..lbreak through, she's delightful, funny '- agood omen - and after carefully turning the . 1l1a.tteroy¢r a few ,cUries,lij<ea strawberry tonfectiop.~'she' gives me his number. . "'Thele~st yoUcan do isgiv~< hirrlacal1,lguess," she latigljs: "He's in the construCtion business, you know. When hegetshotneat nigl1t~he's'pretQt tired.·Bl.1t'It,lon't .. think he'll slam the phone down·:" .. on the receiver." "Well, we came out to California in 1953. My mom's sister was out here, and 'course I was 10, II years old at the time." And when, I ask the faraway Soul of Maine, is the last time anyone mentioned the LIFE story to you? "Hmmm. Gee. It's been years. It's been years. Years and years. Years. " Hisyoice carries a California twang,' strangely whittled with Maine cadence and diction. Charm? Sure, ingenuous and real, like WO<Xlyon"Cheers." But very far away. A figure in the; distance, green eyes at the end of'all. electromagnetic media pier. It was a long time ago, but does the LIFE story have any personal signific~nc~J()ryou now? ....• "'}Ju~t'tt~~rpodes;..You kh?w.~y , uncle workedJorBlaek Star ( publicatil)[~~tnNew ¥orlkHe ..kriewKQstiR.uohomaa, the···· photographer. Kosti got this brilliant idea when he was on the fann (in Penobscot Bay), visiting. He set up all the pictures, shot them. and then Black Star sold the story to LIFE. Kosti was an, artist with a camera." Alla God'schillun got Strings! How tall are you? tlSix footr What color are your eyes? "G-- . --" reen. . .~idY'ougo to high school in M

~. aloe., "1 was in R.ockville at the cine.....roppI ~~hoolh?9Sethroughfift~ ; grade. f'graduated from Hoover fIigti. in Glendale, California. (His ~.par~hts.$tayed.in <:alifornia until·' ;..19JO'Wn~o·;th~y~r~turnedto ~a,ihe.) ~ Any military s~rvice? '~~p,l!,~~ys~oQPYIpfman.

Any identifying scars or birthmarks? Have you ever been in any grave danger in the intervening years, like a car accident?' .

UN'" Uo.

Any school after Glendale? "Some night classes. 1'm in business for myself, in general construction. I enjoy it. Ikept excelling in it, and I'm in it to stay. Imake a good living at it."

What don't you miss about Maine? I ask him finally, despairing of any blueberry sentimentality. "It's a tough state for the majority of people, majority of young people, that is, nowadays to make a living. I will say that. There's more opportunity in some other states. "Remember, Iwouldn't have been in LIFE magazine at all if it hadn't been for Kosti Ruohomaa. It was aUhis doing. But you know the dog in the pictures? He really did lie in the aisle at school, every day~It was ~o lopg ago. Years. I happened,robe atthe right place at the right time:' y01i'vegrownup, changed: . What parts 'of Maine should never be changed? "._. "I naven't really given it too muchthollgh!~.Cqmpared to Califqrnia, liou.sesback in Rocktilleare uniquely the. same as when l:was,~kid.S!rangtt. 1was there!outyea(S ago. I~ rocks the memQ.ry'Jl?ore, you know. If you left.Cal~fot~~af{)rap.y arno~£,ltof ' time'andreturned, you'd get lost. So much. would change. Streets. Maine's grown, yes, but rIll glad the"POp~latibnhasit't come in real strong, be!causeit's a beautiful state. Driving up from Logan' AirpOrt,'itwas~~sytofindmy way backthere~ w~thol!tamap. A pleasure. ,,'

I,thinkofR:onald Colman, haunted'"fgt yeats ina wild-eyed search to. findhis·way ..back t}irol!gh ~he Him~la~as, clawing .t~rtil.lgh.t~~i~~!h~jflds:u~t# ....' finaUr tu~ning th~t magiC-snow corpeE ari<1: re~iscovering Shangri , La.No!;~hi~9~· I:l~'s~live; frienaly,'i~cU"ous~ lrank; uncinema!ic. Like;alldf M.aine~he ,re~es.~()r~~a:ipa~hil~;he .ha~ e~geq.to·····fpe·~f~~~tTPE~;s:M,ioe Ehris~ma~'cat(l, 'Stplen,bel!in&~o eyerg~~qi ~nB '~ppeare9'> •.

Eight experienced

O'Wl'ler /brokers in a unique partnership.

Selected by Sotheby's

International Realty as its representative in

Greater Portland.

Jim Thorne, Pat Vilven, H. Bud Singer, Diane Shevenell, Barney Burrall Seated: Sue Lamb, Janice Drinan, Chris Jackson

A Tradition of Excellence in Real Estate Brokerage for More Than 30 Years.

mMAINE LD MULTIPLE LISTING One Union Wharf, Portland (207) 773-0262

Fine Handmade Furniture

Discover the advantage of sleeping on this high futon convertible For more info,

~t..

call or write:

'~ __ ~S_il_v_a_W_O_O_dw_o_rk_i_n~g P.O. Box 574 Freeport, ME 04032 Form & Function In Design (207) 442-7376

~e~eaterc5J1tc;MollJ1loutJL

simply the best summer theater in Maine

July 1 - September 3 Taking Steps Two Gentlemen of Verona Richard /I Jane Eyre

Phone (207) 933-9999 or 932-2952 P.O. Box 385, Monmouth, ME 04259-

Continued from page 23 of classic glamour, the Indians originally cost $750 each, carried 222 feet of square sale, and were featured in the January 1929 issue of Yachting magazine. With a moderately fine entrance and not even the suggestion of a keel, the jib-headed society knockabouts have cedar plankings and decks and oak ribs that render them, as Sterling ("Tad") Dow III, one of the winningest Indian skippers in the early 1980s who was lost recently to cancer, often observed; "graceful from any angle."

Nineteen-seventy-four was the watershed year for the return of the Indians, crystallized by Peg Hendrick's fine feature story in the York Co~nty Coast Star on June 19. By then, Hendrick had traced even the missing boat, Number 2, "Say When," all the way to Oregon, "where new owner Mel Winter still sails her on the Columbia River on the lake formed .by the McNarv Dam."

Dr. Page, an experienced San Francisco Bay sailor, discovered AWKWARD, the former Auchinchloss boat, in a barn in Higgins Beach, Scarborough. With Booth Chick overseeing her return to the river and mast-stepping, Dr. Page recalls, "She went right to the bottom in 10 minutes once she was lowered. Booth was silent for a second, then ..just shook his head and said, ''I've never seen one go down that fast." Days passed with the Indian still underwater. "Then, I was driving to what is now The Breakwater restaurant in the evening, and I remember looking casually over at Chick's Marina, screeching the brakes, and shouting 'It's afloat!'" Renaming her JACATAQUA, Page went on to win many races against the Indian fleet.

Also mentioned were the continuing exploits of John Rinaldi, who spirited several pristine Indians like NATANIS, No. 19, from the Nantucket Yacht Club to join the Maine fleet.

For revenge, at last report the Nantucket Yacht Club was truculently holding onto the former Kennebunk River Club Indian #12, originally the MANDY raced by the Grandeman sisters. •