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Published
December 2, 2018

Christ Mavi Bafouana Mpandzou, Portland: A journey of joy, if only in imagination

I was born and grew up in Congo-Brazzaville, a country located in Central Africa. It has been three years since I have left my country in difficult conditions. I had to move for safety reasons and, I am currently living peacefully in the United States. I always remember that day of October 24, 2015 standing […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Jane P. Lord: Summer promises kept

“When winter comes, with frosty flowers on the pane, The thought of you will warm our hearts, ‘Til we return here once again.” These are the last lines of our most revered summer camp song, “By a Glistening Lake.” It was sung through sobs on the last night of camp, at what was called the […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Steven Price: Driving a Dodge and thinking about the draft

It was February 2, 1972 and I was heading home to Las Vegas, driving my Dodge van at night through the dark, winding canyon of the Virgin River Gorge. It was late, almost midnight, and I was coming home from college in Utah. Snow was on the ground, eerily illuminated by a full moon that […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Katherine Wright, Kennebunk: Visiting and revisiting

The trip was to visit family. The ride home from these visits has assumed a form of ritual for me. Easy highway driving allows me time and space to put myself back together. I stop in Portsmouth, a beautiful little city to unwind in. What I do depends on where I find a parking place. […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Carson Lutes, Pownal: Fat Albert’s long, long journey home

I had recently moved back home to Brunswick from Rochester, New York after a recent divorce. My father had kindly volunteered to drive with me back to Rochester to help me gather up the rest of my belongings. My husband and I were quite civil dividing up the last of our things and packing them […]

Published
December 2, 2018

Sally Hinckley, South Portland: Family finds re-entry rocky

We dashed from our berths in the bowels of the boat to the main deck. My mother held my brother in one arm while I grabbed onto her dress. All dependents were told to get on deck near their assigned life boats. Lots of words were spoken over the PA system. One of those words […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Janet Anderson-Murch: Life is what happens around the dining room table

When I was a young child, my parents brought home a Moosehead furniture-made, dark maple, dining room table with eight matching chairs. The glossy wood table was beautiful and there were two leaves to add more room for more people as needed. For you see, in my family, dinner was the most important meal of […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Lee Van Dyke, Portland: The soup that can cross an ocean

Between my junior and senior year of college, I spent a summer in Vienna. Before leaving, I promised my grandfather that I’d visit his birthplace in the Netherlands. My grandpa had immigrated from there as an contract worker. Little did I know when I made that promise that it was to be a hot Sunday […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Kathleen Sullivan, Freeport: A child brings them home

My daughter was one of those kids who said she was never going to leave home. Though she’d gone to college in Colorado and worked summers on dude ranches, Maine was home. She was born here, raised in a sturdy ship captain’s house at Porters Landing. That graceful home, with its wavy glass windows and […]
Published
December 2, 2018

Andrew Slipp: First an escape, then the long trip back

Growing up in Anson, I couldn’t wait to escape. A nearby Carnegie library proved there was a more exciting world out there. A high school so small it took five towns and two unorganized townships to exist was hardly that bigger world. Even then I was living an Eagles refrain: “I’m already gone.” College in […]

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