M Stevens-David
M Stevens-David
The Indians
In nineteen fifty-three, there were still many Indians in and around our home in Ashland in Aroostook County, Maine. There were numerous small settlements of Penobscot and Maliseet around the Masardis and Fort Fairfield areas and a rather large settlement of Micmacs along the border between Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.
May 13, 2008 - 11:18:39 AM
M Stevens-David
Macaroni
His given name was "Kenneth" but, everyone who knew him, always called him "Macaroni." He was what some people might call the "town" character. Folks loved to play jokes on him and he was never one to let them down. He was blessed with a cheerful nature and would submit to whatever indignity done to him without a word of complaint. When you first laid eyes on him, you got the distinct impression that he was "simple," but if you looked closer, it was easy to see that there was a keen intelligence lurking somewhere just behind his eyes.
May 3, 2008 - 9:01:17 PM
M Stevens-David
The Dead Man
Us Stevens' kids were constantly on the go as far afield as our legs and curiosity took us. We really weren't the kind of kids who just sat around the house whining because we didn't have anything to do. Besides, mother had eight of us and she wasn't about to have us in her hair all the time if she didn't have to. We knew the terrain around our home as well as our father and dad, ever the hunter, had roamed those hills ever since he was a kid but on the opposite side of the Aroostook River.
May 1, 2008 - 10:34:45 AM
M Stevens-David
Dad and Me
Dad loved to fish and with eight kids, he usually took a couple of us with him every time he went because he knew that if he didn't, there'd be a lot of sulking at home when he returned.
Apr 25, 2008 - 8:52:05 AM
M Stevens-David
The Substitute
The third grade brought a whole new dimension into my life in the form of Ethelene Munroe. Ethelene had already retired as a Latin teacher after teaching some thirty-odd years in the high school and she only occasionally accepted substitute teaching jobs. She must have been at least seventy years old by the time she taught my class and she was more than a little senile. When the principal announced that she was coming, we waited for her arrival with a mixture of fear and excitement because her reputation at the high school had extensively preceded her.
Apr 24, 2008 - 9:33:02 AM
M Stevens-David
Dad - The Final Years
The last fifteen years of Dad's working life was spent working as a janitor at Pinkham's Lumber Company, which is located just outside of Ashland on the Portage Road. Pinkham Lumber, at that time, had the distinction of being the only fully-automated lumber mill in the United States. It utilized every piece of the tree, nothing was wasted.
Apr 24, 2008 - 9:21:47 AM
M Stevens-David
Dad - Deep Sea Fishin
Where we lived in Aroostook County, Maine, it was about the same distance to any large body of water no matter which direction you went. If you traveled west, you'd run into the Great Lakes. If you went North, it would be the mouth of the St. Lawrence that you ran into first and if we went Southeast, sooner or later, we'd finally run into the great Atlantic Ocean.
Apr 22, 2008 - 8:41:44 PM
M Stevens-David
The Lincoln
About five years ago, my husband Leo, decided that we needed to buy a newer vehicle and he set about finding one with a vengeance. He made a list of all the local used car dealerships in our immediate area and after work each day, he'd stop and check out what they had available. We had discussed our needs and wants very thoroughly prior to beginning the hunt so I was very surprised when he came flying home the second night with want burning a hole in his checkbook.
Apr 22, 2008 - 11:53:09 AM
M Stevens-David
Politics
Two things Dad didn't readily discuss were religion and politics. He was a man who kept his own opinions very close to his chest and he was a man known for minding his own business. He might hear some really juicy gossip during his day at work in the potato house but he never repeated it when he got home at night. Often times, when something happened, mother would rush to tell him the news and he'd only laugh and say he'd known that for a long time. Mother was never quite sure if he was telling the truth or if he was just pulling her chain.
Apr 17, 2008 - 9:13:32 AM
M Stevens-David
Porcupine Rules
"A man really doesn't know when he's well off." Bub thought to himself for the hundredth time that week. He could still hear his wife's shrill words ringing in his ears. "I must be speakin a foreign language," she'd say because Bub hadn't understood what she'd said and they didn't understand each other a lot!
Apr 9, 2008 - 11:52:54 AM
M Stevens-David
Town Cop
Ashland might have been called a one horse town by some but, it was also a one cop town. In the late 1950's, Ashland was in desperate need of a new town cop so, a search was initiated and a man was finally hired who was from "away." The new town cop's name was Richard Casey and it didn't take too long before his nickname around town was "Dick" for reasons I shall elaborate on.
Mar 31, 2008 - 9:02:03 AM
M Stevens-David
The Bath
My daughter and her family came for a four day visit during Easter this spring and we had a lovely time. Since they live in a fairly large city in New Jersey and we only get to visit about once a year, I tried to spend a lot of time with my granddaughter, Peyton, who had just turned seven. We live in the town of Minot, in the foothills of south, central Maine and I wanted her to get to know me better and how we live here in the rural countryside.
Mar 25, 2008 - 9:06:35 AM
M Stevens-David
In The Name of God
The old one-room white church was located on the top of a long hill that overlooked the valley and the countryside beyond. Originally, at the turn of the century, this site had been chosen for their house of worship because the elders in the tiny, Vermont village believed that because this place was the highest in the area, then it must be closer to God and if they built their church on the highest hill, surely God would notice and would answer their every prayer.
Mar 13, 2008 - 2:08:46 PM
M Stevens-David
The Dog
Saturday was Jake's favorite day of the week and it was his favorite day for many reasons. First, it meant that he didn't have to report back to his job at Pinkham Lumber till Monday. Two, it meant that he could escape from Ella's beady eyes for a few hours by taking the trash to the dump. Three, it meant that he could sit on the tailgate of his pickup and down a few cold beers without anyone giving him the fish eye.
Mar 12, 2008 - 12:50:10 PM
M Stevens-David
The Truck
Sammy and Lem had lived next door to each other all their lives. Their mothers had gone into labor on the same day and they'd been born three hours apart. The doctor had spent the day of November first, nineteen forty-four, running back and forth between the Baker and Maclean houses waiting to see which baby would arrive first. The boys had heard the story of their births so many times that when anybody brought the subject up; they'd tune them right out. They were downright sick of hearin about it.
Mar 3, 2008 - 9:29:24 PM
M Stevens-David
Tha Suit
Dad said that the first time he'd ever laid eyes on "tha suit" his Uncle Jimmy was wearin it, not well, but wearin it jist the same. Dad was nineteen years-old by then and it was nineteen thirty-four. The First World War was jist a bad memory in most people's minds and Grammy Stevens kept sayin "Thank You God!" because none of her family had been called up to lay their lives on tha line for that shitty war!
Feb 27, 2008 - 9:14:24 AM
M Stevens-David
Winter King
Upon the death of his father in nineteen fifty, Des McCormack, our neighbor to the north, inherited the small family farm. Some years, if the drink wasn't calling him more than the potatoes, Des would plant a few crops here and there around his hundred or so acres. There was a small apple orchard located just down over the hill from the homestead and his father had taken great pains to nurture the trees so that by the time Des was old enough to farm, the trees were mature and were producing a variety of wonderful apples.
Feb 26, 2008 - 8:39:26 AM
M Stevens-David
The Poacher
Sonny Campbell was a game warden. His father and grandfather before him had been game wardens. It was often thought by folks around town that there wasn't any way that Sonny could have been any thing else. After all, hadn't his great, great grandfather been one of those Campbells who'd come from the area over around New Brunswick and his grandfather looked exactly like the pictures of the Indians in all the history books. There isn't a better game warden than a man with a little Injin blood now is there and everyone knew that if you came from over that way, you had to have some Micmac or Malaseet Indian blood in you.
Feb 21, 2008 - 9:11:33 AM
M Stevens-David
The Teeth
Old Perley Eastland had been planning this trip for a long time, a very long time, all of his life as a matter of fact. He'd waited, schemed and planned until the timing was perfect. His wife, Mazie, was going down to Smyrna Mills to visit her sister for a couple of days and he was going to sneak off to Madawaskee for a man's night out.
Feb 19, 2008 - 10:09:52 AM
M Stevens-David
Politics
Two things Dad didn't readily discuss were religion and politics. He was a man who kept his own opinions very close to his chest and he was a man known for minding his own business. He might hear some really juicy gossip during his day at work in the potato house but he never repeated it when he got home at night. Often times, when something happened, mother would rush to tell him the news and he'd only laugh and say he'd known that for a long time. Mother was never quite sure if he was telling the truth or if he was just pulling her chain.
Feb 13, 2008 - 5:31:44 AM
M Stevens-David
Dad - Working Years
The years slid by and in nineteen fifty-five, Dad was made the foreman at Maine Seed Potato Growers and he spent nearly all of his life caring for potatoes. Mother used to complain that dad had spent more time with those "damn potatoes" than he ever had with her. For those who don't know much about growing potatoes, here is a brief synopsis.
Feb 9, 2008 - 10:01:37 PM
M Stevens-David
Aroostook County Memories
The sky, in Aroostook County, is a sharp, clear blue with large fluffy white clouds floating lazily across it. The slight breeze is so fresh and clean that the first thing one notices is that it doesn't have any smell at all. The air sweeps across the close-cropped pastures and down through the acres upon acres of potato fields with barely a ruffling of the leaves. With the advent of autumn, the wild grasses have turned a deep gold and their stocks contrast deeply with the lush greenness of the potato plants.
Feb 5, 2008 - 9:24:45 AM
M Stevens-David
The Apple Tree
Hughy slid out of bed and shuffled over to the window that looked out into the back pasture and was surprised to see that there was just a hint of frost on the ground. Fall had arrived overnight in Aroostook County. The wind was out of the north and it bent the apple trees in his orchard as it passed through the heavily laden branches, down over the empty potato fields and across the road.
Feb 3, 2008 - 10:21:51 PM
M Stevens-David
The Salesman
By the time Charley David Rose finally made his way into the world, his parents already had four girls and had given up on ever having a boy. Need-less-to-say, he was more than welcome! His father had longed for a son so bad that every time his wife was "carryin" he demanded to be allowed to name the child in advance. Hence, all his daughters had boy's names. They were Jackie, Ronnie, Dana and Billy. Folks, upon hearing his daughter's names, laughed and said that that just showed what a fool he really was. Did he really think that by naming the kid in advance, it might have some effect on its gender?
Feb 2, 2008 - 11:40:47 PM
M Stevens-David
Alkey
Alkey swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat-up. He rubbed his hand over the top of his bald head and across his eyes. Then, he squinted at the numerals on the old clock that was sitting on the top of his dresser and seein the time, swore under his foul breath. He pushed himself up off the bed, shuffled over to the open bedroom door where he paused for a moment and then proceeded down the long, narrow hallway to the top of the stairs. He listened for a minute to the muted sounds from below and then he bellowed, "Anne! I'm on my way down and you'd best have my breakfast ready!" With that threat aimed in his wife's general direction, he ambled over to the bathroom door and went inside.
Jan 31, 2008 - 9:40:51 AM
M Stevens-David
The Blueberry Pie
Eb Walker and his wife Emma had been married for so many years that they'd forgotten exactly when their real anniversary date was and human beings being what they are, this date-forgetting every year, commenced a fight that lasted right through till the next year's anniversary. When any of the neighbors were stupid enough to comment that "marriages are made in heaven," Old Eb would cast a jaundiced eye in their direction, sidle a little closer to them so that Emma wouldn't hear and mutter that in his opinion they were really made in hell!
Jan 30, 2008 - 9:36:37 AM
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