Millinocket Memory (Bangor, Penobscot: apartment, home, neighborhood)

[jdarcher]

It was 1972, school had just ended and the family was preparing to drive north to Millinocket. My dad, who was a pipe insulator, was working up there at the time. I was just seven and had two older brothers and a sister. She cried and fought about leaving Pennsylvania. She was about to enter her senior year of HS and didn’t want to leave her friends. I don’t remember the drive too much except for the fact that I spent a lot of time lying in the back window of the old Chevy car.
We stayed in a small apartment run by a lady called Cadillac Annie. I remember that she made the best blueberry pancakes. I don’t remember where my dad worked exactly but you had to walk across an iron bridge to get to his work. I’ll never forget that bridge. One day my older brother and I were crossing the bridge and he let me carry my dad’s keys – big mistake. It’s been more than 38 years, but I’ll never forget the feeling I had seeing the keys fall, hit the iron grate at my feet and slither through and down the grate-hole and into the water below. I thought my 16 year-old brother was going to jump in after them. I hid from dad until my mom broke the news, but instead of killing me he yelled at my older brother instead. Sometimes things just work out.
It was a great summer with making new friends and playing on some nearby hills that were very sandy. We took weekend trips, visited Baxter state park and did lots of fishing – at least when it wasn’t buggy out. One time we got out of the car and then right back in again because of the bugs. Even though I was just seven and couldn’t do the same things that my older siblings did, it was one of the best summers I ever had.
My sister cried and fought about leaving and all I really remember about the drive home was spending a lot of time in the back window.
I’ve read many of the posts here and was saddened to hear how Millinocket has fared in recent years. But the memory of Millinocket in the summer of 1972 will always be very special to me.
Thank you Millinocket!

[moughie]

What a beautiful post!
Thanks for sharing your precious memories with us.

[maureenb]

Ditto to moughie. I love reading posts of Maine memories. Thank you, jdarcher!

[221B]

What a fun insight, thanks for the memory. Personal posts can really help round out one's feeling for a place. Statistics are one thing, but heartfelt stories give a strong backstory.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

The iron bridge was the way to work at Great Northern Paper Company. The neighborhood was locally called "Little Italy". It was said with pride. When the mill was built it was built with stone, bricks and mortar, mostly by Italian immigrants. The mill construction predated the general use of concrete.

[cebdark]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

The iron bridge was the way to work at Great Northern Paper Company. The neighborhood was locally called "Little Italy". It was said with pride. When the mill was built it was built with stone, bricks and mortar, mostly by Italian immigrants. The mill construction predated the general use of concrete.

Here, I'll add to the lore: When the Italian immigrants first came to Millinocket, they left their wives back home until they had established households for their families.

They had a pretty good reputation for being card-playing, booze-drinking, h*ll raisers, and most of the community were leary about any of them.

Interestingly, once the wives of the households hit Millinocket, that kind of tomfoolery completely ceased.

Thanks for sharing the memories. I recall hearing quite a bit about Annie too.

Oh, and that bridge? When I was around 6 years old, I don't know what scared the beejeebies out of me more - the bridge itself, or the "man-eating, mucksucker" fish at the bottom.

Ciao!

[DaveP326]

I was born & raised in Brooklyn, NY, but I spent 10 summers, from 1954 to 1963, on an island on North Twin Lake 7 miles from Millinocket. Those were the very best summers I ever had. My mom, my Uncle Frank, my Aunt Mary and her adopted father Maynard Marsh spent the summers at Maynard's camp on the island. I was friends with most of the kids who lived in the small community of Norcross, a whistle stop on the Bangor & Aroostook RR. Maynard was a conductor for 40 years before retiring. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY in Millinocket knew him. I learned how to walk the boom logs without becoming a soprano from a Penobscot Indian kid named Peter, whose dad was captain of the West Branch, a 100 foot boat that towed loads of pulp logs down the lake to Elbow Lake where the current brought it to the mill in Millinocket. One summer when there was low water, Michel Moore, his cousins Butch and Donny Farquhar and their dad Jack built a bridge so people could access the sheltered pond behind the land, when the waves were too high to get to the wharf. Jack Farquhar had the camp next to ours but lived in Millinocket. He was a foreman at the mill and also very well-known in town. I remember going to the movies in town to see "Dr. No", the 1st James Bond movie with Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. I remember that there were so many stars visible in the sky. It seemed like millions of them. When the Russians launched Sputnik, we could watch it pass over. It was the only thing actually moving up there. When Maynard passed away the family sold the camp to Mike Moore's family. I always regretted selling that camp. I really loved it. Then, inevitably I grew up, went in the Army, got married, had a family, but I always wanted to go back. The money was never there, though. Every now and then I do a Google Earth search and I see the bridge I helped build (or its replacement) is still there. What a job that was! We worked like slaves, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

[elston]

Wonderful memories!

[fxtrader]

Wow you guys have great memories!
I lived there from the age of 2 to 7, and spend many summers at my best friends camp on North Twin. Some of the best memories I have growing up took place there and I really have missed living there since the day we moved. I still snowmobile and fish in the area as much as possibe.

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by DaveP326

I was born & raised in Brooklyn, NY, but I spent 10 summers, from 1954 to 1963, on an island on North Twin Lake 7 miles from Millinocket. Those were the very best summers I ever had. My mom, my Uncle Frank, my Aunt Mary and her adopted father Maynard Marsh spent the summers at Maynard's camp on the island. I was friends with most of the kids who lived in the small community of Norcross, a whistle stop on the Bangor & Aroostook RR. Maynard was a conductor for 40 years before retiring. Everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY in Millinocket knew him. I learned how to walk the boom logs without becoming a soprano from a Penobscot Indian kid named Peter, whose dad was captain of the West Branch, a 100 foot boat that towed loads of pulp logs down the lake to Elbow Lake where the current brought it to the mill in Millinocket. One summer when there was low water, Michel Moore, his cousins Butch and Donny Farquhar and their dad Jack built a bridge so people could access the sheltered pond behind the land, when the waves were too high to get to the wharf. Jack Farquhar had the camp next to ours but lived in Millinocket. He was a foreman at the mill and also very well-known in town. I remember going to the movies in town to see "Dr. No", the 1st James Bond movie with Sean Connery and Ursula Andress. I remember that there were so many stars visible in the sky. It seemed like millions of them. When the Russians launched Sputnik, we could watch it pass over. It was the only thing actually moving up there. When Maynard passed away the family sold the camp to Mike Moore's family. I always regretted selling that camp. I really loved it. Then, inevitably I grew up, went in the Army, got married, had a family, but I always wanted to go back. The money was never there, though. Every now and then I do a Google Earth search and I see the bridge I helped build (or its replacement) is still there. What a job that was! We worked like slaves, but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

Go Back. It isn't all that different. Yes there are box stores, Mac Donalds and such but as soon as you pass under the RR bridge heading toward Abol Bridge it looks like it did many years ago. Nice area !