Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I had a rare, late-in-the-season sighting of Sunny D, our neighborhood pig. One of our neighbors from down the street keeps Sunny - who has grown into quite a big boy from when we saw him last summer! - as a house pet, and every so often takes him for a walk around the ‘hood. When we see this jolly fella trotting down the sidewalk we run outside as fast as we can. We should all be so lucky to have a neighborhood pig.
Portland Hearts of Pine and the Maine Wildness, our state’s two professional soccer clubs, will open a temporary shop at 22 State St. in downtown Bangor starting tomorrow, Nov. 13, which will run throughout the holiday season until Jan. 3. In addition to that super-popular Maine-famous soccer jersey, a special Bangor-centric Paul Bunyan shirt will be available exclusively in the Queen City.
And what, pray tell, is “wrong” about the $89 Target suit Troy Jackson wore on his first day as a Senator in training in D.C.? Does it look right? Is it clean? Then who cares! The only thing better would be if he’d gotten it at Mardens.
Congrats to the Wild Blueberry Collective, the nonprofit that last week purchased 158 acres of blueberry barrens in Searsport, with an aim to harvest berries and open the land up for recreational purposes. More! Publicly accessible! Land!
A kind of incredible update to a more than 80-year mystery: the remains of Willard Orr, the Bangor service member who was killed at the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, have finally been identified. Orr - the namesake for the footbridge over the Kenduskeag Stream in downtown Bangor - will be buried next month in Bangor.
A very Maine endeavor: attempting to locate 18th century burial sites in an ancient cemetery in Ellsworth by using dowsing rods.
And a nice little ode in the Boston Globe to one of the things that makes Maine (and Vermont, Hawaii and Alaska) special: our laws outlawing billboards.
Nov. 17, 1976: Downeast Airlines pilot Harvey Huff had seen stranger assignments than the one he faced Tuesday morning when Andre the Seal, Rockport’s famed entertainer, was prepared to board the twin engine plane for his first taste of air travel. Huff once transported 300 green turtles, he said, and that must be some kind of record that even Andre’s flight could not match. But for Andre, the flight was a first and probably much appreciated event. During the past three years, he has been transported to his winter quarters at the Boston Aquarium by truck. Neither Huff nor Andre’s trainer, Harry Goodridge, expected the flight to present any problems for the seal, although a bag of kitty litter was brought on board, just in case.
Goodridge had prepared Andre the day before for flight. “I told him he was going to fly to Boston,’ Goodridge confided Tuesday when Harry tried to entice Andre into a travel cage. When asked if Andre understood what he was told, Goodridge said it was not hard to believe the seal knew more than many people had guessed. The special flight was arranged by Goodridge to prevent long and grueling hours of travel by truck. Next spring, Andre will make his accustomed trip back to Rockport on his own.
But in order to take him from his native harbor, Goodridge must ship him each year. Everything went smoothly. Andre was lured by fish snacks into the travel cage placed on a float in the harbor. Goodridge had forbidden anyone but himself on the float, saying that Andre might become suspicious and decide he didn’t want any part of the cage.
Music & Dance
Nov. 12: Contradance and open jam, 6 p.m., Blue Hill Congregational Church, Blue Hill
Nov. 12: Bangor Celtic Crossroads presents Steeplechase, 7 p.m., Alamo Theatre, Bucksport
Nov. 13: Smoked Salmon, jam band, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
Nov. 14: Daggerbomb, Unabomber and Enemies to Lovers, 6 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Nov. 14: In the Kingdom of Nightmares, Locked in a Vacancy and Kryptosporidium, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town
Nov. 14: Fully Funktional, 7 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing Company, Belfast
Theater & Comedy
Nov. 12: Comedy night feat. Celeste Donohue, Crystal Bernard, Sara Poulin and Amparo Randall, 6 p.m. Black Moon Public House, Ellsworth
Nov. 12-15: Belfast Maskers present “Keely & Du,” new play, Basil Burwell Community Theatre, Belfast
Nov. 13: 1920s-themed murder mystery dinner, 6 p.m., Hollywood Casino, Bangor
Nov. 13-14: Screenings of “The Big Sleep,” nightly, Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor
Nov. 13-15: School of Performing Arts presents “Hamlet,” daily, Hauck Auditorium, University of Maine, Orono
Nov. 13-15: New Surry Theatre presents “The Roommate,” two-woman comedy play, nightly, Blue Hill Town Hall Theater, Blue Hill
Nov. 14: Spanksgiving, annual burlesque show, 8 p.m., Eye Candy Studio, Bangor
Nov. 17: “Bear Grease,” Indigenous reimagining of the musical “Grease,” 7 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
Arts, Books, Food & Culture
Nov. 12: “In The Fields of Maine,” artist Sharon Yates in conversation with Carl Little, 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill
Nov. 12: Screening of “Bangor Union Station,” new local documentary, 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Nov. 13: Screening of “Friday the 13th Part VI: Jason Lives,” 6:30 p.m., The Emporium Spooky Goods, Bangor
Nov. 14: “Writing Our DNA: On Writing and Memory,” workshop with poet Faith Lane, 12:30 p.m., Ellsworth Public Library, Ellsworth
Nov. 14: Weird Book Fair presented by Pro Libris Bookshop, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., The Emporium Spooky Goods, Bangor
Nov. 15: Cat Video Fest, touring film festival, 3 and 7 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono
Nov. 17: “Maine’s Wetland Plants,” noon, Belfast Free Library, Belfast
Nov. 17: Screening of documentary “Quiet the Sirens,” fundraiser for Robbins Lumber fire victims and survivors, 6:30 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast
Nov. 18: Red Rabbit Film Club screens “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor
Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.
Nov. 14: Belfast Bay Watershed Coalition free winter birding walk, 9 a.m., Armistice Footbridge, Belfast
Nov. 14: Annual Holiday Bazaar, 9 a.m.-2 p.m., All Souls Congregational Church, Bangor
I published a little elegy for the Bangor Mall (RIP) on Tuesday, and then asked you for your favorite mall memories from growing up in eastern and northern Maine. Some of your responses are utterly delightful. Here they are!
“I had two jobs there! One in Fall 2000 at a store called Northern Outdoors, which was like the Canadian LL Bean, but then shifted to more of an Old Navy kind of retail store (then going bankrupt.) And then at the Sears in Spring 2001. I also bought the cutest little mini dress at Rave in the late 90s and wore that to Quebec to go to the 18+ clubs.” - Bridget Madden
“When I went to college in 2002, the Bangor Mall became my first “real mall” that I actually spent real time at. I remember reading all of Chobits in the corner at Suncoast, finding this weird rubber rat statue in the arcade and taking it home, walking around the place in vintage Goodwill suits with a friend and realizing that people probably thought we were gay, and getting accused of stealing a fidget toy from Hot Topic because I hung it from a pair of panties like nuts and the clerk thought I left with it. Always a Sbarro observer, never a Sbarro eater.” - Ian Marquis
“We Tree Streets kids liked getting there through the woods to Sylvan Road and then under the highway through the culvert next to Sears. That was half the fun for me back in junior high.” - Andrew Day
“My favorite memory was our back to school shopping trip with my mom. She would take my younger sister and I for the weekend! It was such a treat to shop at the Mall, have lunch at that steak house where you took your tray through and picked out your sides and dessert. Then we’d spend the night in a hotel and try on all the new clothes. It was really the only time we got to go to the Mall, all the way from Ellsworth.” - Jennifer Myers
“Free Space Port tokens for good report cards - 2 tokens for As and 1 for Bs, if I recall correctly. I bought the suit I wore to prom at Chess King. And of course, all of the loitering…” - Allen Adams
“My mom would take me on a “girls day” every summer and one of those just us outings was the year I got my ears pierced at Earring Tree. It was traumatic and mom felt awful about it and bought me an ice cream from Deerings afterwards. We used to come to Bangor every other Friday night from Corinna for dinner at Bonanza on Union Street and then go to KMart. After the Mall opened we’d also go there because my mom liked Yogurtime salads. Those tinfoil covered chef salads with SO MANY alfalfa sprouts seemed like the height of cosmopolitan cuisine to me. It was my introduction to blue cheese dressing. No salad has ever met my memory of those salads.” - Aymie Walshe
“I was around 22-23 when I arrived in Bangor, but I immediately went to the mall to check it out ... and was thrilled to find that Porteous carried tablecloths and napkins that my grandfather had designed in the 1960s. I was like 12 hours from home, in my first job, not sure what I was doing ... but it felt like a sign that I carried with me through that first year in Maine, which included the ice storm. I also remember hearing French-speaking women in the dressing rooms and realizing how important Bangor is as a center for not only eastern and northern Maine, but New Brunswick and Quebec.” - Jessica Whitehill
“When we operated the Bangor Blue Ox in ‘97 we built the “Tickets ‘n’ Stuff” kiosk in the mall. We had the store and our offices downtown (shout out to the Whig and Courier!), but the mall was absolutely the place to be in terms of foot traffic. My “hometown” mall was in Auburn, but all those memories you listed ring universally true: Orange Julius, Donkey Kong in the arcade, and ‘meet you by the clock at 5:00.’” - Dean Gyorgy
“In the late 1980s, I was living in the Rockland-Camden area and was a lonely 20-something. So, naturally, when I had a day off from work in January, 1987, I drove my old ‘70s vintage Oldsmobile north to Bangor and visited the mall. It was busy then, stores occupying every niche and I still have the pants I bought back then (really, really ‘80s), although they don’t fit so well anymore (rather tight). Still, on a day off, it was the place to go. Sorry to see its decline, but I agree that downtown is thriving better than ever.” - Dan Kirchoff
Perhaps, your local pig would like breath mints 🤷
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6epedskv5Zc&pp=ygUqRGF2aWQgTGV0dGVybWFuIHN0dXBpZCBwZXQgdHJpY2tzIHBpZyBtaW500gcJCUoMAYcqIYzv&ra=m