Previous Entries
April 17 - May 5, 2000
Date: May 5, 2000 Name: Larry Moores Location: Etna, Maine Email: acs64@acadia.net Comment: Your April 24 picture of demolition art captured the work of Mr. Richie Padham, employee of Cianbro Corporation, resident of Solon, and operator of the John Deere 992 excavator, otherwise known as "Big Blue". Seeing was believing, because Richie's sculpture appeared to defy the laws of gravity. Before you could say boo, it was gone.
Great work Richie, you work is memorialized forever in cyberspace.Thank you, Larry for letting us know and congratulations to Richie. Your sculpture was a sight to see! -Ken
Date: May 5, 2000 Name: Dianne Lind Location: Newport Email: ladyydi@mint.net Comment: Really enjoy your site - informative and interesting! Thanks for preserving this
for all of us.
Date: May 5, 2000 Name: Yvonne Young Location: Millersville, Maryland Email: y226@aol.com Comment: My family loves the cattail press. It has been very nice to see a little bit of Maine. Hope to visit again in August. Thank you so much for doing this. I am the great grand-daughter of Mildred Sevey. My Uncle Charles Young and Aunt Phyliss still live in Corinna. Cousin Jackie Emerson and to many more family members to list.
Date: May 5, 2000 Name: Jane Freese Schissler Location: Newport, ME Email: schissler@ctel.net Comment: Dear Ken, Your Website is the greatest thing since Elvis! I try to log on at least once a day. I have many fond memories of living in Corinna. Walking to Corinna Union Academy everyday meant walking by the Eastland Mill. It seems strange to see it gone as it provided many families (including my own) with an income for many years.
Although I live in Newport, my heart still drifts back to Corinna with fond memories of Corinna Union Academy, ice skating on Corundel Bog with the Hopkins girls, changing my clothes at Harold and Ida Davis's home so I could go across the street to the Stewart Library and play basketball, and Sunday evening M.Y.F. meetings with John and Alice Bird.
I enjoy your articles and photographs and the responses to your guestbook. Keep up the great work!
Janie (Freese) Schissler
Date: May 5, 2000 Name: C. R. "Bing" Grindle Location: Roanoke, Virginia Email: crgrindle@worldnet.att.net Comment: Today's picture (May 4th) was great and one I was hoping for. It shows the whole main area including that corner where your grandfather bought the house from my grandfather (Dr. Fred Redman) and where you said you lived at one time.
At 75 there are lots of memory things I've collected through the years...many of which are Corinna based. One of them is a May 29, 1915 Piano Recital program ("invitation") held in Corinna's Stewart Library Hall given by piano pupils of my mother Elvira Redman. She listed the pupils on the program and I'll show them here in case someone knows who they are (or were!)
Norman Burrill, Hannah Bowler, Ada Bucklin, Minnie Burrill, Edith Dearborn, Mildred Emerson, Ruth Gilbert, Mildred Hanson, Charles King, Ilda Maguier, Marian Nutter, Hazel Pearson, Helen Pooler, Olive Redman, Dora Sands, Hilda Thurston, June Woods, Grace Willey, Lenore Williams, Lavonia Whitman, Ruth Woods, Montez Whitney, Ruth Whitten.
If my wife, Geri, and I get to Corinna this fall I'll bring the recital program with me. It shows which piece each pupil played (85 years ago!).
Best regards from Bing Grindle
Date: May 4, 2000 Name: Betsy Perkins Dorman (a.k.a. "Crash") Location: Mt. View Jr. High, Thorndike Email: bdorman@mvhs.sad3.k12.me.us Comment: Dear Ken, I tremendously enjoyed your story about going to search for the falls. Of particular interest to me was Paco Guanaco, the pack-teen. You see, I recently broke my right wrist in a nasty 4-wheeler incident so now I am stuck with 6-8 weeks with my forearm encased in neon green plaster. A pack-teen like Paco would certainly come in handy about now!
Unlike you, I am not stingy with the Twinkies, so I'm sure that Paco would enjoy being in my employ! Tell him that I will be in touch.
Date: May 2, 2000 Name: Norm Clarke Location: In front of the computer Email: npclarke@gwi.net Comment: Ken, Finally had the time to sit down and read most of the letters. It seems that there are a lot of Corinnians living far away now. However, everyone still has fond memories of the town and really appreciates your efforts to bring this to us, myself included.
Although living in Pittsfield, I still hold that special place in my heart for "our home town". Especially good ole CUA. (Side note: the annual Alumni Banquet is being held at the new grammar school June 17 at 6PM. It would be nice to see a good turn out).
The mill pictures are still great to look at. I spent 3 and a half years toiling there. And that's all I have to say about that.
Having little time on my hands, I was shopping for clocks the other day and found an old Regulator clock like the one Ed Leavitt had in his barber shop. I remember sitting there, waiting, and listening to that old clock tick away. Each time I hear one, I think of him. As an aside and a bit of history, One morning before school, I was downtown at either Edgerly's or the Rexall. As I started to school, I noticed smoke coming from under the door of the barber shop. Ed was coming down the street at the same time and I called out to him. As he opened the door, the smoke billowed out. I can't remember the total damage, but do recall the incident. Just another memory of Corinna. I have so many. Someday I'll write more so that other folks can read them and fall asleep. My stories are a great cure for insomnia.
Keep up the good work.
Norm Clarke
Date: May 1, 2000 Name: Benita (Bowker) Booth Location: Pittsfield Email: paulbenita@skow.net Comment: Thank you so much for your website. I visit about everyday. Besides being a great way to see the changes in town it proved invaluable for finding classmates. I have found several that I haven't heard from in 27 years! In fact, last time I signed the guestbook, someone I have often wondered about over the years wrote to me before I had a chance to write to him! That is priceless.
I remember play on the roof of the mill many years ago with Lorraine Metivier. Hope she visits this sight and contacts me. Thanks again! Benita
Date: May 1, 2000 Name: Dawn & Jim Hale Location: Corinna Email: hales@tdstelme.net Comment: Ken, We visit your site at least everyday to watch the ever changing Corinna. We never realize just how big the Mill really was or how much history our "Adopted" town has. Seems like we made the right move twelve years ago!!!
Once again Ken - thanks for all your hard work on this page.
Jim & Dawn
Date: May 1, 2000 Name: Jane Quimby Biscoe Location: Waldoboro, ME Email: mb81036@midcoast.com Comment: The progress made on the demolition project is so remarkable! I shall be coming to Corinna this week and will certainly bring my camera - though thanks to you, Ken, we are more than well-informed about everything! The picture of Dearborn Falls really brought back memories for this old-timer! :-) Thanks so much for your wonderful work - Jane Quimby Biscoe
Date: April 30, 2000 Name: Peter Smith Location: Damariscotta, Maine Email: pmsmit1@tideater.net Comment: Ken, The Dearborn Falls trip looked like fun even without the provisions. I also think the the Barker Brook postcard may have been taken at the Falls. The steep banks look more like the postcard and maybe there was some confusion at the turn of the century when the card was printed as to which brook or falls were actually photographed. I would think that the Dearborn falls were more spectacular to view and I also think the card would have generated interest in the Falls at the time as small tourist spot to visit. Maybe someone out there can really help us with which Falls the postcard is of and when and where Barker Brook was named. Great Job with trip.
Peter
Date: April 30, 2000 Name: Larry Knowles Location: Plano, TX Email: Lknowone@aol.com Comment: Ken, Just got back from the Bahamas and checking what I missed. Loved your Seeking The Falls Documentary! That was a fun trip! Made me feel like I was there. A bit like Paco many years ago walking the woods in search of anything to make small town life more exciting. (Or to get out of mowing the yard). Didn't realize how lucky I was back then for the beauty and splendor of the beautiful Maine woods. The Falls makes great wallpaper.
Thanks for sharing. Next trip to Corinna I may make that trek myself but not without the Twinkies!
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: Dave Poland Location: Pennsville, NJ Email: depoland@snip.net Comment: Ken,
Thanks for taking me with you as you journeyed to the falls with your faithful
companion, Paco. I was pleased to see that your wallpaper for the chronicle of the journey included my home away from home on Packard Road.
As always I continue to enjoy your coverage of the events in Corinna. I was especially grateful for your picture of the town clock. I will be in Corinna next week and my first night there I will be visiting the clock.
Again, thanks so much for all of your hard work. I seldom go to bed before I visit your picture of the day.
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: Jeff Jacob Location: Corinna Email: jjacob@tdstelme.net Comment: Ken,
Kudos for your tireless efforts in bringing Cattail Press readers every gory detail of the Dearborn Falls expedition. Your excursion from Bonds Corner into the wilds of East Corinna had me trembling on the edge of my seat with rapt anticipation, but one question still remains. Since your pack-teen Paco refused to lug any of the necessary provisions, (and you were already shouldering your share of the burden by carrying the camera and Chapstick supply), why didn’t Paco have to carry YOU back to the falls instead?
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: Sue Emerson Location: Corinna Email: acrylicsbysue@yahoo.com Comment: Ken, Love your site. We check it at least once or twice a day. It's awful to live in a town one's entire life and know so little of it's history and geography. What an invaluable service you are providing. Especially loved today's trek to the falls. How terrific it must be to touch so many lives in such a positive way. Bless you! Though many of us don't sign in the guest book often, we're still out here and appreciate your time and effort.
Thanks a million. Sue
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: Andrew Biscoe Location: Spokane, Washington Email: andrew24@earthlink.net Comment: Excellent website!
I may be far from Corinna, but the little town will always be near and dear to me! It was one of my favorite places to visit in Maine. I used to visit there a lot back in the '70s. My grandparents, Millard and Muriel Quimby, lived up on Happy Corner just off Route 7 on the way to Dexter. I will never forget the view from up there - it was like a showcase of how beautiful Maine is. I look forward to checking out this website again soon.
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: Tom Burrill Location: Uxbridge, MA Email: tburrill@hms.harvard.edu Comment: Great Site!!!
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: Barbara (Huff) Hart Location: Portland, Maine Email: bjhmaine@quixnet.net Comment: Ken, this is wonderful. Ronald and Annie Russell told me about this sight. They were our neighbors when my dad and mom (Gordon and Marguerite Huff) lived in Corinna over 30 years ago. (UGH) I've stayed up way to late looking at the sight, and will finish catching up on the "old" news this weekend when I visit Dad. I'm sure he will enjoy it, too. It was great to see so many names of old friends in the guestbook. Please pass on my e-mail address. Thank you for creating and maintaining this sight. It is excellent.
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: ROCKSTTER Location: CIRONNA MAINE Email: ROC_OOOOOO.HOTMALL.COM Comment: I love this place
Date: April 29, 2000 Name: RED WOLF Location: SCHOOL Email: Comment: I LOVE YOUR WEB SITE
Date: April 27, 2000 Name: Jackie Emerson Location: Corinna Email: jemer@tdstelme.net Comment: Hi Kenny, Nice that you are adding some of Peter Smith's postal cards to your electronic history of present-day Corinna. Are you by any chance making a paper history [from what I've read - and understand correctly - will be longer lasting than the computer disks] using many of the very nice pictures and commentary you've incorporated into The Cattail Press.
Peter has generously given me access to his amazing collection of post cards. I will use them often over the next few months. I'm not sure yet about an "off-line" version of the site. I'll come up with something. -Ken
Date: April 27, 2000 Name: Mike Chambers Location: Warrington, PA Email: KChamb1206@yahoo.com Comment: Ken, Great web site! Amazing how it has pulled former residents from all over the country. I heard about it from my mother, Phyllis Chambers.
I have many fond memories of Corinna. I remember most the beautiful trees that line Pleasant Street as you came down into town, Main Street at Christmas with the Christmas lights, and the hubbub of the town on summer nights when the canning factory was running and all the farm trucks were hauling corn and peas to unload.
We lived just over the line in St. Albans, but for all intents and purposes Corinna was our home town. I lived in the third floor apartment over Herb Dow's house on the corner for about a year. Worked in the woolen mill for 1 month!
I hope that this mill cleanup project will mark a rebirth for Corinna and that somehow the towns picturesque beauty can be restored.
Mike Chambers
Date: April 24, 2000 Name: Bruce and Brenda Clarke Location: Corinna Email: blcbjc@midmaine.com Comment: Hi Ken, Now that the complex is gone, it's interesting to see that the west side of the river bank is so much higher than the east! I try to stretch myself to ten feet tall in my car as I ride by to and from work, hoping to catch a glimpse of something new. Also so fascinating to read the messages from past classmates, cousins, and even family members like brother and sis-in-law Warren and Donna. My oldest brother, Carroll spent 2 weeks here last month, and all our family got together for a reunion, and as an added bonus, were able to witness a piece of our local history in the making. Thank you, Ken.
Date: April 24, 2000 Name: Donna-Lee[Knowles]Brodeur Location: Millinocket, Maine Email: luke1129@acadia.net Comment: Hello Ken, Thank you so much for this wonderful website. Every time I visit it it brings back memories of my father, Charles Knowles, who had an enormous love for "our town." He would have enjoyed seeing your labor of love. His love certainly spilled over into his daughters. He would be so proud of my sister, Linda Smith, as she works to help restore it to being better than when he left it. I would love to be a part of it but distance and a job doesn't allow it. But thanks to you I can "go home" everyday and share in what's happening. The day the lighted clock appeared I nearly lost my breath! That would be my wallpaper. Thanks so much for giving us a touch of home. With love and prayers
Date: April 22, 2000 Name: Fred McFarland Location: Rt.7 Corinna, Maine Email: fcac@ctel.net Comment: Hi Ken, You are doing a great job and I know that everyone is very pleased that someone like you has given us all the history of what is happening in the town of Corinna. I was brought up in Corinna and moved to California, where I lived for 40 years. I moved back to Corinna in 1996. I found out about your Web Site from Richard & Glennis Willette. Thanks for the great job and keep it up. You are making a lot of people happy.
Fred
Date: April 22, 2000 Name: Debbie Chadbourne Location: Rome, New York Email: debrich1@prodigy.net Comment: Hello to everyone ! I lived in Corinna from 1970-1974 as a child, my father pastored the Methodist church on Main Street. I miss Corinna and would love to see it again. I would love to hear from anybody who remembers me.
Date: April 22, 2000 Name: Brian Knowles Location: Greenville SC Email: bpknowles@aol.com Comment: Just catching up with the web page after spending the past two weeks in Green Bay. With all of our world wide "Virtual Offices", two weeks was not enough time for our IS group to get me connected to the internet so had to work off line and couldn't check
out the site.
Continue to enjoy your daily updates and checking who has signed the guest book. Keep up the great work and have a great Spring which should be getting close.
Date: April 21, 2000 Name: Jane (Koelker) Burkhart Location: Bangor, ME Email: McKenna59@aol.com Comment: Hi Kenny! Great website!! It's hard to believe this old Corinna landmark is gone. You've done a great job preserving this piece if Corinna's history - keep up the good work!
Date: April 21, 2000 Name: Mel Russell Location: Casselberry, FL Email: mr-upcic@att.net Comment: Hi Ken, It's been several months since I last signed the guest book, so I wanted to touch base again and tell you how much I appreciate what you're doing, and what it means to all of us Corinna natives who are now living far away and unable to get home to see what is happening to our old town.
Thanks for the view today from the Newport road - I had been thinking of e-mailing you and asking you for that very shot! It must seem very strange to come around that corner and see the new view. Thanks, too, for the diagram of the new town layout you posted earlier this week - it helps to visualize some of the coming changes. The diagram did raise a question, though - where will the new "Main Street" be? Will it be the realigned Rt. 7, or will it be the new street leading from the Stewart Library building to Rt. 7?
I love reading the Guest Book - it's wonderful to see names from the past, and amazing just how far-flung Corinna natives are around the country. It's especially good to see old school classmates - enjoyed seeing Janet Hartley's e-mail messages! Looks like she's doing well out there in California.
Anybody out there from the early 70's Nokomis classes who would like to write - feel free!
I'd love to hear from you. And if you ever get to Orlando to visit Mickey Mouse, let me know!
Mel Russell
Date: April 21, 2000 Name: Linda Smith Location: Dixmont, ME Email: Comment: You did a wonderful job on your web site. I worked in Corinna for 7 years and a lot of wonderful people live in that town. I am very pleased that the Mill is being cleaned up so future generations can enjoy good health and prosperity.
Date: April 20, 2000 Name: lorna and joe Location: ipswich ma Email: Comment: we have a cabin in corinna thank you for the update on the mill
Date: April 20, 2000 Name: VAL BUCKLAND Location: HURRICANE, WV Email: UDBUCKLAND@AOL.COM Comment: KEN,
BROTHER VIC INSTRUCTED ME TO CHECK IN TO YOUR WEB SITE. GREAT JOB. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GROWING UP IN NORTH NEWPORT AND LIVING IN HURRICANE, WEST VIRGINIA IS THAT DOWN HERE YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WAIT FOR THE ICE TO GO OUT OF THE LAKES.
WE WERE VISITING THERE JUST LAST WEEK. HAD A GRAND TIME, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS A SHORT VISIT.
REALLY LIKE YOUR PHOTOS OF THE MILL DEMOLITION. BRINGS BACK MEMORIES OF WHEN GRAM AND GRAMP BUCKLAND WORKED THERE AND ME AND MY BUDDIES WOULD GO IN AND CLIMB OVER ALL THE ROLLS OF CLOTH AND PLAY HIDE-AND-SEEK.
THANKS AGAIN FOR YOUR SITE. I WILL CHECK IN PERIODICALLY
VAL BUCKLAND
Date: April 20, 2000 Name: Carol (MacDonald) Otis Location: Corinna Email: cotis@msad48.org Comment: Ken,
What a wonderful job you have done. I just finished looking thru the Guestbook and it's surprising how many people I knew and have lost track of over the years. Thank you for your time, energy and caring for Corinna enough to do this site.
Date: April 19, 2000 Name: Lynne (Dorman) Fling Location: Honolulu, HI Email: lynne.fling@excite.com Comment: What a great picture of the Stewart Library Building on April 17. I have many wonderful memories of that building - visiting my Gram when she used to work in the library, playing basketball and cheerleading upstairs, and who could forget helping out with all of the "Stewart Players" productions? I am anxious to see all of the changes taking place in Corinna in person... Thanks for maintaining this site, it lets me keep in touch with my hometown while I am so far away!
Date: April 19, 2000 Name: Jon Koelker Location: North Berwick, ME Email: jkoelker@ctron.com Comment: Greetings from a former resident. Caught your picture in the Maine Sunday Telegram a week or so ago. You're lookin' good, guy! Having left Corinna at the ripe old age of 10 my memories are necessarily faded and very much kid-oriented - but that's OK. I remember the important stuff - $0.10 ice cream cones at Pearson's stand, Saturday morning haircuts learning to play chess at the barber shop -whew, I sound old!!
Some long-time Corinna residents may not know it, but my dad actually worked a part-time job for a while in the mill, running a dryer on the graveyard shift. I also had the fun of accompanying him driving an oil delivery truck around town for Bob Pearson's company. It really used to get cold up there......
Anyway, my mom told me to check out this site without telling me anything about it. A pleasant surprise indeed. Nice job. Keep up the good work and drop a note if you get a minute.
Date: April 19, 2000 Name: Carlo & Cathy Pilgrim Location: Boothbay Harbor, ME. Email: cathyswave@yahoo.com Comment: Great web site! I always enjoyed shopping in Corrina. The mill was a landmark and a good point of reference when giving directions.
Our house finally sold on Durham Bridge Rd., but hope to visit this summer.
Date: April 19, 2000 Name: C. R. "Bing" Grindle Location: Roanoke, Virginia Email: crgrindle@worldnet.att.net Comment: Oops! After asking about street diagrams for the new Corinna, I realized there already are "Site Layout Plans" in the Web site. Sorry
Date: April 19, 2000 Name: C.R."Bing" Grindle Location: Roanoke, Virginia Email: crgrindle@worldnet.att.net Comment: I'm one of 20 grandchildren of Corinna's Dr. Fred L. Redman (see my guest book message dated April 10th) and have two questions:
1. Yesterday a niece of mine said she heard there is a "History Of Corinna Maine" book. Does anyone know if there is and if so how to obtain one?
2. Are there any street layout diagrams and architectural drawings of proposed
buildings to show how rebuilt Corinna will look?
P.S. What a beautiful photo of the Stewart Library Building in the April Web site!
Date: April 18, 2000 Name: Bill Parker Location: Long Beach, MS Email: bparkerms@aol.com Comment: Was told about your web site. Grew up in Corinna 1957-1975. Shocked and somewhat saddened by the removal of the old woolen mill--worked there myself.
Wondering what will be done to the old site. Could be the birth of new start and economic growth for the village of Corinna. The town has not grown in the last 20 years as it should have. New development would be a boost to it.
Date: April 18, 2000 Name: Kaleb Jacob Location: Goffstown, NH Email: print@easternbusiness.com Comment: I still enjoy visiting this site because it is ever changing. I'm anxious to see Main Street without the mill standing when I visit in a few weeks. Ken, your work behind the scenes to keep this site fresh is exceptional. I've seen many familiar names on the guest list and have made contact with some. Thank you.
Date: April 18, 2000 Name: Bob Jones Location: Exeter, New Hampshire Email: jones@hotmail.com Comment: Any truth to the rumor that they will build a Walmart on the old Eastland
location?? That's what I'm hearing down here. Thanks!
Date: April 17, 2000 Name: Jay & Frances Dugger Location: Tacoma, WA Email: JayFran@libertybay.com Comment: Talked with one of your locals today that somehow ended up in Florida - probably took a wrong road -Anyway Rodney said to check out cattailpress.com and sure enough you have news, wx and even pictures. Very informative. Keep up the good work.
Date: April 17, 2000 Name: Deanna Temple,Tardiff Location: Stetson Email: tbear@midmaine.com Comment: I just wanted to no that my thoughts and prayers are with the Lane Family from Corinna, this is a great loss, and very sadden by it. I send my sympathy and If I knew how to get in touch with you I would. Sincerely yours, Deanna
Date: April 17, 2000 Name: Doug Brockway Location: Newport Me. Email: milt@mint.net Comment: I grew up in Newport and have driven by the mill a countless number of times in order to visit my Dads family in Exeter and my Mothers family in Dexter. To go by now and see the mill gone brings back memories of things that I've taken for granted all these years. It's sad to see it gone, even though its for the best in the long run. One special memory that it brings back for me was the time I played Taps in front of the mill on Memorial day when I was in high school. I had all but forgotten about it until my Father,
Milt, reminded me of it. Thanks for the memories.Doug's entry reminds me, this will be the last Memorial Day celebrated on this Main Street. -Ken
Date: April 17, 2000 Name: Candy (Mayhew) Brown Location: Sangerville, Maine Email: cbrown@midmaine.com Comment: Hi Mr. Dow, I love your site. I grew up in Corinna and my parents still live there. I still get to go through Corinna and miss all the great times I had growing up. It sure seems strange not seeing the mill. I don't get to see any of my old friends, but if anyone reads this, I would love to hear from them. I have lots of memories hanging out at Tim and Ti's. My email address is above. Keep up the great work. I will check in often.
Candy
