Stories from a farm and other Maine tales

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ONCE UPON A FARM, by Lloyd Crossland, Joyce Morgan, Fern Stearns and Gail Parent, Fiddlehead Follies, 180 pages, illustrated, $14.95.

Snowy days in Maine are made for reminiscing, and if you can’t conjure up enough of your own memories to suit you, then I’d recommend that you pick up a copy of “Once Upon A Farm,” a compilation of stories from the Crossland Farm, a dairy farm in Mexico, Maine.

Few places capture the true flavor of Maine life better than a farm and its surroundings, and the memories from the 1930s and 1940s of growing up in rural western Maine are retold wonderfully by the children, grandchildren and three former farmworkers of Byron and Pearl Crossland, owners of the Crossland place on Thompson Hill.

Byron and Pearl raised five lovely children on their farm, and readers will be swept back to a simpler time in Maine, a time when material possessions took second place to a family gathering, hand-me-downs were deemed precious, and a game of hide-and-seek always was better than any trip to town.

You’ll share the “secret place” with Joyce, a grand adventure indeed, where a hayloft offers as many pleasures and treasures as any amusement park. You’ll marvel at the wonders to be found in the town dump, where only one’s ego kept one from securing goods that could easily find a purpose in another person’s home.

And you’ll share the childhood fascination and horror of the slaughterhouse and wonder, perhaps for the first time, if animals know about the rituals of death on the farm.

All in all, “Once Upon a Farm” is a treasure in itself and belongs on anyone’s bookshelf who wants to keep record of Maine’s glorious agricultural past.

TALES OF THE KENDUSKEAG, by Jim Smith and Fern Stearns, University of Maine Printing Services, Fiddlehead Follies, 180 pages, illustrated, $15.95.

“The stream winds down thru wood and field headed for the sea —

And every year in April that’s where we all will be.”

from “A Day in April” by Herb Bridges

I have this picture, forever emblazoned in my mind, of that April day in 1988 when they ran the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race in a blinding snow — a blizzard, really — and what a glorious day it was for a race.

The participants were eager as usual to start the event, which by now, in the annals of racing history, had become nationally renowned.

As Bangor Parks and Recreation Director Dale Theriault asks in his foreword to editors Jim Smith and Fern Stearns’ “Tails of the Kenduskeag,” “How does a 16 1/2-mile section of a small stream in eastern Maine rise to fame over a quarter century as one of the best known and largest races on the North American Continent?”

According to Theriault, a man who seemingly receives little credit for the Queen City’s sundry offerings, the timing of the event comes in conjunction with the general spirit and mood of cabin fever in Maine and the race emerges as a way for participants and spectators to “shake off the doldrums of yet another winter.”

The brainchild of Ed Colburn and Lew Gilman in 1967, the Kenduskeag Stream Canoe Race has been glorified in songs, poems, stories and articles, but never before have the history, magic, intrigue and wonder of Maine’s special rite of spring been captured in book form.

Editors Jim Smith and Fern Stearns are to be commended for the marvelous job of compiling essays, articles, photographs and statistics that all make “Tales” an important book.

From Zip Kellogg’s white-tuxedoed form, standing erect in his canoe, careening and maneuvering through Six Mile Falls, to the unique cement craft that adds a special flavor to the race, “Tales of the Kenduskeag” captures it all.

As the race continues to grow and media attention increases, Smith and Stearns’ little book is likely to become as big a part of the lore and legend of the happenings on the Kenduskeag as any of the aforementioned events.

MISTY THE MANATEE, by Veronica Ann Lupsewicz, Windswept House Publishers, 41 pages, illustrated, $9.95.

Children’s author Veronica Ann Lupsewicz’s special story of loss, friendship and maturation is told beautifully through the characters of Misty and Jolly, two manatees, frolicking together off the gulf coast of Florida.

Illustrated profusely by the author through pen and ink drawings and vivid watercolors, “Misty the Manatee” is a children’s story with a powerful message — life goes on, despite the degree of loss.

Misty, a young manatee, makes an emotional recovery after the loss of her mother in a boating accident. Seemingly hopeless in her pursuit of food and survival, Misty happens upon Jolly, who takes her in, nurtures her and soon becomes her friend and mate.

ON THE TIGHTROPE, by Ruth Belchetz, Harpswell Road Press Publication, distributed by Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance, 12 Pleasant St., Brunswick 04011, 56 pages, $7.50.

“The flesh resists the knife;

it takes determination and control.”

Strangley alluring, poignantly revealing, and beautifully written poems of struggle, anguish and recovery leap off the page from “On the Tightrope,” a collection of poetry by author and poet Ruth Belchetz.

Belchetz, a self-proclaimed survivor of 18 “long psychiatric hospitalizations,” gives poetry lovers a “no-holds barred” approach to blank verse and other often unique poetic forms.

Belchetz is a fresh face on the poetic scene in Maine, and those who revel in the profound impact of simple verse will rush to walk the tightrope with this special young woman.

The book’s publication was underwritten by federal money, administered by the Maine Bureau of Rehabilitation.

Ron Brown is a free-lance writer who lives in Bangor.