Why we leave Bangor and (sometimes) come back

A 20th high-school reunion is a halftime celebration. Don’t believe me? Multiply 38 by two. (Let’s hope for an exciting double-overtime). Bangor High’s class of ’78 will hold it’s 20th reunion, Aug. 8. (Call 989-1811).

Those 38-year-olds who went to high school in the late ’70s enjoy ridiculing their yearbook haircuts and quotes. BHS ’78 offered sage commentary from Styx, The Carpenters, Marvin Hamlish, Boston, Jim Croce, Bread and, most quoted, James Taylor and Carly Simon.

High school in the late ’70s was like the aftermath of a huge explosion. Our ears rang from the cultural blast of the ’60s. Idealism a vague echo. Sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll a corporate jingle.

But be it the ’70s or ’90s, politicians promise to keep bright young people in Maine. But what, if anything, drew people away from — or back to — Bangor?

BHS’s four top scholars in ’78 were Anne LeBlanc, Matt Maccoby, Heather Houston and John Dudley.

Anne LeBlanc Rainville is an obstetrician-gynocologist in southern Maine. Matt Maccoby (Yale undergrad and law) worked for the Congressional Research Service, then a Carolina congressman. Now he’s an L.A. mergers and acquisitions lawyer.

Heather Houston, champion BHS swimmer, spent some tough years battling the bottle — a battle she won, sober now many years. Heather — direct, entertaining — worked in the substance abuse field, and now monitors assisted-living facilities for the state, advocating for seniors and the disabled.

Heather could hit a baseball from the house where she lives to the house where she grew up. She says, “I’m exactly where I want to be. Maine’s safer for raising families. I don’t worry so much about kids getting shot.”

John Dudley co-owns Bangor’s Roadway Inn. John recalls classmates’ wanderlust: “In a service-dominated economy, there aren’t as many opportunities.” A BHS football captain, John, proud of two sons, coaches Little League and other sports. He helps with field trips and school activities. John sees Maine as a great place to raise a family.

Matt Maccoby agrees. He loved growing up here, noting that in L.A. even the best public schools face violence and drugs more intense than anything we face. But Matt (while fondly remembering snowball fights) finds L.A. weather persuasive.

For many in the class of ’78, weather and family play a larger role in choices than wages or jobs. The air-conditioner tranformed post-war America. In 1990s census 70 percent of Floridians were not Florida-born. Northeasterners continue fleeing south and west.

One wag allowed that Maine should root for global warming. Our winters, more than anything else, slow huge population growth. Thus, attorney Maccoby noted, weather shields us from ill winds of urban crime and extreme social decay.

Maine grows slowly, steadily. Young families trickle in looking for a cleaner environment, a healthier life. What with “internet cities,” Maine’s next century may be our best — higher incomes, peaceful lives. Bangor had 1997’s lowest violent crime rate of any metropolitan area. (Pine Bluffs, Ark., had the highest).

Alice Frati, reunion coordinator, notes that of class members whose whereabouts are known, fewer than a third live out-of-state. Maybe we should derive more pride, and less worry, about this export.

One such BHS ’78 export: Judy Donovan. After UMaine, Judy counseled single moms in Lewiston, then organized Brazilian farmworkers confronting violent landowners. She returned to Maine, working in a halfway house. After earning a master’s degree in social work at Boston University, she moved to El Paso, then the Rio Grande Valley, organizing locals, who have lived — in America — without water and sewer. A sister of St. Joseph, Judy trusts “God’s desire for humanity to act freely, be just and confront the powers that be.” School friends say Judy was not preachy; Judy just does the right thing. What a pleasure — knowing that, in a way, Judy represents Maine.

Judy Donovan hopes many young people do leave Maine, do see the world, and then, (many, not all) come home.

Leslie Bradford, BHS ’98, agrees. Leslie, a top scholar in her class, will attend Harvard. She has a long time to decide where to settle. Leslie notes that young people sometimes find Bangor’s social scene “limiting,” but, she sees Maine as a good place to raise a family.

Warm weather draws populations. Maine’s trump card is family. Whenever Maine becomes more impersonal, more cut-throat, we waste our most precious resource: our imperfect, but kinder, America.

The year 1978 wasn’t some ideal past. We faced drugs, broken homes — just like today. We may never recreate some innocent time, if there ever was one. Now, after our share of divorces, deaths, (some dreams broken, some fulfilled), we focus on what matters.

Jeff Ashey, caterering his own reunion, said he enjoyed New York in his 20s, but, to a guy in the midst of life, Maine offers the best home, and hope. That’s cause to celebrate.

Sean Faircloth lives in Bangor.