Characters bring ‘White Rock’ to life

WHITE ROCK WAYS: FOLK AND FOLKWAYS OF A MAINE ISLAND, by Margaret Graham Neeson, Long Point Press, Spruce Head, 1998, 197 pages, $15.95.

Did you ever get caught in a teen-age misdeed and go through the anxiety of waiting to learn what your punishment would be? If so, you’ll sympathize with Billy and Connie, two characters in Margaret Graham Neeson’s “The Funeral Couch,” one of the short stories in “White Rock Ways.”

A fancy house, temporarily abandoned by summer residents, entices them to see just what it looks like inside. A loose window latch is no match for their youthful curiosity. Abruptly they are confronted by an elderly, shotgun-wielding neighbor, Levi, watching out for his good friends’ property, and are ushered into his home to wait — under his wife’s watchful eye — for the sheriff to arrive.

No sheriff, however, is summoned. Levi, recalling his own explorations of an abandoned farmhouse near his boyhood home, doesn’t look too hard for him. “Also, well aware of his wife’s forbidding effect on the young, he figured that their hour with a stern and judging Clara might well be punishment enough for the errant cousins.”

Sure enough, by the time Levi returns home, the boys have learned their lesson. They’ve brought in a night’s supply of stove wood and stored Clara’s homemade jams and jellies and canned vegetables on the hard-to-reach high shelves and top of her cupboard. And Clara has proved more human than forbidding. She has shared with the boys her memories of their parents’ younger days. As they leave she hands them home-baked sugar cookies with an admonition not to eat them until after supper.

“The Funeral Couch” is just one in the collection of short stories which all describe a Maine island’s close-knit community in the 1960s and 1970s. The short piece, however, contains all the elements that are common to all the stories and that make the book really come alive.

Roots and memories run deep. Even inanimate objects have their own fascinating histories. Neighbors look out for each other and find resourceful ways to solve problems, rather than automatically calling in the police or Department of Human Services. The book is a refreshing read for anyone like me who needs a break from the in-your-face harshness of today’s electronic media.

Each story presents an interesting theme and authentic characters. Septuagenarian sisters still keep romantic secrets from each other. Levi, a recurring character, protects a neighbor’s well by creatively re-establishing a long-neglected property line. Clara plays matchmaker for a financially strapped single mother.

In one of the more dramatic stories, a controversial newcomer is feared drowned. When after a frenzied night’s search she is discovered very much alive nowhere near the ocean, the islanders react with mixed feelings. “I didn’t exactly want her dead but that was a lot of work. And I bet I’ll never get a cent to help refill my tank.”

Neeson, a grandparent who was born and raised in Canada, has been a resident of Spruce Head since 1984. She found the inspiration for her stories in her island neighbors. She greatly admires their fierce independence, their sturdy sense of self which she feels is largely unaffected by the outside world, and their lack of pretense and snobbery. “They don’t think they’re higher and they don’t think they’re lower than anyone else. They accepted me for what I was.”

In addition to being a fascinating storyteller and solicitous listener with a rare knack for making the person she is speaking with feel special, she possesses a gracious attentiveness one rarely encounters in today’s world. For our early morning telephone interview she had carefully selected a favorite blouse and plaid skirt outfit with matching red earrings. And before we hung up she had invited me and my three lively children for a summer visit so we could continue our newfound friendship.

Like the character Meg in her book, Neeson has found her island friends, although not much on reading books, to be full of fascinating real-life stories and eager to share. “I don’t know about that taciturn Yankee stereotype. Maybe some do exist. But they don’t live on my island.”

From such a rich palette, it’s no wonder Neeson has painted a little world of characters the reader can believe in and care about. My favorites are Clara and Levi. Their marital relationship flies in the face of 1990s wisdom. But they have been able for decades to meet each other’s needs.

“Nor had they ever been much given to sentimental actions or expressions. But now as Clara turned over onto her side, Levi followed suit. He reached out until his hand found hers and he laced his fingers through hers. She didn’t pull away. Hand in hand, they fell asleep.”

My Eugene and I celebrate our tenth anniversary in July. My fondest wish is that when we celebrate a half-century of marriage I will be able to fall asleep holding his hand.