Bangor Public Library plans events for Steinbeck’s birth centennial

BANGOR – It was 1960, early fall in Bingham in the upper Kennebec River valley. I was 15 and had walked uptown to Moore’s Drugstore.

A strange vehicle was parked on Main Street in front of the A&P store. It looked like a pickup truck trying to become a turtle. I had never seen anything like it. Later, the word ‘camper’ entered the English language.

But on that day, I did not know what to call the vehicle – so strange and infinitely mysterious, with “Rocinante” painted on the side. I recognized that word as the name of Don Quixote’s horse.

A man came into the drugstore while I was there and I knew at once he and the camper were connected. He wore a sports jacket, a navy blue wool cap with a visor and a neckerchief. He reminded me a little of the actor David Niven.

A large poodle on a red leather leash and wearing a red leather collar walked beside the man – as though dog and man had dressed up to go visiting.

The man said I could pet the dog because, “Charlie likes meeting new people.” The dog’s fur was soft as a plush teddy bear.

In 1962, when I was visiting a friend in Portland, I saw in a bookstore in the Brighton Avenue Shopping Center a copy of “Travels With Charlie” by John Steinbeck. To my amazement, I recognized the man in the book jacket photograph as the man I had seen in the drugstore.

When I read “Travels With Charlie,” I learned that Steinbeck had, indeed, passed through Bingham. Apparently, and to my everlasting disappointment, the stop was not memorable, for he did not elaborate.

Knowing that Steinbeck had crossed my path, and that he won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962, sparked my interest not only in his writing, but in my own.

To celebrate Steinbeck’s work and to mark the centennial of his birth, Bangor Public Library will present a Steinbeck September.

The library will offer discussions of selected works, movies and a program on Steinbeck, who died in 1968. All events are open to the public. John Steinbeck is considered one of America’s most beloved writers and is often called the “Bard of the People.” The schedule is:

. 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 9, the movie “The Grapes of Wrath.”

. 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 12, “Steinbeck and the Dustbowl Blues” with Richard Brucher.

. 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16, the movie “Of Mice and Men.”

. 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, book discussion: “Of Mice and Men” with Marge Irvine.

. 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 23, the movie “East of Eden.”

. 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26, book discussion: “East of Eden” with Kathleen Ellis.

For information, contact the library at 947-8336.