Time spent with kids affords respite in struggling mill town

The weather outside is cold but inside a mill town gymnasium, 10 little girls are being transformed into softball pitchers.

Not your picnic softball, slo-pitch pitchers, but full windmill, rock-and-fire pitchers.

It is day one of a softball-pitching clinic and the coach walks easily among the kids, giving pointers. He doesn’t criticize, for it’s not in his nature to do so. He has been doing this a long time.

This pitching thing is not for everyone. It’s obvious that the majority of the girls have had some previous training. The coach and his two assistants work with all of the kids but give special attention to the newbies.

It is an amazing transformation. The girls start with their pitching arms limp at their sides, playing catch using just a wrist action to flip the ball to their partner.

Roughly one hour later, they are windmilling the ball. Not every pitch is perfect. Each of the girls has more than a few pitches that rattle off the bleachers behind their partners. But man, they are pitching.

Outside, the world is going wacky. Wars may be fought. Bills must be paid. Mortgage payments must be met. College funds must be grown. The coach understands what that’s all about well enough. He works at the local mill. He has done so since his junior year in high school when he started working a night shift.

“It’s been a good place to work,” he said.

But he understands the nature of the business he is in. Ownership of the mill where he works changed hands a few years ago and things haven’t been the same.

He says he has seen cutbacks in personnel. He says equipment and parts have been replaced with cheaper versions and it bothers him. He hears the words of his company’s management. Of how the company lost $3 million last year.

“But our mill made $23 million. That’s $3 million companywide. That’s a drop in the bucket.”

Still, it concerns him. He has been working there for so long that, like many people, he knows nothing else.

He sees what is happening in Millinocket. How people who have spent their entire lives working there could suddenly have nothing. Retirement plans may be gone. Homes, college funds gone. The lives they have known, gone.

The coach talks quietly about these things. It has happened too many times at too many places not to be taken seriously, no matter how secure a person might feel.

“I don’t want to wish my life away,” he says, “but sometimes I wish I was 10 years older so I could retire.”

The coaches continue to work the kids. It’s an amazing thing to watch, this transformation. One of the newbies has an early habit of swinging her arm a little wide. One of the assistants stands next to her, moving ever so close, so that when the girl swings her arm forward to release the ball, she must swing it straight to get it by the coach.

And then it is over. The first lesson. The coach informs the girls and parents of next week’s starting time. He says the assistants will run things. He won’t be there. He must work.

Work. That’s a good thing in his business.

Inside this warm mill town gym, there is hope and a sense of accomplishment in the faces of the children. Outside it’s a cold, cold world.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net.