OLD TOWN – Fifteen years ago Jim Bishop led a discussion on “Papa Martel,” drawing the largest crowd Old Town Public Library has had for an adult program in 25 years.

This year Gerard Robichaud’s novel is the focus of Penobscot Reads, a month of programs at libraries in Old Town, Bangor, Hampden and Orono.

Bishop, a former lecturer in English at the University of Maine who also served as associate director for Franco-American Studies there, will again lead a discussion of “Papa Martel” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 25, at Old Town Public Library.

The book was first published in 1961 and reissued by the University of Maine Press in 2003 after years out or print. In 2000, the Baxter Society of Portland included “Papa Martel” on its list of “one hundred distinguished books that reveal the history of the State and the life of its people.”

While parts of the book seem politically incorrect in 2006, it offers a view of Franco-American culture and working class life that is rapidly disappearing from the Maine landscape. The book takes place between 1919 and 1937, giving a glimpse of life for the Martel family and a treasure of cultural history from the point of view of those who lived it.

Old Town has had a strong Franco American community for decades. The story of the Martel family will resonate in the hearts of those who remember the heyday of Treat and Webster Island.

There have been many notable changes in Old Town since The First Annual Festival Franco-American de Old Town in 1978, beginning with the loss of thousands of manufacturing jobs as a result of the closures of a canoe company, several shoe factories, a woolen mill, a brush handle factory, a pie plate manufacturing plant and this past year the anchor of Old Town’s tax base, the Georgia Pacific paper mill.

For the first time in more than a century, Old Town finds itself without the industry that has sustained the town and its people in many ways. Thousands of Franco-American men, and in later years, women, built their lives around the mill and the forest industries that sustain it. The “old mill” is set to become a diversified group of new businesses designed to thrive in a 21st century economy.

The robust face of Main Street has changed, as well. There are those who can still remember the excitement on Main Street on Friday evenings when families came to town to do the shopping, enjoy a bite to eat in the many food establishments, and visit with their neighbors as they walked from store to store or sat on the hood of the family car shouting greetings to those passing by. It may sound nostalgic, but these trips became festive social events for so many families.

Another major change has been the combining of Old Town’s two Catholic parishes into a new parish by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Maine in the mid-1990s. Dwindling numbers in both priests and parishioners has caused the same ripple effect in communities throughout Maine. Many of these parishes were spiritual homes to thousands of Maine’s Franco-Americans. For many, much of their social life revolved around their involvement in their parish.

One change that really stands out for those who have spent their lives in this community is the changing face of French Island – Treat and Webster Island. Family homes once inhabited by a Franco-American population have turned into rental units.

The large families of yesteryear that once lived on that 47-acre parcel that was purchased in 1804 for $110.73 are mostly just memories. There were beauty and barbershops, a few local taverns, at least three small grocery stores and its own elementary school. The school later became a community center and was the cultural lifeblood of the island. All are now gone.

Despite these drastic changes in the structure of the French community, a real sense of shared cultural heritage existed here in 1978. The Franco-American experience occupies a significant place in the thoughts, memories and daily lives of many Old Town residents.

While many things have changed in Old Town since 1978 and the Franco population has been almost totally assimilated into the population itself, the memories of the past still linger large in the minds and hearts of those who lived and were an integral part of the French Island of a bygone day. They know and understand what it has meant, and what it still means, to be a Franco-American in Old Town.

Jim Bishop grew up on French Island in Old Town. His parents were Frederick and Eva (Cot?) Bishop. Jim’s father had legally changed his own name from Levesque to Bishop before Jim was born, so he became the first in his line born to that family name.

Jim was called Peter, rather than Jim, through his high school years in Old Town. Jim is now known as Pep? (not P?p?re) Levesque to his five grandchildren.

Two poems from “Mother Tongue,” a collection of his own poetry, will appear in a forthcoming anthology called “French Connections: A Gathering of Franco-American Poets,” to be published by Louisiana Literature Press.

Now formally retired, Bishop continues to teach courses in the English Department at the University of Maine and serves as general editor of a multicultural book series through the University of Maine Press.

“Papa Martel” is available at local libraries for checkout or can be purchased in area bookstores, said Old Town Librarian Valerie Osborne. For more information about this program or others related to Penobscot Reads, contact the library at 827-3972.