Part 3:
Maine’s allure to a man from Texas
REMEMBER WHEN
by Guy Woodworth
As I had previously written, we had made it to Patten and the Logging Museum. After touring the buildings and exhibits, Bill and I met a man at the front of the last building we looked through.
We introduced ourselves to the gentleman who never did tell us his name only that he was 84 years old and had worked in the woods nearly all his life.
For over an hour and a half we just sat and listened to this man as he told us what life was really about in those days. About how if you were lucky enough to work in the woods that you might get to go home for Thanksgiving and, if not then, maybe Christmas. About how your mom would make you strip off your clothes in a cold shed prior to coming into the house because of the lice that had infested you. Oh the lice were taken care of by a bath in Creoline water. Then after the all too brief visit home, you went back in the woods until you came out at mud season.
Bill sat and soaked it all in like a small boy who has just seen his first airplane up close.
I made the mistake of commenting, “Those must have been the good old days!” To which he replied, “Shoot there is no such thing as the good old days. We worked hard and earned every last nickel we ever were paid.”
Now that I am 60 years old and have had a chance to work in the woods some, I know now what he was talking about.
When we left the museum, Bill knew he had received an education and I, even after living my life in Maine, also knew that I had as well. To this day, when I talk with Bill, he mentions the time we went to the museum.
Ahhhh remember when …
Guy Woodworth of Presque Isle is a 1973 graduate of Presque Isle High School and a four-year Navy veteran. He and his wife Theresa have two grown sons and five grandchildren. He may be contacted at lightning117_1999@yahoo.com.
