HODGDON, Maine – Gene Lenentine has worked 82 potato harvests and at age 92, he’s still climbing on tractors at 6 a.m. to help bring in the crop.
Born Whitney Eugene Lenentine on Jan. 27, 1931 in Bridgewater, Gene, as everyone calls him, was on one end of a two-man crosscut saw when he was 8 years old and picking barrels of potatoes at 10.
The Hodgdon resident has been working mostly seven days a week since; the key to his longevity and active life, he said. He’s worked in the woods, on farms, repaired cars and even shoed horses. Lenentine never took a vacation to relax or visit other places, he scheduled his vacation in the fall to work the harvest.
“I have to keep moving. If I sit down, that’s the end of me,” he said. “I’ve seen that happen to too many people. They retire, they sit down and in three or four years, they’re lost and gone.”
In a state with the oldest population in the nation, Lenentine is likely one of Maine’s oldest active farmers. Although, the number of Maine farmers age 75 and older has been steadily increasing in the past decade, according to the Maine Farmland Trust.
Living through the depression, Lenentine left school after the fifth grade to help support his family of 12 children, cementing a powerful work ethic which he has since passed on to his four children, 15 grandchildren and 24 great grandchildren, said his daughter Lori Lenentine.
“He’s a great teacher,” son Mike Lenentine added.
It’s all about passing on what he learned from the old farmers when he was young, a time when kids got 8 cents a barrel for potatoes, wages were $1 a day and horses powered the potato diggers.
Both Mike and Lori laugh about their Dad making them work the potato harvests with him when they were young. And he’s taught all the children in the family how to survive, making sure they can change the oil in their cars, fix a flat and if something breaks, he’s still the first person most everyone calls.
“When we were kids, he worked Monday through Friday for the state and then the weekend on farms, or in the woods, or fixing somebody’s car, or putting shoes on their horses,” Lori said. “And there was always somebody showing up at our house needing something. He helped everybody.”
As Lenentine says, he’s always ready to step up to the plate.
For the past 17 years he’s been working for Campbell Family Farms, in Littleton. He worked this fall’s potato harvest running the two-row windrower that goes ahead of the harvester and he also helps cut seed and plant in the spring.
“He’s dependable, you can always count on him,” said Heather Campbell. “It amazes me. About two years ago I had to go into the field and he wasn’t on the tractor. He was underneath fixing it.”
Campbell said Lenentine often stops by to let her know he’s willing and able to do anything, if she needs help.
The other day she was fixing a fence and one of her horses had gotten out. Lenentine just guided the filly right back into her stall, she said.
“Other people might stop and say, ‘your horse got out. But Gene stayed to make sure everything was OK,” she said.
In the winter, he still plows driveways for his children and also for the Town of Oakfield, perhaps an extension of his 28-year career with the state when he did winter plowing and operated most any kind of heavy equipment from the Aroostook County line to the Allagash, he said.
“I was a grader operator, but anything that had wheels or legs on it I could operate,” he said.
He lives alone with his pug mix Dixie, drives his truck and still cooks all his own meals which usually include potatoes.
“I eat them by the barrel,” he said. “I like them cooked all ways.”
His signature breakfast that he’s been cooking for his children since they were small is eggs, bacon, potatoes and toast. And Ruth, his late wife of 46 years, loved when he cooked dropped eggs, also known as poached.
Lenentine took time off from work to take care of Ruth before she died 20 years ago.
“He didn’t ask for any help until about two weeks before she passed,” Lori said. “He’d say, ‘no I don’t need help, I’m good.’”
He recalls one harvest in 1942 or 1943, he isn’t sure. There was an October snowstorm and they hadn’t gotten all the potatoes out of the ground. But they still harvested and he had to walk over snow banks to get to work, he said.
Another big event he remembers was in the 1980s when the potato farmers in New Brunswick were getting more money on the barrel for their potatoes than the Maine farmers.
“In Houlton they dumped loads of potatoes right in the road to block the border,” he said, adding that he was not involved.
Campbell said she doesn’t know what they would do without him. And so he will keep doing it as long as I can, he said.
“He’s part of the farm family even though we’re not related. He’s still sharp as a tack. I hope I’m half as able when I get to be his age,” she said. “He really is amazing. He’s worked hard his whole life and that’s all He knows. Work, work, work. He makes 92 look easy.”
As far as looking back on all he accomplished, Lenentine sees it just as another day.
“It’s just everyday life,” he said.
