Interesting to see the rinky-dink town where my mother and I went to visit cousins Sara and Gerry caught up in the current racial reckoning … but it’s overdue everywhere.
My memory of that Sanford visit at age 10 or so was sailing and catching a perch with cousin Gerry, who I had never met. Gerry ran Hub Mail, a kind of package courier that I presume was soundly disrupted by Federal Express and its ilk.
Mostly, my mum caught up with cousin Sara, who she always liked. Unfortunately, at their cottage, I mistakenly fed their little dog the end of a popsicle and the pooch swallowed the stick. Much suspense followed about how it would be eliminated. I believe it all came out alright.
Years later, Gerry came up again when I became friendly with Sam Goodman, who worked on my street in Boston and went to Gerry’s temple. Sam was NEBHE’s neighbor as the proprietor of Goodman Studios, where he handwrote diplomas for countless New England college graduates as well as citations for people such as Eleanor Roosevelt and Jackie Robinson. (For more, see “Man of Letters” Short Course in this old issue of Connection.) Sam was a character who fought for the French resistance and still couldn’t fully accept the Middle Eastern guys on the street whom I befriended and whose place I frequented at lunch for falafel plates. He called them Syrians. He also gave me a children’s book his wife wrote called Ida’s Doll.
More recently, their son, who I hardly knew, contacted me about his research on the family genealogy. He noted that he had interviewed my mother about the family history in the 1970s and wondered if I could provide more. I thanked him for getting in touch and told him I remembered my mum being fond of his mum and the trip I made as a little kid to the lake place near Sanford. But an incurable smart ass, I had to add, “I sometimes tell my kids that family history is mostly made up, so what I have to give may be largely fiction!” We didn’t follow up.
Back to the Black Lives Matter, AP reported:
“An anti-racism demonstration that had been planned for this Saturday at the Sanford-Springvale Historic Museum has been postponed. … The demonstration had been planned for Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Sanford-Springvale Historic Museum, at 505 Main St. in Springvale, according to the group’s Facebook post. https://tpc.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html The museum is across the street from the Sanford GOP office at 510 Main St. in Springvale, where there is a different event — called “TrumpFest” — also planned for Saturday, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. … Fifteen-year-old Josh Wood, one of three local organizers who pulled together plans earlier this week for the Black Lives Matter Maine demonstration, said the event wasn’t originally intended as a counterprotest to the TrumpFest event. But that’s how many in the community came to see it, he said.”
Demands outlined by Black Lives Matter Maine: “The city should get rid of police department equipment that has contributed to distrust and intimidation for local Black and indigenous people and people of color … The Sanford School Department should instead invest in counselors, as part of an effort to end ‘the school-to-prison pipeline’ … the city’s schools to commit to hiring a more diverse staff, put counselors in a more active role and roll out new training by the end of the calendar year … update history curricula. … to teach us about colonization, oppression, and true Indigenous history in this country … hold local officials accountable.”
Reasonable enough.
