Northern Maine highlighted in new book about New England’s spirit

By Chris Bouchard, The County Staff

Mel Allen didn’t know anyone in Maine when he first arrived in 1970. He was drawn by snow.

In 1969, he was serving in the Peace Corps in sweltering heat on the Colombian coast. He saw snow on film, in photographs and finally in person during a trip to Maine. It was powerful enough to inspire him to move to the Portland area.

He has remained in New England, and over the last 50 years has written countless stories about the region’s people and charm during his career at Yankee Magazine. Now retired, he has compiled close to 50 stories in his upcoming book “Here in New England,” many set in the Pine Tree State.

He has discovered stories of trials and triumphs, such as how a lost boy along the Canadian border inspired more than 1,500 Mainers to join the search. He has highlighted Aroostook County’s potato harvest, profiled writer Stephen King and captured the playful rivalry between legendary Bangor Daily News sports editor Bud Leavitt and Red Sox star Ted Williams.

For the book, he chose stories that connect people and that readers could talk about regardless of their political beliefs, who they are or where they live.  

If there is one thing Allen would like readers to come away with, it would be just how many amazing stories there are Maine and New England, and how remarkable the Northeast region is for being so compact.

“In 20 minutes, I’m in Massachusetts, in 40 minutes I’m in Vermont, and in an hour I’m in Connecticut,” he said. “So the people that you read about in this book — in the other parts of New England — to me, they’re still neighbors.”

In the short piece “Memories,” Allen shares how he was first inspired to write. He met his teacher Bill Freeland as an 11-year-old in 1957. Freeland would turn off the lights while reading great works of literature to his students, something that Allen later did when he first worked as a teacher in Maine.

“As we memorized Tennyson and Longfellow, he made us care about the sounds of words,” Allen wrote. “He was larger than life to all of us.”

Allen’s career at Yankee Magazine began in 1977 and ended with his retirement this year. He became the magazine’s fifth editor in 2006. He also worked at the Maine Sunday Telegram.

And though Allen lived in the Portland area before moving to New Hampshire, he said many of his Maine stories were set north of Augusta.

In “Caribou,” he writes about the city being a melting pot of different cultures — French, Swedish, Irish and Native American — and how the Aroostook County horizons stretch out so far that it feels like being at sea.

“No matter where you are or what you believe, you can talk to somebody else about how Caribou once took great pride in being the coldest place in the country,” he said. 

Allen said the region has shown great resilience since the 1994 closure of Loring Air Force Base in Limestone, as the town later opened the Maine School of Science and Mathematics, a magnet high school that was in 2019 ranked as the second-best in the country.

In a similar vein, his 2018 piece “The Town That Refused To Die” shows Bucksport’s relentless revitalization efforts in the aftermath of its mill closing.

In “An Allagash Love Story,” Allen describes the journey that Lila-Beatrice “Patty” Pelkey took with her future husband Allen “Nuge” Nugent across Chamberlain Lake in the North Maine Woods. They packed their belongings on a raft, landed on the eastern shore, and opened a Nugent’s Camps in 1936. Allen wrote that the camp, which is still open today, later gained national prominence, welcoming governors and celebrities throughout the country.

Half a century later, Patty Nugent told Allen in 1986 that she would give everything up just to relive that trip across the lake one more time. Like Allen’s journey into the unknown state of Maine, Patty and Nuge’s journey on the moonlit raft led to a lifetime of doing what they love, and introduced them to countless unforgettable people in the region.

Allen hinted at the possibility of another book in the future and said he will always have a passion for finding and telling great stories.

“I am retired from The Yankee and from going into the office. I’m no longer an editor. I’m no longer on the payroll. All that stuff makes you retired,” he said. “But the thirst for finding good stories — that doesn’t just go away.”

“Here in New England” is set to release in September.