More than 40 years ago I learned something about Yankee readers that I have never forgotten: They want to go where we go. It was fall, late 1970s. I wrote about the Maine I once called home—the small towns and villages of Oxford County, a place dotted with lakes and modest mountains, family apple orchards and cider mills. I wrote about a hike up Bear Mountain in Waterford that gave views of a foliage-fringed lake. I told about gem hunting in West Paris, an exquisite little French restaurant in South Paris, a public sauna in Norway. All off-the-beaten-path attractions within short country drives of each other. Yankee titled the article “Small Is Beautiful,” echoing a best-selling book of the time. I turned it in just before the issue went to press. To make the deadline, it ran with not a single photo. Nothing to tempt the reader except black type on white paper.
Within a few days of the issue’s arrival in mailboxes, pilgrims had found this little-known corner of Maine. Tom Fillebrown at his apple orchard told me that people came holding the issue and asked for his autograph. That had never happened to him before. The French restaurant owner, Maurice André, said he was taking reservations for days. More hikers were trekking up 325-foot Bear Mountain than anyone could recall. The little country store that doubled as the post office had never seen so many new people at one time. Yankee had said, Here is a special place and here is what you can see and do. And so they came.
I know the deep trust that readers hold for us. And this year, when we have lost so much of what we once knew as normal, never has it been more important that we understand our need to embrace the lives we knew before the virus. I expect never again will we take for granted the simple act of leaving home; the expectation of finding joy in unexpected moments. Spring, summer, fall, winter—all came and went, and most of us did not find new places. And now here we are. Spring, summer, fall await. We feel a stirring. I feel a stirring.
Today the president announced 50 million Americans have received at least one dose of vaccine. When you read this, many millions more will have been added. We crave the life that includes that joy of setting out for new places. That is what this issue is all about. When you open the pages, in a way you are opening the door. It is the best thing we do, to keep finding the New England we know, then saying, Come along with us.
Mel Alleneditor@yankeemagazine.com
To catch up on Mel Allen’s monthly “Letter from Dublin,” go to newengland.com/letterfromdublin.
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
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