Dear Yankee | November/December 2022

‘Field’ Notes

I want to thank Yankee for doing a story on Aroostook County [“Lessons of the Field,” September/October]. There is so much history and culture thriving there. Please consider doing several more stories highlighting Aroostook: the Acadian culture and history; winter and what the residents do to endure and embrace that time of year; and, finally, the history of the former Loring Air Force Base. I grew up on a potato farm in Caribou, just outside the west gate entrance to Loring. The base was a deep-rooted part of the community for many years, and when it closed in the late ’90s, it had a profound effect on the region.

Thank you for not forgetting Aroostook County, “the Crown of Maine”!

Mel Cote North Port, Florida

We don’t have many potato fields here in Connecticut, so I was intrigued by Erin Rhoda’s article about the potato harvest in Maine [“Lessons of the Field”]. Tristan Spinski’s photographs of hardworking men, women, teens, and children opened my eyes, and Rhoda’s insightful reporting made me wish that I could join “harvest break”!

Carrying on family and community traditions like this surrounding the all-important harvest is still good business. It was heartening to read about the Maine teens and kids who take this work so seriously and are eager to help out.

L.A. Ruiz West Haven, Connecticut

Green Peace

I wanted to thank Tim Loftus for his amazing First Person essay, “The Sanctuary” [September/October]. When I was a kid, I found a similar hemlock grove growing in a perfect circle in the woods behind my house. Whenever I needed to get away from the world, I would go to that hemlock grove and lie down and look up through their tops to the sky above. To me, it was like nature’s chapel. I’ve never been able to describe the feeling that place gave me, the comfort during difficult times, the joy of feeling the natural world so purely.

Tim’s description is the best I’ve ever read about that feeling of being so perfectly connected to and protected by these beautiful trees.

Bob Hofmann Scituate, Massachusetts

Sweet Memories

Wonderful childhood memories came flooding back as I enjoyed your July/August issue highlighting the best of New England’s ice cream offerings [“Get the Scoop”]. Our family traveled from Michigan every summer to my parents’ hometown, Lenox, Massachusetts. Each year my grandfather would take my sister and me into Lee on the pretext of needing more bread and milk, but we would end up having a huge double-dip cone at the Friendly’s for lunch. We loved keeping our “secret” treat from the other adults. Years later, we laughed when we found out it had been my grandma’s idea all along.

Betsy Paruszkiewicz Warren, Michigan

Heavenly Creatures

I enjoyed Loree Griffin Burns’s article about seeing her first luna moth [“The Hours of the Moth,” July/August]. They are truly spectacular and other-worldly. I have seen only one, on my best friend’s tiny upstairs deck at Sugar-bush in Vermont many years ago. Attracted to the light, it joined me as I read my book and it stayed long enough for me to alert my friend so she could see it, too.

Another memory: Just before noon on a July day almost five years ago, I was walking in my neighborhood when I saw something in the road. Luckily, it was a quiet day with no cars in sight. What I saw was a polyphemus moth, alive and uninjured, but in the middle of the street! After taking some photos, I coaxed it onto my finger and relocated it to the grass a few feet away.

Nature is wonderful! Take time to enjoy it.

Mary Walling Hudson, Massachusetts

On the Radar

Thank you very much for your excellent article titled “Dish Fulfillment” [July/August]. It’s important we remember our history, as you did so well by shining a light on the critical radar research work done at MIT during World War II. My grandfather, Simon Lawrence Goddard, a lifetime Cambridge resident, was one of the experts who contributed his talents at the “Plywood Palace.” Today, two of his granddaughters are patent attorneys, and they often find his name on key radar patents from the WWII era, patents which are still being declassified to this day.

Keep up the excellent work!

Douglas Goddard McKinney, Texas

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