A stay in Bangor, Maine

In mid-November I was back in Greater Atlanta, Georgia. I intended to take pictures in a park nearby for a fall blog post. Time went by too quickly and instead I just took a couple of photos of the leaves in the backyard.

In lieu of this fall blog post I'll relate my summer stay in Bangor, Maine. In early June my daughter asked me if I would like to drive with her, my son-in-law and the kids to Bangor, Maine. I replied, no thank you - it is too far. I had only planned to drive the two hours north to Paducah, Kentucky. Nashville, Tennessee to Bangor, Maine is about 1,330 miles (2,140 km) about the same distance as Brussels, Belgium to Budapest, Hungary - it's quite far as I said.

She explained that three of the four grandchildren were going to attend several weeks of Chinese language immersion summer school in Bangor. She only could stay with them part of the time but then had to get back. As an enticement she offered to have me fly there and then she would come back when the Chinese school ended. She said we could drive down the coast of Maine and on the way stop a day in Kennebunkport, Maine, then New Hampshire and also in Newport, Rhode Island where I had always wished to go, and then stay in Boston a couple of days and I could fly back from Boston. So I went. Because Bangor is close to Acadia National Park summer lodgings are difficult to find. My daughter could only find a small farm to rent. The owners lived in another house adjacent to the original farm. The owners, the wife, drove a Prius, a Toyota hybrid (instead of one of those big SUV vehicles) and the husband, a pick-up truck. Actually, compared to Nashville and Atlanta, there were a lot less SUVs in Maine (where winters are rigorous and they could say they need them, not like in Deep South downtowns ... but in Maine they are more mindful of the environment.)

The farm was built in 1900. Chickens were free to roam and would come to the front door. They would run to greet us as soon as we drove into the farm. Horses were in the back near a wildlife trail. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

I took some photos of the interior but found some better ones on the owners' site (theirs were taken in winter.) The farm has 3 bedrooms, a large bathroom, a kitchen with eating area and two front rooms with a piano. I stayed in one of the upstairs bedrooms.

My daughter and her family drove to Maine a week prior to the start of the Chinese summer school so they could visit the area and Acadia National Park. This park is about 41 miles from Bangor. It is located on Mount Desert Island and Isle au Haut. The highest mountain on the Atlantic Coast of the US, Cadillac Mountain, is in this park.

In its 49,075 acres (76.7 sq mi or 198.6 km2) the park contains wetlands, forests, meadows, mountains, lakes, streams, beaches and a large diversity of animal and plant life. Millions of visitors come to the park and I believe reservations are required now to enter it, at least in the summer months, because of the congestion. In 1929 the name of the park was changed from Marquis de Lafayette Park to Acadia National Park in honor of the former French colony of Acadia that used to include Maine. The center photo is of my son-in-law - he had to fly back to Nashville after a week in Maine.

My daughter flew back to Nashville after her 3 weeks and left the big van in Bangor. They use this large van to transport the 4 kids, 3 adults (including the au pair) and two dogs (no SUVs for member of my family.) For commuting to work they just have two small passenger vehicles. But the van is quite high and long - I was afraid to drive it. Fortunately the au pair stayed during my time there and he drove. He is an Italian of Moroccan ancestry and his family lives in France now, so he speaks Italian, Moroccan Arabic, French and English. We ate most evenings in local restaurants and pubs, apart from the day the Italian soccer team won the European Soccer Championship, its first time since 1968. Our au pair was so overjoyed that he treated us to a pizza dinner. That week was also my youngest grandson's 10 years old birthday. He requested a chocolate cream pie. I found a bakery in Bangor that was able to bake one especially for him. Below is the van, the bakery, the pie, the au pair with the Italian flag wrapped around his shoulders and my grandchildren. The grandson in the center is letting his hair grow to donate to a group helping young cancer patients who lost their hair.

The first Sunday after I arrived I was pleased to meet one of my blogging friends for lunch in Bangor. I had been reading her blog for years until she eventually stopped blogging. Ruth's original blog was named "synch-ro-ni-zing" and her last blog, ended in 2017, was called Birds of the Air quilts where she showed the quilts she made. Ruth and her husband retired and moved to a small coastal town in Maine, not far from Bangor. It was so much fun meeting her after having read her blogs for over a decade. We met at the Mason Brewing Co. Restaurant along the Penobscot River. We ate outdoors as it was a warm day and also because of Covid.

I was surprised by the long list of beers and ciders. Ruth told me that there are a great many pubs and restaurants in the area featuring local artisanal beers and ciders. Later I read that behind Vermont, Maine has the second highest number of breweries per 100,000 residents in the USA. The 100 or so local breweries produce New England IPAs, English ales, stouts, porters, sours, Belgian, farmhouse, lagers and more. They have the largest variety of hard cider that I have seen outside of France and Belgium. Most restaurants and pubs will offer "sample beers" of your choice in 4 small glasses. I did not try them since I am more partial to cider.

I remember writing Ruth and telling her I was going to stay in a small town in Maine - Bangor. She answered that Bangor was one of the largest cities in Maine, and with 32,000 residents is considered the unofficial capital of northern Maine. Well, when you consider that the population of the state of Maine is 1.34 million, Bangor is ... large. But coming from greater Atlanta with 6.09 million and the state of Georgia with 10.83 million, I thought Bangor was tiny ... oops! The weather was nice though, not as warm as in Atlanta. We did not have to use air conditioning and I was chilly a couple of times. Of course, in winter it must be quite cold - much too cold for me. Here are a couple of photos of the city in winter (courtesy the Bangor Daily News.)

Definitely a city to visit in summer, in July like I did. At least for us southerners ...

The Owen-Primm barn in Tennessee

When my younger daughter and family moved from Columbus, Ohio to Brentwood, Tennessee in 2010, my late husband and I drove often from Georgia to visit them. An old barn was only two miles from their house. I always wished to take several photos of it, but it was facing a two-lane road with traffic and it was difficult to stop. I did take one picture from our car and even included it in a post about the huge pretentious houses being built in Brentwood; the barn was showed in the first collage of my post, look at the post here (that older photo is also in the collage below.) Two years ago my daughter and family moved to another house and this time the barn is only 1/2 mile away. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

The barn has suffered damages from the heavy winds and tornadoes that came through in the last couple of years. When about a week ago my daughter told me that the property, barn and house, was going to be torn down and to come and take pictures. I decided to do just that. People had been taking photographs she said, but the day I went there, I was the only one. It was sunny with mild weather. I came close to the barn and could see the damages time had done.

The main house was easily seen when turning around the barn. I walked over the property and took numerous photos. Once back home I was curious about its history. I'll share what I found while I show you my pictures. Originally, around 1806 Jabez Owen built a log cabin on the site. Dr. Jabez Owen was one of the wealthiest men in Williamson County, a physician and planter; he owned hundreds of acres of land and 58 enslaved people. Some of their antebellum cabins are still standing on the property now (shown in collage below.) "Antebellum" means before the war in Latin and usually refers to structures built in the American South during the 30 years before the Civil War (1861-1865.) Antebellum mansions and plantations homes don't have a specific style, they just date to a certain time and place in history that still triggers strong emotions today. (Below, front of slave cabins.)

In 1845 or so the house was expanded by Thomas Perkins Primm. It included a pair of log cabins for enslaved workers (shown above) with vertical board doors and a shared stone chimney. Later, in the 1920s and 1930s a stone springhouse, a frame barn with weatherboard siding, a frame garage and a frame shed were added. Those outbuildings are slowly collapsing now.

Then I could see the side of the house, which from a distance, still looked nice (maybe?).

Thomas Perkins Primm in 1845 expanded the original Owen log cabin into a two-story frame house in the Greek revival style, the classic Middle Tennessee style then, with four columns supporting the two-story porch. Nine years later there were considerable troop movement near this house when on December 1, 1864 an engagement took place between Confederate General Forest and USA General J. H. Wilson. As late as 2015 the house was still deeded to Charlie Primm, a descendant of Thomas Primm. Charlie McNairy Primm died in July 2011 at 88 years of age. He operated a very successful dairy farm in the area with his brothers (his 11 siblings died before he did.) As I came closer to the side of the house I could see how decrepit it now was.

I walked around to the front of the house. The green shudders were still attached, although one was weather beaten.

I was there after lunch in mid January 2021, and the place was very quiet and peaceful. This farm was located on a vast piece of land but in 2003 a great deal of the Primm Farm was sold to be turned into Montclair, an upscale house subdivision. More land had been donated to the city of Brentwood by the late Edgar Wilson Primm and turned into Primm Park, which encompasses an American Indian burial mounds and an early 2-story school,Boiling Springs Academy. Prehistoric Native Americans Mount Builders lived in the area between 900 and 1450 AD. Below is a photo of the early school with an Indian mound behind it, photo courtesy the City of Brentwood.

Boiling Springs Academy originally opened as a private school in 1833 for sons of wealthy plantation owners. Tuition was then $8 per semester ($10 if geography and English were added.) It has two rooms, one upstairs and one on the main floor. Now six schools in Brentwood have "A Day in 1845" for second and third graders. They sit in old-fashioned desks and use chalk, and McGuffey's readers for the day's lessons. They come dressed in period clothes loaned to them by the Historic Commission. They spend the day much like the children of the 1800s, now being taught by retired teachers. Their lessons include penmanship, arithmetic (using slate and slate pencils,) reciting of maxims, a spelling bee and more. Pictures below courtesy the City of Brentwood. (This school is just up the road from the barn and farm and I drive by them each time I visit my daughter.)

Coming closer to the front porch I could see a couple of old rocking chairs standing guard in the entryway surrounded by weeds growing through cracks in the floor. They stood close to the massive Doric columns with peeling paint. I could have sat in one of those, while gazing at the decaying porch ceiling, painted in light blue, as the old houses of Louisiana, to remind of the sky. But I did not, out of respect.

The house must have been deteriorating for a long time. The roof certainly needs replacement and I understand that there is termite damage as well as dry rot. But why was this historic house (with remains of the 1806 log cabin still there) left to crumble like this? If there were 12 siblings there should be plenty of heirs who could have obtained a grant from the Historic Preservation Fund to restore this property. The Owen-Primm house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1988. To be placed on this Register is not that easy. You have to fill a nomination form with historical information on the site and why the property embodies distinctive characteristics of a type, period or method of construction, ect. Congress enacted the National Historic Preservation Act in 1966. Such buildings listed in the Register tend to not only include the building but the surrounding landscape. This act works to save historic buildings for future generations of Americans.

If structures are deemed important enough to qualify to be in the Register of Historic Places, then they should be followed up to ensure that they do not fall into disrepair. But no laws protect these historic buildings and they can be torn down without public notice. Unfortunately most of the financing come from the Historic Preservations Funds, and in this country, historic preservation is of little concern. The last time I checked, the USA is at the bottom of all western countries for the funding of the arts and humanities, which include historic preservation, libraries, museums, etc. In spring 2020, former president Trump unveiled the largest federal budget in history - $4.75 trillion. He wanted to eliminate the funding of the arts and humanities as non-important. The 2020 US budget still included $32.7 million for historic preservation (when the US tax payers paid, as of October 2020, $141 million for Trump's golf trips!) By comparison the 2020 French budget (a much smaller country the size of Texas) was 338 million Euros or $411,366,000 for their historic preservation alone.

In 2012 I started following more keenly the disinterest of most of the US public for historic preservation when I read that the owners of a historic mansion on Long Island, NY, that had inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald to write The Great Gatsby, had "allowed" it to fall into disrepair. This way it would be too far gone to rehabilitate and instead could be demolished so the land be sold instead to the highest bidder to build four McMansions (and getting more money for it, money being #1, of course.) You can read about it in my post "Why Long Island, NY?" where I explained why my late husband and I made a trip to Long Island to visit more historic buildings before they would also be demolished. I could not believe that the federal government, the state, county or city would not help this historic mansion listed on the Register of Historic Places. (Interior of the Owen-Primm house below, courtesy The Tennessean, Williamson Herald and Williamson Source.)

My blogging friends know that I was born and raised in Paris, France, where we respect our "patrimoine" or National Heritage, and strongly support it. The French Revolution was 50% against Royalty and 50% against the overbearing Church. Castles and churches were burnt or used as warehouses, including Notre Dame de Paris. Victor Hugo in 1831 wrote his book "Notre Dame de Paris" (in English "The Hunchback of Notre Dame") to help save the decaying cathedral. Years later, on December 9, 1905, the French Government passed a law that made all churches built before 1905 the property of the state, not the church (I guess because the French being so secular, no one would pay...) This is why when the roof of Notre Dame de Paris burnt down, people of all religions, no religion, as well as churches of all denominations, synagogues, Buddhist temples and Muslim mosques donated to rebuild the cathedral, not the Vatican. In western countries with the strongest reputation for the funding of historic preservation and the arts, culture expression is considered a universal right, like other basic needs, and not a privilege for just the wealthy.

Would the wealthy US tourists keep flocking to Europe if their historic sites had been bulldozed to make place for more subdivisions? Will future generations of tourists, domestic and international, come to visit Brentwood subdivisions or would they instead be interested in an antebellum farm where a realistic African-American museum had been establishedf in the authentic quarters of their enslaved workers? By the way as far as I can tell there is only one US museum dedicated to slavery in this country, in Louisiana - why? The 1860 Census counted about 4 millions enslaved people in the US, working 10-16 hours a day, six-days a week, with children as young as 3 being put to work. It would help future Williamson County's children, one of the wealthiest county in the US, predominantly white, to find out how the life of southern planters was eased by their enslaved workers who planted and harvested their crops, cooked their food, washed their clothes, nursed their babies, under inhumane conditions. This should not be forgotten or denied and a property like the historic Owen-Primm Farm could teach the way it really was. Walking back to the barn I passed gnarly trees that must have stood there for ages.

I took pictures of the back of the slave cabins. Up to ten enslaved people may have occupied them at the time but later they were used as storage. Considering their age, their exterior walls seem solid.

The back of the barn looked more dilapidated thant the front.

Then I was back facing the front of the storm damaged barn again.

Next time I come by will everything be gone? Demolition is planned for March. Below is the planned house subdivision we'll see in its stead.

Poet Maya Angelou said: "History, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again." It was lived in Brentwood, Tennessee, but will it become just forgotten history?

ADDENDUM: February 3, 2021 - My late husband talked about the barn every time we drove by it. I thought he would be sad if he knew it was going to be demolished. Then late last evening my daughter sent me a link to the local newpaper, The William Source. This was their breaking news: Historic Owen-Primm House Saved from Demolition - by Press Release - February 2, 2021 - The threat of demolition of Brentwood's historic Owen-Primm is over. After developers worked with the Heritage Foundation of Williamson County, TN, the home is under contract to a preservation-minded buyer as of Feb. 1. The buyer has yet to be publicly announced but has committed to saving the house, five acres of the property and its barn. A demolition permit filed in mid-December endangered the existence of the historic house on Moores Lane near Wilson Pike, but a 90-day wait period, per Brentwood city code, provided time for the Heritage Foundation and the City of Brenwood to seek other options ..." Yesterday would have been my husband's birthday, since he was born on a February 2nd. He must be happy about this outcome, wherever he is.

Georgia on my mind ...

Georgia is on my mind ... I have to drive back again next week from Nashville to my house in Greater Atlanta for the early voting of the senate runoffs. I already drove twice there to vote last month (500 miles round trip each.)

Georgia is also on everyone's mind because of this important election. Why is this election important? The Atlanta Journal Constitution newspaper explained it well in their December 11, 2020 article: Here is part of it: "Why are the Democrats and Republicans flooding Georgia with more than $400 million in television ads? Why has Vice President Mike Pence visited five Georgia cities in two weeks? And why is President-elect Joe Biden taking a day away from building his administration to travel to Atlanta, as he will on Tuesday? It all comes down to Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats, both up for grabs in the Jan. 5 runoffs and now suddenly key to the early success of Biden's presidency. Control of the U.S. Senate rests on the outcome in Georgia." So you understand why Georgia is on everyone's mind right now.

Actually, "Georgia on My Mind" became the state of Georgia's official song on April 24, 1979 when Governor George Busbee signed it into law. Singer Ray Charles (1930-2004,) who had made the song famous, performed it on March 7, 1979, in front of a joint meeting of the GA Senate and House of Representatives. I remember watching him on television that day. The song was originally written by Hoagy Carmichael and Stuart Gorrell in the 1930s; it was one of Ray Charles' (born in Albany, Georgia on Sep. 23, 1930) biggest hits. I watched him again, live, in 1996 when he performed it in Atlanta's Centennial Park during the 1996 Summer Olympic Games. Below are pictures of Ray Charles in Atlanta in 1979 (courtesy the AJC.)

Georgia on my Mind, now the official anthem of Georgia, has been a very popular song recorded by many artists, among them: Fats Waller, Louis Armstrong, Ella Fitzgerald, Glenn Miller, Etta James, Eric Clapton, Peggy Lee, Tom Jones, Oscar Peterson, Willie Nelson, Dean Martin, Gladys Knight, Led Zeppelin, Leon Russell and many more. In 2003 Rolling Stone magazine declared it one of the top 50 greatest songs of all time. You can find a rendition of it from all these artists on YouTube. Below is an early rendition by Ray Charles.

My husband, two daughters and I moved to Atlanta in early 1973 when my husband was offered a position in the then Governor Jimmy Carter's administration. We lived there until the end of 2017. Now I live in Georgia part-time as it is still my main residence; I live in Nashville, Tennessee, the rest of the time. On my blog I have shown many photos taken in various parts of the state (and I'll show several in this post.) For my friends overseas I'll give some information. Georgia is located in the southeastern U.S. It was named after King George II of Britain and was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirtheen Colonies. Below are vintage postcards of Atlanta. (Click on collage to enlarge.)

The US state of Georgia has an area of 59,425 square miles or 153,909 km2. It is about half the size of Italy; population in 2019 was close to 11 million (including 6 million in Greater Atlanta.)

Georgia is known for its peanuts, peaches and pecans. Its poultry and egg production is worth $4 billion and its cotton is the no. 1 row crop value in the state. Below, two lower photos on the right are a cotton field and some cotton photos I took several years ago. In the center are a fresh bag of peanuts and a bag of pecan pralines I received this week from Southern Grace Farms in Enigma, Georgia. It is owned by the McMillan family who, for eight generations (since their Scottish ancestors came in 1774,) has been farming in South Georgia.

Georgia's terrain is very varied with farmland, mountains, coastal beaches, wild areas, swamps, numerous lakes, waterfalls, white water streams and a great river, the Chattahoochee. It truly is a beautiful state and offers a myriad of landscape to phogograph.

My house is in Greater Atlanta, in Cobb County, in the northwest part of the state. I love the sea but it is about a 4 1/2 hour drive from my house, about the same distance as from my GA house to the one in Nashville. The North Georgia Mountains are close though and there are stunning vistas in the Appalachian Mountains. Last year I traveled to Spring Mountain in Fannin County where the Appalachian Trail starts, then goes 2000+ miles to the state of Maine.

Atlanta, the capital city of Georgia, is the birthplace of Coca-Cola and home of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic site. Atlanta has the busiest international airport in the planet. The city of Augusta hosts the famous Masters Golf tournament and the city of Savannah is famed for its lovely historic architecture and leafy public squares. The University of Georgia founded in 1785 is one of the oldest public universities in the nation. In addition to Coca-Cola, Atlanta is the headquarters for several large corporations: Home Depot, Delta, Equifax, Georgia Pacific and UPS.

Even though much of the state was burnt during the Civil War it still has quite a number of antebellum mansions.

One historic house I usually visit at Christmas time for its decoration and in the spring for its quilt show is Bulloch Hall in Roswell, GA. I miss not visiting it this year because of the virus.

Having been born, raised and lived in Paris until I came to San Francisco in the 1960s (where I lived ten years,) most of my life has been in Georgia and I guess I am now a Franco-Georgian (the state that is, not the country.) I like its cuisine and cook many southern dishes. For example every New Year's Day I prepare the traditional Hoppin' John recipe with greens and corn bread for good luck throughout the year.

Other Georgia-themed songs are "Midnight train to Georgia" by Gladys Knight (an Atlanta native) and the Pips and "Rainy Night in Georgia" by Brook Benton, and so many others. One of the early songs I heard was "Georgia" by Elton John in 1978. Elton John lives part time in Atlanta in his luxury high rise condo in the Buckhead area.

What you may not know is that Georgia is the Hollywood of the South. In 2016 more major feature films were made in Georgia than in California (Black Panther, Avengers, The Ballad of Richard Jewell, Lovecraft Country, Ozark, Fast and Furious, Baby Driver, etc.) The Georgia Film Commission started in 1973 with Governor Jimmy Carter who recognized the profitable revenues from the Burt Reynolds' movie "Deliverance." The state offers quite advantageous tax incentives for film productions. Large studios are constantly being built in Georgia to accomodate the growth of this industry. It is not unusual to see actors in Atlanta and other areas. Actually I literally bumped into Clint Eastwood in Savannah some years ago. (See "Savannah's Book ... and Clint Eastwood." Below just two of the several studios. The Atlanta Studio Complex below was for decades the Atlanta Fairgrounds where I used to visit the monthly flea markets.

When I saw that the film "The Blind Side" starring Sandra Bullock had been filmed in Atlanta I had planned to visit local locations from movies and write a post, but then I realized too many films had been filmed here. With the film and television industries and a concentration of high tech companies in the state a more educated work force has turned Georgia blue (Democrat) to the fury of D. Trump. Television series are also set in Georgia like The Walking Dead, Sharp Objects, Stranger Things, Moon and Me, and Sweet Magnolias. I have not watched the Sweet Magnolias series but understand it is filmed in Covington, GA, where Vampire Diaries and In the Heat of the Night were filmed, as well. Looking at the Greek revival mansion from the series I remembered taking its picture several years ago while in Covington, see my post here "Spring in the Deep South, part 1." (The fictional town in the series is Serenity, South Carolina.)

Because of the coronavirus I have not been able to travel very far. For now all my trips will lead me back to Georgia until my house is cleared out - and that will take some time ... so Georgia will stay on my mind.

I'll end up with one of my favorite instrumentals of Georgia on my Mind. It is from my 2019 CD by the UK Peter Frampton Band.

The music we hear now is mostly Christmas Carols or Holiday Music. It will be a bittersweet season as we wish to enjoy it but are filled with desolation at the amount of grief our country and the world is going through because of the coronavirus. I wish you all a Happy Hanukkah, a Merry Christmas and a peaceful holiday season.

Stay safe, wear a mask and keep your distance.