My cousin Dan emailed several old photos he recently obtained while vacationing in Maine. That’s me, probably age 11, but only a guess. The newspaper’s date isn’t visible. I don’t recall the photo or its taking but the shot must have been posed by either my father or uncle. I don’t read French. (Le Soleil was published out of Quebec City. This evening, a quick Web search left me wondering if the newspaper still exists.)
For three weeks every summer during the 1970s, my cousin and I joined our fathers’ hunting crew in the Allagash Wilderness, which is along the St. John Valley in an area also called the Maine North Woods. At least once a season, we would cross the St. Francis River/St. John River into Quebec. Perhaps, one of the hunters bought the newspaper, or some lumberjack left it behind in the cabin. My uncle rented an abandoned lumberjack camp, which he called “Dodge City,” from one of the paper companies. I’m fairly confident this photo was taken at Dodge.
To my cousin, I say: Please accept my apologies for cropping you out of the image. I did so to remove some blurry object to the right side of the original photo and after doing so to maintain some semblance of composition. As for the photographer, it’s a tossup as to which brother—my dad or uncle. Within a year or so of when I suspect this image was captured, my dad took up photography, investing in a fine SLR camera.
For a good story about our Allagash adventures, please read my post: “Somewhere Between Dickey and Rivière-Bleue.”
[Editor’s Note: This post was moved to joewilcox.com from oddlytogether.com on Sept. 28, 2010.]
Do you have a Maine story that you’d like told? Please email Joe Wilcox: joewilcox at gmail dot com.