by Peter Cates A childhood memory Among my many childhood memories were the innumerable Sunday drives, when gas was inexpensive, down to Pemaquid, Rockport, Port Clyde, Belfast, Owl’s Head, St. George. One particular memory is of the humongous rock quarries in St. George and it was brought to mind when I was browsing in Maine: […]
by Peter Cates Harold John Breau Born in Pea Cove, Maine, Harold John Breau (1916-1977), better known as Hal Lone Pine, was a popular country singer for almost 40 years, especially throughout Maine, New Brunswick and the Canadian prairies, and recorded several songs for RCA Victor during the early 1950s with his wife Betty Cody […]
by Peter Cates Joyce Butler In an 1995 textbook anthology, Maine, the Pine Tree State from Prehistory to the Present, the late Kennebunk historian Joyce Butler provided an essay on family and community life from 1783 to 1861. A few items: Saco was originally Pepperelborough, “a rough lumbering town.” The missionary Paul Coffin considered Union […]
by Peter Cates Ladislas Farago A 1954 book War of Wits, by journalist Ladislas Farago (1906-1980), is an account of intelligence networks during World War II. What gave Farago’s book interest was his own work in South America and his access to many spies and agents who were eager to tell their stories. One such […]
by Peter Cates Dylan and Vee At a 2013 concert in St. Paul, Minnesota, Bob Dylan paid tribute to Bobby Vee (1943-2016), who was in the audience. Dylan played piano as part of Vee’s backup band for two gigs in 1959 and the two singers had remained friends and performed together on occasion over subsequent […]
by Peter Cates England in the 20th Century England in the Twentieth Century, by David Thomson, (1912-1970) is a very fine example of the brilliance in clarity, readability and thorough scholarship to be found quite often among historians from the British Isles. One could open this book anywhere and be drawn into the narrative alone. […]
by Peter Cates Anna Maria Alberghetti Still living at 87, Italian soprano Anna Maria Alberghetti gave her first concert as a child prodigy singer at the age of six years old with an orchestra of 100 musicians on the Greek island of Rhodes, achieved fame in the 1960 Broadway musical Carnival and appeared on the […]
by Peter Cates Bill Clinton An acquaintance from my years living in Houston, Texas, attended the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville and he told of meeting then-Governor Bill Clinton twice during a two-year period and shared a couple of observations. First, the encounters didn’t last much more than five minutes and this individual was one […]
by Peter Cates John Dos Passos Novelist John Dos Passos (1896-1970) was most famed for U.S.A., a trilogy of 3 novels- The 42nd Parallel, 1919 and The Big Money– all of which were published between 1930 and 1936, years of the “Great” Depression and the resulting misery and turbulence . Dos Passos was a very […]
by Peter Cates Big Trouble A 1998 history book, Big Trouble, by Anthony Lukas (1933-1998) is a massive 875 pages of compulsively fascinating reading centered on the 1905 assassination of Idaho Governor Frank Steunenberg (1861-1905) who was originally elected via support from organized labor but then declared martial law when one mine was destroyed by […]