Meet the Storyteller

Irene Drago, the creator of Bath Time

Three years ago I started writing Bath Time Society to stay connected to a place I hoped to call home as soon as I retired from teaching in Chicago. Yesterday, for the first time in twenty years, I missed the back-to-school teacher’s meeting. It’s official. I am truly retired, and I am living in Bath, Maine! Not to be overly dramatic (which I can be), today feels like the first day of the rest of my life, and it feels like the right time to introduce myself to the thousands of online readers who have opened up my blog and spied my personal view of this Cool Little City without even knowing my name. Obviously, the absence of a by-line was deliberate. Teachers sometimes prefer anonymity! They are often identified by students and their parents at restaurants, movie theaters, hair salons, airports, train stations, and countless other public places, and that kind of recognition doesn’t always lend itself to free-spirited fun. But even teachers have personal lives, and they have feelings they want to share.
Last Sunday I met a woman who asked me if we had ever met before. When I said no, she asked me if I wrote a column because my face looked so familiar.  I paused and then I said, “I write a blog about Bath, and sometimes I show up in a picture or two." She smiled. "That's it! I read your blog. My name is Carol.” And I quickly replied, “My name is Irene Drago. It’s nice to meet you, Carol.” Since Carol did not tell me her last name (maybe she’s a teacher), I cannot give her the full credit she deserves for identifying the anonymous Bath blogger, but I would like to thank her because later that day she wrote a sweet comment on my blog, and that was a random act of kindness!

Bryanna, the dreamer of Kindness Day, & I 

Today, August 19, 2017, Bath celebrated its fourth Kindness Day. I vividly remember the first one on August 16, 2014. Seeing all that love on Front Street inspired me to write a blog post, and 116 people chose to read it. For a blog that was only six-months old, that was a big number! In fact, it was only the second post to be opened by more than 100 people! The data clearly showed that love was an appealing topic. The only other post that had reached that level of popularity was “Love in the time of Bath,” the Valentine's Day story. Three years later, there seems to be a shortage of love around the world and people are craving it more than ever.  That was evident by the people in line today to paint a Midcoast Maine Rock with hope, or pat a pet, or pick a free flower to carry home. I'm grateful that Bath is still blessed with gallons of love! 

Megan Shea and Olivia Shipsey at the Mustard Seed's opening

In February of 2015, six months after the first Kindness Day, the Mustard Seed opened its doors on Front Street in the wake of two blizzards. Miraculously, my flight from Chicago landed safely at Logan Airport, and I was able to attend the grand opening of Maine’s newest Indie bookstore. Of course, all that positive energy inspired me to write a blog post: “Blizzard or not, Here We Come!” Almost 600 people read my account of the Mustard Seed’s opening. That was a record-breaking number!  Despite all odds, a new place to discover and discuss books had opened in Bath, and from that little seed a new appreciation for stories of every kind would start to grow. This summer, thanks to Julie Shea, Susan Shipsey, and the Mustard Seed’s talented staff, scores of children enjoyed looking for Waldo in the shops along Front Street as part of the 30^th anniversary celebration of Where’s Waldo? My granddaughters were too young to participate, but I purchased an anniversary edition of Where’s Waldo? for their future reading pleasure!  

I have always believed that readers and writers can make magic together. If you need proof, look inside the Patten Free Library on Summer Street! It’s a castle on a hill, and it’s easy to dream there. Across the street there’s the Library Book Store, and just a few doors down there’s another gem, the Open Door Bookstore, where vintage and antique books are treasured and sold. I love the fact that words are valued here, and I love to write here. In Bath, I can imagine characters, set them down on a blank sheet of paper, and breath life into them. This Cool Little City on the Kennebec is the right place to write a story.

Kristine Wagstaff and Nikki Giglia

Yesterday, I approved the digital proof for my first novel. Next week, I hope to receive the first printed copy for a final review. If all goes as planned, Daughters of Long Reach will be launched at the Mustard Seed in mid-October. Bath’s rich maritime history has inspired my writing, and so have the artists, historians, business owners and teachers that I have met here. As fate and Bath would have it, I was introduced to Maine Authors Publishing, a dynamic group of authors, editors, designers and publicists, at the Mustard Seed, and again at their booth in Library Park during Bath Heritage Days! MAP is a small press based in Thomaston, Maine, and without their help, my novel would still be a work in progress. I have learned that writing does not have to be a solitary experience. There's a reason why team and dream are rhyming words! 

Darreby Ambler, the founder of Dream Teams

 In all my writing about Bath, there’s a recurring theme. It’s really a Disney theme: “A dream is a wish your heart makes.” As I relinquish my anonymity, and I prepare to release my first novel,  I am reminded of Bath’s Kindness Day. Four years ago a junior in high school, Bryanna, proposed a community-wide act of kindness, and with the help of Darreby Ambler, the founder of Dream Teams, and the leadership of Morse High School's Dream Team, the impossible became inevitable. That’s the power of good, and that’s one more proof that dreams can and do come true.

Painting kindness on Midcoast Rocks

Love is stronger than anything

Moving Day

At last, we're home!

For a moving company, the last week of June is the busiest week of the year. I know this because the Bekins man told me, and tomorrow morning, the twenty sixth of June, an army of movers are going to arrive at my home in Illinois and load all of my possessions - treasure, junk, BOOKS, and my Oreck vacuum cleaner - into a big truck. After spending the last four summers, and most holidays, in Bath, Joe and I have decided to live in Maine all year round. But hellos are easy, and goodbyes are hard. I voted yes for the pine tree state because I quickly fell in love with the community of Bath. My rapture for Bath however, does not make moving any easier. Tomorrow I am officially saying goodbye to my home of twenty-five years, the place where I saw my three children go off to kindergarten, graduate from high school, pack for college, return with friends and sweethearts, and announce their engagements. Over the past few months, Joe and I have packed up a home filled with photos and trophies, and we have bid farewell to our friends and neighbors on Fair Elms Avenue. We have shed a fair amount of tears. I don’t recommend moving unless you have found a good place to go, and you know it’s the right time to be there. (It also helps if at least one of your adult children happen to live in driving distance of your new permanent address. Today I woke up at o’dark early remembering "Easy," a 1977 hit song by the Commodores. The lyrics “I'm easy as Sunday Morning,” kept repeating in my head. I had to smile because I felt relaxed for the first time in weeks! Let me count the reasons why moving across the country to Bath, Maine, is a victory, not a loss.

Big Al from Wiscasset shops at Bath Farmers' Market

The Bath Farmers’ Market is filled with engaging vendors, luscious red strawberries, leafy-green vegetables, multi-grain bread, ginger scones and free music. And sometimes you even find yourself standing in line behind a local celebrity like Big Al! Until I read the June issue of Down East magazine (the one with the Puffin on the cover), I didn’t know that Al Cohen, the discount king of Route 1, started his retail career in New York City, my birthplace. The next time I see Al waiting for pastries at Beryl’s I'll have to tell him that we have something in common. I know he’ll laugh because as Ron Currie pointed out in his Down East article, Al has a heart as big as his store, Big Al’s Super Values, in Wiscasset!

A breathtaking garden on Washington Street

In June, July and August, the flowers are spectacular all around the city. They are so pretty that walking my dog down the street is purely delightful. You can see and smell blossoming flowers at every gate and door. Recently, a stranger reminded me of how breathtaking our local gardens can be. Penny, my dachshund-sheltie, had stopped to sniff a blade of grass, when a woman clearly serious about her daily exercise passed us at a brisk pace. I was surprised when a few seconds later she stopped and shouted, “Look at this!” She waited until I reached her side, and then she rhetorically asked, "Aren't they beautiful?" When I looked, I spied the Armentrout’s private garden and quietly responded, “Yes, two artists live here.” Truth be told, Sam Armentrout likes to paint when she is not selling real estate, but John Armentrout thoroughly enjoys tending to their garden every sunny day, and some cloudy days, too.

A view from the top of a cliff on Bowery Street in Bath

The architecture in Bath is stunning. Perhaps that’s because some of the best craftsmen were drawn here to build sailing ships in the nineteenth century, and their descendants still know how to work with wood, stone and wrought iron. Every year, Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc. has a house and garden tour. This year’s tour included some homes with spectacular views. From the master bedroom  of a hard-to-miss house on Bowery Street, I looked out on to a green field that gently directed my eyes to the Kennebec River. This unique home is built into a cliff where the Texas Steamship Company, and later the Stinson Canning Company, once stood. It was designed for the twenty-first century.but it reflects the skill and imagination that Bath shipbuilders have brought to their work for over three hundred years. Before exiting, I thanked the owner and builder, Mr. Klingaman. He nodded, and then he bent over a chair and repaired it on the spot, and I was genuinely impressed.

Tomorrow morning a moving truck will be parked on Fair Elms Avenue. Joe and our son, Mark, will be there to see it loaded. I'll be here on Washington Street getting ready for its arrival. As an easy Sunday fades away, I'm starting to worry about a hard Monday. Moving will always be difficult, but it helps to be excited about where you're going. And when your dog feels at home in their new space, you'll know that you've made the right move. Dogs know a good spot when they find one, and most people do, too!

Penny has found a good spot to be in Bath.