Mainers Meet in Washington
By Liz Goldberg
WASHINGTON, April 8 – As soon as she walked into the room, Joan Boos was greeted by a smiling Charlotte Seamans.
“There’s my neighbor!” Seamans said.
But the two were not in their hometown of Calais, Maine. They were at a reception at the Fort Myer, the Army base across the Potomac River from Washington.
Though the women lived two streets away from each other while growing up in Calais, they did not meet until years after they both moved to the D.C. area and joined the Maine State Society.
“It was a small world back there,” said Seamans, 72, who was a student in one of Boos’ sister’s classes while in school in Calais and now lives in Alexandria, Va., and works as a receptionist.
Boos’ and Seamans’ away-from-home meeting is not an uncommon society occurrence, members said.
“Everyplace else there’s six degrees of separation and I think in Maine it’s two and a half degrees,” said Lewis Pearson, the 73-year-old society treasurer and newsletter editor.
Boos, who moved to Silver Spring, Md., in 1943, said she enjoys reconnecting with fellow Mainers.
“Maine people, we’re not from big cities, and I think the small towns keep you kind of close,” the 80-year-old said.
THE MEMBERS
The Maine State Society is a social organization that was founded in the 1890s and has remained one of the nation’s most active state societies, currently boasting a membership of more than 1,000. The society is made up of Mainers who moved to the D.C. area and want to socialize with fellow “Mainiacs.”
But not all of the members still live in Washington. About 60 members reside in Maine and a number of others are scattered across 26 states and two other countries, Pearson said.
“A lot of people pass through here for one reason or another – for work, military, what have you – and they maintain their membership,” he said.
With the annual $10 individual or $15 family membership, all members, regardless of their current residence, receive “The Maine Event,” the society’s monthly newsletter, enabling them to stay up-to-date with local news. Pearson said he and his wife, Marjorie, find local tidbits to include in the newsletter by reading their subscriptions to the Bangor Daily News and the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, as well as by receiving news tips from members.
“By reading the newsletter and talking to the people, going to the events, you hear about different things going on that you probably wouldn’t have heard about otherwise,” Seamans said.
THE EVENTS
In addition to keeping up with the happenings in the state, society members get together to socialize about eight times per year at events that include a Congressional Breakfast with the full Maine delegation, a lobster dinner, a baked bean supper, biannual cleanups of Maine Civil War gravesites at Gettysburg National Cemetery and Thursday’s Cherry Blossom Princess Reception.
The society also awards the annual Big “M” Award to Mainers who have made significant contributions to the state and its citizens. A separately chartered nonprofit organization that is run by society members has provided, through 2004, 60 scholarships totaling more than $66,000 to Mainers studying at colleges in the state.
In the late 1940s, the society also had a Halloween party, remembered Don Larrabee, an 81-year-old retired journalist from Portland who now lives in Bethesda, Md.
“Sen. Margaret Chase Smith came out to the party and she was participating too, I remember, bobbing for apples too,” he said in a telephone interview.
The society has had a number of special events over the years, including a concert by country star Dick Curless, which was arranged by then-president and former Maine governor John Reed.
“He [Dick] was brought up in my hometown and he came with his band and it was one of the best events we ever had,” Reed said. “It was kind of the highlight of my three years as president.”
This year’s May 14 lobster dinner (which, it was announced on Thursday, will include blueberry pies for a real at-home feel) will feature entertainment from author, radio host and “Yankee humorist” John McDonald, Pearson said.
The lobster dinner is the society’s most popular event, usually attracting a few hundred people each year, Pearson said.
The Congressional Breakfast is also well attended, particularly by the Maine congressional delegation.
“An incentive for them to show up is a lot of people in the society have maintained their voting registration back in Maine,” Pearson said.
The delegation is involved in other events as well, Pearson said. Rep. Mike Michaud (D) escorted this year’s Maine Cherry Blossom Festival Princess, Sarah Gamble, to the festival’s congressional reception Wednesday night.
THE APPEAL
Since Dave Moulton left Scarborough and moved to Washington in the late 1970s, he has traveled around the world and heard many accents. But going to society events allows the 57-year-old retired security director to hear the accent that is most familiar to him.
“I don’t particularly have an accent but I like to hear that accent every once in a while,” the Mitchellville, Md., resident said in a telephone interview.
Dee Dee Fusco, the 1981 Maine Cherry Blossom Princess, said she enjoys other classic characteristics of Mainers.
“The people from Maine are fun, they’re loving, they’re intelligent and they’ve accomplished great things historically,” she said.
“We must have good genes,” she added with a laugh.
Fusco was born in Washington but lived in Maine for part of her childhood and also vacationed there.
The 42-year-old, who now lives in Stafford, Va., and is director of development for the main campus libraries at Georgetown University, said she always feels comfortable at society events.
“This is almost like coming home,” she said.
###
