A baked bean supper in the fall. An annual lobster dinner. A gathering of people from strollers to seniors, dropping their “ers” for “ahs” and spicing their sentences with a liberal dash of “wickeds.”
Sound familiar? Believe it or not, these events are taking place 500 miles from the borders of Maine, under the auspices of the Maine State Society of Washington, D.C.
When I first moved to the D.C. area, I was inundated with e-mails from Mainers who either had family in the area or who lived there themselves. Advice on everything from neighborhoods to bike paths was dispensed. But the most surprising thing to me was the news that an entire society of Mainers existed, right in the nation’s capital.
The Maine State Society has been around since 1894, when a band of “displaced” Mainers got together to form their own home away from home. Originally calling themselves “The Sons and Daughters of Maine,” the pioneer group consisted of 64 people representing all 16 Maine counties. The organization was meant to provide a little touch of Maine for Mainers in the national capital area, keep alive a sense of roots and boost the image of the state.
Today, over a century since its inception, the society continues to do just that. A nonpolitical, nongovernmental and not-for-profit group, the society is 100 percent volunteer-run. “It doesn’t matter what your politics may be or what your role is in the Washington area,” the group states. “You’re eligible to join the Society if you have Maine connections.”
While societies exist in the nation’s capital for 55 states and U.S. territories, the Maine State Society is one of the old-est, largest and most active. It has about 1,100 members, who live in 26 states and a half-dozen foreign countries. “People pass through D.C., become members and stay members,” says Lewis Pearson, a Portland native and the society’s treasurer. “We figure there are about 450 members from the immediate region, and the rest — 600 or so — live all over the world.”
Pearson has been a member for 46 years. “I came to the [Washington, D.C.,] area in 1964 and I’ve been a member ever since. I live in Falls Church, Virginia, now, but I kept my membership through several moves — even when I was living on the West Coast.”
Long before the Internet supplied social networking sites, the Maine State Society kept old neighbors together and informed on the extended community’s activities. A monthly newsletter, The Maine Event, updates members on news of both the state and fellow “displaced” Mainers, listing everything from new members and obituaries to economic and social news in the Pine Tree State.
“We don’t have an office, no real estate of our own. We exist in Maine, I suppose,” Pearson says with a chuckle. Instead, a steady communication system among society officers, volunteers and longtime members keeps the organization up and running.
A directory lists members by both last name and their town in Maine. As soon as my copy came in the mail, I turned to my own hometown and was surprised to find several old schoolmates and schoolmates’ siblings listed. Classmates, neighbors and old friends regularly rediscover each other through the Maine State Society. Almost everyone has some kind of connection — some closer and more surprising than others.
“One young man called up on the society number, and I happened to answer it,” Pearson told me. “He was working on the [Capitol] Hill, and had learned about the Maine State Society through delegate members. We went through the drill: ‘How can I join?’ etc. When I’d answered all of his questions, I said, ‘OK, where do you come from in Maine?’ He said ‘Portland.’ ‘How about that, I’m from Portland,’ I said. ‘What part of Portland? Really? What street?’ Turned out we had grown up on the same street, in the very same house … at different times. I grew up at that address, went to high school, left home, and 25 years later, he grew up in that same house.”
Pearson’s new acquaintance has since moved back to Port-land, to their old street; when Pearson went back to visit, he got to see the inside of his own childhood house again — 40 years after he’d left it.
“You never know who you’ll run into at our events, but you’re sure to make connections with someone.”
As the largest and most active of the New England state societies, the Maine State Society takes the lead in organizing annual events ranging from the Cherry Blossom Princess event to the annual Arlington National Cemetery Wreath Project. “There’s a wreath company up in Harrington, Maine, run by a man named Morrill Worcester. He’s been donating wreaths every year since 1992. Last year he sent 15,000 wreaths down … we had about 4,000 volunteers come out on a cold December day to lay them out.”
In addition to everything else it does, the Maine State Society Foundation offers scholarships to recognize Maine students, awarding funds to full-time students who have completed at least one year of undergraduate courses at a four-year degree-granting, nonprofit institution of higher learning in the state of Maine.
As one of the society’s newest members, I’m looking forward to the next bean supper. It’s good to have a home away from home among neighbors.
Meg Adams, who grew up in Holden and graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School in Bangor and Vassar College in New York, shares her experiences with readers each Friday. She may be reached at meg@margaret-adams.com.