By Amanda Estes

Staff Writer

For Janice Reale-Hatem and her daughter Olivia, a visit to the Kettle
Cove Take Out and Ice Cream Dairy Bar on Route 77 in Cape Elizabeth,
yielded ice cream and a story. A neighbor, Clara Appleton, who was
sitting nearby, revealed she was born in a house that once stood on the
dairy bar site.

“It gave that building a whole different meaning and it made me want to
know more,” said Reale-Hatem during an interview at the Thomas Memorial
Library on Scott Dyer Road in Cape Elizabeth.

The following spring, Reale-Hatem watched Olivia march in the Memorial
Day parade with her Brownie Troop. After the parade, Olivia found
Appleton and another neighbor, Maurice White, near the Cape Elizabeth
Middle School. White told her a story about the day he and other
students carried their desks across the field to the new high school,
which is now the middle school. He was a member of the class of 1935,
the first class to graduate from the new school.

“That image just stayed with me, of schoolchildren in a different Cape at a different time,” said Reale-Hatem.

 Years later, Reale-Hatem has found a way to bring some of these
stories together in the exhibit, “Senior Stories, Extraordinary
Memories: Connections Between People and Places in Cape Elizabeth,” on
display at the Thomas Memorial Library through Oct. 31. The exhibit
features personal histories, shared with Reale-Hatem during the last
year, as well as her accompanying black and white and hand-colored
photographs and historical images contributed by the Cape Elizabeth
Historical Preservation Society.

For Reale-Hatem, the project has given her a different perspective on
the town she has called home for nearly seven years. A trip to town
hall is no longer just for errands, it’s an opportunity to reflect on
the memories of those who once stood on the second floor and looked out
to the ocean during World War II. Like Lester Jordan, who recalled
attending school at the current town hall and watching the aircraft
carriers, battleships, cruisers, destroyers and submarines in Portland
Harbor.

Jordan also recalled close encounters with soldiers in the Navy, Army
and Coast Guard, who were stationed at Two Lights. The area was
enclosed in barbed wire and a posted sign read, “We shoot first and ask
questions later,” Jordan told Reale-Hatem. Every Thursday, he and his
friends would get off the school bus, crawl under the barbed wire and
take front row seats for the soldiers’ weekly movies.  

Henry Adams, who was chairman of the town council in 1978, recalled
when current Town Manager Michael McGovern, first became a town
employee. McGovern had interned in the town hall the year before and
was preparing to graduate from the University of Maine in Orono, when
he was asked to be the administrative assistant to the acting town
manager, Public Works Director Herbie Dennison. Adams remembered
calling the university switchboard operator and asking to speak with
McGovern. He was amused to discover the operator immediately knew
McGovern was in the student union building. When transferred to the
student union, the person on the other line was also able to identify
and locate McGovern right
away.            
 

When Reale-Hatem first began the project, she was unsure of what the end result would be.

“I just knew I wanted to take pictures of people,” she said.

 Although she always enjoyed taking pictures, there was a period
of roughly 10 years in which she didn’t take many photographs. With the
assistance of a Cape Elizabeth Arts Commission grant, however, she
spent the year snapping pictures to put a face to the stories. When
possible, she tried to photograph participants at a location that was
integral to their memories. Her neighbor, Maurice White, for example,
was photographed at the middle school field.

“I encountered this wonderful sense of wanting to share their memories
of the past,” Reale-Hatem said. “I think some of them were amused. I
don’t think anyone knew what the outcome was going to be.”

Reale-Hatem said people have suggested she compile the stories in a
book. She is also exploring ways to expand the project to include more
people and more memories.

The death of Jane Hanson, who shared a story about owning Two Lights
Antiques for 30 years, has reinforced for Reale-Hatem how important it
is to capture these narratives for younger generations to discover.

“Once they’re lost, they’re lost,” she said. “It’s just important to
record those everyday memories because that’s what people connect with.”

Reale-Hatem said she felt most connected to tales about the people and
places in the Kettle Cove area, where she currently lives. Kathleen
Olsen Lacombe and Gloria Olsen Watson told her they called the area,
“Grampa’s Cove” because their father, Lawrence Olsen, and their
grandfather at one time owned all of the land in the area. Lawrence
Olsen carved gulls from wood and owned The Gull Shop, where Two Lights
Antiques stands today.

The sisters’ told Reale-Hatem their father and grandfather used to
spread their fishing nets over the rocks and cover them with tar to
make them last longer. Reale-Hatem said the tar is still visible today
and she and her children have come across it during numerous rock
climbing outings.

“They thought that was a pretty cool thing,” she said, of sharing the
story with her children. “They hopefully could envision fisherman
laying their nets on the rocks.”

During the last year, Reale-Hatem also spoke with Constance Murray, who
started the Cape Elizabeth Historical Preservation Society in the 1970s
to “save something of the older Cape.”

Murray shared this memory of earlier times with Reale-Hatem: “The
people were simple, but they were wonderful. It didn’t matter who you
were. If you were a professor or a fisherman or a farmer, you were all
friends, you could all meet and have a good time together. You could go
to the fisherman or fireman dinner or the fireworks and see everyone.”

Anyone interested in sharing his or her Cape Elizabeth memories, is
encouraged to contact Janice Reale-Hatem at 799-2457 or
pjinme@maine.rr.com.

The Thomas Memorial Library is located at 6 Scott Dyer Road. Library
hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and 9
a.m. to 8:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.