York Corner
The weather last Friday afternoon was so mild and pleasant that we decided we had to spend some of it outdoors.
And apparently we weren't alone in that inclination, because, when we arrived by the Wiggley Bridge at about 2:30 p.m., we found the parking lot close to full and what seemed like scores of strollers ambling about - all intent, no doubt, (as we were ourselves) on walking off some of the effects of the previous day's big Thanksgiving feast.
The first folks we met there were in a group so large that its size alone intrigued us: we figured that they must, somewhere among them, have more than a few stories to tell.
And we were right.
They proved to be: Ben Lovell and his wife, Sandy, with their adult children, son Adam and daughter Cara, all of York; Ben's niece, Emily Higgins and her husband, Darren Higgins, both of Waterbury, Vt.; Ben's sister, Pam Parker, of St Johnsbury, Vt., and her daughter, Katie Parker, with Katie's husband Waldo Aguirre, both now of Philadelphia.
And, yes, one other in the crew: the Lovells' dog Chloe, a three-year-old ("going on six months," said Ben) Great Pyrenees, a thick-coated, all-white "distant cousin" in breed, Ben explained, to the Newfoundland, which is, by contrast, all black. Both breeds, Ben added, originated in Siberia.
We missed, alas, at least one other tale of exotic (for us) origins, for the larger part of this family left for home as the Lovells (and Chloe), very obligingly, stood patiently and good-naturedly answering all our questions.
Ben and Sandy did tell us that Waldo Aguirre was Chilean born and brought up, but now works as a media research expert for the University of Pennsylvania, while his wife, Katie, is a physical therapist. Those two met, the Lovells said, when Katie, a graduate of Williams College who was very interested in Spanish and Latin studies, spent some time living and working in Santiago.
The Lovells themselves met, they said, when both were students at the University of New Hampshire. Both had grown up in towns outside of Boston, Mass., Ben in Newton and Sandy in Lincoln, and Ben had earned a Bachelor of Science in conservation studies at Boston University and was then returning to school after five years to earn an MBA.
A field of common interest to both: music. Sandy was earning a Bachelor's in music, and Ben had not only studied bass viol privately while at B.U. and after, but had played it as a member, in the late 1970s, of the Portland Symphony Orchestra. When we expressed some awe at that accomplishment, Ben downplayed it a little by reporting that, in those days, when that orchestra played a schedule less full than it does now, the musician's job was part-time. But he only increased our admiration when he added, "I played jazz, also - and I waitered to pay the bills."
His waitering days behind him, Ben has now been a portfolio investment manager for various companies in Boston for 25 years.
But he still plays bass, now in the 17-piece local jazz outfit known as The Little Swing Band. That's been in existence, he reported, for close to 10 years, and he's been in it, off and on, he said, for five years. The band, he added, rehearses weekly in Kittery, plays in the area "a lot," and performed most recently for an Old York Historical Society event at The Cliff House.
No less accomplished, Sandy, we learned, works full-time as a Portsmouth clinical social worker, but also performs as a musician. A flute player, she teams up with violinist Lynne McMahon and cellist Anne Wilkinson in a local trio. They've been performing together for about 10 years, Sandy said, playing background classical music "mostly for weddings, receptions, galleries."
We regretted, after the fact, not having talked more with Sandy, but we did learn a little about what her youngsters were up to.
Adam told us that he's now a junior at Middlebury College majoring in environmental policy. When we asked if he knew where he'd be going with that, he said, "I've no idea yet, but hopefully into something related to the environment."
York readers may recognize Cara Lovell's name from a journalism internship she participated in during the summer of 2002 at another area newspaper under the guidance of Jennifer Saunders, now associate editor of this paper. Cara earned a degree from Middlebury in 2005 and has been working most recently at the Ferry Beach Ecology School in Saco, which runs week-long environmental programs for elementary and middle-school students. She's not certain what's ahead for her in the long term, but she's next headed for Costa Rica to participate in a bird-banding program in January. That study, she said, will help reveal how some migrant birds live and fare in their winter habitats.
The Lovells have lived in York for almost 20 years - 19, they said, when they counted exactly. They lived, before, in Kensington, N.H., where both children were born, but were repelled by that town's proximity to the Seabrook nuclear power plant at the same time that they were drawn to this town's proximity to the ocean, physical attractions, and schools.
"Cara started kindergarten here," they said.
On Thanksgiving Day they'd totaled 21 at the dinner table, they told us.
On the day we met, the remaining group that we met had walked west from the Wiggley Bridge parking lot across the causeway and through Steadman Woods to take in the exhibit at the George Marshall Store. Then they'd reversed direction to do the Fisherman's Walk in the other direction to the Harbor Beach.
Chloe, it appeared, had kept up through all that walking, and, though she didn't have much to tell us about her own life, Ben volunteered a few details for her as we were parting.
"She was born the runt of a litter of 12 in South Berwick," he said.
And he finished with a laugh and a quip as we said our goodbyes.
"She's a local," he said.
Next week: more about others present there that day.
