Finding my way from Belgium to Biddeford
Photo / Renee Cordes
The name game: A tower of signs between Oxford and Poland.
My day in Biddeford began at the Palace Diner, a cute-as-a-button eatery in a 1927 dining car. Maine's oldest diner was abuzz with activity that brisk March morning, but counter stools were wiped clean as soon as they were cleared. Breakfast was hearty, with eggs and to-die-for potatoes crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside — the next-best thing to Belgian frites from the country I had called home for many years. An older couple had come from Vermont for the fried chicken, tempting but not my breakfast preference.
Next stop was City Hall for an interview with Mayor Alan M. Casavant, a former high school teacher, and City Manager James A. Bennett, who had actually inspired the idea for a 'Biddesance' story at a MEREDA conference on parking. Afterwards, the mayor didn't mind being photographed outside in the cold, and even joined me on a tour of the Pepperell Mill complex with developer Scott Joslin. Before the tour we stopped in to say hello to fashion entrepreneur Roxi Suger, an Oklahoma native who likened Biddeford to Brooklyn, N.Y., of yesteryear with its “creative, gritty vibe.”
My first few months at Mainebiz have been all about getting out and meeting interesting people, mainly in Portland so far but other places as well, and feeling welcome in a state I visited for the first time in 2015, and only twice before moving here last October with my spouse and budgies Duke, Sparky and Shiloh.
Before joining the staff I went on assignment to Hallowell and Gardiner, for a piece on economic development. Though they get little mention in guidebooks, both charmed this Chicago native used to bigger cities. Between scheduled interviews with Hallowell City Manager Nate Rudy and with Patrick Wright, executive director of Gardiner Main Street, I chatted with shopkeepers on the main drag, including John Callinan at Gardiner's Craft Beer Cellar.
In Portland, I've sat down with a coffee-shop owner who runs a small investment firm upstairs, a retired female combat pilot helping veterans return to civilian life and employment, the former con artist portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in “Catch Me if You Can,” and immigration lawyers representing rural hospitals coping with foreign doctors' visa application delays. I also got a tour of the International Marine Terminal — and site of the proposed cold-storage facility — from John Henshaw, the Maine Port Authority's executive director. He and others have been generous with their time, not minding all the questions from a newcomer reporting in her native country for the first time in decades. After covering deals, markets and earnings in real time, it's great being a beat reporter again, harkening back to my time at the Budapest Business Journal.
Here there's no danger of being stood up for interviews, and, for the first time in my professional career, I've gotten thank-you notes from interviewees. There are also no language barriers, save town names like Vienna, Berlin and Calais. And when Mainers correct my pronunciation, it's always in a good-natured way.
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