Guest Photographer

Back awhile, Josephine Waite Gallant, snapped this portrait of a budding photographer and traveler. My grandmother was born and raised in PEI, but after marrying Albert they heard there was work in a mill in Bemis, near Rangeley in the states. After a fire at the mill, they moved all their worldly possessions by train to Rumford/Mexico. They raised four children and soon after moved on to South Paris... Maine that is. Later, they ventured on to Westbrook where Albert found work at Saunders Brothers. I was born on Devon Street in Portland but I have no recollection of that house at all. The Allen Avenue two decker was where I readied for my early school years. My mom worked so it fell to Josie to babysit the kid. She entertained me by reading books and telling me wonderful 'tales' about characters and strange events from a world beyond Maine. Often, she would dress me up, as I became strange people in these stories. Here, in a most famous family picture, she dressed me up in my grandfather's garb and told a story of the " Ol' Yankee Traveler". By the way, just before she snapped this shot with her brownie, she grabbed my grandfather's pipe out of my mouth. She was and amazingly funny woman, and I miss her and that 'wonderful world' of hers a lot.