Q&A about memories

Cindy Copping ask:

I'm a part of "The Bubble" basketball court era. Which building was this one? What was the building close to the chapel where we had all our classes? I lived in the new girls' dorm the first two years I was at Hinckley and then in Keyes Cottage the last two. I think it's true that we remember older classmates but not younger ones. Does anyone know the year the prep school turned into Hinckley Home, School, Farm? I graduated in 1970 and the prep school continued for several years after that. Mark? You must know, right?

Mark Colby:

JoAnne, like most of the rest of you at least from my class I have not heard from nor seen you since June of 1968. I hope you are well. Annabelle Jones was the librarian's name. She lived in Anthony Cottage just north of the grammar school on the North or Girls Campus. Interestingly enough is the fact that she was a Bates graduate. How she ended up at Hinckley or what her life was like when she graduated from Bates is pure speculation without research. The Carnegie Library is evidently in disrepair as from what I understand is the status of most of the buildings we were familiar with. The Ryerson Library's (on the girl's campus) status is unknown to me. There has been so much change to the physical grounds and buildings. I live in Boothbay Harbor only about 80 miles south of Hinckley. The last time I drove through on my quest to find Father Rale's (The Black Rope by Kenneth Roberts) Abenaki Indian summer residence along the Kennebec in Madison was when I realized and started to believe in the old saying "you can't go home again". It has lost the familiar feeling and with some disrepair of some buildings coupled with not many people milling around - it was tough to take for me. And, as Kurt Vonegut often said on his novel Slaughter House Five, "so it goes".

Cindy: the Moody building sits next to the Museum and is the last brick building you see as you head south on Route 201. Back in the day we would run past it to go to the lacrosse field a half mile or so further south. Nate will remember that. As far as the name change, I'm not sure but obviously after 1970. Politics, politics, politics - I don't like it but it is part of the process, I suppose. I have to remind myself that "you can't go home again".

Hope this helps. Great memories as long as I remain positive!

Torrey Craig:

Hi guys ... Like most of us my contact with Hinckley over the past several decades has been at best nonexistent. Running into John, Richard and Nate which lead to my introduction to this group I did a little digging. The building that we went to classes in (Averill) and the chapel (Moody) have been sold to Kennebec Valley Community College and they are now the Alfond Campus of KVCC. Below are several links to the college's website that we all might find interesting in how the school we knew has evolved and changed. I suppose that is the reason for reopening and remodeling Moody.

Hope these help to bring some good memories of a different age and a different time in all lives.

Noel Hines:

This is news to me; I guess the plaques shown in these photos I took back in 2006 are in the garbage bin somewhere.

Richard Ray :

good evening all......richard ray here.....Mark and i have discussed the school the last time we met on Nantucket.......he is a great guy and a good friend ...i must admit, that i have been going back for kum-bak for the last three or four years....and for me....i found i could go back home again, cause as much as the physical campus may have changed a bit, all you need to do is step on the campus and allow your mind to wander back a bit...all the memories come flooding back....the moody building was MY basketball court too(best game 19 points!) and even standing within the new construction i could still visualize the floor...the back boards and those damn low hanging lights (should have been 23 points!!).......Mrs Jones....can visualize that soft but stern face.....progress is inevitable and so is memory loss...BUT NOT YET!!!!

come on up this august you wont regret it...no pressure...just remembering!!!!

me

Joanne Ferrari:

I have been back- once years ago when my husband and I thought about buying property in Maine along the river - a weird real estate agent and very soggy property. Looking back, not buying might have been a mistake. We visited the chapel and drove on to Canada. A few years later we camped on Warren Island. In those days if you took the ferry to Isleboro, a ranger would pick you up and take you out to Warren Island. The ranger was Tyler Vickers. After making a stew out of clams and mussels and getting terribly sick, Tyler helped my husband get me off the island. I didn't eat mussels for the next 30 years thinking I was allergic. I finally had a test and no allergy. Have been ordering them ever since. Must have gotten one bad clam. I have also driven by on our way to The Forks for river rafting- used to take 80 kids up there for rafting over Memorial Day weekend. And now Rich and I take our boys and their families to Popham Beach in the summer. Hinckley began my love affair with Maine- whether it's the mountains- we used to ski Sugarloaf, or the Kennebec or the beach, I do still love it. And reconnecting with you, native Mainers and Hinckley grads has reminded me of what a special time we shared and what a beautiful landscape we grew up in.

My best,

Dale Giberson:

I have been back once since graduation that was 1967. I spent 8 ye

ars there. The memories will never go away.

Mark Colby:

Wow! That's so nice JoAnne. And Dale, if the memories are good, may they never go away. Richard, my thoughts are of my opinion and experiences only. I hope I did not preach as I am far from a preacher. One should go back but for me as one who grew up there from a six year old to an 18 year old, it obviously is a different observation from those, of which are the most of you, who would spend just the school season at Hinckley. Not to say it was not your home as it was mine too but perhaps, if I may say politely, in a different way. I very much enjoyed our meeting on Nantucket a few year ago. JoAnne, I have a summer home not far from Popham Beach just around the corner and across from Reed State Park so I know very well what you mean by enjoying Popham Beach. I continued my love affair with the sea from those Independent Study projects (sailing the Carribean for the month of May 1968) and became a licensed Coast Guard mariner and have made many, many trips up the Kennebec past Popham to Bath and down the Sasanoa back to Boothbay Harbor. In fact, I started this as a teenager crew member back in 1967 before we graduated a year later. Recently, I ran a whale watch out of Boothbay and substituted on occasional runs up the Kennebec. Fun times.

So, I'm going to stick with my memories of absolutely fine times (and maybe a few not so fine) of my time at Hinckley in my high school years and between the age of 14 to 18 (1964-1968). I remember most names and faces from that era but I know I'm the only one that still has hair, weighs 145, never touched a drink or smoked a joint, and although I have three children, I'm still a virgin!

Peter and Mary Ann Johnson:

Mary Ann Johnson (Peter's wife) Peter was there as a student in 62-63. Allen Vickers called him in New Jersey in the winter of 1969 to assess his interest in teaching there to begin the 69-70 school year.

Hi Mark I wish your Mom was here... she remembered everything. I believe the Home School Farm name was the outcome of the infamous "court case". I understand it is one of the most highly deliberated decisions the Maine court system has ever made and discussed year after year by the University of Maine Law School. (see last segment of the three below.

re the photos of the bronze plaques: I would like to think they are still hanging in the Prescott (Dining Hall) Building.

If I had met Miss Annebelle Jones; I really don't remember doing so; she was always highly spoken of and she shared the name of but was no relation to Mike Kachorsky's grandmother. She wasn't the librarian when we were there beginning the 69 school year when there was a huge addition to the faculty and approximately 180 students. It was a pleasant place to teach and be dorm parents to students who were about a college span of years older than our charges for all of a monthly pay of $400 a month. I think we were the lowest paid family, LOL .

Richard Ray:

Mark...still laughin...nope..i'm not a preacher either.......and i appreciate and respect you views....true, complete years at hinckley offer a different perspective that us "seasonal folks"..to my detriment,.i never got to see some of the aspects of this part of the country ......looking forward to our next meeting and ..nope..cant hold a candle to that last paragraph!!

Mark Colby:

I'm happy we are in the same boat, sort of speak. And, it's always nice to have one appreciate my sense of humor. You are probably the only fellow alumnus that has seen me in my adult physical manner. That is, a loss of hair on top as it has transcended to a more facial look, the excess weight around the belly due to overindulgence of beer, wine, and even a drop of scotch now and again. I can't explain the virgin thing but that was a lie too.

Everyone of us has shared some of the same experiences together and yet everyone of us perceives an individual presence there as well. I guess my previous statement is more of my reliving and missing those days. It seems like the older I become the more I live in the past. Hinckley was a blast for me and a cherished memory.