The better side of real America

 Sam Smith  - As a journalist in Washington I learned that a great way to survive the bad news was to also follow and be active in local stories. America at the top and America at the bottom are not the same place and it is the latter one that often brings you pleasure and progress.  Which was one reason I was looking forward to last week’s party honoring the retirement of Jim DeGrandpre, long time figure of hope and results in Freeport Maine and a fellow activist involved in the organic farm –  Wolfe’s Neck Center – begun by my parents decades ago.

Starting back in the 1960s, Jim’s father, Charlie, took over the farm soon to the delight of all involved. Jim was one of his sons who helped him. And he didn’t do badly either. About a half century later he received Freeport’s 2020 Citizen of the Year award. As the Portland Press Herald reported:

Among many things, DeGrandpre is known for his volunteer work on the board of directors for both the Chamber of Commerce and the Freeport Historical Society. He also serves as president of Freeport Community Services, a nonprofit that acts as a community center as well as a source of emergency and essential relief services for residents of Freeport and Pownal.

DeGrandpre said volunteering and being involved with the Freeport community was something he always felt a drive to do.

“It was just always a pleasure and seemed very natural to engage with all sorts of organizations and school groups and scouting and that sort of thing,” DeGrandpre said.

In the past, DeGrandpre served on the school board from 1993 to 2005, was the chair of the St. Jude Catholic Church Pastoral Council for several years and was the cubmaster for Freeport Pack 45.

With Jim, I was also working on the farm as a teenager. We helped each other on farm issues and he was a guide to dealing with problems such as the period when the farm was owned by the University of Southern Maine and its president was embarrassed to have cows under her.

For years we worked together, talked together, laughed together and solved problems together. Even before being old enough for a license we were driving tractors and trucks. For example my father had obtained the local Railway Express truck from Clarence Bolster, a familiar figure at the local railroad station.  His truck was, however, short on brakes. Asked how one operated such a vehicle, Jim explained, "You planned ahead." Jim's brothers, Richard and David, converted the family 1952 DeSoto station wagon into a monster tractor, one of several such homemade vehicles.

 

Jim DeGrandpre

And so his farewell party was not only sad but a reminder that there is still a real America where people act well together, do their work together, and leave you proud to have been involved with them.

The party was in the farm’s big barn, huge remains from the end of the 19^th century. About a hundred folks showed  up and I quickly noticed that they gathered not neatly in seats but in random standing groups engaged in warm conversation. In fact, the farm director had to shout several times to get the happily conversing crowd to sit down and listen to the scheduled talks. The farm had not only raised cattle; it had raised long term friendships.

The media doesn’t tell us much about such good sides of America, how the Charlie and Jim Degrandpres made things work before Fox News and the Internet changed our perspective. We need to keep in mind that Donald Trump and his ilk didn’t create the good and real America. We have folks like Jim DeGrandpre to thank for that