“Tater Raisin’ Folk” will appear on MPBN TV Nov. 16 Monday at 10 pm and again on Nov. 21 Saturday at 11 pm. It tells the story of potato farming in Aroostook County today.

Also, read about it in the Portland’s Maine Sunday Telegram.

Maine PBS is once again screening “The Coming Of The Swedes,” a film made by Brenda Nasberg Jepson and her students at Caribou Tech Center. It goes out on Saturday, the 26th of September at 11am. It tells the story of how Maine’s Swedish Colony, where we live, was settled and how it has evolved to this day. Hope friends in Maine have the chance to tune in!

Read about this year’s Midsommar festivities in a small village in Sweden here.  The “Swede Life” is written by an “American Mom and Midwife from Florida Living in Sweden.” Lots of great photos and even video of raising the pole!

William Widgery Thomas, Jr. was the founder of New Sweden, ME. He went to Sweden and found the first fifty-one settlers who came to northern Maine with him on July 23, 1870. Many more Swedes followed. In fact, there were so many that arrived that some had to leave to find work elsewhere. The settlers worked hard to establish an agricultural community that eventually thrived. Several other towns developed in neighboring townships with many Swedish citizens: Perham, Woodland, Stockholm, Westmanland, Connor, and Caribou. People from other countries such as Norway, Finland, Canadian, and Denmark settled in the communities as did  Acadians and Irish.

W. W. Thomas, Jr with wife and son

“On this Wednesday, and maybe Thursday and Friday, too (July 8, 9, 10) we’ll be doing some cleaning at the Clase House in New Sweden.  If you don’t mind getting dirty, stop by – we’ll be starting at 8.00am.  Things need to be done both outside and inside.  For outside jobs (bring your own tools), there’s pruning, trimming, hauling brush, picking up debris, etc.  For indoor jobs, there’s a lot of stuff (shredded paper, soggy ceiling tiles, wall coverings, etc. on the first floor; raccoon poop and paper on the second floor) that needs to be shoveled into trash bags and put into the trash truck (Scott Landeen will be renting us his truck and we need to fill it!  The truck will be there by 11.00am on Wednesday).  Please bring a shovel (I’ll supply some heavy trash bags) or other tools you might find useful.  If you’re going to be working inside on the first floor you’ll need a dust mask (I’ll bring a few) and clothing that you don’t mind getting filthy.  If you’re going to work upstairs you’ll want a respirator and protective clothing (need to supply your own).”

Message from New Sweden Historical Society President Deb

Mary B. posted this piece at AncestorTracking.

Strangers in the Box

Thanks to Robert Ragan of the Treasure Maps newsletter for including this piece:

Strangers in the Box

Come, look with me inside this drawer,
In this box I’ve often seen,
At the pictures, black and white,
Faces proud, still, serene.

I wish I knew the people,
These strangers in the box,
Their names and all their memories
Are lost among my socks.

I wonder what their lives were like.
How did they spend their days?
What about their special times?
I’ll never know their ways.

If only someone had taken time
To tell who, what, where, when,
These faces of my heritage
Would come to life again.

Could this become the fate
Of the pictures we take today?
The faces and the memories
Someday to be tossed away?

Make time to save your pictures,
Seize the opportunity when it knocks,
Or someday you and yours could be
The strangers in the box.

Copyright 1997 by Pamela A. Harazim. All Rights Reserved.
May be used in unchanged form for non-commercial
purposes if accompanied by this copyright message.

The Swede Life is written by a young midwife from Florida living in Sweden for almost a year with her two young children and husband. Very nice to read about what life is like for them and great pictures too.

I am having great luck in finding blogs about Sweden. Here is another of interest.  It tells of a young family living in Sweden. The father of the family was born in Sweden and raised in the US.

The blog is written by Nathan Hegedus, a Boston Globe correspondent, who wrote this article “When it’s light, Swedes swarm for the solstice“ on June 19, 2005.

I stumbled upon this tale of a family that visited New Sweden, Maine to attend the Midsommar twenty-eight years ago. Some things have not changed too much.

It is written in Swedish and in English so you can see both versions.