The Retirement Success in Maine Podcast Ep 113: Reigniting Purpose Through History: Jim Smith and the Stories of Kenduskeag

 

 

Transcript:

Intro (00:01):

Do you struggle with what it means to be successful in your retirement? Trust us, you're not alone. Welcome to the Retirement Success in Maine podcast. Here you'll go in depth with guidance point advisors, investment consultants, to hear stories about how retirees in Maine are navigating a successful retirement, get insight into the inevitable challenges of aging, and define what a successful retirement looks like.

Ben Smith (00:26):

Welcome everybody. To the Retirement success and main podcast. I'm Ben Smith, and joining me as always is the man who's like the hardcover edition to my dusty old history textbook, the one who keeps things structured, polished, and a little more readable. My co-host Curtis Worcester. How you doing today, Curtis?

Curtis Worcester (00:43):

I'm doing well, Ben. Thanks. I was worried there for a second. You were going to make me the pop quiz section of the textbook, but we're good. We're good.

Ben Smith (00:51):

Well, awesome. Well, I know obviously Curtis, I know we've seen, I guess the question is have you ever seen someone retire from a career but only to go right back to work just in a completely different way?

Curtis Worcester (01:03):

Absolutely. I think Ben, you and I see it probably almost every day, I think with the folks we work with, becoming volunteers, mentors, or following other passion projects,

Ben Smith (01:15):

And that's kind of what's happened with I think our today story and it's pretty close to home. It's about my dad, Jim Smith, after retiring from decades of teaching social studies at Bangor High School, he found himself in that familiar post-retirement fog, wondering now what?

Curtis Worcester (01:31):

Yeah, and exactly right, Ben, that's a moment we hear about a lot, both again, in our day to day and on this show, retirees are just craving purpose, especially those with lifelong skills and interests. And your dad didn't just find purpose, he helped build a new kind of community.

Ben Smith (01:49):

Yeah, he sure did. Through his love of history and his pride, the town of Kenduskeag Maine, he launched a Facebook group called Kenduskeag History Tales. So it started as a small effort has turned into a deeply connected group of residents, expats, descendants, all rallying around stories of this small town.

Curtis Worcester (02:05):

That's right. And we're going to explore how he adapted to the technology, how he sourced historical narratives and even helped bring community projects to life all while in retirement.

Ben Smith (02:16):

Well, I know I'm going to let you, Curtis, welcome him in, but first we maybe get a little bit more background as a biography.

Curtis Worcester (02:23):

Yeah, absolutely. Ben, you mentioned your dad. Jim Smith is a retired social studies teacher from Bangor High School, and I will say he was my civics teacher my freshman year of high school where he inspired generations of students to think critically about the past and how it shapes our present. After his retirement, Jim felt uncertain about how to apply his love of history and community, but through curiosity, perseverance he founded, as you said then Kenduskeag History Tales Facebook group. So through this page, he shares stories of the town's founders, notable citizens and community achievements both past and present. He has helped lead civic projects including flag design contests that celebrates Kenduskeag’s, natural and historical beauty, and a bridge dedication to a fallen World War II soldier, which brought long lost family members back together. And I know those are two things we're going to dive into a little bit, but I want to take this time now to formally welcome our guest, Jim Smith, Ben's dad, thank you so much for coming on the show today, Jim, we're really excited to talk with you. Well, thanks for having me.

Ben Smith (03:32):

So dad, of course, with our show we like to just get a little, get to know you a little bit here, and obviously I know you as well as one could, but we want to obviously make sure the audience gets to know you a little bit here. So love to just kind of go back to that final year of teaching, right? Go pre-retirement. How did you feel as retirement approached and what were your expectations for what came next? Talk about that time of your life,

Jim Smith (03:54):

Your Well, coming off summer vacation 2010, I had not thought about retirement, really didn't want to retire, but by Thanksgiving of that year, we had a new governor, a new administration who definitely said they would up the retirement age, I could retire at 62, and they said that they were going to put the retirement age up to 65. It meant if I retired early before 62, I'd have a 2% penalty on my retirement, their plan, which they were successful. Now, for a teacher in Maine that doesn't retire before 65 is a 6% penalty per year. So the teachers out there today are really forced if they don't want to take this enormous penalty.

(04:47):

Well, Bangor Highs faculty at the time was a lot of people that I started with and in the coffee break room and whatnot, we kind of started talking and there was some math people there. We said, geez, and I'd put in 40 years. I honestly say I loved it and it was hard to retire. It was hard to retire to actually do that. So I came home and in this family, the Financial Wizard is my wife Diane, and we plugged in the numbers and she says, I'm going to keep working for a while. Let's do it. Let's do it. So I entered the world of retirement.

Curtis Worcester (05:32):

Fantastic. I appreciate you sharing that background there. And even though it may not have been something you were planning to do, I think you embraced it and tackled it head on. And I want to focus now a little bit kind of post-retirement, that natural feeling of maybe being a bit directionless or not knowing what's next. What was that emotional transition like for you? Right, going from that busy classroom to now you just have an open calendar, right? What's next?

Jim Smith (06:03):

Well, we had always wanted to refurbish our house and we had discussed together projects that we would do once I retired or we retired. And so we put in a new kitchen and hardwood floors and we needed a new roof. So I spent from 2011 to 2013 being involved in this refurbishment and I had an elderly father in his nineties that was living alone, but needed care, needed someone to be with him between dad and refurbishing the house. It really became, because I was so busy, it became an easy transition.

Curtis Worcester (06:52):

Yeah, I was going to say, it doesn't sound like it was such an open calendar for you.

Jim Smith (06:56):

No, it wasn't. But that's me. If you're around me, I make people nervous, so hyperactive and people just, that's good. That's good.

Ben Smith (07:06):

And I know obviously what you're doing for me today, it's summer break for those that are listening maybe outside of the calendar right now for us, but obviously you were taking care of your grandchild, my son as well, Kayden. So I know that was to talk about the typical sandwich generation, taking care of your father in his nineties and basically a brand new baby was something you were tackling as well.

Jim Smith (07:31):

Yeah, we can't stress brand new baby enough. Ben and Kara asked myself and Kara's dad, Fred, to take over baby care, daycare, love. We both said yes. And I've never been so scared in my life. I've never been so scared. Here I am taking care of a six week old baby. Well, I'll tell you, and Fred will say the same thing. It's probably the best thing in life I ever did. I enjoyed that so much, so much. I do have problems sometimes with parenting because sometimes I think I'm the dad and that's a problem for Ben. I know, but I can't help it.

Curtis Worcester (08:14):

That's right.

Jim Smith (08:14):

At the same time, my dad broke his hip and so we brought him to live with us and our family's really kind of unique in a way. Fred and I provided care for Caden and switched off and my brother and I decided we were going to take care of my father. We weren't going to put him in nursing care and we were going to do three months of time with me taking care of him, and then my brother would take care of him. So I had this relationship that brought the whole family closer together, and Fred and I, when we're together at a family gathering, we both will smile when Caden's around and have that twinkle in our eyes. So he and I share something that nobody else in the family understands that six weeks up until he went to kindergarten. So that's

Ben Smith (09:08):

Incredible. Yep. Well, I want to rotate obviously to a little bit of a topic of the day is obviously being a history social studies teacher for your career. And here you kind of that through thread of this love of the topic. And then you go, I'm living in the town of Kade gig. You talk about how you started connecting the two and then what maybe the specific moment or story that sparked this idea for conduct gig history tales. What was the genesis of those things coming together?

Jim Smith (09:40):

Well, first of all, my love history happened on November 22nd, 1963 when the president of the United States is assassinated. We were let out of Vine Street School. I was in sixth grade, went home and for 72 hours America watched for the first time. That's the first time in America that this live TV of an event for 72 hours straight. And I remember my brother doll and I with a bowl of corn flakes sitting on the living room floor watching the black and white tv, watching Lee Harvey Oswald be transported from the jail. And of course he was assassinated that day by Jack Ruby. That was such an event that so had such an impression upon me as a young person, this love of history that was there, but it was captivated in that historical moment because I was a witness and was able to watch it live.

(10:44):

So then you keep referring to me as a social studies teacher and you're doing a good job because I see myself as a social studies teacher. I was trained to teach history and current events and economics and all the disciplines. So people say, oh, well, the old history teacher, yeah, that's true, but I'm more of a current events person and that has a lot to do with Kenduskeag Tales, how I see my community. So in 1976, Diane and I moved to Kenduskeag and I was studying my master's program and I was taking a course using primary sources in the secondary classroom, and the first assignment was to go to the local library and get a primary source that you could use with your students. I visited the case Memorial Library and met the library and I said, do you have any primary sources? She said, well, geez, they're upstairs.

(11:43):

So I went upstairs and on the floor was all the town records from 1850 to up to World War ii. And people had been going through them and walking on them. And I took on this task of preserving the documents of organizing the documents and then scanning the documents. That has taken years, but I have an availability to a primary source ink that most historians would just dream about. Then I am a real believer for everybody to be involved in your community. So I was asked to serve on Thek Stream Canoe Race committee as a liaison, forus cake. At that point, I also, they organized the jcs inus cake, and my first project was to, there's a canoe launching park, Riverside Park, and it was an open sewer. It was an open sewer. So to launch a canoe, the canoeists would have to deal with that broken bottles.

(12:58):

So we got money, we got the whole community, the jcs, we filled it in. I'm so proud. I wrote a federal grant and the federal government gave us money for the park. Now the park is, I kind of smile about this. The park is a federal park because we received federal money. So a few years back, the state of Maine built a new bridge across the Kenduskeag stream and they had a meeting in the town office and they said, we're going to move the bridge. We're taking the park. And the treasurer at that time was Diane Smith. And she said, I don't think so. I don't think you're going to take the park. Well, you can imagine those state DOT people. They said, well, we're going to take it. And she says, you can't touch a federal park. So needless to say, we still have the park every year, hundreds. And this year, 800 canoeists launched from the site. So that was kind of the project and all projects.

Curtis Worcester (14:04):

Yeah. Nice.

Jim Smith (14:05):

So Kenduskeag Tales in 1993, the original Kenduskeag Tales is Fern Stearns and I wrote a history of the Kenduskeag canoe races, and we named it Kenduskeag Tales. I've always been one, it is not in me to do much for money in terms of projects. So Fern and I donated the sale of the book, the proceeds to the city of Bangor. Beautiful. And we raised $6,000 that went into beautifying Kenduskeag stream. Wow. This moves us up to 2022. And I had given up history at this point,

(14:48):

Not going to do any more history, not do any more grades on MacBooks. I'm officially retired from history. I'm not going near it. And I was true to the cause. Well, one day I'm out sweeping the driveway and a friend of mine, Laurie Cookson, pulls in and said, we got a historical society, we want you to come. No, no, I'm not going to do that. Well, once you meet Lori, you'll understand. So Lori got me, Diane and I come to the Historical Meeting Society meeting, and when things aren't going good, I blame Lori. She really was a spark. I needed a spark to launch conduct cake tales.

(15:35):

So the first thing I did was look around at other historical Facebook pages and they're excellent. There's one on Bangor, the state of Maine. The folks do a great job of pictures and of the town buildings and whatnot. I said, I'm going to do a social studies Facebook page. It has to be something really different. So the first thing I did was sign up for the Archives of the Bang Gord News, and I was able to go from 1840 when KK was still part of Lavan up until 2016, and I got every dang letter article you can think of, Inus, I had an old MacBook, so I am old school. It has to be on paper. I know I killed millions of trees, but I think I have every article, I have all the weddings and funerals and all the Civil War exploits, and I have such a library of history from the Bangor News and they love it when I've got their engagement picture of their grandmother or I have when a town member was involved in the rescue of Scott Carpenter, one of our first astronauts.

(16:57):

So having the archives, having the primary sources, and then actually going door to door like the Fuller Brush salesman. You don't remember the Fuller Brush salesman, but they'd come door to door. And so I go door to door collecting history. A lot of times they get run off by a dog, but many times they let me in and I find myself at their kitchen table talking about their family. They give me pictures, they give me letters. So I didn't know these people. I was too busy. So I've got all these new friends, I've got all these new friends in kake. I really understand the community and their fathers and their farms, and that's the best thing. I've made all these new friends.

Ben Smith (17:47):

Yeah. And I know obviously for then coming into this Facebook thing is I could see where a lot of retirees are going. Look, I'm not a tech guy. I don't know how to make a website or how to make a Facebook page much less a Facebook group. So can you talk a little bit about some of the learning, kind of the challenges that you had? Obviously you're building community, right? You're inviting people to a group on Facebook, which by the way, if you want to check it out, feel free to hit the pause on this show right now and go to Facebook and look up Esge history tales, and you can ask to join as well and kind of be participate in it if you'd like. But just want to hear a little bit about the challenges that you faced and what are things that you were learning as you're building this on Facebook itself. What was the biggest struggles?

Jim Smith (18:37):

Well, it was all a struggle because I retired in 2011. I still could email, text, but take pictures on my phone. I had lost those skills. I left in the spring of 2011, started in 2022. I was literate basically. I mean, it all came back to me, but I was so determined to do it. And so I turned to Benjamin and I said, geez, I need some tutorials. And he was gracious enough to give me some instruction and friends. And so finally it starts coming back. I remember on Facebook and not getting tales, the first thing I wrote. And the thing about Ben and I sometimes we're too honest, and I said, what do you think of that, Ben? And he said, it's awful. Oh no, it's awful. You can't post that. He said, you just can't. He says you're going to ruin the family name.

Ben Smith (19:35):

Might've been Dramaticized a little bit there. Yeah, but

Jim Smith (19:38):

It is. I'm very dramatic if you know me personally. So anyways, I had to go back and writing and practicing, and I got a couple apps to do that. And I am so proud of myself now because if you do it every day, you do get better. Eventually I go on, I don't even think about it now. And I also have Ben's mother and God help me if I misspell has something wrong or I meant to comma, she'll say, you need to fix that right now, fix it. But that's great. And I have a gal who I consider one of the real historians of conducting Pauline, and I'll post something and Pauline comes in right behind me as a contributor and be able to explain more and explain more about a family that's involved. So now I have these contributors coming in that feel comfortable because a social studies teacher, what you do is with other social studies teachers, whatever is mine, is yours. So if you want to take pictures from Kaus Tales, if you want to take an article, it's yours. Pass it around. So yeah, it's taken this long, but it's flying.

Curtis Worcester (21:01):

Well, I appreciate you kind of sharing that story with our listeners. From you get done teaching, you maybe lose some of the tech skills and you're diving right in and just seeing it firsthand. I know Ben sees it firsthand. I see it on Facebook and everything. You're doing a great job hearing the perseverance you put in the work, you dedicated the time. I just think it's incredible that you stuck to it. And like you said, now you hop on there, you don't even think about it. You don't ask for Ben's approval on what you post. It's all good. So I want to fast forward to today, Jim, and obviously the Facebook group is thriving, and I just want to ask, what, who or what makes up the audience, and has it surprised you in how wide the group's reach has become, and maybe specifically how far it's spread with the help of the internet to people who maybe no longer live Kenduskeag? What are you seeing there for engagement?

Jim Smith (21:55):

Well, I've added some elements now and with Ben's help too, have a YouTube channel, history Tales, YouTube, and I have 183 videos on YouTube. And this Friday, the invitation Curtis, this Friday at the cemetery, we're having a 4th of July

Curtis Worcester (22:20):

Celebration

Jim Smith (22:21):

And a gentleman by the name of Jerry Gallant who built a civil war cannon, or he fires the cannon, he fires it on Memorial Day, 4th of July and Veterans Day. So what started out is six or seven people with fire in the Cannon Memorial Day. We had 60 people there, and we have a prayer, the minister will be there, and then we have someone after the canning cannon is fired, is ringing the church bell. So here's the case, here's the social studies element of it. I've really branched out now on YouTube. The reason I tell you about the cannon, the men in India love seeing the KAKE cannon being fired.

Intro/Outro (23:05):

So

Jim Smith (23:05):

The age group would be from 45 to 70 Indian people. And oh, the hits on the fire. That's incredible. It's believable.

Curtis Worcester (23:16):

That's

Jim Smith (23:18):

Incredible. And the Kenduskeag stream canoe race, people all over the world now are watching that. I then created a Kenduskeag cemetery page, Kenduskeag History Tale cemetery page. Again, it's like a big vortex that I've got sucked into a collapsing star. There's a group who have totally refurbished the cemetery. I was ashamed to look at the cemetery. And Lori and Jerry, he's the blacksmith artist. He's created this fence, Duque village cemetery fence, gold leaf. It's unbelievable what he's done. And the cemetery is just unbelievable. So they've had me over there cleaning stones, making new friends. I've got drawn back into the entire community. So now people are looking at, on the conducting virtual museum, I'll post the old antiques things in Canes gig. So I have all kinds of audiences going, and many times I'm busy all day. That's fantastic.

Ben Smith (24:31):

Well, I want to talk about storytelling. I think this is something where history kind of comes alive is with stories, right? It is not just kind, Hey, this person was born, they died and that was kind of it, but the fabric of their life. So obviously as you're kind looking at the historical figures, in Kenduskeag, and not just kind of seeing facts, but how are you finding their stories? I guess of the question, are people sending them to you? I know you kind of mentioned it about going through archives and primary sources, but how are you getting these and then weaving things together into a one comprehensive story for each of the things you're trying to

Jim Smith (25:09):

Share? It's unusual because I've immersed myself in the community and my skill would be, certainly communication is my strongest skill. And I've involved myself though. I'm not a member of the church. I've involved myself with the church. It's the oldest building now in kake, built in 1835, and I've become friends with the people that are involved in the church. And I found out that the church, last time it had been wired was in 1908, and it was a fire waiting to happen. In fact, I told the joke that I actually think that Thomas Edison supervised the wiring of the church. So I found that by just watching tv, local news, I found that the county commissioners had money available, money available for grants. And so I called up the county commissioners, that's what I do. I just call you right up and an old high school chump pachi. And I said, Peter, I need your help. So Peter was able, the commissioners were able to award the church $50,000 to rewire the church. That's awesome. So I feel in that case, who knows, but that building has been saved. But going back to storytelling,

(26:29):

Once you get out and you're having coffee with 'em, you're cleaning gravestones with 'em. They'll tell you these things. One gal, her grandfather, Francis Harvey was a postmaster and he was the town clerk. He had a large store, and I tell everybody I'm falling in his footsteps. He took pictures all the time of KK back in the 19 hundreds, 1920 and hundreds of pictures unbelievable of sleighs and of the grain, the first Grange Hall burning down. And Freddy says, take 'em, Jim, I trust you. Scan 'em. So I have now 8,000 pictures of conduct cake. And one thing that Ben and his brother was always annoyed and his brother was annoyed by, I take pictures all the time. Okay, got to take a picture. And I've been taking pictures ink since 1976, and the first picture I took is kind of a good time. 4th of July, 1978, the post office burned down. I got in the old jalopy and went down there and took all these pictures of the post office burning down in the Sandusky fire Department. And today, those are the only pictures of that event. So I've taken these pictures of the canoe race since 1972. So I had this tremendous amount of photos. And then for any comes along and gives me hundreds of photos from early Kenduskeag.

(28:02):

In other words, it's easy for me to do it because I've got primary sources, people now writing in their stories and I've got photos if they're talking about somebody. Someone wrote a story today about a lady, and I had three or four pictures of her from time. She was a little girl until the time she passed away. So I posted those with this person's story. So yeah.

Curtis Worcester (28:25):

No, that's great. It sounds like to your point, I think you kind of opened with this, you're just immersed in the community now and these stories are just naturally coming up and you are now the source of all the photos and the stories, and I think it's just incredible. I do want to ask, it's probably going to be a tough question. I think there's probably a lot of stories that kind of stand out to you, but if there's one story in the history of the Facebook group here that's been the most surprising in terms of how it resonated with people. So maybe it was the most popular or sparked a lot of comments or personal memories. Is there one that stands out to you that maybe you uncovered?

Jim Smith (29:03):

It's a story that if you don't know anything about Kke, if you just online you're going to, or there's Italian shop in Duque called Art Place. Back in the day, the lady that ran the store, the little sandwich shop, her name was Ger. Okay, well, she had a couple Texaco pumps. And so in those days would pump her own gas. So she, here she was making sandwiches, and then she'd run out and fill up a car. So somebody gave her the nickname Dirty G, and that's far from the truth, and that they all laugh. Oh, do you remember to dirty Gs and getting an Italian and she'd pump gas and then make my sandwich? Well, what they didn't know is she had a dish pan of hot soap and water underneath the counter, so she'd always wash her hands. And I had someone right there with her that told me the story. So it's a great story. They like telling the story, but I like debunking the fact T wasn't dirty. And the other thing about Gert, I mean you just didn't mess around with this lady. Someone broke into her store, she slept in the back, some broke into his store, and she shot him twice

(30:22):

And they stole two cartons of cigarettes and somehow they got away and they never found them. But the police said this was 1964 by the amount of blood that they were in serious trouble. So she's kind of the legend of Kenduskeag. If I want people to come to Kenduskeag Tales, I put up a picture or a story about her and they'll go crazy from all over the state of Maine, all the United States. Oh, I wish I could have a sandwich from dirty garlic.

Curtis Worcester (30:52):

Oh my goodness. Oh, you're making me hungry now.

Jim Smith (30:55):

That's great. Don't ask. I asked once, I said, my wife doesn't like onions. I says, hold the onions. No, she said, I won't take the sandwich as it is. Or else she always had a big butcher knife. She'd wave and I'd go, okay. Yeah, looks good. Yes.

Ben Smith (31:16):

Well, I want to switch a little bit. I know there's been offshoots here of the history tales, and obviously one of the projects that you helped launch was a design contest for a new, I shouldn't say, a new for Kenduskeag town flag. So can you walk us through how that came together, where the idea came from, and then what it's represented for the town?

Jim Smith (31:39):

Well, first of all, I love flags, and I guess I have to take some credit for this. My grandson love flags now more than I do. And so we're a dangerous crew when we're together. Kki has not so much the people, but how the world sees us. Kke has low self-esteem and is seen as that farm town, that stinky farm town. I knew which was mission impossible. If I could get the town to adopt the flag, and if I could go through the entire process, it would be good for the town flags generate pride. Well, they do so much. And people would say to me, well, we don't need a flag. And then they'd say to me, well, the town's not going to pay for it, Jim. And I'd say, yeah, we need a flag, and don't worry, I'll pay for it. Don't worry about that. This Importantness is to me.

(32:41):

So I started the Historical Society. I got them behind me. They were great. We had a contest. We started after Thanksgiving and would close at the after Christmas, and we gave a hundred dollars prize, and I put together a panel of judges from even two people from different towns, and they individually, I had a matrix where they would on different things of the flag, they would rate it. And a 12-year-old girl whose grandfather is a farmer inus cake Gabby weeks designed our present flag. And it just blew me away what she did. I just couldn't believe it was so wonderful. And so then I had to get it through town meeting. They had to approve it, and I love him to death. The old crusty first selectman says, we don't need a damn flag and we're not going to have one. Well, that's all he had to say to me. So I was like running, supporting a candidate. I all the time kept posting on ksky tails. I just would drop the image and then I would get my friends to say, Hey, that's a nice looking flag. So I had to build a constituency,

(34:03):

And then I had to present it at a town meeting and the folks had to approve it, and they did. So we had this wonderful town flag. Now

Ben Smith (34:14):

You just take a second, just kind of describe what's on the flag, just I think it'd be helpful for people to

Jim Smith (34:19):

Hear it. Macal has on the left hand side, the white pine tree. Of course, Kenduskeag is still an agricultural town pretty much. So she's got green on the top and bottom and the middle. She has a blue eel that's outlined in Theus gig stream. Now, Kaus gig is an Indian term, waki Indian term, meaning eel catching place. And the WBE would come here in the summer and have a camp camp for fishing and farming and would catch an enormous number of eels. So I mean, Gabby nailed it. I'm so proud of her. I mean, it makes it even sweet when you have a young person that really understands their history. She's

Curtis Worcester (35:12):

Amazing. Yeah. That's awesome. It sounds like she did a great job. I know you've shared she did a great job, but I think hearing the details in the background, it sounds incredible. I want to talk about another kind of powerful moment that came, I think through you and the history Tales page, a bridge dedication. I know I teased it a little bit in the intro. You had a bridge dedication for a fallen World War II soldier who was from Kenduskeag. Can you just share with us how that project came about and what was the community and family reaction to that?

Jim Smith (35:45):

Well, it came about just because my father and my father-in-law and all my uncles served in World War ii. So for me, world War ii, just as this such an interest, such so much meaning to me personally. So when I was doing research in World War ii, there was some people that wrote opted, the one casualty in World War II from Kenduskeag was Corporal William Pullen, and one account had him die in as a German prisoner of war, which is false. So then I found out he'd been forgotten. People really didn't know his story. We talk about, I kind of saved this, I skipped the question. What's the most important story that you've

Curtis Worcester (36:33):

Been

Jim Smith (36:33):

Involved in, that you've told is Corporal William Pullen's story?

(36:38):

So he is been forgotten. His relatives, his brothers and sisters large family have passed away now, of course, and the nieces and nephews really didn't know his story. So I spent a year of researching Corporal Pullen military records, newspaper articles, one of his nephews in California. I reached out to him. He sent me all of his personal letters. He sent me the telegram that his mother Amy received in Kenduskeag that he was missing in action. So again, here I have sitting on my desk, all these primary sources about Corporal Pull. It kind of made me chuckle Before the war, he went to work in East Hartford at Pratt and Whitney in a military plant, and he met his fiance, who he was going to marry in East Hartford. Still made me chuckle because I kind of started relating to the guy. Well, I went to East Hartford and met my fiance in East Hartford. So Corporal Pullen, and I started having a bond. I just couldn't help it.

(37:45):

So then again, I decided at Christmas, I always do this at Christmas time before Christmas, I always sit down and think of things I want to do, and I said, I want to name a bridge after Corporal Pullen, well, got to get a law passed through the legislature. Okay, no easy task, no easy task. I said, this is Mission Impossible without Tom Cruise. So I contacted our state senator, Stacy Gern, and she loved the idea, but there's a problem here, starting right from the get go or major problem, okay, the second year of the legislature for bills to be introduced, they have to go before the legislative council, and that council has to vote on whether or not the bill can be submitted. So Stacey went to legislative council and they said, we've got enough bridges. We've got enough bridges. And Stacey, God bless her, she went right after him and said, I don't think you want Kundus upset at you.

(38:47):

So they let it in. We got it through the legislature. So much fun going over and testifying to the transportation committee. Okay, we talk about going back in time as if I'm in a time machine, so I'm going to testify. I kind of forgot this and it was a big thing. I forgot you were to submit all your documents to the legislative committee before the hearing. So I'm up there, my white shirt, my suit coat got my tie on. I'm in the classroom again. I'm going to pass out the papers to all the church that isn't done. The chairman was furious with

Curtis Worcester (39:23):

Me. Oh no.

Jim Smith (39:24):

He says, what are you doing? I said, I'm, what do you mean I'm passing out papers? So I was able to relive for 30 seconds my teaching experience. He straightened me out and we testified and it became law. That's awesome. The final part is the dedication of the bridge. And that's an immense thing. The whole community gets involved, the church gets involved. I've got to have the DOT put the signs up, the selectmen have to get involved. So it's just a crazy project. I love it though. The adrenaline is high. Then through two people, the two friends, we got some Black Hawk helicopters, can you believe this? From the Army Guard to fly a salute over the bridge for corporal polling. Wow. Brittany. So they're going to fly over the bridge. So Hollywood couldn't even do this. Hollywood couldn't do this. So the black hawks come over and fly over. So they obviously wrestled an American Eagle out of this test. So the minute they pass, the American Eagle swoops down and flies over the bridge for Corporal Pullen.

Curtis Worcester (40:42):

Wow, that's incredible.

Jim Smith (40:43):

So the families are like, they're going nuts. So this is a good time to tell Ben. So they officially adopted me after the Pullen celebration, and they actually send me emails and invite me to founder reunions, and they now call me Jim Pullen. I love

Ben Smith (41:02):

That. In this is the story, how the Smiths became the Pullens, is what you're saying,

Jim Smith (41:06):

How the Smith became the Pullens and the Pullens. I hear from 'em all the time. They didn't know Bill's story. They didn't know Bill's story. And I'll admit, I'm sometimes too sentimental, but every time I cross drive across the bridge gives me a funny feeling. I feel

Curtis Worcester (41:25):

Really good. Yeah, no, that's fantastic.

Jim Smith (41:27):

And he's part of history now.

Curtis Worcester (41:28):

Yeah.

Jim Smith (41:30):

Okay. He is part of main history in Kenduskeag history when there's another soldier, captain Isaac case is our Civil War hero, and by golly, William Pullen now will always be remembered

Curtis Worcester (41:45):

In

Jim Smith (41:45):

The history of Kenduskeag, and it doesn't get any better than that if you're a social studies teacher.

Ben Smith (41:51):

So I want to ask, obviously a through thread question for you, just obviously retirement, storytelling history and putting these things together. So can you just summarize for us, how has being part of this storytelling community in the town of conducting really affected your own sense of purpose and identity in retirement? Right. I think when you say people go, well, I'm a teacher, and as you said, I'm a social studies teacher, and that's their identity of their career, but not necessarily who they are. It's what they are. So can you talk about what this has shaped in terms of who you are and what you've been doing? I think that's just a really interesting thing to just share.

Jim Smith (42:31):

70, 73 years old, it gives you great pride. I mean, I'll be at the cannon firing on Friday, 4th of July, and these people who I don't know, I have thousands of people now on Sandusky tails, and they'll run up to me and say, you're Jim Smith. Yeah. And they'll say, oh, I love that page. I love that page. And I've done other things too, Curtis, this is where we maybe need to talk about Acadia Hospital. If there's a good sunrise, I get up, usually at four 15, I run out on the deck in my pajamas and capture a photo of the sunrise. So I have 150 pictures of, and I take the sunrise from the same place over my flight poles. So I have about over 150 sunrises now. And they love it. They love it. The other thing I do is a Vietnam veteran who's a dear friend, who's my favorite veteran. And every morning I say to him, I haven't missed a greeting in three years. I put up a picture and say, good morning, Larry, every morning. And he always says, within five minutes, up to Good morning, Jim. So it took KK about six months. I wouldn't tell him who Larry was. So it's those little, now the purists, the pure history people think I'm a heretic because I should just have pictures of Kenduskeag, Kenduskeag history. And then I've got, two years ago, we got this bird camera

(44:18):

For Christmas. So every day I put up pictures, onus skate tales of live video of the birds, and they just crumble. When I put Mr, I call him Mr. Cardinal when he comes and I put him up. I mean, hundreds of people, they drop, they stop eating whatever they're doing to see Mr. Cardinal. So I've added these other elements of interest.

Curtis Worcester (44:42):

I like that though. Yeah. That's

Jim Smith (44:43):

Added these other elements of interest. For instance, I'm very fawn and admire Jerry Gland, so I've done a biography of all of his artwork, all of what he's done. He did a mural in Kenduskeag church that's beautiful, behind the altar. So Laurie, who's championed the total restoration. So I do a biography of, and to do it on a living person, I also do it on people's past, but to champion those people in the community, and they love it. Some of 'em won't admit it, but they love it. And the rest of the community, they wouldn't know what Jerry Gland has personally done, his creativity, his time, and how he has donated all of this incredible work to the town of conduct cake.

Curtis Worcester (45:37):

But

Jim Smith (45:37):

That's the farm. All communities in Maine, I'll argue, we can be in Bangor or Lewiston or Kittery, wherever we are. Maine is still a small town. That's right.

Curtis Worcester (45:49):

That's right. And it's awesome that

Jim Smith (45:50):

You're shining and they love their towns and they love their state. And SOEs City is not unique. I mean, I'd like to think we are, we're different, but no, we're much like Holden and those other communities out there.

Curtis Worcester (46:06):

Yeah. No, it's fantastic. And again, for you just to be shining the light that you are and doing it your own way, I think it's incredible to watch. And again, I'm going to tell everyone, I know Ben said it earlier, but you're going to pause this show right now if you're listening and go invite yourself to join the Facebook group to follow along. It's incredible. There's great content. You can see the birds, you can see Mr. Cardinal, you can see the sunrise, you can see it all. But I do, Jim have one kind of wrap up question for you. I think it's going to probably stay on topic knowing how we've, this conversation's gone, but I have to ask it. So again, the name of our show, right? We're all about retirement success. So again, I just want to ask Jim, how are you currently living that retirement success, and what do you think that looks like going forward for you?

Jim Smith (46:56):

Well, we really, really credit my wife in this day and age. There's more and more women who are involved in investing. And I brought home in 1980 a money magazine with Peter Lynch. He was this guru on Fidelity money manager.

(47:16):

And Diane found out, she found out about Peter Lynch and she investigated Fidelity. And so we didn't have a lot of money, but we invested wisely in Fidelity and then Vanguard and we're children of the Depression. Our parents lived through the Depression. So we saved, Diane kept reinvesting. And so now we're quite comfortable. I just did a, this makes me so sad. I just did a seer bus trip to Princeville Edward Island. Diane and I did, and talking, chatting up a lot of the people who are primarily our age, they're in their seventies who have been retired a while, and with the price of everything going up and the inflation and uncertainty in the world, a lot of these people have gone back to work, have had to go back to work to take minimum wage jobs. And I'm so lucky that we're comfortable and I can live my dream and social studies dream and that's, and other places. So I would say just frugality, be wise, and it's really true. Say for a rainy day

Curtis Worcester (48:34):

And do what you love, I think and do what you love. Yeah. Yep.

Jim Smith (48:38):

With who? You, with who. That's

Curtis Worcester (48:40):

Right's.

Ben Smith (48:40):

Right. Well Dad, well thanks for coming on our show. I know it something, you've obviously observed us do this for quite a while and quite a few episodes, but really appreciate you just coming on and one, just not only just documenting the things that you've been doing in retirement, but also you're sharing this in building a love of your community. But I think from an inspirational thing of just sharing that story to a lot of communities that we reach across as people are, they're 50 and 55 and 60 and going, well, I don't even know what it's going to be like when I retire, when I stop. So I think kind of finding your passions, exploring passions, being okay to fail, you get on Facebook and all of a sudden you go, I don't know how to use this and I maybe I'm not good at it and it's not going to work. But putting yourself out there and being not afraid to fail is I think something to take away from there too. So I really want to thank you for coming on with us and just sharing the story. And again, just introducing Dad to the Return Success and Maine Podcast listeners is pretty a treat too. So thanks for coming on. So episode 113, talking to Dad.

Curtis Worcester (49:49):

There

Ben Smith (49:49):

You go. Took us 113 episodes of Build Up to the Confidence and Courage to Ask your dad to. He

Curtis Worcester (49:55):

Is one of our most loyal listeners.

Ben Smith (49:57):

He is, yeah. But I think, which is kind of funny, is I think the journey of this show and this whole purpose of just discovering purpose in retirement really kind of nicely aligned to what he did with his Facebook group and the community activism and all those pieces. So kind of some parallel tracks here, I think in terms of pet projects that were going on from that. Absolutely. Again, kind of cool to see, let that ferment a bit and get to the ripe age. That is kind of good to have a conversation of what you've done and where it's going. But again, all that is really good. So of course, we want to point you guys to that Facebook group. As he mentioned, he has a YouTube channel as well, and there's a few Facebook groups. So if you're interested and you want to just check out, just to kind see, maybe it's just from an inspiration side of just what are they doing in Kenduskeag, we will put those links in our blog, and you can find that by going to blog Do guidance point llc.com/ 1 1 3 for episode 113, and you can kind of find that all there.

(51:02):

But again, kind of maybe it's a little introspective, a little bit of self-serving for just having Dad on, but it's kind again, good to, there's stories everywhere and it's just kind of good to capture those and just highlight those and kind of go through it. So appreciate you all tuning in. Curtis, thanks for joining me in the interview with dad today. That was a good one. Yeah, of course. And we will all catch you next time. Take care.

Outro (51:27):

Ladies and gentlemen, you've just listened to an information filled episode of the Retirement Success in Maine Podcast. While this show is about finding more ways to improve your retirement happiness guidance point, advisor's mission is to help our clients create a fulfilling retirement. We do financial planning so that people can enjoy retirement and align their monetary resources to their goals. If you are wondering about your own personal success, we invite you to reach out to us to schedule a 45 minute listening session. Our advisors will have a conversation with you about your goals, your frustrations, and your problems. Make sure you check out Guidance point advisors on our blog, Facebook and LinkedIn, and you can always check out more episodes of this podcast on iTunes and Spotify, and of course, keep on finding your retirement success.