Northeast Archives – Sponsored Project Lands at Yale
When Stephen Cole first phoned the Northeast Archives in the winter of 1988, to urge us to support a modest documentary of the closing of Penobscot Poultry, Co., in Belfast, Maine, he had little idea, I suspect, what he was getting us all into. Penobscot Poultry-Maine’s last broiler processing firm located in Waldo County, the heart of chicken processing country-was about to close down, and Steve thought the Northeast Archives should do something about it.
“I Was Content and Not Content”: The Story of Linda Lord and the Closing of Penobscot Poultry (Southern Illinois University Press, 2000) grew out of that modest documentation project. What evolved was a multi-year initiative, funded by grants from the Maine Humanities Council. Cedric Chatterley photographed and conducted follow-up interviews with Linda at work in the “blood tunnel,” at home and in her community, and on her job search. I joined Cedric to co-curate an exhibit based on the interviews and photographs. The resulting exhibit, titled “One Year Later: The Closing of Penobscot Poultry and the Transition of a Veteran Employee,” appeared at six sites in the state; we hosted forums at each location and learned about the impact of plant closure in Maine’s communities.
Linda became a friend over time to us all. We followed her life developments after she left Penobscot. Cedric remained in touch; I often phoned with questions while researching aspects of the chicken industry, and did a final phone interview with her in 1994. Steve’s visit with Linda in 1996 became the book’s epilogue. Linda’s mother had passed, followed by her father years later. Then last year a series of hardships came her way: a fire swept through her father’s farmhouse in Brooks, where she’d been living for over a decade. Then finally a stroke in March of 2002, severe enough to cause hospitalization and rehabilitation.
When I phoned Linda to tell her that the organizers of the Yale Chicken Conference wanted her to take part, I learned she was in hospital. We were all devastated by the news. Linda wanted to go to Yale. Her doctors expressed concern at such a long journey at this point in her recovery. But her family knew it meant everything to Linda to be together with us all. It took three months to secure permissions for her to attend the conference. Cedric and Steve rallied to drive her down, along with a nurse, Wendy Bruton, hired by Linda’s family. And on Friday, May 17, just hours before we were to present, Linda rolled into Sage Hall, a stone building with vaulted ceilings, on Yale’s campus.
Traveling by wheelchair, Linda visibly improved over the course of the weekend. Her story captured many of the conference goers. Sparks flared at our presentation (as they had at the original Belfast opening in February 23, 1989), when one audience member confronted Linda about her work at the plant. Linda had the opportunity to meet Jim Lewis, an Episcopal priest who has used the book in his preaching, teaching, and organizing of poultry workers on the Delmarva Peninsula. We left Sunday afternoon euphoric: Cedric and Steve and Wendy, accompanying Linda home to Maine; and Lance, Sandalia and myself driving west to visit family in the region. Linda had made it to Yale. We had all survived the journey. But mostly, as Linda often reminds us, we had all become and remained friends.
– Alicia J. Rouverol
Petaluma, California
September 2002