George Mitchell told a crowd at last week’s Maine Development Foundation annual meeting that a lot of people ask him whether he misses politics since retiring.

The former U.S. senator and Senate majority leader said the one good thing about public office is it keeps you humble. To illustrate his point, he shared a story about campaigning in rural Maine one year.

A dairy farmer was especially excited to see the approaching candidate since he was just informed that two of his cows were selected to go to Saudi Arabia to improve its dairy stock.

The farmer showed Mitchell the two prize milkers and asked if he could take a photograph of Mitchell with the cows. Since he was seeking re-election, Mitchell agreed.

“It’s part of the job,” he said as he shrugged his shoulders.

The picture of Mitchell and the two cows appeared in the next day’s local newspaper. Later that day, the candidate visited a farm a couple miles down the road from the dairy farmer.

As Mitchell approached the farmer to introduce himself, the farmer stopped him cold and said he knew who Mitchell was – he’d seen the paper that morning.

“And Senator, I’m a Republican. I think we should send you to Saudi Arabia and keep the cows here,” the farmer quipped.

– Carol Coultas
Kodak moment

Surprised by a $3,000 donation Tuesday, Byron firefighters wanted to thank the property owner who gave the department the money toward its new firetruck.

Late Wednesday afternoon, a group of them drove the truck to the residence, emergency lights flashing, to surprise them. Just as they arrived, they briefly ran the siren.

At first, the homeowner and his family and relatives reacted with alarm, wondering where the fire was.

Just as quickly, those perplexed looks turned to broad grins when the firefighters explained their arrival.

Then came the Kodak moment, that great picture when the unexpected happens.

The man’s wife and grandmother began hugging the surprised firefighters, who, awkwardly at first, returned the hugs.

The photo, of course, couldn’t be taken, because the family did not want their names or picture in the paper. They simply wanted to give back to the community anonymously.

– Terry Karkos

Mystery tour

Farmington officials, in a chatty moment during a selectmen’s meeting Tuesday, excitedly discussed the recent influx of tour buses through the town and wondered why and how they came to the western mountain town.

Town Manager Richard Davis, thinking one group’s trip was poorly timed, said he asked one tourist off a bus from Minnesota if they had come to see the foliage, to which the tourist replied, “No, we’re here to hear your accents.”

Davis never did get a straight answer, he said.

– Jodi Hausen

Silent whistles

Brenda Gammon, the Peru Elementary School principal, had her hair dyed pink last Friday after losing a bet that the schoolchildren couldn’t raise $500 in three weeks for Hurricane Katrina relief.

Sitting under a hair dryer at Tangles salon in Dixfield, Gammon was interviewed by a woman from Channel 13 while being filmed off and on during the process.

When the dye job was nearly done, Gammon wondered out loud whether the Dixfield Public Works crew across the street would whistle at her when she walked out the door, sporting hot pink hair.

Out went the Channel 13 reporter to ask the men. She came back, keeping whatever was said to herself, leaving Gammon wondering.

No whistles were heard when Gammon later walked out, the men preoccupied with digging up the Main Street section.

One of the men said later that there was no way they were going to whistle on film, because that would be sexual harassment. “We could lose our jobs.”

– Terry Karkos

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