LEWISTON – They may have put in 30, 40 or even 50 years of work in Lewiston’s mills, but the president of Museum L-A told them, “You’re not off the clock yet. You still need to put in some overtime.”

More than 500 former millworkers attended a reunion at the Bates Mill Sunday afternoon. They shared stories and renewed old friendships, but they also contributed valuable information for ongoing historical efforts.

That’s what Eliott Epstein, president of Museum L-A, meant about overtime. He told them they have a continuing responsibility to teach the younger generation about their workdays in the mill. He said it’s important to recall the old times that often involved “long hours, backbreaking work, dangerous conditions and often low pay.”

A successful L-A millworkers’ reunion took place two years ago, and Epstein said organizers were unsure what the response might be to another one.

“What happened today was a very nice surprise to us,” he said. The event was bigger and better than the first, and it looks like it could be held annually, Epstein said.

The reunions “are a celebration of the dignity of work,” Epstein told the retirees. “That’s what makes Lewiston-Auburn a dynamic and wholesome community,” he said.

As he looked out over the crowd of retirees from the Twin Cities’ several historic textile mills, Epstein invited them to “bask in the limelight that you have well and truly earned.”

The reunion was hosted by Museum L-A, which has established a museum dedicated to Lewiston’s textile mill heritage. It took place in the wide open second floor mill space where hot, dusty and noisy weaving machinery had produced world-famous bedspreads until a few decades ago. The second floor space is just outside the rooms where Museum L-A displays large machines and other items from the mill’s past.

Most of the attendees represented Franco-American families with names like Nadeau, Morin, Levesque and Lafrance, but the registration list also included Anglo names like Higgins, Ricker, Little and Fitzsimmons.

Germain Letourneau of Minot reminisced with friends about his career that began at the Hill Mill in 1949. He recalled how a three-month stint as a consultant at the Edwards division in Augusta lasted for five years. He said he retired in 1992.

Fred Lebel, who was president of Bates Mill, started in the time study department in 1961.

“I think it’s great trying to preserve the history of Bates,” Lebel said. “Bates made this community and the people here made Bates.”

William “Bud” Lewis, a Bates engineer for many years, said he knows the old buildings inside out. He began work for the company in 1949 “when the mill was in its heyday – five mills, each mill was making over $1 million a year. It was a blue chip, the largest employer in the state of Maine and the largest moneymaker.”

Carmen Smith of Lewiston recalled her textile mill years that included 11 years in Augusta and then five years in Lewiston through 1984. She said she was employed as a spooler tender.

Rachel Desgrosseilliers, executive director of Museum L-A, told the retirees the museum will soon include artifacts and information about L-A’s shoemaking heritage and its brickmaking industry. History of music in the Twin Cities might also become a part of the museum, she said.

Desgrosseilliers emphasized the importance of oral histories contributed by retirees and collected with the assistance of Bates College students working in programs under the college’s Harward Center for Community Partnerships. She said 45 oral histories have been completed and dozens more are in progress.

A “Voices of History” lecture series will be introduced at the Lewiston Public Library this fall, Desgrosseilliers said. She expects the oral history projects, including audio clips, to be available to the public by the beginning of the new year.

Michael Wilson, a Bates student, told the millworkers that a travel exhibit also is nearing completion.

Desgrosseilliers said several grants are making the museum expansion possible. The grants include a recent $400,000 award from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Julie Lee and Sam Geller, two other Bates students, scanned photos, magazines and documents that many retirees brought to the reunion.

“We’ve seen a lot of people interacting with each other,” Geller said. “It’s almost like a family reunion.”