{"id":7409,"date":"2023-03-07T09:48:09","date_gmt":"2023-03-07T14:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/?p=7409"},"modified":"2025-08-13T19:45:43","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T23:45:43","slug":"back-to-the-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/2023\/03\/07\/back-to-the-past\/","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Past"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u00a0 The University of Maine at Presque Isle was honored on Thursday, Feb. 2, to have guest speaker and novelist Cathie Pelletier join us in the multipurpose room to read from her latest book \u201cNortheaster: A Story of Courage and Survival in the Blizzard of 1952.\u201d Cathie\u2019s book is more than just a story about a storm. Cathie\u2019s story captures the lives of several different people. Her work is creative nonfiction inspired by Maine people –who had experienced this nor’easter all those years ago\u2014and the lives they lived. \u201cThe story is not just about them, or the storm or Maine. It\u2019s about who they were as people,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

     Cathie is from the rural Maine town of Allagash. She has written many books that are successful among audiences in –and out– of her community. \u201cI love her books. I like the way she writes about each character. I really feel like I know these people in the book because she makes them come to life,\u201d Jess Boughten \u2013who went to the book reading– said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Cathie\u2019s curiosity about the people who lived during the nor\u2019easter of 1952 all started from a single photo she saw online. \u201cI saw a picture of a pregnant woman being pulled on a toboggan over the snow during a storm. And it was during this snowstorm in 1952,\u201d Cathie said. It was after seeing this photo that Cathie put in the research to create the book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

      In 2005, Cathie started collecting newspaper clippings about the storm. Her research was put on hold for some years because of other projects. But Cathie\u2019s curiosity never ceased. Even though she had the newspaper clippings at her fingertips, her research was far from over. \u201cYou use all the facts you can. And then you have to come up with thoughts and dialog for those people that you can’t possibly know,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Cathie connected with many people who could answer some of her questions about the individuals she focused on in her book. \u201cI found their children or friends that they had, and this helped me to fill in the blanks,\u201d she said. Cathie developed a quick bond with the individuals whom she talked to. \u201cIt\u2019s really lovely to know these people, even though I have not yet met them in person,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     These people spent a lot of time receiving and answering Cathie\u2019s emails for the span of two years. \u201cOne woman said I asked her over 1000 questions about her mother,\u201d Cathie said. \u201cHer mother was Hazel.\u201d  Hazel Coomb lived in North Bath, Maine, at the time of the storm and her picture was the picture that Cathie had first seen that inspired the book. \u201cHazel was nine months pregnant when the storm hit,\u201d Cathie said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Cathie writes about Hazel and the other individuals as if she were an old friend. \u201cBorn in 1917, Hazel grew up a short distance from Coombs Mountain, named for the first family member to settle on the island…. Hazel loved the island,\u201d Cathie reads. \u201cHer friends called her Hazy. She was never lonely as a child and could have stayed there forever. But island kids dream of a future that can only be found on the mainland.\u201d These depictions that Cathie wrote for each character seem to bring them back to life, especially for the friends and family of these individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

     Cathie has stayed in touch with the people she talked to, such as Hazel\u2019s daughter, even after the book was published. \u201cThe book was finished months ago, but I hear from her almost every day,\u201d Cathie said. \u201cWe are like family now and I always tell them about our book.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cathie Pelletier holding her newest book during a book reading event at UMPI.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 The University of Maine at Presque Isle was honored on Thursday, Feb. 2, to have guest speaker and novelist Cathie Pelletier join us in the multipurpose room to read from her latest book \u201cNortheaster: A Story of Courage and Survival in the Blizzard of 1952.\u201d Cathie\u2019s book is more than just a story about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":199,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7381],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/199"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7409"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8101,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7409\/revisions\/8101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.umpi.edu\/utimes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}