Frank Connors has great stories

At our wonderful Mount Vernon library, when I spotted the book Stones and Stories, I thought I might enjoy it. And then I saw the author’s name, Frank Connors, and I knew this was going to be a very good book. And it is.

Frank has had quite a career and I remember enjoying his stories when he was a newspaper reporter. But he has also been a town manager, home designer, painter, salesman, and even a truck driver.

He says he loves to talk and tell stories, and boy, does he have great stories! I can’t begin to tell you about my favorite stories because I actually enjoyed all of them, from stories about the old home in Bowdoinham that he and his wife Jane purchased, to helping his ninety-year-old neighbor get up after he’d laid on floor of his home for two hours. And these are just his first two stories!

There are stories about everything from cooking apples to the history of Paul Revere to favorite hikes and his dislike for December and February. I really liked his stories about his camp which turns out to be not too far from my house. And of course I like the story titled The Deere of my Field. And his story about Emily the deer is precious. I also loved his story about smelt fishing.

Towards the end of the book Frank shares a lot about his time in the military and Vietnam.

I later learned that Frank donated his book to our library. Yes, he’s a generous guy too!

George Smith

About George Smith

George stepped down at the end of 2010 after 18 years as the executive director of the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine to write full time. He writes a weekly editorial page column in the Kennebec Journal and Waterville Morning Sentinel, a weekly travel column in those same newspapers (with his wife Linda), monthly columns in The Maine Sportsman magazine, two outdoor news blogs (one on his website, georgesmithmaine.com, and one on the website of the Bangor Daily News), and special columns for many publications and newsletters. Islandport Press published a book of George's favorite columns, "A Life Lived Outdoors" in 2014. In 2014, George also won a Maine Press Association award for writing the state's bet sports blog. In 2016, Down East Books published George's book, Maine Sporting Camps, and Islandport Press published George and his wife Linda's travel book, Take It From ME, about their favorite Maine inns and restaurants.