My Postcard from Maine to Mrs. Campbell's 4th Grade Class in Signal Mountain, Tennessee

I addressed a postcard this week to a class of 4th graders, under the direction of a Mrs. Campbell, in Signal Mountain, Tennessee. Though I’ve never visited Signal Mountain it is home to a dear buddy and beer league hockey teammate of mine from a good many years ago in D.C. Though we are retired from beer league hockey by more than 10 years our hockey fraternity today regularly engages in group text message banter, little of it memorable but daily a warm lifeline of continued engagement among us, as we are now spread about far and wide. And recently my beer league buddy Chris shared with us word of a school project for one of his sons, now in 4th grade.

It’s a project which instantly drew my great admiration and enthusiastic support. Mrs. Campbell, quite commendably in my opinion, is undertaking some old school civics instruction of her charges, spending this fall providing an overview of all 50 states that comprise our country. She is hoping to receive postcards from individuals residing in all 50 states, and leverage them in her instruction. I wish I’d had Mrs. Campbell as my 4th grade teacher.

Her initiative struck me not only as innovative and distinctly engaging and fun for her students but also a heartening throwback endeavor within primary education, most welcome relative to what I’ve too often heard in recent years as discouraging, troubling, or worse as curriculum offerings in contemporary American schoolhouse education. Which might fairly be summarized thusly: I fear we’ve gotten too far away from too many of the basics.

Here is Mrs. Campbell’s directive:

I think I felt instantly drawn to participating in this project partly to help out a friend and his family whom I sadly seldom see anymore, but also out of a heartfelt excitement to share with a small classroom of American youths a concise description of the allure of my adopted home in upper New England. I felt that with this project Maine would loom as a bit of an outsider state: it’s sparsely populated, difficult to reach for everyone not a New England neighbor to it, and aside from Stephen King novels, seldom the setting of much in American popular or artistic culture. My sister, after all, made her first-ever visit here just last month!

I harbor a heartfelt conviction that I live, work, and recreate in a special setting, and I liked the idea of being a bit of an ambassador for Maine for one small classroom in the middle of America.

In addition to my own participation in this project, it occurred to me that with a Substack readership patronage scattered reasonably far and wide I could further help Mrs. Campbell achieve her map coverage goal by enlisting my readers in this fun and noble cause. And individually of course my readers could prod members within their own circles, ones potentially located in less populated states whose postcards are more challenging to come by.

So let’s inaugurate a veritable deluge of 56-cent stamped correspondence from far and wide across our blesssed fruited plain to Signal Mountain, Tennessee, and help a class of 4th graders there learn about our grand land!

Here is my contribution, in image and text, to Mrs. Campbell’s project:

Few in Maine eat pancakes without blueberries in them, and wedding receptions here often showcase blueberry pie instead of traditional wedding cake, for Maine is the blueberry capital of America. We are also renowned for our harvests of lobster and timber. 

You don’t much see Mainers in neckties and business suits, and instead quite commonly moving about in flannel shirts, often purchased at L.L. Bean. I moved to Maine 5 years ago, as a winter lover, and purchased my first snowmobile. We have more than 3,500 miles of snowmobile trails in Maine, with families of moose hidden among them. If you visit in winter I will take you for a snowmobile ride and then warm up a slice of blueberry pie for you.