Grab a bag of popcorn and buckle up! This is a long one!
Doreen, Liberty and I did a huge road trip today, reminiscing our days and seeing the sites in Aroostook County from back in the 1970's. We have a lot of love for this place as this is where our Ed & Doreen & Michelle Schellhase family started! Thankfully we still have our memories, at least most of them...! As the years tick by, so do some of the memories.
We started off heading south to Van Buren and then down to Caribou. Part way down we passed through Connor Maine, which back in the day was the location of a former Nike missile site and the Blotner Radar Site, which was active from 1963 to 1979. It is amazing how many military bases and sites used to be spread across America, especially during the Cold War.
Doreen spotted this as we arrived in the area last week and commented
that it looked like "base housing". Yes, it sure was!
We continued south and headed to Presque Isle, the same town that I had the tires installed a few days ago. As mentioned before, the Presque Isle airport location used to be the Presque Isle Air Force base back in the day. Prior to that it was used by the Army Air Corps. Later it housed Snark Intercontinental Missiles. The military functions were primarily in the 1940's to the 1960's. By the time I got up here in Jan 1974 it was a commercial airport.
The old Presque Isle Air Force Base housing was taken over by Loring and in 1976 we had worked our way up the list far enough and were assigned to the duplex at 12 Twilight Drive!
So 12 Twilight Drive was a palace compared to the two apartments we lived in Caribou! It even had an attached single car garage, and a full basement! Quite a few of my military comrades that worked with me at the Transmitter Site got housing here, so we car pooled to work. The property is still here and in good shape, and we drove right to it! Since Loring Air Force Base closed in 1994, all of the Presque Isle housing was turned over to low income housing I believe. Here are some pictures from when we lived there!
Fonzi, our sheep dog, loving the snow!
Digging out vehicles in the driveway!
Hammy (left) and Ernie (right) we have seen on this trip!
So many great memories there! So many holiday dinners! So many parties!
We left the area, stopped by a couple stores and then headed back north to Caribou. We lived in Caribou in two different apartments in Caribou. 18 School Street was the first. I lived in the barracks from when I arrived at Loring on 4 Jan 1974 until I rented this apartment in preparation for getting married in March 1974. It was barely big enough for one person let along two. The fridge had the freezer inside the fridge and room enough for just a couple ice cube trays. But it was all we could afford as a one-striper! How it looks today then how it looked back then:
Today - notice the decks replaced the enclosed porch.
Today
1974 - enclosed porch was ours
1974
Our next apartment was 7 Myrtle Street. Two things drove this move. First, we got a dog and the place on 18 School Street did not allow pets. Also, we were wanting to start our family and there was simply no room at all, so we moved. There was more room in the 7 Myrtle Street apartment, but it was up a flight of stairs. We were still on the list for Presque Isle base housing but we had to move.
Today. We lived upstairs in the back.
Summer1975 - Hammy, pregnant Doreen, Ed and Lefty around Greg's Land Cruiser.
Winter 1975 - We lived upstairs to the right in this picture. Center window was kitchen. Right window was living room. Bedroom and bathroom behind.
Winter 1975 - Doreen and newborn Michelle, aka "Goober"!
We drove through Caribou and passed several places we used to stop. The Dodge dealer is gone as is the Zayers store where Doreen and I bought our very first Christmas decorations!
One place we had to stop is new, and it is a combination bowling alley and restaurant, called the Rendezvous. The original Rendezvous was opened just outside Loring Air Force Base's East Gate road back in 1959. The owner's son-in-law, Wayne Langley, started working behind the bar in 1974 and, in time, he became the owner. For 55 years, Airmen and civilians from Loring and the surrounding area enjoyed a pizza, a grinder and a cold beer from the "Vous", including me! But Loring closed and the locations of the Rendezvous was surely challenging to the business. So in early 2023 the new Rendezvous opened in Caribou. They brought the recipes, many of the beer signs and other display items from the original restaurant and most importantly the sign from the old building!
The old Rendezvous
Inside the old Rendezvous - the bar
Inside the old Rendezvous - the dining room
The old Rendezvous building today - notice the sign is gone
The new Rendezvous today, complete with nice outdoor seating
This is a picture of the Rendezvous road sign, and lookie what is across the street! Yep, you guessed it - base housing! This was some of Loring's housing located at the east edge of Caribou!
We had Liberty with us today since we knew we were going to be gone a long time. I asked the hostess if we could bring her onto the outside deck and she said no problem. So we ordered our drinks and had just ordered our food when the sky let go into a torrential downpour!! The hostess was so sweet and let us into the entryway and then on into the dining area since Liberty was inside her kennel. That was so nice of her.
Doreen on the deck with Liberty in her kennel, moments before the deluge!
This is a look outside from the bar!
This place is amazing! According to a local article, "The 35,000 square foot building includes a bar, restaurant, arcade and 10-pin bowling alley. This bowling alley is named Evergreen Lanes after the former Loring Air Force base lanes. It is the only 10-pin bowling alley in Aroostook County since the one at Loring closed. The office manager, Deana Williams, was able to get the pins and lanes used at Loring to bring that original feel back to the County." Isn't that cool? Plus they have over 90 TV's in there and they have Maine's largest big screen TV.
The bowling area.
The bar area. I failed to get a picture of the dining area.
One of the old rotating beer signs from the original building
And another. These are both visible in the old picture above!
Our food arrived and it was delicious. I'd heard a comment that the sauce tastes different, but the food was still great. We ordered a pizza for Doreen and to take back with us. I ordered a sausage grinder, just like the old days. I also ordered Poutine, just because we are in Maine!
Poutine, Maine style. French fries, mozzarella cheese and gravy.
Traditional Poutine is made with cheese curds rather than mozzarella.
The "House Special" pizza
A sausage grinder.
While we were waiting for our food I was introduced to the owner's parents and had a great talk with them about the old days and the history of the Rendezvous. It is amazing that everyone we have met or have interacted with up here are extremely nice! It is so very refreshing!
So we finished up at the Rendezvous and next stop was the transmitter site where Ernie, Hammy, Greg, myself and many others used to work. It is now an FAA radar site and nothing of the Transmitter Site remains, other than the road leading to it.
The Transmitter Site, now an FAA radar looking across a potato field.
Turning off the main road
The road to the site. I drove this every day!
Where our basketball court used to be
The radar site - all traces of the Transmitter Site are gone.
What it looked like when I worked here
We got a little snow
This is looking down the site road towards the main road
Next stop was Dodo's Market. This was a convenience store back on the highway not far from our site. We often stopped by there for "refreshments" on a Friday afternoon after the work was done! It has not changed a bit.
After leaving Dodo's we headed for the Receiver Site, which was connected by phone lines to our Transmitter Site where I worked. Like it was in 2016, the last time we were here, it was like they shut off the lights and walked away! The equipment is gone but there are memos and items still on the bulletin boards. Desk complete with inbox. Weird!
The road leading to the Receiver Site
The Receiver Site building
Inside the generator room
On the bulletin board - the memo is dated 10 Feb 1989.
The main doors to the office and receiver room
The office area.
We headed towards the west gate at Loring. Keep in mind the base closed as a military facility 30 Sep 1994. It is currently the home of the Loring Commerce agency, and several other functions. One of the buildings houses the Loring AFB Museum. Many of the buildings are either gone or falling down. The roads are littered with potholes. The runway is still there but unused. We toured all this in 2016, but wanted to make another quick drive through.
Remnants of the old trailer court out the west gate.
The entry gate house - abandoned
What remains of the base housing
The chapel
We pulled into the parking lot of the museum and it was actually open! We were greeted by Cuppy Johndro who manages it. We also visited it in 2016 but made a quick sweep through and talked with Cuppy a bit. Doreen got a couple shirts and I bought Cuppy's history book she just published and she autographed it for us. A few pictures:
As we departed the museum we headed east past the air traffic control tower and the iconic arch hangar which is not looking good.
Air traffic control tower
The famous "arch hangar"
A snow plow on a train engine
The roof of the arch hangar in disrepair
We saw President Nixon's speech here right before he resigned
From here we headed out the east gate, past the old Rendezvous building, through Limestone and back to our campground. I'm sure I have bored you with all this but for us it was a stroll down memory lane. Hopefully some of our military comrades will get a kick out of the pictures.
Tomorrow we will have lunch with Greg and Dianne one last time on this trip, and then a friend Ann-Marie is stopping by the campground to see us. We pull chocks Tuesday morning and head south and east to the Calais Maine area.
One last note: During the day we were able to tune into our grandson's baseball games and were tuned in to see our grandson Daniel hit two home runs in the same game! Way to go, D!!
