At 85, Perry, now of Hallowell, is still writing, still listening, still sporting about in her compact silver Honda. Most of all she is still connecting with a wide variety of people - even “collecting” them, as she likes to say. She has written many of her stories - from-the-heart vignettes of people and places - in mostly self-published books. A few titles are Drinking from a Tin Cup, Only One Icebox to Fill, Mad Tuesdays and Years Pass, But Memories Last - Remembering Whitefield.
A Life of Blessings Bloomed Belize RPCV Katy Perry
A Life of Blessings Bloomed in Whitefield for Area Author
By Lucy L. Martin
Katy Perry
For Katy Perry, who lived in Whitefield as a young wife and mother 50 years ago, every day is an opportunity to give, and to collect another memory.
At 85, Perry, now of Hallowell, is still writing, still listening, still sporting about in her compact silver Honda. Most of all she is still connecting with a wide variety of people - even “collecting” them, as she likes to say. She has written many of her stories - from-the-heart vignettes of people and places - in mostly self-published books. A few titles are Drinking from a Tin Cup, Only One Icebox to Fill, Mad Tuesdays and Years Pass, But Memories Last - Remembering Whitefield.
She is gutsy, selectively irreverent (even “crazy,” she admits), curious, warm, and grateful. In her latest memoir, Living on the Edge (2003), she gives thanks for a “good life, one rich in diversity, many shades of love, adventure and pathos.”
Before raising four sons, Perry taught school; afterward, she worked in public relations 10 years for the state Dept. of Human Services; and at 65, after her husband died, she fulfilled a desire to see more of the world by selling her house in Pittston and spending two years in the Peace Corps in Belize. “It was a wonderful experience,” working with 20 social service agencies in a public relations role to promote their activities. “You learn to get along with all kinds of people,” she said.
Her connection with the Tobin family of Whitefield came through her father, John Luke. Elizabeth (Libby) Luke Tobin was his aunt, a Prince Edward Islander by birth, and she married lightship captain Herbert Tobin in Boston. The young couple moved to North Whitefield and Perry remembers visiting them summers when she was a child.
With her parents’ fractured marriage about to end in divorce, young Katy found refuge in Aunt Libby’s large and bustling household where some of the younger Tobins were nearly grown. It was the early 1930s and there was always a place at the table, always an extra bed. The family was nurturing, hospitable, and generous - especially Aunt Libby - and these expressions of caring left a lasting impression on the preteen.
Years later, soon after World War II, Perry moved with her husband to Whitefield where they bought the house of Harry and Emma Chase on East River Road. While Bernie Perry worked at Bath Iron Works, the young matron found herself once again in a community of neighbors who were concerned for each other, who helped each other in time of need, even though they might not always agree.
In her 2003 memoir, Perry also gives credit to her mother Bessie, who had a hard time earning a living to support her two children as a single parent. The family, when intact, had been comfortably well off, but after the divorce, it was an uphill battle against poverty.
Perry writes, “She showed that charity comes in all guises - not just dollars and cents but generosity with one’s time and talents.” It was only later that Perry began to understand one of her mother’s frequent sayings: “Blessed be Nothing.”
The influence of these early caregivers, and others in Perry’s circle of family and friends, shows in the author’s attitude today. “I tell my kids I’m the richest ol’ woman in the state of Maine.” Some portraits might not be totally flattering, and some facts might be skewed or misremembered, but Perry has kept true to her credo that it is important to leave behind some impression of those she lived among and who meant so much to her. Sometimes (as in the accompanying essay on meeting Helen Merry) the memory is a chance encounter with a person who touched her life, occasioning a philosophical musing in the process.
To preserve something of these people points to Perry’s belief that “every one of us has something to give.” Too many people fritter away time and money on things that don’t matter instead of preserving the things that do, she observed. In her book, it isn’t money or things but “our own lifestyle that contributes to the betterment of the community.”
Perry has strong memories of her country Thanksgivings in Whitefield, when “by and large it was the mothers who got the dinner together, and the men went into the woods because it was hunting season. It was an opportunity to be together, a family affair, and my mother would come visit. Food was incidental,” she said, and to a large extent, remains so: Perry’s preferred place is not in front of a stove. This year she has made arrangements at a local inn for dinner for 21, her sons and their families. Even with people bringing dishes for an at-home feast, she noted, the work is too much for one person to take on for that size group.
In recent years when the family gets together on Thanksgiving Day, Perry has found her own way of giving. She holds a “bag lottery”. She places selected items from around her house in bags, numbers each bag and then has everyone draw a numbered slip of paper from a hat.
“I’ve got so many things that are superfluous, so many things I don’t need, this is a good way to get rid of them. And if someone doesn’t want or like what they got, they can swap with someone else!”
And of course, if an item has a story attached to it, she makes sure to write that story down and include it with the gift.
Katy Perry’s Recipe for Nantucket Pie
2 cups cranberries; ½ c. chopped nuts; ½ c. sugar; 1 c. flour; 1 c. sugar; ¾ c. butter; 2 eggs; ¼ t. vanilla extract; ¼ t. almond extract
Put cranberries, nuts and ½ c. sugar in a buttered pie pan. Mix flour, 1 c. sugar, eggs, butter and flavorings and spread on top of cranberries. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 35 minutes. Serve warm with ice cream.
