Follow Your Dream by Dale Lincoln

High School Seniors and some folks age 67 or 68 , while trying to stay warm during a very cold winter, may be dreaming of exciting events for them in the near future. For students like your grand children or great grand children, in Grade 12; it’s Graduation; For 1958 High School Grads it’s attending your 50th. Reunions from high school. Regardless of our age differences between us and those kids, there are times when all the young and the old have going for us are our dreams.

January 1954 in Maine was cold, and windy. My high school days would be ending in a few months and I knew that my classmates would be collecting all of the academic and athletic awards. However, preparing for Graduation was fun and it gave me that big feeling. One blustery Saturday I wore a white shirt, necktie, and sport coat for the first time. My parents let me use the family car; a 1938 Chrysler with “suicide” doors,---You may remember them, ( the rear doors, when opened, pointed toward the front of the car.) and drive ten miles from Perry to Eastport. The appointment with the photographer went well. On the return trip, about five miles from our homes, three children from my neighborhood were looking very cold as they hiked along the highway. I stopped the car. They climbed in the back seat, slammed the door, and I started up the hill. At that moment the young lady nearest the door noticed that the door wasn’t tight and decided to try closing it again. When she loosened the “suicide door” a gust of wind slammed it against the rear fender. I stopped the car and still find myself today thanking the Lord that all of the young passengers remained in the car. My picture in the 1954 Shead Memorial High School Yearbook continues to remind me of that incident.

February weather was worse. My high school basketball team was eliminated before reaching the tournament in Bangor. After attending that game the flu bug made a visit, put me in bed for a week, and left me with a painful ear infection. For two weeks I worried that loss of hearing would prevent me from passing the physical examination for entrance to the Maine Maritime Academy, scheduled for March 2, in Boston.

At 11:30pm on the last day of February 1954 the temperature was below zero. I was half deaf and shivering, while sitting on a Greyhound Bus in Calais, Maine. A half hour earlier I learned that leaving home and saying good-bye to my family for the first time wasn’t easy to do. This was accompanied with great fear of being alone and lost in Boston. Have you ever felt like a 0 (Zero) with it’s rim knocked off?

Twelve hours later good things began to happen. As planned, two cousins met me at the bus station in Boston. They took me to their home in Cambridge and their parents treated me like a VIP. The next morning, and for the next three days, cousin Dave was my big city guide. The subway ride to the Navy Building was fun, then I discovered that a first time military physical examination is a memorable event. Many jokes heard about them in high school are true!

Near the end of the day the doctor gave me unexpected news:
“Your ear will be better in a couple of weeks but all of the fillings in your teeth must be replaced soon. Your dentist used (mercury) when he filled them!”
Having my teeth repaired kept me in Boston for three days. It was after an appointment with a dentist that my cousin said; “We’re walking from Boston to home in Cambridge this afternoon.”

As we walked the sidewalks along the Charles River a person more than a half mile away came running toward us. At a closer distance I noticed he wore a gray sweat suit, his steps were smooth and light. After he passed our spot my cousin said, “He runs every day. He’s training for the Boston Marathon.” As we continued walking to Cambridge I kept looking back at him. He was the first person I had seen that was training for a race.

I returned to my home in Perry with a dream of being a long distance runner but things happen slowly in Down East Maine. I tried distance running for conditioning to play a better game of baseball. My parents encouraged me to run after dark so the neighbors wouldn’t see me. Even though Roger Bannister broke the Four Minute Mile that same year, the words: ”People that run long distances are crazy” reached the ears of many people! That stigma kept many people from running before America went running in the 1970’s.

On July 4, 1956, while attending Maine Maritime Academy, I entered my first road race. My dream of being a good runner was shattered. Harold Hatch of Castine, Maine finished the 5K race about a half mile ahead of me. It wouldn’t have been so discouraging if I had known that three months later Harold Hatch would be the High School Cross Country Champion of New England.
(Note: Harold Hatch and I have both been inducted into The Maine Running Hall Of Fame.) Twelve years later, my love for running increased upon starting a new career. Being away from oil tankers allowed for time to compete in road races and run thousands of training miles. Dreams continued to happen. Being the front runner in the Boston Marathon ended upon waking up in bed with a “Charlie horse!”

In reality, Leg cramps were very real. they shattered my dream of running a marathon under three hours as I fell to the ground at the top of Heartbreak Hill on Patriots Day 1971.

My career as a school teacher allowed for an opportunity to promote Long distance running and coach Cross Country Teams in Eastern Washington County. I ran all practice runs with my teams, plus accompanied many runners for their individual training. I organized weekly races and all participants went home with a ribbon containing the name of the race and their finish line position. It was one of the first races in Maine that welcomed female runners. Many successful runners from that area ran their first training miles beside me. Several of them, including my children, were younger than ten years old. Their enthusiasm and success in races created dreams of coaching a State Cross Country Championship Team. Year 1986 was the year for that to happen but it didn’t! The Shead High School team of Eastport fell four points short to a very strong team from Yarmouth High School.---But even the Patriots have things like that happen at a season’s end!

To your grand children and great grand children that may be High School Seniors this year, (Class of 2008), may I say to them, “Hang in there when you’re feeling low. Find something you love to do and give it your best for the next fifty years.” If any people here are High School Graduates of year 1958, (Like my wife, Elsie;),---“have fun at your 50th reunion and keep away from that rowdy crowd! May God bless you all.

Dale C. Lincoln
Perry, Maine