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Enjoy browsing through the variety of books published, produced and distributed by Penobscot Books. We feature books that celebrate our area’s uniqueness and spectacular nature and scenic beauty, including history, memories, cookbooks and children’s books. Also available are 1880s reproduction maps of our area and DVDs featuring Deer Isle and Castine.
Survivors
Survivors
Healing through restoration
From the introduction: This is a story about two “war babies” – a 1946 GMC pickup and myself. We are both in bad shape. The truck has sat outside for over 25 years and is rusting to pieces. A prostate biopsy confirms that I have an aggressive form of prostate cancer. I am told I may die within three years. Over my wife’s objections, I buy the truck and decide to take it on as a restoration project. As I have always loved the process of bringing old vehicles back to life, I believe that being happy by doing this once again might be a key to my survival, or at least will enhance any medical intervention. My story focuses on concurrent efforts to heal myself as I am “healing” the pickup.
Neither the process of truck restoration nor healing has been easy for me. However, I learned a lot and wrote this book because I wanted to share my insights, particularly with you other old geezers with prostate cancer (3 million strong!) who also happen to like vintage trucks. You will learn about the treacherous prostate, the inevitable aging process and how hard it was for me to restore the old wreck.
When a man is losing his virility, memory and strength, and he can’t figure out why his damn truck won’t start, it’s a bad day. You gals who happen to be reading this book may gain insight into some of the challenges we ancient males struggle against with our bodies, minds, and vehicles.
We enjoy old cars and trucks because they link us strongly to our youth and the past. On the other hand, cancer ties us relentlessly to a worrisome present and uncertain future. From my strategies, I hope you may learn about fighting this disease so that you will also become a survivor.
Ask the author: Click here for a conversation with Harold Van Doren, author of Survivors.
About the author
I first came to Isle au Haut in 1953 as a 10-year-old “summer brat” and I quickly bonded with a neighboring couple, Maurice and Helen Barter, old islanders with roots to the first settlers. Maurice was a lobsterman and I went out with him every chance I could get. I loved being out on the water and Maurice was always fun as he teased me unmercifully. One of his greatest pranks was to pretend he couldn’t read and to get me to try to teach him how. When I grew up I “sterned” for him and although I was attending Colby College, my notebooks were full of drawings of lobster boats, girls and old cars. After two rather non-productive years as an English major, I quit college and, because this was the Viet Nam era of mandatory military service, joined the Maine Army National Guard. It was good for me to learn discipline and realize that the freedoms I took for granted were not always guaranteed, such as being able to take a drink of water when thirsty or rest when tired.
However, the attraction to the Island remained strong and although all I had was waterfront property and a log cabin my father had deeded to me, it was enough to give me a foothold and I and my family were welcomed by the community as Maurice and Helen gave me an “in.”
I didn’t have enough money to buy a boat and gear at the time so did everything else possible to make ends meet—worked for the town plowing snow, was elected to the board of selectmen, kept store, ran freight, repaired automobiles, sterned and scalloped, delivered fuel oil, caretook, got a license as a registered plumbing inspector...you name it, I did it. In the process, I enhanced what skills I had and learned a lot about the Islanders. I knew more about summer people’s houses than I did about them. In church, I’d think, “Oh, she’s the old lady that lives on the Point and her sink trap leaks.”
I have lived on the Island as both a seasonal and year-round resident. I have swum the mile-plus length of Long Pond (If it had been 10 feet longer I’d have drowned!). I’ve rowed around the island in a Swampscot dory (on a calm day). I’ve fished the East side rock pile, gotten caught in a cold front that made up black dungeon fog inside of two minutes, walked every hiking trail, biked many times around the island. I know both the eastern and westward ways to Stonington, I’ve frozen my hands scalloping in January. I’ve fought the Park when it tried to take more land from the Island and I’ve served as a church trustee for many years. In short, I know the place and its people very well.
My father first came to Isle au Haut in 1935 and he was friends with people who were getting old back in those days. Through him, I became interested in the past, joined the Island’s historical society but was surprised that no comprehensive history had yet been written about the Island. So, I decided to have a go at it and after four years of research, I had a book, An Island Sense of Home, that Penobscot Bay Press published. Before then, I self-published a book entitled Lines on the Water and I learned very quickly that no matter how hard you try, you cannot accurately proofread your own work.
I think “Bernadine’s Talent Show” has been an annual event on the Island for 40 years, and as I liked to tell stories, I would participate by reading one to the gathering. It was a lot of fun and gave me enough encouragement to keep doing it. My current book, Survivors, published by Penobscot Bay Press, is an outgrowth of those positive reinforcements, but it is quite a bit different from my previous writing. Instead of an Isle au Haut story, this is about me and my concurrent efforts to fight off an invasive disease and bring a nearly as old as me pickup back to life, an unusual juxtaposition.
Many elderly islanders have been obliged to leave their Island homes due to declining health. My wife and I are no exceptions and as I cannot handle cold weather anymore, we are leaving the State of Maine in 2026. It’s a hard, hard choice to make. Fortunately, we are moving to the Big Island of Hawaii (the fourth island we’ve lived on). Unlike those who have gone south, we have gone west (and south) just a little further than most. Hopefully Madame Pele won’t lose her temper, although she has not been exactly demure for the past year.
ISBN: 978-0-941238-38-0
Library of Congress Control Number: 2025950510
Publisher: Penobscot Books, A Division of Penobscot Bay Press, Inc., Stonington, Maine USA
Publish Date: May 2026
Dimensions: 7” x 9”
Pages: 220
Features: Ink drawings by the author; numerous photographs
Genre: Nonfiction
Printed in the USA by Franklin Printing, Farmington, Maine