Galen Koch: [00:00:00] We can send you this, too – the transcript. [Recording paused.] – Candy, just so I can check the levels in here.

 

Candace Haskell [00:00:10] Sure.

 

GK: [00:00:11] Can you just tell me where you came from today?

 

CH: [00:00:14] Yeah. You mean from Waterville?

 

GK: [00:00:16] Yeah.

 

CH: [00:00:17] Yeah. I came from my new home in Waterville, Maine. It’s a senior living community that I really, really like. They’re very pleasant and welcoming. I felt right at home right away, so that’s the best thing, really.

 

GK: [00:00:34] That’s so nice. Yeah. That’s so nice.

 

CH: [00:00:37] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:00:38] So, to start, I’m curious if you could tell me a little bit about who you are, your name, and also where you grew up and some of your own history.

 

CH: [00:00:49] Not with Haystack, you mean?

 

GK: [00:00:51] Not with Haystack, but just in general.

 

CH: [00:00:52] Okay. So, I was born in Missouri. My parents used to play music, and they met down there and got married. Then I came along. They played music all around in that area because my dad was from Ohio. My mom was from Maine, and she happened to be down there singing as well. I started school in West Virginia. I lived in Ohio for a while, came back to Maine probably when I was in the – I don’t know. I remember I started school in Hamden when I was in the fifth grade. My memory was a little better when I was not traveling so much. [laughter] I stayed there. Graduated from Hampden Academy in 1968.

 

GK: [00:01:53] How did you end up on Deer Isle?

 

CH: [00:01:55] Oh, how did I end up on Deer Isle? Okay, so let’s see. I met my husband. We went to a dance. My husband then. We met a couple there, connected with each other, and that’s how it happened. We had a short – well, about a year-long courtship – and we got married in ’76, and I moved here. My kids were six and three, I believe. Yeah. He had two that were six and four.  My son Alex is the youngest of all four. The others are girls. [laughter] I keep remembering this thing about him when they were all playing together. They wanted him to do something because they were older. He’d say, “You’re not the boss of me.” [laughter]

 

GK: [00:02:59] It was all girls and then him?

 

CH: [00:03:00] Yes.

 

GK: [00:03:00] Oh my goodness.

 

CH: [00:03:02] Oh, yeah. Right.

 

GK: [00:03:04] So you ended up on Deer Isle in –?

 

CH: [00:03:07] Yeah. In ‘76. Yeah. And Ethel Clifford, who lived two doors down from me, came to our house one day to meet me and all and said, “Would you like to have a job?” And I said, “Well, sure, what does it involve?” She said, “Oh, it’s just sending a few brochures.” This was in the winter when they moved back to the winter office, which was up over the old post office. Do you remember where that was? You know where Darwin Davidson is now? Right on the corner.

 

GK: [00:03:39] Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

 

CH: [00:03:40] Yeah. That used to be the post office. Haystack’s winter office was upstairs, and Fran was still working at the time. I worked there his last year. That was great.

 

GK: [00:03:58] What was Ethel’s job? How was she involved?

 

CH: [00:04:01] She was the administrative assistant. She did the registration and administrative tasks.  So, I said, “Sure, I’ll come in and see what you want me to do.” At that time, there wasn’t any internet or computer or anything. [laughter] I would type up labels to send the brochures. And then we had this card catalog – I don’t know if anybody’s ever mentioned that – from A to Z of everybody until we switched over to computers that had all of their history, their addresses – when it was a new address, you’d just cross the old one out, so you could follow when people moved. On one side, it had whether they were a student or a scholarship student.

 

GK: [00:05:01] You can come on in. We’ll pause for a second. I’m hearing about the old card catalog, which is pretty cool.

 

Ginger Aldrich: [00:05:06] Last year, I must have looked at that twenty times, and I’m not kidding. I can go years without looking at it, and then I have to go look at something. Last year, I had to use it so many times.

 

CH: [00:05:18] Yeah.  Thank you, Ginger.

 

GA: [00:05:19] You’re welcome. I’m grabbing one.

 

GK: [00:05:20] Thank you.

 

GA: [00:05:21] These are gluten-free.

 

CH: [00:05:23] Oh, good.

 

GA: [00:05:24] I think they’re coconut and raisin and then regular. An extension cord?

 

GK: [00:05:27] Thank you. Yeah, we might need it later. Thanks so much,

 

GA: [00:05:30] You’re welcome. I sent a text to Sarah to come by around 10:15 or 10:30 to see where you’re at. You can always send her away again, too, if you need to. Thank you both.

 

GK: [00:05:39] Okay, great. I’m pouring this one for you.

 

GA: [00:05:42] I’ll be over in the cabin if you need me. You can always text me.

 

GK: [00:05:46] Okay. Thanks, Ginger.

 

GA: [00:05:48] I didn’t think of putting that as – [inaudible] questions throughout, Candy, knowing full well that it would just take on a life of its own. They’re just prompts. I never even thought about the card catalog, and it’s super important because it’s the analog version of our database.

 

GK: [00:06:03] It’s so cool.

 

CH: [00:06:04] Yeah.

 

GA: [00:06:04] Yeah. Cool. Have fun.

 

GK: [00:06:05] Bye. Thanks.

 

CH: [00:06:06] Bye. Thank you.

 

GK: [00:06:08] So, the card catalog would have – you were talking about the right side.

 

CH: [00:06:13] Yeah. On the other side is their name and address. On the right side of the four-by-six cards would be – well, we had an “H” there, which meant they attended. Then there was a little code that meant – A10 meant they were alumni and took ceramics, that kind of thing. If they were a donor, they would have a little –

 

GK: [00:06:48] Money sign?

 

CH: [00:06:48] Money sign, yeah. Dollar sign by that code up there. Over here, under the “H” or whatever the code was – some weren’t students; they were donors. Under that, a list of what year they attended, what class they took, what session, and if they were a scholarship person or whatever they did at Haystack. On the back would be their donor history. That was a lot to do. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:07:14] So, you would keep track of that.

 

CH: [00:07:16] Yes.

 

GK: [00:07:17] What were you using the codes for? Was that for correspondence with people or just because you wanted to know who was who?

 

CH: [00:07:24] Right. Yeah. If someone said, “Oh, what year was so-and-so in here?” I’d just go say, “Candy Haskell,” and I’d go to my card and look up. “Oh, there’s an S there. She was just staff for all these years.” [laughter]

 

GK: [00:07:42] Wow.

 

CH: [00:07:43] Yeah. It was convenient. My son was only three at the time. I think maybe he turned four, so I just worked part-time at the office because I didn’t have a typewriter at home at that time. Haystack let me bring him in with me. So, after we used – let’s see. How did we want to use the other side of the cards? Everybody that wrote in for a catalog, we made up a card. Just in case they would attend, their card would be ready. So, after a few years, if they didn’t show up, we’d just cross them out and use the other side just for the inquiries. So, I had my son with me. He would sit on the floor for a couple of hours, I guess, and he’d cross the names off for me. He’d have a little scribble here and there. So, if you look at the cards back in the winter office and you look on the other side, you might see some squiggles, and that’s from him. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:08:57] That’s cute. A whole legacy of kids at Haystack.

 

CH: [00:09:01] That’s right. Yeah.

 

GK: [00:09:02] That’s so cute.

 

CH: [00:09:03] Yeah. My daughter worked in the library store here when it was Goods in the Woods. You remember that?

 

GK: [00:09:10] Yeah.

 

CH: [00:09:11] That was long after she graduated from high school in the summer. Oh, she was at UMaine. It was a summer job in between. Then she really discovered she liked being a librarian, so she went to Boston, to Simmons, got her Master’s in Library Sciences, and now she’s a media specialist at the school she’s at.

 

GK: [00:09:40] Wow. That is so cool

 

CH: [00:09:41] I know. [laughter] Right.

 

GK: [00:09:44] Haystack had a big influence on her. Amazing.

 

CH: [00:09:47] Absolutely. Yeah.

 

GK: [00:09:50] So, you started in that position. Were you just at the winter office, or did you do summer, too?

 

CH: [00:09:56] No, because my kids were so young. Sometimes, I’d have four. Sometimes, I’d just have my two. They were too young for me to leave. I was new to the area. I didn’t really want to get into babysitting. Anyway, a few years later, I would come out to the office two days a week, and they were old enough to leave, I felt. I think it was just part-time. My office was at the back behind the wall, but I could hear everything going on. Ethel’s desk was by the big windows. That’s where my desk was after she left, and I’d work the day she didn’t work. She worked only four days a week. It was great. I really loved it. She decided to retire in [the] mid/late ’80s. I don’t know. Late ‘80s, something like that. Haystack hired me as much as I could work. It was in the fall that she left. I still did that. I’m trying to think when we got the computer. It was before she left. It might have been – oh, I know, because I could still see it on the screen – ’82, ’83, something like that. Mid-’80s.

 

GK: [00:11:53] Wow. You had a computer in ’82 or ’83?

 

CH: [00:11:57] I’m thinking. Because I put in some of the codes. It was in the ’80s. We had one computer, which was mine, and a big printer. You know the printer that had the holes on the paper? And had to have a cover because it was so noisy. You ever see those?

 

GK: [00:12:20] Yeah. [laughter] Oh, my gosh.

 

CH: [00:12:29] So, I was very careful with what I was doing. The card catalog of all the students that attended and donors was my responsibility, which were probably four or five thousand at that time.

 

GK: [00:12:47] Whoa.

 

CH: [00:12:48] So, I did some in the summer when the kids were older. It was really hot up there. I’d just leave the kids for a little bit. It was a whole-day thing. I would just do that. I didn’t work in the summer because it was summer vacation. I was so glad to get that done.

 

GK: [00:13:10] Was there another administrative assistant who did the summertime work?

 

CH: [00:13:20] No. It was me. But my title was office manager and registrar. After she left, I moved out front. [laughter] That’s how that happened.

 

GK: [00:13:35] When you first were in the office, it was Fran?

 

CH: [00:13:39] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:13:40] Who was the next director?

 

CH: [00:13:41] We had a year off without a director. Let’s see. First, it was Fran. Then, Howard Evans after him. Who’d we get after him? Oh, Stu. He started in ’86. Then Paul.

 

GK: [00:14:08] Stu started in ’86?

 

CH: [00:14:13] Wait. ‘88, I think. Something like that.

 

GK: [00:14:16] And you had already been working in the office for twelve years?

 

CH: [00:14:18] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:14:19] Were you working in the summers at that point?

 

CH: [00:14:21] Just a little. At the winter office, a little bit working on that project.

 

GK: [00:14:28] Digitizing everything?

 

CH: [00:14:31] Yeah, by hand. We didn’t have any Internet or anything like that then. No, no. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:14:39] Were you printing them out then, or were they living on floppy disks?

 

CH: [00:14:45] Oh, to back up, I’d have to copy them on the floppies. And then I was responsible, when we did our catalog, [for] mailing all the brochures – Gateway. Those were in zip order. We didn’t have them in zip order, so they had to be hand-zipped.

 

GK: [00:15:15] What’s zip order?

 

CH: [00:15:18] Okay, Ellsworth. 04605.

 

GK: [00:15:27] The zip code?

 

CH: [00:15:28] Yeah. 04605, maybe. And Deer Isle’s 04627. So, 04627 would come before 04641. They’d all be in zip codes like that throughout all the states because it was a bulk mailing. I was in charge of all the bulk mailing. We’d have people come in, work on these, bundle them up, put them in the sacks – we did that for years and years. Many years. After we got a better computer system and we all had computers and a nice database, I could just pull out what I wanted, put them in zip order or alphabetical order or whatever, and print them out. It took less time for mailing information.

 

GK: [00:16:15] Yeah, one of my questions was how did your responsibilities change over time? It sounds like one of them was, in terms of technology, you saw a huge change.

 

CH: [00:16:27] Yes, definitely. I’m trying to think. When we first got the Internet, it was one computer. We had changed all of our systems. One computer had AOL, so we’d have to hook it into the phone. You’d hear the noise, and we’d all take turns doing our email on the freakin’ one computer. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:17:03] Oh my gosh. Was that in the ‘90s, do you think?

 

CH: [00:17:07] I think so.

 

GK: [00:17:08] The late ’90s? Wow.

 

CH: [00:17:09] I think so. [laughter] This was in our winter office on Dow Road. You know where that is.

 

GK: [00:17:18] Yeah. So, in the winter office, you transitioned from the old post office building, and then you transitioned to Dow Road?

 

CH: [00:17:29] Yeah. Then, we went up to Church Street across from the bank a few years after that.

 

GK: [00:17:36] And that’s where it’s been ever since.

 

CH: [00:17:37] Yes.

 

GK: [00:17:39] When Stu came on, there was still a little bit of time before you started doing full-time summer work.

 

CH: [00:17:50] No, I was full-time because my daughter graduated from high school in ’87. I was full-time before that. Quite a ways before that. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:18:02] Oh, okay. So, working just the winter wasn’t –?

 

CH: [00:18:08] No, I worked year-round. When Ethel left, I worked year-round but not full-time in the summer because of the kids.

 

GK: [00:18:17] Got it. Okay.

 

CH: [00:18:18] If I happened to have four kids, I didn’t want them – even though they’re older, I didn’t want them to be alone.

 

GK: [00:18:26] What were some of the duties that you had in the summer? What were some of the things that you were doing?

 

CH: [00:18:33] Okay. Everybody in the office pretty much worked on the beginning session day on Sunday to greet people, tell them where their rooms are, get them their bill. Anyway, that was fun. We had summer assistants. It was their duty, a few years after that, to meet and greet, so I didn’t have to work on Sundays. That was good. I didn’t mind. I would see people the next day. I did all the correspondence for the director, whoever it was. Let’s see. I would answer the phone most of the time. What else did I do? I did all the mailings [and] kept the computer programs up to date. Data entry. After students left, I would put their information on the database. Sometimes, I could get them all done in the summer. Sometimes, that would have to wait until the fall. Depends on how busy I was. I had a lot of – of how many visitors we’d have in a summer. Sometimes, it was twelve hundred, sometimes fifteen hundred. It was a lot.

 

GK: [00:20:19] Wow.

 

CH: [00:20:20] Yeah. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:20:21] With the meet and greet – that became something that summer assistants did. But you did that for a very long time, right?

 

CH: [00:20:34] Yes.

 

GK: [00:20:35] What are some of your memories of the meet and greet? What was that like?

 

CH: [00:20:40] Of course, they were weary, especially the foreign students. But they were just so happy and so glad to be at Haystack. They just said, “Look at the view,” and “Wow, this is beautiful.” It was so nice to get that interaction from them. We’d always have coffee and water or whatever. I think we had cookies out for that day.

 

GK: [00:21:36] Are people nervous when they first arrive, or would you say mostly they were probably students who had already been here? I don’t know what the –

 

CH: [00:21:46] The ratio? Yeah. I was the secretary clerk of the board of Haystack as well. I would do the yearly summary of students and how many scholarship students we had, how many cancellations – all that kind of thing. Where were they from? What states? What countries? I don’t know if they still do that or not.

 

GK: [00:22:18] Kind of analyzing it.

 

CH: [00:22:20] Yes.

 

GK: [00:22:21] Interesting.

 

CH: [00:22:22] Yeah. We started doing the first timers, and it seemed, at that time, like a third of our students the whole summer were repeats. I think that was pretty good.

 

GK: [00:22:38] Yeah. Wow. Tell me about that.

 

CH: [00:22:57] Yeah. I was part of the process for the students. We had the review. At that time, did I have an assistant? I can’t remember if I had an assistant at that time. Anyway, I was responsible for letting them know by mail that they either got in or [were] on the waitlist and then I’d have to make the little tags and put them on the housing board. So, Ethel had masking tape there to put them up with. My husband came out for lunch one time – I don’t know if you remember Richard. I was showing the board. Sometimes, the students fall off – “Oh, they do? What do you mean? They fall out here?” I said, “No, they fall off the housing board.”  He says, “Why don’t you use Velcro?”  So, we started using Velcro. Duh. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:23:54] And so that’s all the cabins?

 

CH: [00:23:56] Yeah, the housing board. You’ve seen that, haven’t you?

 

GK: [00:23:59] I must have seen it, but I can’t remember.

 

CH: [00:24:00] I don’t know where it is now, but if it’s in there somewhere – it’s got to be somewhere unless they just do it all on the computer.

 

GK: [00:24:08] I’m sure we were forbidden to touch it as children and wanted to. That was one of the things that you were responsible for was just keeping the housing board –

 

CH: [00:25:04] Yes. Registration every year. Yeah. Of course, we had our shoulder season. Student craft in the spring, and we had the rentals. We didn’t have to do anything with them. Just make sure the rooms were clean, that kind of thing. Then, in the fall, we would have – well, back then, we didn’t have a lot of the things we do now. Fall’s really busy. At least, it was during my time. I assume with Paul here, it was quite busy. The one that I really connected with for meet-greet was Open Door. That’s all Maine people, and it’s mostly people who return. We have so many applications; we could have done it twice because we turn them over, and we just pick from it to choose the students until the classes were full.

 

GK: [00:25:06] Wow.

 

CH: [00:26:07] Yeah. I’m not going to say most, but I’d say fifty percent or more were people who had been here before, and they were just so happy to be here; they didn’t care if it was going to be cold. One year, we had eight inches of snow – that was over Columbus Day Weekend every year – and the power was out. Therefore, no heat in the cabins. We used to rent electric blankets at that time. No electric blankets. [laughter] I think we had some people leave. I’m not sure. But they were a hardy bunch.

 

GK: [00:26:45] They just made a fire in the dining hall and sleep there.

 

CH: [00:26:48] Yes, I think that’s what they did because they had gas for the big gas stove [and] an oven for cooking. That was always our biggest – it was always packed. At least ninety to a hundred people.

 

GK: [00:27:08] When did that start? Were you here when Open Door started, or was it pre –?

 

CH: [00:27:15] I’m pretty sure that Open Door started in 1985,

 

GK: [00:27:25] Yeah, that’s fine. Were there other community programs? What was Haystack’s role with the community of Deer Island, the students, and –?

 

CH: [00:27:42] Right. Well, we had the Island Workshop that was supposed to be just for the island, but then the whole peninsula wanted to do it. So, just island and peninsula. [laughter] Early May. It was really cold, but it was just a day thing. That filled up really well. That was very popular. I assume they still do it. Haystack always wanted to be a part of the community. That’s why we did that and Open Door, the welcoming for the programs at night, things like that. Always in the parades.

 

GK: [00:28:40] There was the studio-based learning program.

 

CH: [00:28:44] It started around 1999. Yeah. I think Stu might have started that. I’m not sure. Not sure about that. That was for the Peninsula, and then it got Downeast a little and Ellsworth and Washington Academy.

 

GK: [00:29:28] I know. Amazing.

 

CH: [00:29:30] GSA [George Stevens Academy]. You could have done one just with GSA. I’d call up Katie Green; she was the art teacher there. “We have some openings in blah, blah, blah classes.” “Okay, I’ll be calling you back,” and she’d call them for me.” Amazing, right? She always came through.

 

GK: [00:29:50] That’s amazing. Do you remember when you first came out to the campus? What was your impression of Haystack when you first saw it?

 

CH: [00:30:02] Ethel and I used to take turns driving out. She brought me out the first time. Of course, I hadn’t heard of Haystack. It was just the view, of course, at first. [laughter] It was just amazing that this place existed. As I got here and stayed longer, working longer, I said, “This is really great what we’re doing.” Not just for Deer Isle or Maine. It’s all over. It’s international. It’s amazing that this existed.

 

GK: [00:30:57] Yeah. What struck you as amazing about it? Did you see –? Over time, did that become more clear that it was important?

 

CH: [00:31:07] It’s important because the students could just concentrate on what the class was, what they were doing. Didn’t have to worry about eating. They didn’t have to worry about anything else, just being in the class. That made a big difference. You just concentrate on that. Some said it was life-changing, and I think that’s great. The teachers that we had were really great.

 

GK: [00:31:40] Yeah, that’s amazing.

 

CH: [00:31:42] Oh, yeah.

 

GK: [00:31:43] When you were working for those forty-three years, a large chunk of that, it seems, was pretty consistent. I’m thinking of people who were here for a really long time and are now starting to retire. Is that true that there were the same people –

 

CH: [00:32:07] On staff.

 

GK: [00:32:08] – on the overall staff for a long time?

 

CH: [00:32:09] Yes. Like your dad, who was here for, what, twenty-five years or more, I think.

 

GK: [00:32:16] More, I think. Thirty. Almost thirty.

 

CH: [00:32:18] Yeah, a long time. Jonathan [inaudible]. When he was here, we compared notes as to who was here longer one time. I think I won by a couple of years, something like that because he was away for a little bit. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:32:42] Who has the legacy? The longest legacy?  I would say Fran and Priscilla Merritt.

 

CH: [00:32:45] That’s right. [laughter] Staff’s important. We always liked lunch on the deck at the round table. I miss that. You just catch up. We just seemed to like each other and like spending time.

 

GK: [00:33:05] There was a camaraderie.

 

CH: [00:33:08] Definitely, yes. We were all on the same page as why we were here. It’s for them, not for us. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:33:22] The culture of Haystack, where every two weeks in the summer, everything changes.

 

CH: [00:33:37] Turnover, yes.

 

GK: [00:33:38] So, how you have consistency in that – I wonder if you can – how do you keep –?

 

CH: [00:33:47] Fresh? [laughter]

 

GK: [00:33:48] And your head on straight.

 

CH: [00:33:50] It’s a challenge. The changeover is hard on housekeeping, of course. Getting the studios ready – that’s the big thing. The staff usually – it’s a Friday. They like to go home early. But everybody left at night. You got all these studios. What am I going to do? In the office, you’d be getting the paperwork ready, and I would do the handouts for everybody. You just had to put on a happy face and answer questions like you’d never heard them before and have a big smile – “Glad you’re here. Anything we can do to help you.”

 

GK: [00:34:48] Students were arriving on Sunday in a typical session, but students had just left on –

 

CH: [00:34:53] Friday.

 

GK: [00:34:54] – Friday?

 

CH: [00:34:55] Scholarship students came on Saturday. There really wasn’t much downtime at all. It was hard. The work studies that showed up on Saturdays would help with housekeeping if it hadn’t been completed and things like that.

 

GK: [00:35:14] Wow. Were you working those days?

 

CH: [00:35:17] No.

 

GK: [00:35:18] That’s good. You need some time off.

 

CH: [00:35:20] Yes. If somebody canceled last minute (like on a Friday, to show up Sunday) I’d have to go through the waitlist to see if somebody could come last minute. Maybe they were in Maine. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it didn’t. Sometimes, somebody in another state – “I’ll come late last minute.” They’ve been here before. “Just let me know.” I’d call them. They’d be so happy, and they’d say, “Well, I’ve made other plans. I really didn’t think you’d call me.” [laughter] And I’d have all the work done, all the paperwork done for the teachers. We did an address list and the class list, and all that stuff would be done over.

 

GK: [00:36:04] Before?

 

CH: [00:36:05] – before I left on Friday. Then, if somebody canceled at 1:00 – that’s why I always waited until maybe 2:00 to finish up that task and have everything ready. Sometimes, it worked out. Sometimes, it didn’t. If you didn’t get it on the paperwork, that’s the way it is. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:36:29] Yeah. Not much you can do at that point.

 

CH: [00:36:30] Right.

 

GK: [00:36:33] Going back to the technology piece, everyone had one computer, was checking all their email at the same time on the same computer. How did your position evolve even beyond that?

 

CH: [00:36:58] Beyond –?

 

GK: [00:36:59] That one computer. Having that one computer. [laughter]

 

CH: [00:37:02] The one we shared?

 

GK: [00:37:03] Yeah, I’m sure. And also, how were you? What was it like when learning those skills as things were evolving?

 

CH: [00:37:15] Just learned on our own.

 

GK: [00:37:16] You just learned.

 

CH: [00:37:17] Yeah. Except for the database. We had two days’ worth of training and would come when we first got our database. It was helpful, but you really had to live with it and see what it would do. It had a good – it was called a knowledge base. If you had a question, you could plunk that in there, and it would come up with really good answers. I didn’t have to call support too many times, but I would when I had to, but then they’d be busy and that kind of thing. Anyhow, they were very helpful. It was a learning curve to learn all that. With the Internet – when we moved out here, we still had the telephone thing. In the back office, we had AOL, [laughter] and we ran a wire on the floor, taped it down because the phone setup is in the back office under the desk where the long table is. You know what I mean? At that time, that computer up was over the front – by the big windows. We’d have to run it over there, and we’d still have to check each one. Then, they must have got the towers up. Did we have a dish? We had some kind of equipment for that at one time.

 

GK: [00:39:05] Because the school’s so far away from everything?

 

CH: [00:39:08] Yes. There wasn’t enough population/people living close enough to run wires for the Internet out there at the time. [laughter] I know, right? We did get – at one point, everybody got their own. I don’t know what it was or how that happened. Anyhow, that happened. Then, a few years after that, Haystack got the first really good Internet use. They had these big – I don’t even know if they’re still there. They might have better setups now – these big gray boxes on a tree across from the church out there. The church is here and across the street, there are trees there. It looks like the trees have been cut down. We were the first to get that, and then other people could join that, too. It was much better, but it was still slow, slower than in town. I don’t know if it’s gotten any better or not. Now it’s cable and everything. It’s probably much better.

 

GK: [00:40:51] Having access to that probably changed the way that you were working.

 

CH: [00:40:58] Oh, yes.

 

GK: [00:41:59] Access to the Internet.

 

CH: [00:42:00] Email. Oh, yeah.

 

GK: [00:41:02] Correspondence wasn’t always the same. Were you still doing mailings?

 

CH: [00:41:07] Yes.

 

GK: [00:41:10] The school itself – the buildings and the grounds – did that change while you were working here?

 

CH: [00:41:21] Let’s see. Yeah. Gateway and the store – all that was put up while I was here. Goods in the Woods was closed. That became the visiting artists’ studio. When they did that, they remodeled it. Then, they remodeled it again when they put the Fab Lab in. Then they put the visiting artists building there – studio. As far as other buildings, I don’t think there was room for any more than that at that time.

 

GK: [00:42:02] Yeah, this is the footprint.

 

CH: [00:42:03] Yeah, I think that’s it. Yes.

 

GK: [00:42:06] Gateway wasn’t there. I don’t remember Gateway not being there, I don’t think.

 

CH: [00:42:10] I think they had everything in the dining room, all their shows and stuff like that. They remodeled the dining room. I know that happened.

 

GK: [00:42:23] Oh, yeah, I remember that. That was a little bit –

 

CH: [00:42:26] And the kitchen was remodeled a couple of years ago. Three or four years ago. Yeah. We had the other office put up, too. That wasn’t here when I started it. I can’t remember what year that was. Everybody was in the one office. Can you imagine that?

 

GK: [00:42:48] Were there as many people working?

 

CH: [00:42:53] No. [laughter] It was two upstairs, but it was really hot. It was horribly hot. Then, you could put three downstairs. So, that’s five. That was really it. The director, whoever it was, would use this as their office.

 

GK: [00:43:11] That’s crowded. A crowded little space.

 

CH: [00:43:15] Yes, with me out front. Six in that poor little building.

 

GK: [00:43:22] Were you, in the summer, spending most of your time, would you say –? Was a lot of your time answering the phones?

 

CH: [00:43:27] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:43:29] I think that’s what I remember.

 

CH: [00:43:30] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:43:31] Oh, hey … I will pause for a second …

 

[Recording paused.]

 

GK: [00:43:42] – transition from Stu to Paul? Were you there for the transition from Stu to Paul?

 

CH: [00:43:47] Yeah. I worked with all the directors up until Paul left.

 

GK: [00:43:55] Because you were there with Fran for –?

 

CH: [00:43:57] Right.

 

GK: [00:43:57] Wow. What was that transition like?

 

CH: [00:44:03] Which one?

 

GK: [00:44:04] Yeah. What were they all like? I’m curious what your role was during the transitional moments? You have the institutional knowledge at that point.

 

CH: [00:44:21] Right. Well, we all – not just me – had to get them up to speed, so to speak. A lot of them knew about Haystack, of course, but still a lot to learn when you first start. I would do the office stuff. The others would do their parts. I think it all went pretty well.

 

GK: [00:44:50] Smooth transitions.

 

CH: [00:44:51] Yes, on my part. I don’t know about their part. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:44:57] You were good at it … [laughter] Did you notice a shift at the school with different directors? What was that like?

 

CH: [00:46:18] Well, they all brought their own vision, of course. Stu started a lot of programs. I think he redesigned the brochure. It had a lot more programs and diversity in programs. The rental seasons were increased in the shoulder seasons. Paul did the same. He was very active that way as well. He wanted to get a lot going and have more people come in and enjoy Haystack, basically, be here and learn and enjoy that kind of thing.

 

GK: [00:47:22] They both were creating new programs –

 

CH: [00:47:28] Correct.

 

GK: [00:47:29] – and sustaining old ones, too.

 

CH: [00:47:31] Yes. Right. Very conscious of the past history, what our mission was and is. I assume it is still the mission. I think that was important.

 

GK: [00:47:50] It sounds like for you, though, your work in that was pretty steady. I mean, you were doing the same jobs.

 

CH: [00:48:02] Yes. Right. Yes. I can’t remember when I started having an assistant. That really helped a lot. [laughter] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:48:20] It’s a lot for one person.

 

CH: [00:48:21] Yeah. Because everything else increased. More programs, more this, more that. You got to have a little bit of help. So, I was glad to get some really good help.

 

GK: [00:48:35] Who was your assistant? Do you remember?

 

CH: [00:48:40] Let’s see. Karen Gross Eaton. She ran the store for a while in the winter office.

 

GK: [00:48:48] Oh, yeah. I remember Karen.

 

CH: [00:49:08] And Twyla Weed. She ran that store. In the winter, she was in the office. There were some others that were just for winters. I really can’t remember everybody all those years, but I was lucky to have Carole Ann, of course. That was for many, many years.  Twenty-five?  And Twyla, too. I think she worked quite a long time.

 

GK: [00:49:42] Yeah, I remember them.

 

CH: [00:49:44] Oh, Dan Boutell.

 

GK: [00:49:46] Dan.

 

CH: [00:49:47] Yes. How can I forget Dan? [laughter]

 

GK: [00:49:52] Dan was your assistant in the office.

 

CH: [00:49:54] In the winter. In the summer upstairs, he had an office upstairs. He’d help. He also had other responsibilities. He was fun to work with. He was a sweetheart. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:50:10] A good sense of humor.

 

CH: [00:50:11] Oh, yes. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:50:14] Were you full-time? Were you in the winter, too? Can you talk about –? You were one of the only staff people in the winter, right?

 

CH: [00:50:27] No, we had five people in the winter.

 

GK: [00:50:29] Oh, really? Okay.

 

CH: [00:50:30] Yeah. Me, the director, Ginger’s job, development director.

 

GK: [00:50:42] Development.

 

CH: [00:50:43] Development, thank you. And the bookkeeper. I don’t think the bookkeeper worked full time because [there were] no students, basically. Not much going on. But they did work some. The office was so small upstairs over the post office. There were three of us in one room, the length of the building, and then the director had his own office. So, the bookkeeper, me, and Ethel were out there.

 

GK: [00:51:34] So, then you moved to Dow Road in the ’80s?

 

CH: [00:51:39] Yeah. Late ’80s, yeah. I can’t remember the names of the assistants at this point.

 

GK: [00:51:48] That’s fine. You don’t need to remember that. You don’t need to remember that. That’s minutiae that we don’t need. I think what I’m curious about is just the – you mentioned the card catalog duties that you had, the database duties, and sending brochures. Were there other things that you had in the winter – responsibilities – too?

 

CH: [00:52:20] Yeah, I did all the correspondence for the director, the phone, whatever mailings we had, like the annual appeal.

 

GK: [00:52:33] Was there registration stuff that you were doing?

 

CH: [00:52:39] We’d send the brochure out in January. Deadlines were March 15th and April 15th. Once we sent that out, we were getting busy, which was great. When I first started, we had four three-week sessions. That was it. We’d have six sessions and the shoulder season. That changed a lot.

 

GK: [00:52:13] That’s a lot. That’s a big change.

 

CH: [00:53:16] Yeah.

 

GK: [00:53:18] That’s a lot more responsibility.

 

CH: [00:53:21] People, yes. More changeovers and more paperwork.

 

GK: [00:53:26] Were there always summer assistants?

 

CH: [00:53:33] Yes.

 

GK: [00:53:33] The whole time?

 

CH: [00:53:35] Yes.

 

GK: [00:53:37] Because that seems like a role that has helped with some of this.

 

CH: [00:53:42] Oh heavens, yes. We couldn’t do what we did when I was here without them, really.

 

GK: [00:53:57] What do you think –? You were part of seeing people come and seeing people leave. Some of those folks said that this had been a life-changing experience. What do you think was the takeaway for folks from their time at Haystack?

 

CH: [00:54:20] They made so many connections with other craftspeople. I think it opened their creativity maybe to see all this stuff in other studios that are happening and in what they’re doing. That’s why they took a class. They wanted to learn something new in their own field or not that this particular teacher was going to give.

 

GK: [00:54:55] So, an expansion.

 

CH: [00:54:58] Yes. I was also here on the departure day. [laughter] Sometimes, that was very nerve-wracking when taxis showed up, and some people weren’t there to get the taxi. Sometimes, the summer assistants didn’t work on Fridays, or they’d just work the morning, go to the dump, [and] help with the studio, so I was [often] in the office by myself. [laughter] Sometimes, I could get somebody to help me. Anyway, we’d have to find – I’d go around and say, “Do you know where such-and-such is?” “Oh, I saw him in his room.” I’d have to go down to their room. “Oh, they took an extra swim.” “Well, I’m not doing that.” [laughter] Luckily, a lot of people would say, “Oh, I’ll get him for you.” Or, “I’ll get her.” “I know where they are.”

 

GK: [00:55:56] I remember the taxi thing and always, as a kid, thinking, “Where are these taxis coming from?”

 

CH: [00:56:08] And where are they going? Yeah, Bangor.

 

GK: [00:56:12] It was Bangor. They’d come down from Bangor.

 

CH: [00:56:14] Yeah. And take them either to the bus station or the airport.

 

GK: [00:56:19] Was that something that Haystack coordinated?

 

CH: [00:56:22] Oh, yeah.

 

GK: [00:56:24] You coordinated.

 

CH: [00:56:28] [laughter] Then, after a while, it became someone else’s job, which was great. Carole Ann took that over a lot – did a lot. I’m sure she still does.

 

GK: [00:56:44] Yeah, that’s a crazy amount of coordination. You would have to know everyone’s schedule and what they were doing.

 

CH: [00:56:49] Oh, yeah. They had to tell us the airline flight number and time of arrival. We would tell them where to be and what to look for. We’d say, “Well, the taxi driver will have a sign that says Haystack.” Well, they’d have a little – sometimes, they’d have a paper pie plate with “Haystack” on it. That’s not going to do. [laughter] Yeah. Sometimes, people wouldn’t show up. The taxi driver would call and say, “Well, so-and-so isn’t here.”  I’d say, “Oh, well. I’ll see if I can get them on the phone.” Sometimes, they’d say, “Oh, I decided not to come,” and did not tell us. That kind of thing. That didn’t happen too often, thank goodness.

 

GK: [00:57:37] I mean, just the logistics of getting people here is huge.

 

CH: [00:57:41] We’re lucky we had – when I first started, or somewhere along the line, it was a taxi from Bangor. Then, the taxi would be late coming to pick people up. We’d try to have a two-hour window to get them there – to load the vehicles, get them to the airport. You don’t know what’s going to happen in between. I tried to build in a little bit of extra time in case they are late, which would happen. In the summer on Friday? That was kind of nerve-racking.

 

GK: [00:59:09] Lots of traffic. Did you have taxi drivers who had never come to the island before?

 

CH: [00:59:15] Oh, yeah. [laughter]

 

GK: [00:59:18] I’m imagining them coming down the road.

 

CH: [00:59:20] Yes, right. [laughter] I know.

 

GK: [00:59:23] Grounding out.

 

CH: [00:59:24] “What? Is this right?”

 

GK: [00:59:27] Right.

 

CH: [00:59:28] I can also imagine people who live in a big city, say New York, and they come out here. If they’re late, and it’s nighttime, and they’re coming out here. “Is this right? Am I going to the right place?” They’re just so happy that it is the place. In the morning, they see all this property and the ocean. It’s just amazing what they might be thinking.

 

GK: [00:59:54] It’s a pretty amazing place to come to work.

 

CH: [00:59:58]. Yes, definitely. Yeah.

 

GK: [01:00:02] Did you did feel that? Did you feel fortunate to be working here?

 

CH: [01:00:11] Oh, heavens, yes. I can’t imagine working any other place. I’ve only had two jobs in my whole life. One was at a music store, which is great in Bangor – Viner Music – and here. [laughter] I was lucky. Very lucky.

 

GK: [01:00:32] That is amazing. What do you miss about working?

 

CH: [01:00:37] Well, miss the staff a lot. Yeah, a lot. I miss the people that I got to meet and got to know some of them. It’s the excitement that the people bring and the people sharing all their lives with them, where they’ve been, and what’s coming up and things like that.

 

GK: [01:01:13] Did you feel with the people who –? You said one-third are people who come back. Do you feel like there was a sense of community that happened from that in the summer?

 

CH: [01:01:25] Oh, yeah. Some didn’t know that. Sometimes, people would come. They all meet and greet and everything. They’d  find out that they’d been here before and say, “Oh, me too.” “When were you here?” Blah, blah, blah. “Oh, yeah. I remember that. I was here in third session that year,” or whatever. Yeah, I think they really enjoyed that part. Some people would try to come here – friends would come here at the same session so they could see each other and learn.

 

GK: [01:02:00] Oh, that’s great. Coordinating.

 

CH: [01:02:03] Yes.

 

GK: [01:02:05] And then faculty were repeating, too, I imagine.

 

CH: [01:02:08] Yes.

 

GK: [01:02:11] Did you have friendships with faculty that were coming through?

 

CH: [01:02:21] Just to talk in the office. Just to meet them and whatever they needed – that kind of thing.

 

GK: [01:02:29] Yeah. The same kind of meet and greet.

 

CH: [01:02:31] Yeah.

 

GK: [01:02:33] Do you have –? What was the year that you were –

 

CH: [01:02:38] Here?

 

GK: [01:02:39] – done? Your last year.

 

CH: [01:02:40] 2019.

 

GK: [01:02:45] Right before the pandemic. You got out of there right before the pandemic.

 

CH: [01:02:48] I guess that was a good thing. [laughter]

 

GK: [01:02:53] I’m just curious what it felt like when you finally ended your long career.

 

CH: [01:03:05] Okay. I had wanted to retire before that, and I kept telling – like when Stu was here – and also Paul – “I don’t know how to retire. What do I do? What will I do? I’d be lost. What would happen?” It was more my problem than theirs, of course. I just didn’t know how to retire. So, it happened for me. I don’t know if you heard about my husband and his near drowning. I couldn’t come back to work after that happened. So, that’s how I retired, which I don’t want anybody else to do.

 

GK: [01:03:49] Yeah.

 

CH: [01:03:50] That’s not the way to retire.

 

GK: [01:03:53] Yeah.

 

CH: [01:03:54] I still wouldn’t know how to retire. I should just pick a date and say, “See ya.” [laughter]

 

GK: [01:04:02] How you pass your knowledge. Your knowledge was passed to some folks, I’m sure.

 

CH: [01:04:13] Yeah, right. Because we’d all work together for a long, long time. I’m assuming they made out just fine because I didn’t hear from anybody very often, which was good on their part. Yeah, I miss them a lot. I was quite busy with my husband. I didn’t have time to really miss this at that time.

 

GK: [01:04:43] Now you can come back –

 

CH: [01:04:47] I’m fine.

 

GK: [01:04:48] – and you don’t have to enter database entries.

 

CH: [01:04:49] Right. “Hi, how’s it going?” [laughter] They got a new database after I left. It’s like, “Well, why didn’t we do this when I was here?” That thing was a monster. What else did you improve after I left? [laughter]

 

GK: [01:05:13] Are there any periods of time that we haven’t talked about that you want to talk about?

 

CH: [01:05:30] I don’t think so. I think that pretty much covered – I did the same thing pretty much for forty-three years, except more of it.

 

GK: [01:05:41] I think the transitions not with the school, but the –

 

CH: [01:05:48] The students.

 

GK: [01:05:49] – technology.

 

CH: [01:05:49] Oh, yeah.

 

GK: [01:05:50] All that stuff is really interesting.

 

CH: [01:05:52] Yeah. I like to tell people that I worked on the first computer at Haystack. Do you know how much it cost? They say, “What?”

 

GK: [01:06:04] The printer being ten thousand dollars is –

 

CH: [01:06:06] No, the whole thing. The computer and the printer. The whole setup.

 

GK: [01:06:09] So crazy.

 

CH: [01:06:11] Yeah, I know. Isn’t that something? We didn’t have a copier. We used the mimeo-thing.

 

GK: [01:06:22] Oh, how did that work? Mimeo-thing? I don’t remember that.

 

CH: [01:06:27] It was some kind of carbon paper.

 

GK: [01:06:30] Oh, yeah.

 

CH: [01:06:31] Yeah. You type on that. Then you put it on this machine that smells terribly. It has a dark ink, and it’s just awful. And then, after a while, we did get a – we’d go across the street every once in a while to use a copier. Finally, we got rid of that thing and got our own copier. [laughter]

 

GK: [01:07:05] Who was ordering supplies for the studios? Because that was probably an adventure.

 

CH: [01:07:17] Yeah. That wasn’t me. Who would have done that?  I ordered office supplies.

 

GK: [01:07:24] Jonathan or something?

 

CH: [01:07:26] Yeah. We didn’t have studio coordinators and assistants. We did have an assistant director, but she was there just the summer. I don’t know. I know it wasn’t me. I don’t know who ordered them.

 

GK: [01:07:47] I’m very curious. This is something. They’d have big catalogs and look through and have to –

 

CH: [01:07:54] I know Ellen does that. I just don’t know who did it. Oh, Frank. Frank Pitcher. He was the assistant for a while. He used to order supplies for all the studios.

 

GK: [01:08:13] Wow. That would have been quite a job, I imagine. I have a couple more things that are popping into my head. Can you just talk about –? For example, Ellen and Carole Ann are folks who came here first – one of them was maybe a summer assistant. Right?

 

CH: [01:08:37] Yeah. Ellen came here first, and then Carole Ann took a class. I think that’s how they met. Not sure.  We’ve had some weddings here, as you know.

 

GK: [01:08:50] I think that there’s something to – how does it feel for you to see people take ownership of the school who maybe came here when they were in their twenties or thirties?

 

CH: [01:09:06] And now they’re working here?

 

GK: [01:09:08] Yeah.

 

CH: [01:09:08] I think it’s great. Yeah. They can carry on in whatever they learn, and they’ve learned a lot being a craftsperson in whatever medium they’re in. They would know a lot about other things or where to find certain supplies and stuff like that. I think it’s great. Yeah. Knowing the studios and all that, I think it’s important because we have the turnovers, the two-week and the one-week. The rentals are only for a few days in the fall. It’s really crazy in the fall. You really have to have somebody who knows everything about that. About each studio, really.

 

GK: [01:09:59] Yeah. It’s a vast knowledge base.

 

CH: [01:10:04] Oh, heavens, yes. Now that Jonathan’s gone, I’m not sure. Is it Brad? I really don’t know who’s doing that now. The studio tech.

 

GK: [01:10:14] I think it’s Brad.

 

CH: [01:10:15] Probably, yeah.

 

GK: [01:10:20] Even the maintenance stuff. It’s having Walter here.

 

CH: [01:10:25] Yeah. He worked on a lot of studios. He knew them in and out. Right. [laughter]

 

GK: [01:10:32] Yeah. It feels like there’s investment when people have been students and then keep going for a long time.

 

CH: [01:10:45] That’s a good way to put it. Yeah.

 

GK: [01:10:48] One other thing is you mentioned you were the clerk for the board. Was that the whole –?

 

CH: [01:10:53] Board of Trustees.

 

GK: [01:10:54] Board of Trustees. Was that the whole time that you –?

 

CH: [01:10:57] I think when Ethel left because she was the clerk. They voted me in after she [left]. I only went to one board meeting. I didn’t have to go and take the minutes. I went once. That was enough. Although, it was at Penland. It was great to be there. Ginger would take minutes. Whoever’s the development person would be taking the minutes, or Ingrid would do it when they were away. That kind of thing. That’s the only board – did I go to a couple here?  Yes, I did. I was the clerk, and I did whatever I had to.

 

GK: [01:11:45] You would type everything up after the fact.

 

CH: [01:11:48] Yeah. The agenda. After a while, I didn’t even do the minutes. Ginger or whoever was in development would do that.

 

GK: [01:12:01] Interesting. I’m going to talk to Sue Bralove later today.

 

CH: [01:12:04] Oh, yes.

 

GK: [01:12:06] I do know that she was on the Board of Trustees for a long time,

 

CH: [01:12:10] I haven’t seen her – well, a long time.

 

GK: [01:12:15] Maybe she’ll be here at lunch.

 

CH: [01:12:15] Oh, that would be nice. Yeah.

 

GK: [01:12:18] Do you have any other memories or stories that have popped into your mind when you’ve been thinking about some of this stuff? I mean, you probably have a lot.

 

CH: [01:12:38] [laughter] Nothing that’s unusual. Nothing that sticks out. Haystack has always been very kind to me. When my husband was ill – he had cancer in his eye, too. It was during the summer. He had to go to Boston a few times. So, I was there. What else can they say about it? They were very accommodating to help me do that. Things like that. I don’t know how things work at other places if you need time off, like at a big corporation. I was very fortunate. Whatever I needed was good.

 

GK: [01:13:28] Yeah. You were treated like a person.

 

CH: [01:13:31] Yes. That’s a good way to put it. Yes. No, I enjoyed my time here. I keep telling people I think I was meant to come and live on Deer Isle and have this job. It just seemed perfect for me. Do you know who John Denver is? The musician? He has a song, “Rocky Mountain High.” There’s a line in it. It says, “Coming home to a place I’d never been” – that one. That’s how I felt when I first moved here. That just popped into my head when I first moved here. Wow, this is where I’m really meant to be to live. [laughter]

 

GK: [01:14:18] That’s amazing.

 

CH: [01:14:19] Isn’t it?

 

GK: [01:14:20] Yeah, that’s so sweet. I love that. And you felt at home here, too, working here?

 

CH: [01:14:27] Yes, definitely. Yeah. I was meant to be here. Isn’t that weird?

 

GK: [01:14:33] I love that.

 

CH: [01:14:34] Oh, good.

 

GK: [01:14:36] That’s so wonderful. Not everyone can say that about the job that they have.

 

CH: [01:14:40] I know. I was very lucky. When people talk about their jobs – “Ugh, I got to go work.” It’s like, you should be happy to have a job. Can’t you find something good in it? I could always find something good.

 

GK: [01:14:58] Yeah, and surrounded by fascinating people.

 

CH: [01:15:01] How can you not like this job really?

 

GK: [01:15:07] That’s wonderful. Thank you, Candy.

 

CH: [01:15:10] You’re very welcome. Thank you for doing this.

 

GK: [01:15:12] That was an hour and a half, if you can believe it. I don’t know. It always feels like twenty-five minutes.

 

CH: [01:15:19] Yeah, goes fast.

 

GK: [01:15:20] It goes really fast. Thank you so much. I will just have you just say, “My name is Candy Haskell.”

 

CH: [01:15:28] Okay. That’s it?

 

GK: [01:15:29] Yeah, that’s it.

 

CH: [01:15:30] My name is Candy Haskell.

 

GK: [01:15:33] Perfect.

 

CH: [01:15:34] I’m perfect. [laughter]

 

GK: [01:15:35] And I’m perfect for this job.

 

CH: [01:15:37] Yes, right.

 

GK: [01:15:39] This is your second –