Faithbook: Our Story, Our Song

I was born at home in Houlton, Maine, but I grew up in Bridgewater. That’s where my roots are. I was the middle child—two sisters, one older and one younger. You could say I was the “sandwich” between them. We were a local family. My father was from Bridgewater, and my mother was from Houlton. Life was simple back then, but it was good—steady, honest, and close to the land.   What I remember most about growing up is the farm. We lived and worked on a potato farm. I loved it. I really did. There was something about being outside, working the soil, and seeing the results of your labor over time. It wasn’t always easy work, but it was meaningful. It taught me how to stay with something, how to be patient, and how to take responsibility.   For a long time, I thought I would come back and farm. That was the plan. I even sat down with my father and talked about what it would take to get started on my own. We came up with a number—$25,000. That was a lot of money back then. I didn’t ...

My name is Jo-Ann Barton. I was born on March 1, 1938, and I grew up in Littleton, Maine. Life was simpler then. We didn’t have much, but we had family, and that meant a lot. There were three of us kids in my family—a brother, a sister, and me. I was the oldest, though people often thought I was the youngest. I don’t know why, but that’s how it seemed. With my mother and father, that made five of us all together. My father worked on a farm for his cousin. He worked very long hours, often late into the night. Because of that, we didn’t see him very much during the week. Usually we would see him on Saturdays and Sundays. He was a good man and good to us kids, but since he worked so much and wasn’t home a lot, I remember feeling a little shy around him. When you only see someone a couple of days a week, you don’t always know them the same way you might otherwise. My mother was different. She was the one who kept everything together. I always say she was a little crazy—crazy in the good wa...