Originally posted on MaineToday.com: Jeanette Parks and Arthur Klein- members of Young at Heart Chorus

I recently stopped by a Western Massachusetts community center where Young@Heart Chorus members were rehearsing for their upcoming shows, including one on March 24 at Portland’s Merrill Auditorium. At the rehearsal, octogenarians belted out contemporary and classic rock-n-roll hits, from the Beatles to Arcade Fire. Bob Cilman, the chorus’ director and co-founder, is sculpting the feeling and energy of each song. One woman, dressed in a sensible cardigan, is practicing her solo of Bananarama’s “Venus.” It’s a sexy song and Bob tells her to loosen up a bit. “One Coors Light will be all I need!” she quips. The other ladies giggle.

Therein lays the charm of the Young@Heart Chorus. It’s about finding the rock-n-roll lifestyle in one’s “golden years.”Founded in 1982, the chorus has created a theater show, been featured in a full-length documentary and taken its members around the world. Jeannette, 84, sings James Brown’s “I Feel Good” with Arthur, 88. Arthur tells me that there are moments as you age that simply don’t feel good. But sometimes with the chorus, life just feels great.

 WHAT DOES YOUNG@HEART MEAN TO YOU?

 Jeannette- It means my life! Because I’ve lived these 84 years and I’m looking to get 6 more. 90! Or a hundred! I would love to reach one hundred. If it’s the Lord’s will, I will. Because I have good health, I only take a little medicine. One pill. And I used to not take any medicine! I love action. I love music. And since I’ve joined Young@Heart, I’ve loved the singing and the rhythm of the music just moves me! I love the dance.

 Arthur- Well, for one thing, it’s something for me to do. It’s a whole new form of life for me. I’ve got, like, 40 new friends. It’s like a family because they are always there for you.  If you are sick or don’t feel right, there’s always someone in the group who will help you or that will be there for you. We go on tour, and there’s somebody to take my walker up the steps for me or find an elevator. There’s always somebody looking out for me. It means a lot for me. I’ve been in it about four years now. I’ve lived in Brooklyn, Long Island, I’ve lived in Florida for about 20 years. I worked as a hair dresser until I was almost 85. And then I couldn’t do it anymore, my back and shoulders gave out. I never knew rock and roll before! My kind of song was Frank Sinatra. And when I experienced rock and roll I couldn’t get enough of it! And my children all like rock and roll, so we all sing it in the car sometimes.

Jeannette and Arthur practicing their duet.

 WHAT DO YOU FEEL LIKE WHEN YOU ARE SINGING?

 Jeannette- I feel like I’m sort of floating in air. And when Bob tells us to put ourself into the music, I know what he means, because you sing with your feeling. And, it gives me somewhere to go, things to do, things I’ve never done before, places I’ve gone that I’ve never been. I never would have gotten to go to these places, and it means a lot to me. I look forward to getting up and coming to rehearsal.

 Arthur- It’s funny. Before I go on stage, I’m very nervous. I don’t seem to have the confidence. But once I get on stage, it’s like I’m hypnotized and everything stops for me except the audience and what I’m doing. It just comes out pretty good.

 WHAT DOES THE ROCK AND ROLL SPIRIT MEAN TO YOU?

Jeannette- Rock and roll means getting up and doing things with other people. The music, the rhythm, the beat of the music gets me going. Get’s me on the move! It makes me feel younger. It makes me feel like every time I feel the beat, I gotta move!

Arthur- Rock and roll spirit is to just live your life. Like the song “Live Your Life.”  I have a song called “It’s My Life,” it was the first one that was given to me as a solo. And, it’s exactly my life. It goes: “It’s my life, it’s now or never, I ain’t gonna live forever. I just wanna live while I’m alive.” And that’s it! I just answered your question. That’s rock and roll.

The chorus practices and performs with a live band.

WHAT SHOULD PEOPLE IN PORTLAND EXPECT WHEN THEY SEE YOU PERFORM?

 Jeannette- When we are performing, we put ourselves into the music, into what we are doing. It just behooves me to just be here and present because I’m looking forward to doing my number.

 Arthur- Well, I’ve never been to Portland and I don’t know the people in Portland, but we just came back from Japan and we didn’t know what to expect there, and the day we performed in Tokyo, it was a holiday and we didn’t know it. It was a holiday for older people, so we just fell into that particular day, and it was quite an experience because there were people there in walkers and wheelchairs and they just wanted to get up and dance and sing with us. And I assume that the people in Portland will be the same way. There will be older people who want to get up and they can do anything they want to do. We have a lot of youngsters that come, too! We have groupies that come over. We even get letters from them. I assume wherever we go, we have a full house. And everybody seems to be happy and everybody seems to rock and roll together with us.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

 Jeannette- What’s important in my life is the way that I live. I treat people the way I like to be treated. It just means the world to me because I just love doing what I’m doing. We should just treat everybody the same, because we are all the same children of God. I just love the people here, I’ve just met so many people. And everybody has just been so nice and gentle to me. I’m a people person, and we have all types of people. We all get along.

Arthur-  Right now, is to live the next day. Because at my age, you don’t know when it’s going to happen. Getting up, coming here, singing, being out with my children. I have a nice little condo here in Amherst. Just living my life the best way I can, and just rocking and rolling until there is no more life.

 WHAT IS A LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNED?

 Jeannette- To treat everybody and to get along with everybody. Because we are all sisters and brothers. And I can get along with mostly anybody.

 Arthur-  You know the older you get, the wiser you get. And when I was young I thought I was the greatest, nobody could be better than me. I took people for the way they look, not the way the sounded or were. But now, being with the group and going to a lot of countries or states, visiting with people and seeing different types of people, I’ve learned that we are all the same. The group is all types, all religions, and we get along beautifully. And, as a result, I’ve learned that people are people and it’s not their outsides it’s their insides that counts: what they think and what they dream and what they say. And that’s the important thing, and the group has taught me all that. The longer I live the more I’m learning about things like that.

 WHAT IS A LESSON YOU HAVE LEARNED FROM AGING?

 Jeannette- I’ve learned that age is a number. It’s how you feel. If you treat your body right, your body will take you along way. I’ve learned if you don’t take care of it, it will run down on you. With aging, you don’t have to stop or lock yourself away. Keep on moving and exercising and you will stay super!

 Arthur- Aging isn’t as easy as people think. It’s hard to age. It’s hard. And you have to live it the best way you can. But there are things that I used to do that I can’t do now. I can’t move fast, or turn fast, I can’t catch a ball. I used to golf a lot, I can’t do that. I don’t know if I can say this, but aging sucks!

 WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE DAY?

 Jeannette- Well, when I wake up in the morning, I wake up ready to go! And I don’t have pains. In the morning, when I first get up, the Lord wakes me up. We don’t wake ourselves up. The Lord wakes us up.

 Arthur- One of the favorite moments is coming here. Another is being with my children. Being with them in Florida is a great moment for me. Those are my moments, just being with my children and getting along and coming here and doing on tour. And having everybody applaud!

For more about the Young@Heart Chorus, click here.

Originally posted on MaineToday.com: Shawna Houston- origami artist, stagehead

Shawna folds paper stars to cast wishes. She’s been through a lot in her twenty-five years: an uneasy family history, a transient childhood, and struggles with grief and social acceptance. The tiny origami stars came into her life to help her focus and to cope. In under 30 seconds, she maneuvers tiny strips of paper into the shapes of stars. Many of the stars are placed in capsules that you can buy from Portland’s Hilltop Coffeeshop. Some stars, the special stars, are folded from paper with strangers’ wishes written on one side. Watching Shawna fold her stars, I wonder if the stars are the answer to some of Shawna’s own wishes. Perhaps every turn of paper between her fingers is an intention for something better, something good and solid and real.

 WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

For a really long time, being normal was important. I grew up really oddly, I had sort of a hard childhood. So the only thing I wanted for a very, very long time was to be normal. You know, white picket fence, settle down and have kids. Recently,  that’s something I’m not going to be able to do. So, I’m trying to find a new thing to want. Some things that have been really important to me my entire life is to be responsible, to be an adult, to have the requirements of: you have a house, you can pay the bills, you can buy your food, and you don’t have to borrow money.  That’s always been really important. I’ve been doing that since I was 17 or 18 on my own. So lately, what’s been really important to me is finding things I can do that I don’t hate. You know how some people do jobs they just hate so they can have money? I stopped doing that about two years ago, and I’ve been looking for jobs that I don’t hate ever since then. You would think that is easy. It’s not. Things that I love are writing and creating, I love working with people in creative endeavors and I need to keep that in my life.

 WHAT LESSON HAVE YOU LEARNED IN YOUR LIFE OR ARE YOU LEARNING?

I’m learning a lot of things about relationships. There are a lot of books about relationships, and just family and friends and strangers on the street. There’s so much of our interactions that are biological. And you would think it would be environmental. So many things that affect the way you say “Hi” come from your brain. Which is fascinating. And weird.

 TELL ME THE ORIGIN STORY BEHIND WISHING STAR COLLECTIVE.

There is a comic called Gunnerkirgg Court, and I read a lot of web comics. One of the characters makes a thousand origami stars for her best friend. So, I looked it up on YouTube and tore up notepaper on my desk and tried to make one. It’s incredibly hard. So I decided to try to start getting better. My biological mother died in the spring of 2009. I stopped being able to read and I started really making origami stars. It’s a grief condition where the center of your brain that does comprehension doesn’t connect. I could read and read out loud, but comprehending a paragraph or a book was incredibly difficult.  By that Christmas, I had thousands of the stars. I would knit and make stars, and switch of whenever my hands got tired. I had to drop out of school, but I did go back to school and I did get a degree. I had all these stars and I didn’t know what to do with them and I had given them to everybody I knew, whether they wanted them or not.

 TELL ME ABOUT THE CAPSULES OF STARS. WHAT IS NEXT FOR THE WISHING STAR COLLECTIVE?

I was working as SPACE Gallery as an intern and volunteer, and there I met Kris Johnsen and Bryan Bruchman who started Portland Pins:  gumball machines filled with little capsules. Inside the capsules are pins you can put on your jacket. And next to the gumball machines are little circles and instructions to draw whatever you want in the circles and then leave the paper in the box. And they make that paper into pins. Which, I think is great. It planted the seed for my machines. So, I bought some capsules and started handing them out to people and I started the blog and raised money on Kickstarter to buy machines and supplies and fund a website. So I still have all of that money that I am trying to put to use. Last night I started to build the website and you should be able to post your wish and it will go right to the website. That’s the goal. The idea behind the bubble gum machine is that it raises awareness for the website and you put your wishes on the website and the reason I want your wishes is that I write them down on pieces of paper. I fold those wishes into stars and then I save those stars. The stars in the bubble gum machine don’t have wishes. The stars with wishes on them get saved and put into a jar. And when I have a thousand of them, I’m going to auction off the jar to raise money for Lou Gehrig’s research or to family’s who have suffered a loss from Lou Gehrig’s Disease. My mother died from ALS and my sister and myself both had a hard time. So that’s the goal, it’s a long road.

 WHAT DOES YOUR BRAIN FEEL LIKE WHEN YOU ARE MAKING STARS?

Better! It calms me down. When I couldn’t read, I would get anxious. Since my biological mother died, I stopped being able to sit still in any capacity. So when I went back to school, I came up with a portable way to take the stars and the knitting with me so that I could knit during class, because I couldn’t pay attention. I started noticing that I could concentrate on things when my hands are busy.  It calms me down.

WHAT HAS THIS PROJECT TAUGHT YOU?

It’s been really interesting to see the response to the bubble gum machine. Here at Hilltop, I have to refill once a week. And if there’s two thousand capsules in them, that’s a ridiculous amount. One day I came in here and there was a little girl who was sitting at the table and had like 15 of them, the little capsules. And she had an older woman on her right, and another generation on her left. So, probably mom and grandma. She was telling them which colors they could have and why. I see her occasionally, she has a little bag she carries and there’s a bunch of stuff in there and there’s capsules in there as well. That was interesting because I have so many of these stars that it’s annoying to me. Since I put them machine there, I’ve made over two million stars. For me, they are annoying, but to other people they are great. I go to the same laundromat, and I’ve gone to the same one ever since I moved there. So the woman who works there, her name is Pam, and she knows me really well at this point. And I have her two of these capsules filled with paper stars and I ran into her last week, and she said “You have to come here and tell me where you sell these! You told me you sell these in a coffee shop.” She had been opening up the capsules and handing the stars to people who looked upset. She’d just give them an individual star. She’s been doing this since I gave her two capsules, and she was down to her favorite three stars that she didn’t want to give away. So I gave her a jar of them so she could give them out individually.  She opened my eyes to the fact that people really do like these, they aren’t just annoyances that I find under the couch when I vacuum.

For more about the Wishing Star Collective, click here. 

Originally posted on MaineToday.com: Zoe Keefer Norris- hearth cook, education director at Museums of Old York

Zoe has changed from her sweatshirt dress into a colonial costume: ruffled shirt, patterned waistcoat fastened with straight pins, a full and flowing skirt. Last, she ties a cloth pocket around her waist, which tucks inside her skirt, the way they wore pockets 200 hundred years ago. At the last minute, she slips her cell phone into her pocket and returns to stoking the coals at the hearth.

Nearly every month during the colder seasons, the Museums of Old York prepare a semi-authentic 18^th century meal cooked by hearth and served in the restored Jefferd’s Tavern, built in 1754. Zoe’s job is to get people, mostly kids, involved in history. On Tavern Dinner nights, she bustles around the tavern; finding a misplaced pinafore, feeding the fire and rearranging coals, serving heaping plates of duck stew that diners wash down with Diet Pepsi or wine that they brought from home.

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED FROM COOKING ON THE HEARTH, OR PUTTING YOURSELF IN THE MINDSET OF SOMEONE IN THE 18^th CENTURY?

Anything you can cook in your house today, you can cook on the hearth. I really haven’t found anything you can’t cook on the hearth. Especially with the tavern dinners, we think: “What are the old recipes?” “What can we cook on the hearth?” The stuff we don’t cook on the hearth is not because we couldn’t, it’s because it would take longer than we would want. There is also a big misconception that people think hearth cooking is really dangerous, that people exploded at the hearth or caught on fire. And when you start hearth cooking, you learn it really isn’t true. There are rumors out there that it was once the leading cause of death for women, and it’s not true at all. There were women whose skirt caught on fire, but it definitely is not dangerous.

 DO YOU LIKE COOKING ON THE HEARTH?

Yes, I do. I grew up cooking on fires while camping, so it’s not all that different. It’s not something that I’d say: “Hey, I really want a hearth so I can hearth cook at home instead of cooking on my normal stove.” But with tavern dinners or school or bus visits, it’s not something I feel awkward about. I think, “Fun! We are cooking on the hearth today.” In the summertime, it is very hot. No matter what you do, you are going to be sweating a lot. When you are cooking here in August, it’s gross. But I like using coals, you actually have the ability to vary the temperature a lot more than you would an electric stove. With coals, you add more hot coals when you want it to be hotter. It’s more difficult, because coals are getting colder as they are farther from the fire. I actually love making soups on it, you have the arm that swings in and out, and you put the pot on there and get the fire going until the soup is hot.

Zoe, after adding finishing touches to her costume.

 WHY ARE YOU INTERESTED IN HISTORY?

I think my interest in history is more about understanding that there is no simple answer to anything, and that everything is always changing. You may think of the 18th century family as a husband and wife and their eight children and that’s it. And when you really look at history, you realize a woman may have been pregnant before she got married and they have six children that are theirs and three children they are raising for somebody else and they have their grandparents living there, and their daughter had a baby out of wedlock. You realize history isn’t as simple as we thought, and that Puritanical New England wasn’t what we thought it was. One of the things that really interests me about history is not the actual historic facts, but current perceptions about history and why people think things about history. I find the entire Colonial Revival movement of the late 19^th and early 20^th century that started summer camps and vacation homes along the coast to actually saving historic buildings. The whole movement towards going back to basics; that I find fascinating. Whether it is today with an online store like Etsy where people are making their own things and able to sell them to a global community is like what would have been a local store. Or the late 19^thcentury during the Arts and Crafts movement when people were responding to mass-production and building their own things from scratch, which turned to mass-produced things that looked like arts and crafts. I think that perception of our own history is more interesting than the facts from the past.

Left, Zoe begins the evening’s fire. Right, the “Blue Room”.

 ARE THERE THINGS THAT INTEREST YOU IN PARTICULAR ABOUT PURITANICAL NEW ENGLAND?

Again, the perceptions we have of Puritanical New England. I guess I don’t think that Puritan New England was like what most of us think it was. The facts are there, and we can read the facts in lots of different ways. And then you can read people’s journals. There’s a journal of a schoolteacher who lived here in York. And he writes about the boys being really similar in age to him, about being really a little too rowdy with the boys, and that he should have been more ‘adult-like’. Which is something any one of us could say today! Or he’d write: “I decided not to teach today and go swim in the mill pong because it is warm outside.” You get the sense of humanity, which I think it missing from our perspective of Puritanical New England,  that people went to church and they didn’t sing or drink. And then you see that there was a tavern every quarter of a mile. Everyone was drinking. You look at the jail records and see a lot of criminals  were locked up for drunkenness or debt. There’s a lot more life in the past. It hits me at home whenever kids come to the museum and they are all dressed in black-and-white, because the school said to dress like pilgrims. And the pictures they see of pilgrims were ones that were painted in the late 19^th century about what they thought the pilgrims looked like, 200 years before them. And so the kids today, are now wearing black and white, when the pilgrims really wore purple and dark red and green, wool short jackets and skirts.

Staff, volunteers, visitors and and Guest Chef Jason Miller around the hearth.

 WHAT IS IT LIKE TO GET DRESSED IN PERIOD CLOTHING FOR YOUR JOB?

I’m so used to it at this point. It is fun. With period costumes, there is a huge variance. We can’t afford the higher-class costumes, and we are really interpreting what everyday craftspeople are doing. We tend to wear what the poorer people were wearing, or some combination with the merchant class. But, the problem is that most of what we know about what people were wearing is from portraits. And you aren’t getting your portraits painted if you were a farmer. Were farming men always wearing a waistcoat? I don’t know. Did farming women always wear a stays? I don’t know! Women of a lower class whose husbands were working the fields were not keeping a diary. What we try to do it keep it as accurate as we can to keep to sort of a middling class of people. It’s hard: we don’t have funds on staff for hiring people to do the costuming, so I end up making a lot of the costumes. But, putting on the costume, it’s always kind of fun.

 WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

Having time in my life and space in my life to do what I love. That’s probably the most important thing to me. I love being at home on the weekends and going cross-country skiing, watching the chickens and going hiking. And, sitting in front of the wood stove and reading a book. Baking bread. I love those things that put me in a quieter space, not necessarily that I am inactive, but at my job I am running around a lot. People are asking me questions, especially in the busy season. There’s a lot going on and I’m usually multitasking. And that’s great.  But when I’m away from here, what I really appreciate is being able to just enjoy the moment and or where I am and what I’m doing. And spend time with people that I have a lot of fun with and who I laugh a lot with!

 WHAT LESSON HAVE YOU LEARNED OR ARE LEARNING?

To let go of the outcome. The outcome isn’t as important as the process. And in that, the outcome can change and be someone else’s idea of what the outcome should be, and you can appreciate it just as much if you aren’t dead-set on that outcome. I don’t think I was ever super outcome-attached, but I think being in a long-term relationship and planning a wedding those kind of things make you a little more relaxed.

 WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MOMENT OF THE DAY?

Recently, there’s been that moment after I wake up, after I get ready and I’ve fed the chickens and the dog has been let out and back in, and I make that trek out to my car to turn it on and warm it up and I stop by the bird feeder. And right at the bird feeder, all the birds are just going crazy and eating the birdseed. Especially recently, the snow has been hanging on the trees and in that morning light, I just stand there and think about how I want to stand there all day. It almost brings tears to my eyes. There is just that moment in the day where I am just so appreciative of where I am.

For more about Tavern Dinners and to make reservations, click here.

Originally posted on MaineToday.com: Sarah Richards- tea maker

Sarah’s teashop is cozy, colorful, and roomier than you’d expect. The walls are lined to the ceiling with wooden boxes of little drawers and spice-filled jars. Sarah, warm and smiling, always chats with each of her customers. Most of the time, she knows them well. And meanwhile, throughout every conversation, she is mixing small batches of tea, pulling herbs from drawers on the highest shelves, scooping aromatics from their gleaming containers, and chopping fresh produce to flavor bowl-like mugs of tea.

She is making tea, but she is also making medicine. Her main goal, she says, is to heal people. To change them for the better. Some customers sit at the bar, telling her their physical and emotional feelings. Some customers bring their book or knitting, just there to be in a place that feels like a second home.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

Health and happiness is what is important to me. Being well, physically and emotionally. Being joyous in what I do. I would love to have an easier financial time in life. I think that’s the sacrifice I have to make to do what I want to do. And I’m figuring it out. My retirement plan is to take one more week of vacation every year until I die. This is my five-week year. So this year, I’m going to spend five weeks not working. That’s my plan, and it’s exciting to achieve.

WHAT LESSON HAVE YOU LEARNED?

My biggest lesson that my teashop has taught me is that you can do anything you want to do in life. You know, I worked for someone else my whole life. I was a waitress then a bartender, and then I became a Spanish teacher. And all that time, as much of a free spirit as I am, I felt very obligated to a system. Having broken away from that system has been the most marvelous thing I’ve ever done. It’s just awesome. If you do something with truth and integrity and from the heart, it will work out. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be easy. It doesn’t mean you can be lazy; you have to be practical and smart about it. And I don’t think that fulfilling your passion necessarily has to be what you do for work. There’s so many ways to cut that cloth. I think every day you spend being miserable at a job you hate, eight hours a day, is a waste. An absolute waste of life.

TELL ME ABOUT A DECISIVE MOMENT IN YOUR LIFE.

To quit teaching and open my tea shop. It was a big one. I had a very frustrating, disappointing final experience teaching. I was so angry that I got a six-pack of beer and there was a John Wayne marathon on TV. And I was crying and drinking beer and watching John Wayne, and I thought, “That’s it! I’m opening my tea shop.”

HOW DID YOU LEARN TO MAKE TEA?

Someone gave me a medicinal herb dictionary when I was very young; I was about nineteen years old. I was off to college and I was fascinated by it and started looking up herbs for things that I was going through and would make little blends for family and friends. Each time in trying the medicinal pieces, I’d choose other herbs that would make it taste good. Then I would look up aromatic herbs that would compliment the medicinal herbs. It was from a very western perspective initially, definitely based on the chemical components in each plant that would help each illness. I did that as my sort of underlying philosophy for probably fifteen years. That’s how I blended tea. And then I discovered Ayurvedic medicine. So, I always compare it to learning to play the guitar or speak Spanish. First you learn chords, then you get to play a song. Then you practice that song and bring in nuances that make the song more meaningful and complex.

TELL ME ABOUT THE PROCESS OF MAKING TEA.

You have to understand your ingredients, firstly: know what properties they are used for, know their taste, and when you blend something that you are creating a culmination of flavor. So you have to try it many times before you get a so-called recipe down. Knowing your ingredients helps you understand ratios so when someone comes in and has an ailment and I’m making them a personal custom blend, because I understand how each of the ingredients I choose tastes, how powerful their medicinal value is, I understand how the overall ratio of the blend will be. I think that’s the trickiest thing to teach someone because it comes from making tea. You have to experiment over a long period of time to do something that’s truly meaningful and is going to be delicious. One of the reasons I love tea as a therapy is because it’s about taking time to enjoy the taste of something and that blissful experience in itself is therapy. It brings joy to us and that emotion is therapy. It is my belief is that tea is an enjoyable ritual.

HOW DOES TEA HEAL?

Well, tea has energy just like food has energy and an emotional experience has energy. That can either be balancing or unbalancing. Every plant is either cooling or heating or drying or emollient. It has its medicinal action, as well. So all of those things contribute to how it might actually make you feel better. The thing about tea is there’s nothing else that we do in our life that makes us stop and do nothing but focus on this very intentional thing. They tell me what they are going through with great intention. I make their tea with great intention, I explain to them what is going into it and why I’m choosing that. Then they are in this very comforting place after a meaningful discussion, and they have something delicious. 100% of the time, they will feel better. There are all the pieces of healing there. What people are dying for and from is a lack of opportunity to reflect on their life and what’s making them sick. There is a lack of honesty about it. Everyone turns to this very Western way of, “Oh I have this symptom, I must take a pill and get rid of this symptom” as opposed to “What is going on? Why am I all of a sudden sick?” I think people can be well through thoughtful, open and honest and committed to making changes that will make you feel better.

Originally published on MaineToday.com – GERARD “BIFF” BRADY & MARK TECENO – polygraphists/detectives

Do you remember your first lie? I remember mine. I was about four, and I had found my mother’s red lipstick, and put it on. I told my mother I hadn’t. The truth was a red smear on my face.

Most of the time, the truth isn’t so evident. It’s a murky mess that lies somewhere in differing narratives of a story. When determining the truth in criminal cases, polygraph examiners like Biff and Mark are often called in. Both former detectives and trained polygraphists, they work out of an unassuming office space sandwiched between a Vietnamese restaurant and a Pizza Hut.  It’s strange to think that it’s a place where life-changing evidence is gathered, a place that helps decide who gets locked up and who goes free. And it's odd to think that the two men who have heard Maine's most horrific stories could still be cheerful people. But that’s the truth.

WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOU?

Mark- As a person and a polygraph examiner, the truth is important. Fairness and proper procedure. I’m of the mindset that you do it right or you don’t do it at all. With regards to polygraph, it has pretty significant impact on people’s lives.

Biff- My family is certainly important. And I do sometimes employ my polygraph training into my marriage and my relationship with my son. And what that means is just being a good listener and trying to understand what people are actually saying. So that has helped. To me, my home life is very important. The other thing that Mark and I would agree on is that there is nothing better in our profession is being able to help a child victim and getting the offender locked up and behind bars because that’s our job. I have no problem getting handcuffs on someone and seeing then in jail. A therapist can do their work later, but I understand my role. When I know someone is locked up after brutally sexually assaulting a young child, I feel good about that. I feel that I’ve done what we are here to do, to protect people in our society. You find a lot of solace in that. To me, that’s what’s always kept my head on straight, knowing we’ve helped people. There are times that Mark and I have struggled to keep our heads on straight, like a lot of detectives. But, Mark and I have come to this saying, that if we weren’t doing this, who would? When I went to polygraph school, I wasn’t a believer in it. But I got more confident in the instruments, the techniques and myself. Both Mark and I have a very good reputation in the polygraph world and I think that’s key. So it’s nice to be able to come here and get a confession or to help a child. That’s real important stuff: family and taking care of victims out there.

WHAT DO YOU DO DURING A POLYGRAPH TEST?


Biff- Our training is very intense, up to ten weeks away from home, with doctors of psychology and anatomy and physiology, plus interview skills and techniques.  So the interview will basically start as soon as we answer the door: the way we present ourselves, our demeanor. We watch them and ourselves. You want them to be comfortable enough with you to believe you are objective. You have to really present, so that you are being objective. Because the person needs that– especially an innocent person. The polygraph room is very sterile, so there’s no distractions. We like it to be quiet. You want them to be focused on everything you are telling them, and how important it is for them to be 100% truthful throughout the entire interview. Because that’s what’s going to save them in the end, if they are innocent.

Mark- First, there is an overview of the entire process. It’s part rapport building. Anyone that is walking into a polygraph interview is going to have a level of anxiety or nervousness. We cover their legal rights- not so much Miranda Rights, but there are some legal issues that need to be covered. Then we test whether or not they are suitable to do a polygraph. We ask questions about medical health, medical history, and mental health. Things like acute illness, intoxication, going through withdrawals, certain head injuries, skipping a medication that day all might make people less suitable for polygraph. We determine the functional age of the person. We have a 12-year-old cut off, but there are 24-year-olds with the functioning age of a 12-year-old. People often ask us if a psychopath can pass a polygraph test. And absolutely, they can pass a polygraph test just like anyone else can, if I get the question wrong. There’s so much more evidence that suggests that even persons with anti-social disorders can still take a polygraph as long as they have no memory impairment and have some ability to understand consequence. Polygraph is not a true lie-detector, it’s a detector of salience.

Biff- There are no surprise or trick questions on the exam. It’s reviewed. Generally it takes three and a half to four hours to do what we call a Specific Issue Test. When we go through all this and we’ve talked about suitability and why they are here, then as interviewers, you start to ask them to tell you everything about the case in detail. “Give me everything you know about the case.” “What are you being accused of?” And we will start to listen, because most people lie by way of omission. Most people when they tell a story, they won’t admit to the actual story itself. Then we get to the incident. Statistically, with a sexual assault victim, 60-70% of what they will tell you will be about the assault. 15% might be leading up to it.

WHAT HAS BEING IN THIS LINE OF WORK TAUGHT YOU ABOUT THE TRUTH?

Mark- Everybody lies.

Biff- Oh yeah. Everybody lies.

Mark- Everyday. Even us. How would you stay married if your wife asks you if her dress makes her look fat, and you go, “Honey, it’s not the dress, you are fat.”

WHAT HAS THIS WORK TAUGHT YOU ABOUT TRUST?

Mark- Trust, but verify. I’ll use Ronald Reagan’s quote.

Biff- That’s perfect. Trust, but verify. It takes time to trust people because as we get older in life, I’m 55, if you just think about all the relationships I’ve built where the trust was broken in some way. When that happens, it’s very difficult to really trust again. Trust, obviously takes a lot of time to build. I think there is always some doubt, certainly with relationships. Trust all depends on your life’s experiences. Some people haven’t been burned or hurt in life or are more apt to trust. And when that happens to you, you walk away with that burn mark.

Mark- For me, even before polygraph, I knew that we all engage in little white lies. You know, fibs to get by. The problem with polygraph is that it has exposed me to absolute evil. I’ve talked to people who have done horrific things to spouses and family members. Biff and I have been involved in a number of murder cases, both as law enforcement officers and defense. We’ve been involved in absolutely horrific child abuse or child sex cases, both of which the polygraph gets you real close and real intimate with folks who did these things. I used to say that I believe in God because I had met the devil many times.

ARE YOU ABLE TO KEEP FAITH IN HUMANITY?

Biff- That is a very difficult question for me. I do have faith in humanity in general, but I also see all the evils that man has committed. Some atrocities. Knowing that’s what we do for work, I’m also able to separate that’s not the way my life is, that’s not the way my friends are, that’s not how the people I associate with are. But there are people how there that are evil. There are some people that we are never going to cure. I keep faith because I have become familiar with human nature, I’ve come to understand it professionally, accept it. As a kid growing up in a Catholic school, I learned to forgive everybody and move on. I can sit in a room with ten people, and I know that someone in there has a deep, deep secret– some crime they’ve committed against another human being. But we’re able, for the most part, to separate any skepticism we might have, because for the most part people out there are good. I know where my role is, in this profession. I’m not working at a resort where everyone is drinking and smiling, I’m working with this segment of society.

TELL ME ABOUT A LESSON YOU ARE LEARNING OR HAVE LEARNED.

Biff- Try to be a good person. Because if you commit a crime, then good luck telling the truth. That’s one of the things I’ve learned, because lies, no matter how small sometimes, have a way of rearing their ugly head and biting you later on. I’d rather tell the truth, because the consequences of getting caught lying are so much worse.

 Mark- The truth is of great value; but not always easy to obtain.