7357-R2_LSLA_2020_WinterNewsletter

This Covid-19 Summer of 2020 is the first year in our married life that my wife, Lynn, and I ( for me ... in 76 yrs.) have not resided at “27 Lake Avenue”, West Gray, Maine .

Ah! “Retirement” ! After 40+ years of singing professionally, started with Walt Disney, Leopold Stokowski, and Deems Taylor in 1952 to promote the 1st world revival of SNOW WHITE , and also promoting Disney’s CINDERELLA in London, England. That opened the door that led to a colorful career with ARTHUR GODFREY, RADIO CITY MUSIC HALL, THE LATIN QUARTER as an AGVA, AEA, and AGMA, as a Performing Artist, and fulfilling my boyhood dream to sing opera for years of enjoyment in the profession (and even teach aspiring voice students privately, and as an Adjunct Voice Teacher at Colgate University ). Now I’m still singing , plus hopeful that Lynn & I will enjoy many more beautiful sunsets on Little Sebago Lake, in West Gray, Maine!

My career concentrated mostly in New York (from Buffalo to NYC ) in a repertoire including many Opera, Oratorio and American Musical roles , and Symphony Guest credits, & Solo Concerts, with engagements predominately in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Ohio, Georgia, Florida, Canada, England, Ireland, Wales, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Burma.

My grandparents, Edward (Ned) C. & Neva (Denesha) Potter, (before it was designated as 27 Lake Avenue) named their one bedroom, bath, kitchen, dirt-floor cellar, dark attic, American style bungalow, SUNSET LODGE on Campbell Shores , in West Gray, Maine in 1938 (it remains in the same configuration today). It fit nicely into their retirement plans. Their children (Mr. & Mrs. Theodore E. Potter [Ted & Lil] & Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Mundt [Ina & Ernie] lived close-by in Westbrook, Maine), and Ned & Neva summered at Little Sebago Lake, and wintered at Indian Rocks Beach in Florida. The Mid 1930’s “Summer Folk” invasion upon Campbell Shores in Gray, Maine, brought more Seasonal “They Took To The Woods” Central Maine & New England enthusiasts to devote more time to be closer to dwelling in a pristine fresh air & waterway environment. “Hunt’em, Fish’em, Bag’em, Field & Stream sportsmen held sway from Fall to “Open Winter”, The Lake began its recreational oasis for additional boating, fishing, communing with the wildlife, hiking, exploring and sun- bathing as the times allowed.

Ned & Neva Potter

My mind snaps back to that Potter Cottage on a lake, alluvial fan, LOT 70, with a lovely sand beach when the Narrows Dam adjusted the shoreline appropriately, facing W over the Middle Basin, opposite Lyons Point. The cottage was typical of the 1930’s lake bungalow cottages built at the time, except for the Great Room . And how my grandparents retired there in 1938 ( just in time for Maine’s Hurricane of ’38 !! ) As grandchildren we got to play Tarzan & Jane in the numerous downed trees!)

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