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Sunday, September 12, 2004
Meet
'memere' and 'pepere'
By CHRIS CHURCHILL Staff Writer
Copyright
© 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
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Alice and Pearley Lachance are this year's Grand Memere and Grand Pepere for
the Franco-American Festival being held at the Head of Falls in Waterville
today. They and others are planning on wearing period costumes to the event. An
adult-education course lit a fire in Alice and Pearley Lachance -- and changed
their lives forever. The 15-week course was held about 30 years ago at
Waterville High School. Its subject: Franco-American culture -- its music,
literature, language, people and more. Pearley Lachance remembers wondering why
he'd never heard the information before, why schools never taught him details
about the thousands of people who left Quebec for grueling, poorly paid work in
New England's mills. Other students apparently felt the same way. "After
class," Pearley Lachance said, sitting in the kitchen of his Halifax Street
home, "we'd go to somebody's house and stay there until midnight, talking about
the subject and enjoying each other's company." For the Lachances, the class
strengthened interest in their Franco heritage, especially the language. Both
spoke French growing up, Alice Lachance in Waterville and Pearley Lachance in
the Winslow home where the couple now lives. Both have a passion for keeping
the mother tongue alive among Maine's Franco-Americans. And that passion has
earned them an honor: The Lachances are the honorary "memere" and "pepere" --
French terms of endearment for grandmothers and grandfathers -- for today's
Franco-American Festival in Waterville. There's a reason for the Lachances'
language fervor: French helped take them from Waterville to the Earth's far
corners. After the adult-ed course, Pearley began attending Franco-American
conferences and lectures. He became part of the community of people interested
in such things in Maine, a group that then consisted mostly of professors.
Pearley Lachance was a machinist. He worked with his hands. But a professor,
knowing the Lachances itched to spend time in a Francophone country, gave him a
tip on a job: A French-speaking machinist was needed in Algeria, to teach the
craft to workers there. Pearley applied, and just weeks after learning he'd
gotten the job, the couple left for the country in North Africa. "It was really
stepping out there on a plank," Pearley said. "Luckily I had a wife that would
support that kind of craziness." The couple lived for years in that Muslim
country. Expecting to find sand dunes and camels, they discovered a rich,
Francophone culture. When they returned to Maine, Pearley, then 42, took a time
off from work and completed the college degree he had never finished --
cramming 48 credits into two semesters. Then, Pearley took another job in
Algeria -- this time he was a training supervisor, a management position -- and
the couple didn't return to Maine until 1986, their love for the state Franco
culture pulling them back. "We came back home," Alice Lachance said. "This has
always been home." But living elsewhere gave the couple a new perspective on
Franco-American culture. Many in central Maine, they say, are unnecessarily
embarrassed by the way they speak -- about their accent and lack of perfect
grammar. But the Lachances, who have traveled widely in Europe and Africa, say
their central Maine French worked fine wherever they went. The say what's
important is not how a person speaks the language, but that they make the
attempt. In a way, the Lachances were pioneers. They became interested in
Franco culture when few others seemed to care. But since, there has been a
renaissance of interest in Franco- American language and culture. Alice and
Pearley Lachance have done their best at keeping that renaissance going,
volunteering for Franco events whenever they occur and earning themselves the
honor from today's festival. They didn't foresee being today's "memere" and
"pepere." Pearley said, "We kind of expected (the honor to go to) somebody.
..." "Older," said Alice, finishing the sentence. But the titles are
appropriate. The Lachances have seven grandchildren -- and guess what they call
their grandparents? "I've always been obstinate about that," Pearley said. "If
they don't learn the language, that's fine, but at least call us memere and
pepere."
Chris Churchill -- 861-9252 cchurchill@centralmaine.com |
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