“Chronicle” Night At The Library

TV personality Ted Reinstein shared his favorite stories about the most memorable people he’s met

By Mark E. Vogler

The people who packed the Community Room at the Saugus Public Library Tuesday night got a unique snapshot tour of New England, courtesy of broadcast journalist and book author Ted Reinstein. Reinstein, a longtime reporter for the TV News Magazine “Chronicle,” regaled his audience with stories from his latest book about the memorable people he’s met in his travels, their remarkable accomplishments and a few of his favorite diners. He also showed up to discuss his newest book: “Travels Through the Heart and Soul of New England: Stories of Struggle, Resilience, and Triumph.”

“This is a book that’s not so much about places, but it’s about people,” Reinstein told the audience at the outset of his talk.

“It’s about the most memorable people I met over 30 years …. people I have stayed in touch with and became friends with. They all made a deep and lasting impression,” he said.

“With that, among the places in New England I have a real affinity for are diners, general stores and public libraries,” he said, noting they have one thing in common – “community.”

He stressed that in his book he included stories about his favorite diners in each one of the six New England states.

Reinstein, who has been at “Chronicle” since 1995, gave an animated and passionate talk, engaging the crowd as he moved from one side of the room to the other as a screen displayed photos of some of the most interesting people he’s ever met:

Capt. Joe Sanfilippo is a fourth-generation fisherman in Gloucester, Mass., who is preserving the knowledge he’s obtained by running a night school for fishermen, in case fishing comes back one day. He noted that family fishing in Gloucester has declined greatly since 1900, when there were 200,000 fishing boats in Gloucester. That number dropped to 12,000 by 1970 and to 21 last year.

“He works all day, and at night he has this warehouse thing, where people can come and learn how to fish,” Reinstein said. “He’s teaching the fundamentals he learned when he was 13 years old.”

Another one of his favorite people is Louis Escobar, owner of Escobar Farm in Portsmouth, R.I. Escobar’s life seems to reflect the human resilience that Reinstein seeks to capture in his book. Twenty years ago, Escobar suffered crippling injuries when his tractor turned over.

“He feels he was more productive after the accident than before,” Reinstein said. He added that running a dairy farm in Portsmouth, R.I., was remarkable in itself.

Then there’s 72-year-old Alan Casavant, who has been mayor of Biddeford, Maine, since 2011. He’s a retired school teacher. Reinstein cited Biddeford as an example of resilience at work when the old mill buildings closed down.

“What do you do when the mills and the jobs leave?” Reinstein asked.

“Those mill buildings were not meant to be torn down. They last forever,” he said.

Old mill towns like Haverhill, Mass., and Biddeford have valuable buildings that can be converted into condos and apartments long after the mills have closed, he said.

Reinstein shared another inspiring story – about the people of East Corinth, Vermont – a community that’s been mired in poverty – who made their community “one of the six places in America where you have a nonprofit ski area. And the price of skiing – a very expensive sport – was reasonable for Reinstein when he visited there: six bucks for a burger and $10.50 for his ski ticket.

Reporter Reinstein shared a compelling story about strength, courage and triumph over addiction when he recalled his interview with Larsen Ojala of New Hampshire. “He told me ‘At 21, I couldn’t make it up a flight of stairs,’” Reinstein recalled of the man whose childhood was consumed by alcohol and later drug abuse.

But eventually Ojala got the rehab he needed to turn around his life. Six years later, at age 27, he broke the Mount Monadnock summit record by doing 17 laps in 24 hours.

Near the end of his talk, Reinstein outlined his favorite – “The Good Night Lights” Phenomenon in Providence, R.I. That story focused on the nightly occurrence of lights flashing off in the city to help bring joy to cancer victims at Hasbro Children’s Hospital.