"WELCOME HOME," MISS POOLER
/I recently wrote a story for our wonderful local paper here in southern Maine — TOURIST & TOWN — about a special reunion of an elementary school teacher with several of her students. Miss Pooler, as she was addressed by those students in 1952, is now 95 years old — and is still going strong. It’s a “feel good’ story and I hope you enjoy it!
——-
”WELCOME BACK,” MISS POOLER
After graduating from Mount Saint Mary’s College in Hooksett, New Hampshire, 23-year-old Mary Lou Pooler took her first job as a fourth grade teacher at the Wells Elementary School. The pretty brunette from Bangor lived in a boarding house several blocks from school and walked there every day through sun, rain and snow. She taught her 27 students “all subjects — math, English, history and science,” she recalls, and received an annual salary of $4,700.
That was 73 years ago.
This past June, several of those students — all in their early 80s — reunited with Miss Pooler, now 95-year-old Mary Lou Pooler Lancaster, at the Historical Society of Wells & Ogunquit on Route 1, Wells. Bradford Goodale, John Darling and Gerald Clarrage shared memories and lunch with their fourth grade teacher.
They recalled “hiding under our desks during air raid drills” and getting polio shots in the arm. Brad Goodale said, “If you hadn’t helped me that year, I don’t know what would have happened. I was way behind in my work but you caught me up, Miss Pooler.” Each of her former students laughed, and occasionally looked serious, as they flipped the pages of “A Teacher’s Memories — My Class in 1952,” a photo-filled booklet of Miss Pooler’s charges.
As the former Miss Pooler sat at the head of the lunch table wearing a sapphire blue twin-set and a smile that never quit, John Darling told her, “I was born on a farm and had to milk cows before school so all the kids called me ‘Farmer.’” Gerald Clarrage said, “I’ve done everything in my life that I wanted to, and I still remember liking fourth grade.” Through all the reminiscences, Miss Pooler beamed.
Mary Lou Pooler and her future husband, Ralph I. Lancaster, Jr., grew up in Bangor and graduated from John Bapst Memorial High School. The childhood sweethearts were even cast as leading man and leading lady in their drama club plays, and dated 10 years before finally walking down the aisle. They then raised six children on West Street in Portland and enjoyed 64 years of marriage before Ralph’s death in 2019.
Daughter Anne states that her mother’s motto was: NEVER GIVE UP. “It took her 10 years to get her Masters in Education from the University of Southern Maine because she was simultaneously managing her growing family. She was so determined! And that’s how she raised us.”
——-
This special reunion was hosted by the Historical Society of Wells & Ogunquit with help and input from Mary Lou Pooler Lancaster’s daughters, Mary, Anne and Elizabeth.
