Profiles
The Bread That Feeds the Monastery
Brother Anselm has baked bread for the same Benedictine community in upstate New York for thirty-five years. He uses the same starter his predecessor handed him in 1991.
Section
Profiles
Patient profiles of the cobblers, librarians, vets, conductors, and grocers whose practice is so steady it rarely makes it into print.
Profiles
The Keeper of the Clock
For thirty-one years, Friedrich Holst has climbed the tower in his small German town twice a week to maintain the public clock. He is the only person in town who knows how.
Profiles
She Came Back for the Olives
At twenty-four, Lila Pereira left a city marketing job to take over her grandparents" olive farm in the hills of central California. She is learning the trees one by one.
Profiles
The Only Bengali Grocer for Two Hundred Miles
Ruma Sengupta opened a small grocery in a Montana town in 2009. Customers drive in from four states for her mustard oil, fish, and the conversation in the back room.
Profiles
The Conductor Who Tunes Pianos for Free
Wendell Brace led a regional orchestra for twenty-eight years. In retirement, he drives between school music rooms in a beat-up sedan, tuning their pianos at no charge.
Profiles
The Vet Who Drives Three Counties
Dr. Mara Ellsworth puts almost forty thousand miles a year on her pickup, treating cattle, horses, sheep, and the occasional barn cat across a wide rural stretch of eastern Washington.
Profiles
Forty-One Years at the Same Branch
Marisol Quintero has worked at the Eastlake Public Library since 1985. She knows the regulars by the books they read, and she remembers the ones who stopped coming.
Profiles
The Board Shaper of Port Orford
At seventy-one, Hollis Marek still walks out to his garage every morning to shape surfboards by hand. He has been doing it for forty-three years, and he does not plan to stop.