New England Center Memories

More fond memories

Hi All,

 

I have fond memories of the New England Center also. I worked there for a while when I was 16(?) as a Building Service Worker (BSW).  I worked for Roger, and I remember him as a great example of taking pride in what you do. I set up conference rooms for the following days' events, kept the evening conferences stocked with what they needed, helped out the bartenders who set up in the conference area, and kept the place clean.

 

When I first started, my mom (Shirley Gaeta) was working there as a receptionist. She loved it, and it turned out to be her last job. I met a lot of interesting people there and though I enjoyed my solitude in the janitors room, I was always happy to join the rest of the crew for some cowboy food!

 

The funniest memory I have (although not at the time) was pushing the rack of about 100 metal chairs to its' home by the elevator and having it tip over and go right through the wall! I thought for sure I was going to be fired, but the managers had mercy on me (I think I may have seen one of them holding back a chuckle at my distress). I remember the many nice looking waitresses who were all too old for me, and tripping over my tongue when I had occasion to talk to them :)

 

I'm sorry to hear of its closing and hope it finds a new life under different owners someday.

 

Pete Gaeta

Lots of special occasions

My Mom took me there for a spontaneous dinner one summer night when I was 16, just because it was hot and humid and nobody else was around for dinner.  I had french onion soup and alaskan king crab legs and felt very grown up and elegant.  Brad Robinson ('79), my boyfriend at the time, worked there as a dishwasher that same summer  and would stop by to see me on his way home from work most nights.

 

Our brother Jim ('85) worked there for many years, starting as a dishwasher and moving up to line cook.  The job and the place and the people were all such an important part of his adult life, brief as it was.  In 1988 my husband and I had our wedding rehearsal dinner there----Jim helped to arrange everything and brought us back to the kitchen to meet his friends and co-workers.  When Jim died in 1995, many of his former NEC co-workers catered the reception following his memorial service---that meant a lot to our family. 

 

We'd often eat brunch or dinner there over the years, when we came back to visit Durham--it remained one of my Mom's favorite places.  The last time I was there was with my sisters Karen ('76) and Sue ('78), just after our Mom died in 2007. We stopped for a drink at the end of a long day of making "arrangements".  We sat in the bar and it was so lovely and familiar.  An event was going on in the next room over and one of the waiters kept stopping by on his way back to the kitchen and offering us the leftover hors d'ouvres.  It was this lovely little respite in the middle of such a hard week-- a moment just to be together, drink a little, relax a little, laugh a little.

 

All in all a very special place to me and my family--I'm very sad to hear it will be closing. 

 

--Christine Valenza Shin '80

 

Memories of a Chamber Maid

I guess I'll chime in while we're at it. I was a chamber maid there for one summer while life guarding at the UNH pool. I just loved the upper floors and the view out the window. You really felt it was so special to be at that level in the trees near the top of the canopy, and be "with" the wildlife. My back on the other hand...

One Thanksgiving we had a blizzard..was it 72'?  Anyway, and my father and I, not to be outdone by impassible, unploughed roads, walked to the NE Center for Thanksgiving dinner. It was spectacular with the snow falling and the fire place roaring, and not many people there!

Thanks for listening.
Debby de Moulpied

The end of an Era

After this announcement appeared in the local paper Oyster River High School alumni began sharing their memories of the New England Center.  This blog is about those memories. It is a tribute not to the physical structure, which was certainly innovative and astonishing to sleepy Durham, New Hampshire in the 1960s, but to the culture and community that it created.