Self-sufficiency, in fact, runs in the family: Emerson claims to be descended from literary philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson (and an archivist suggests that he may well be Ralph Waldo's great-great-great grandnephew). He certainly seems to have inherited his flinty sense that inner strength is the only route to spiritual freedom. "I'm nothing but stubbornness," he allows, "because of my heritage."
That stubbornness may be a curse as well as a blessing. Prompted by neighbors, Pownal's board of selectmen lodged a complaint against him last year. Found guilty on Oct. 2 of operating a junkyard without a permit, he has been ordered to clear his plot and pay a court-imposed fine of $2,500 plus attorneys' fees. Instead, he is waging a legal battle that could leave him bankrupt; although he's nearly "flat busted broke" after spending about $18,000 on his defense, he vows that he won't back down. "If I don't fight," he says, "the art of Yankee trade and barter will be lost forever."
Gerald Rolfe, former head of Pownal's board of selectmen, is less philosophical. "We are enforcing state law," says Rolfe, who instigated the action. "People throw around the story that people [like Emerson] have rights. Well, people who are offended, whose property values go down, have rights too."
Ironically, Emerson is known in Pownal as a good soul: After Hurricane Bob in August 1991, he helped neighbors clear fallen trees, and he donates discarded work gloves and other "found" treasures to the homeless. In August 1992, 150 of the town's total 1,250 population signed a petition protesting the complaint against him, and loggers, libertarians and other kindred spirits have sent letters of encouragement.
Emerson's lawyer, E. Stephen Murray, pegs his client as one of a dying breed. "He's the honest salt of the earth. He adds to the world's store of goods and knowledge."
For Emerson, this battle is just another challenge in a lifetime of struggle. Raised on a farm in North Gray, Maine, he remembers a childhood of few friends, heavy work and a stern father, Crawford Waldo Emerson, a welder who restored cast-offs. Kenneth wed Bonnie Miller in 1961, and they settled in South Portland, where he worked as a plumber, stonemason and machinist. Bonnie gave birth to Ken Jr., now 30, Keith, 29, and David, 24. But after what Emerson calls a "horrific" tour of duty in Vietnam in 1966, the marriage foundered. Following their 1981 divorce, Emerson parked his camper on the plot they'd bought in 1978 and made a living selling retooled castaways and chopping wood.
Estranged from his kin, Emerson now sees only David. "We all love him for what he is—a hardworking old-timer," says his son. "I'm proud for him to be my father."
Loner or no, Emerson has come to appreciate the comforts of home. Weary of life in a trailer, he took a job at the Maine Rubber plant in Westbrook in 1991. Last February he made a down payment on a four-room, $20,000 cottage in Windham, a 10-mile drive from his lot. Though the house is in dire need of repair, Emerson, with pictures of his grandchildren tacked to the walls and a castaway Victrola scratching out his Gene Autry 78s, has found his castle. "In America, if you work hard and you bust your chops, you can get back on your feet," he says.
Whether he'll stay there remains to be seen. His fine has been suspended until the fall when Maine Superior Court will rule on his appeal. Murray plans to take the battle to the slate Supreme Court and has accepted Emerson's offer to pay him $100 a week until he dies if he loses. "This war will go on," he promises.
Ralph Waldo, who himself had a soft spot for broken things and once wrote, "There is a crack in everything God has made," would probably understand.
LARRY WRITER
HEIDI J. LAFLECHE in Pownal
- Contributors:
- Heidi J. Lafleche.
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