Donut-making tradition helps Sherman draw a crowd

By Deborah Rafford
Special to the Pioneer Times
    Conversations and anticipation abounded on the front lawn of Cap’ and Thelma Perrin’s front lawn in Sherman on Labor Day, starting as early as 6:30 a.m. this year.  Young and old alike stood in a line that stretched across the front lawn and into the street. It was time once again … for donuts. And not just any donuts, these are fresh, homemade-while-you-watch, pumpkin, cinnamon-sugar donuts, and they would rival anything Dunkin Donuts or Tim Hortons has to offer.
    A 20-person team of family members and friends from the Perrin Clan get together at 0-5 dark (that’s 5 a.m.) to start sifting and measuring and stirring and frying the scrumptious delights. It has been confirmed that between 6:30 and 10 a.m. (when the Old Home days parade started), approximately 3,000 donuts were made and sold at The Donut Hole. Folks from far and near come for the delectable delicacies and will stand in all kinds of weather to get them. No one gets out of line for fear of having to start over again “way back there.”
    As he flipped donuts in the hot oil with a wooden stick, Joe Kelley said the workers each get paid $150 a day. Amongst loud protests all around him, he declared, “Oh, you mean I’m the only one that gets paid?” as he grins and everyone laughs. Everyone knows that the Perrin family donates the products, and 100 percent of the profits go to the Washburn Memorial Church in Sherman.
    Therlia St. Germaine has been coming down from Patten for the last 20 years. “I look forward every year to the donuts,” the 92-year-old said with a grin, adding “I always enjoy the parade too.”
    For the last five or six years, Penny Daggett has been seen in the crowd. “The donuts are well worth it,” she said with a smile.
    Adrian Carver, 88 years young, and his lovely wife, Ruby, of Mt. Chase, have been coming down for donuts for as long as he can remember. “I ate two already,” he said. “I was just contemplating a third when you came along. Maybe you helped me avert a stomachache!” The Carvers recently moved to Houlton, but they always come back for the donuts and the parade.
    “We set here and watch the people go by. Every once in awhile I’ll holler to someone and we get to talking,” Adrian Carver added. “We love it.”
    Alfred and Eileen Bradbury of Millinocket have been coming up to the Sherman Old Home Days for years. “If nothing else, we come for the donuts and the parade,” said Alfred. In talking to him, it was divulged that he has written three books on hunting and fishing, but never published any of them. “I would have to change all the names with the new rules about having to have permission to use someone’s name and all.”
    Bradbury was also very proud of a walking stick his son Paul made for him and was eager to show it off. After seeing the craftsmanship put into it, this writer could see why. Bradbury says he does woodcarvings, but his son does chainsaw carvings as well as the intricate Indian carvings on his walking stick. He said the sticks are made out of cedar, and that they use bass wood as it hardly has any grain.
    The patriarch and matriarch of the Perrin Clan, Cap’ and Thelma, sat peacefully inside their screened-in porch watching the goings on and chatting with folks who kept stopping by to visit. “It’s time for the young ones to take over,” laments Cap’. “We just sit here and oversee what’s going on.”
    As babies with the last name of Perrin were seen crawling or being lugged around, it looks like the family has a lot to look forward in the years to come.
    Jarice (Perrin) Kelley started this labor of love to get the crowds in to see the parade. People come from all over for the delicious donuts. “I wanted something to bring our families together, as a tradition,” she said. “Some of us have been doing this for 22 years, so some of us have memories to last forever.”
    The camaraderie between the family members as they banter playfully back and forth almost makes you wish you were a part of the Perrin Clan!