We traveled to Portland Maine to attend the wedding of our good friends’ daughter. The wedding was held at a wonderful venue on Lake Sebago, (Sih-bay-goh) Maine’s second largest lake at 45 square miles. It is a pristine body of water, resembling our own Payette Lake. I have to report, it was a wonderful celebration, the families of the Bride and Groom’s were in sync and the bond among the guests made those of us from away feel very included. “Into the Mystic” by Van Morrison was the wedding march by VSG in an instrumental presentation, unique and appropriate for the couple.
I had visited Maine years ago and had high hopes I would find the same great people and culture I had experienced over 25 years ago. The locals can quickly determine if you are a Mainer, and if not you are from away. I got that look the first day when I told a person we were going to Lake Sa-Baa-Go. I am sure there were other clues of our away-ness, but the people are polite as they patiently corrected me. Honest and straight forward, the folks we met in Maine convinced me some good things do not change.
Portland Maine was established in l632. When we discuss historical in Idaho it pales to the colonists settling in Maine. The wharf is a very active tourist area in the summer, while we were visiting we saw a very large Marine training ship and the next day a Cruise Liner. Lots of people swarmed the wharf likely making the merchants very happy. I especially enjoyed the narrow gauge railway line along the wharf with its coal fire engine chugging along. The seafood is plentiful and we only found excellent restaurants with top notch service. On the advice of a good friend, we had several lobster rolls to try to understand why they are considered the best in the world. Very rich but I may prefer a baked Idaho potato.
Since we flew a long ways for the wedding, lets explore the Coast. On to Camden an hour drive north up Highway 1. The beautiful harbor is worth the trip. B and B’s seem to be the way to enjoy the area, ours was excellent with an amazing breakfast menu. Matt makes a world class blueberry pancake and french toast with fresh fruit and juice. Hot syrup is available but not that necessary. We went on a two hour sailing cruise and learned about the waters around Camden. Lobster harvests are way done as the crustacean’s are moving north, driven by the warming of the bay. Climate change or just an aberration? Our young captain reported that in the old days the bay froze over, that hasn’t happened for many years. Enjoy the Camden bay from the summit of Mount Battie.
Off to Bar Harbor, the real Mainer’s drop the r, so you will hear “bah-hah-bah” and lobster is “lob-stuh”. The lack of Down East accent is also a dead give away that you are from away. If you practice a bit you might fool a local but remember they say “Ayuh” in place of y-all or aloha. Proper diction is simple, say the letter A, pause a bit and add yuh. You can really impress if you understand wicked is an intensifier, meaning very or extremely and pissah is superb. I encourage you to join me in this Maine version of an Orange Wanker jibe, “he is a wicked dink” my translation, a very stupid person, a jerk, or an a-hole”.
We stayed at a very fancy hotel built in l883. It is a beautiful location in Southwest Harbor directly across the bay from Bar Harbor. It is in the larger Acadia National Park but is much less tourist traveled. The Maine climate is very flower, fern and tree friendly. During an early morning walk we noticed one block lined by a very large variety of deciduous tree. Bessie was riding by on a bike and let us know they were linden trees. On each of the trees was a quarter sized medalian with a number on it. Turns out the Maine Historical society has a registry of the numbers that were affixed to the linden trees planted on Memorial Day in 1920 across the State to honor the fallen Maine veterans of World War I. The trees we saw are over 75 feet tall.
A bit of history, the Wabanaki Nation, “People of the Dawnland” had inhabited the Southern Bar or Mount Desert Island for over 10,000 years. The Nation included four tribes, the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac. They lived in unison off the land and sea until the French explorer Champlain was welcomed by the Chief of the Tribes. There were 32,000 of the Indians then, soon after the diseases brought by the explorers and outright killing reduced the tribal members to near 5000. This history is so sad and unfair but has been often repeated throughout the America’s. Today the Tribe counts 8700 souls. Let’s commit to remembering the outrageous greed, injustice, arrogance that we allowed.
As we ponder electing the “wicked dink” and his frightening Vice Presidential candidate please remember the fascist, racist, un American policies and traits he supports. The native American’s should have deported all of us immigrants. American is too great for hate, his rhetoric ramps up the divisions that are present in a democracy.
Any Democratic Presidential candidate including Biden is preferable to the misguided GOP of today. Mike