A toy house Music and talk at the Library Holiday Fair

This Week in Lincolnville: 1,500 miles from home...

...or where do the snowbirds go?
Tue, 11/14/2017 - 2:15pm

    I wonder how many Lincolnvillians are actually snow birds, that is, part-time residents who skedaddle when the weather turns rough, and head for southerly spots. Would you say 10 percent? Twenty percent? Maybe more?

    In my age group — the retired-with-grown-kids — they’re everywhere. They start to pack up, give away the contents of the fridge, and hit the road starting in October. One neighbor couple had to carefully schedule this year’s escape from Maine, aiming to be home (someplace to the south of here) in time to see the grandkids trick or treating, while staying long enough to attend the Center Store grand opening, squeezing in a day or two of travel time in between.

    What’s it like to have your heart living in two places? Isn’t your favorite knife or corkscrew or sweater in the other place when you need it?

    Last week’s freak wind storm threw a monkey wrench into the plans of some who intended to drive out of here on Monday or Tuesday, but couldn’t leave their houses powerless. Yes, one way or another, Maine always manages to hold onto those beholden to her. Count me in with that crowd, the beholdens.

     CALENDAR

    WEDNESDAY, Nov. 15
    Library Presentation, 7 p.m., Lincolnville Library

    THURSDAY, Nov. 16
    Soup Café, noon- 1p.m., Community Building

    SATURDAY, Nov. 18
    5th Annual Holiday Antique and Gift Show, 9 – 2, Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

    It’s been a decade or more since I left the state, save for three quick trips to D.C. when my brother was dying. I hardly count those as I barely noted my leave-taking in the midst of the heartbreak. A recent week-end in New Hampshire was only a sneak preview of the trip I took this week to Florida with Don, a genuine snow bird, the man I’ve forged a new bond with. We left town last Wednesday in a truck packed for nearly six months; my bag was packed for six days, my return plane ticket firmly in hand.

    Being out of what my sister calls my “comfort zone”, that is Lincolnville and its familiar routine, has been both what I expected and what I couldn’t have anticipated.

    The whole eastern seaboard seems to be built out to its edges. Shopping centers, large business headquarters, hotels galore – especially next to the interstates, vast housing developments, and everywhere new construction: much of the medians of I-81, I-77 and I-95 are torn up for new lanes to carry the traffic north and south. Where we traveled the ridgelines that looked out over Wilkes-Barre (Barry) and Scranton and places I’d never heard of, a sea of gray and brown roads and buildings stretched to the horizon.

    For eyes used to trees and hills, to the familiar houses and dooryards of my neighbors, it was indeed not my comfort zone. But then came the green fields of Virginia, the lowlands of South Carolina and the vast marshy flats of Georgia. I wanted to get out of the car and take a closer look. What a big country this is!

    This isn’t news to most people, to those who venture out now and then or who have moved here in recent memory. But for those of us who were born and raised here, or like me, who came as young adults and can see no reason to leave, crossing the border out of Maine is a real event.

    Who do you meet when traveling but waitresses and hotel clerks and tour guides?

    We’ve had some funny and unlikely exchanges with people along the way. Like the Cracker Barrel waitress who told us she was done there in two weeks, and then suggested the chicken noodle soup.

    “I’m going to bring you a little sample, and some for me, too, and we’ll taste it together” she said, and then that’s what she did. The three of us slurped it down and agreed it was delicious just as she’d promised.

    Then there was the Waffle House waitress who told us drunks were easy to deal with because they always ate what you gave them and never complained that it wasn’t what they’d ordered, mainly because they couldn’t remember. She said sometimes she did it on purpose. Before we left we knew the ages of her children, and about the time some guy hung around the place for five hours until she had to call the police.

    We chatted with a shuttle driver who grew up in Livermore Falls, and a Lowe’s salesman who told us he planned to retire on the 40 acres he bought in Pigeon Fork, Tennessee, when he was 18; “it ought to go for six figures,” he confided.

    Somehow it felt like home.

    Long conversations are a common feature in shops catering to visitors. People want to talk, Wally always said. They want to tell you about themselves and will when you’re interested in them. Sitting at his loom and weaving, listening, he heard personal stories from strangers every day.

    Now, in addition to the novelty of temperatures hovering near 80 in November, (while my hens are freezing their feathers off back in their Lincolnville coop), I’m learning what it’s like to live in an Airstream trailer, a lot like figuring out a child’s playhouse with tiny drawers and secret latches and hidden tables. And I thought I was paring down my belongings from eight rooms to four! I have a new respect for those who go RVing around the countryside.

    But living in a tiny space is only part of it. The dedicated RVer has to be able to deal with electricity and raw sewage, with clean drinking water and gray water. He/she has to know whether to use propane or electricity to cool down the tiny fridge, how to deal with the washing machine that flooded during Hurricane Irma, skills not unlike the ones needed to survive in rural Lincolnville.

    In this one day I’ve seen pelicans splashing into the water like the big clumsy birds that they are, and tiny sand plovers racing down the beach after retreating waves, then retreating themselves on their nearly invisible quick little legs as the next wave comes rushing in. Pure white ibises, with bodies as small as a duck’s and with downward curving red bills, stand on long spindly red legs in groups amongst a flock of fuzzy-headed storks, everybody pointing in the same direction. You can walk quite close to them, and they only walk slowly away as you approach. Nobody panics.

    A fellow tossing a net into the water to capture baitfish identifies the little black bird standing nearby with its bright yellow legs and beak as a night hawk egret. We came upon a large gopher turtle by the entrance to a nature trail, and later learned it was endangered. Once the first little gecko darted into the path, they were everywhere we looked.

    Home beckons, as it always has every time I’ve strayed. But for these few days I’ll take it all in, every strange plant and bird, every wacky conversation with a stranger. Life is full of surprises. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.


    PTO Wreath Sale

    This year the LCS’s Parent-Teacher Organization will be holding its annual Wreath Sale at the Community Building during the UCC’s Holiday Antique and Gift Show this Saturday, 9 - 2. Pick out a balsam wreath, either decorated or plain, for your front door and help out the PTO’s programs at the school at the same time.


    Library

    This is the third week in November so on Wednesday the Library will be hosting the monthly Author-Musician presentation.

    Ronni Arno Blaisdell, the author of several middle-grade novels – Ruby Reinvented, Dear Poppy, Molly in the Middle, and the co-author of Best. Night. Ever, all published by Simon and Schuster/Alladin, will be the speaker. She teaches English at Camden’s Watershed School and has been author-in-residence at the Islesboro School. She lives in the Midcoast with her husband, two daughters, and two dogs in the Midcoast.

    Sean Mencher, who moved to Maine from Austin, Texas in 1994, has been pursuing a music career from here ever since. His “thumb-pickin’ guitar style has taken him from Carnegie Hall, to an appearance on Conan O’Brien, and to Lincoln Center.” He’s worked for Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Ronnie Dawson, Wayne “The Train” Hancock, Billy Lee Riley, Rosie Flores, Sonny Burgess, Dig Wayne (Buzz And The Flyers), Al Hawkes, and Hank Williams III.

    Rosey Gerry, who produces these monthly programs throughout the fall, winter, and spring, says this is one not to be missed. Call him, 975-5432, to reserve a seat; tickets are $10, and all proceeds go to the Library.


    Holiday Fair at the Community Building

    The Fifth Annual Holiday Antique and Gift Show will be held on Saturday, November 18, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. in the Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road in the Center

     The show will feature local antique dealers, crafters, and farmers with a wide selection of unique and affordable products including handcrafted goat milk soaps, vintage costume jewelry, antique tools, and handmade Christmas ornaments. You’ll find Ann Woodruff's attractive hand knit wool hats, Diane O'Brien's original Advent calendars, and Barbara Bentley's unique shoulder bags creatively transformed from recycled birdseed and grain bags. As noted above, the Lincolnville School PTO will be selling locally made balsam wreaths.            

    Plan to have brunch or lunch with homemade goodies to choose from: coffee cake, cookies, quiche, soup, chili and corn bread. No admission fee, plenty of parking and the Community Building is handicapped-accessible. Call Mary Schulien, 785-3521 for more information. The event is sponsored by the United Christian Church.