I live with a man who is prone to posting appropriate comic strips around the house, appropriate by his lights, that is. One that survived many years on our refrigerator door had Snoopy sitting on the sidewalk; the bubble over his head said, “There is nothing more upsetting than the clobbering of a cherished belief.”

 He reminded me of that strip the other day, as we hashed and rehashed the events of the past couple of weeks, kind of a daily ritual with us these days. And I’m not just referring to the recent election. Unlike our child-rearing and employment years that left us both too exhausted and stressed-out to do much more than down a couple of beers, eat dinner and go to bed at the end of the day, we find ourselves now with all the time in the world to leisurely discuss or violently argue or sentimentally recall. We talk about family, about our “kids,” about our gardens, chickens, the dog, the cat, share a gossipy bit, and oh yes, we occasionally mention politics.

I’ll spare you a discussion of our politics, though if you live in Lincolnville and know where we live, you’ve been subjected to the veritable orchard of signs we erect every election year. You know where we stand. And chances are, in this small town, we know where many of our neighbors stand as well, this side or that side of center. So each of us voted for our favorite candidates, having no idea, really, if our picks, if elected, were going to make a bit of difference in our own lives. The referendums, however, could. Pot, schools, minimum wage, gun control, roadwork — each of these, if enacted (and all but gun control passed) will conceivably affect us directly.

I’m guessing that gun control, anything about guns, is the issue that mattered most in Lincolnville, the one that carried the most emotional weight, though arguably Question 4, raising the minimum wage, has a potential of affecting many people in a more personal way.

 Question 3 proposed extending background checks on gun sales to all private transactions — the “Uncle Henry” and gun show sales — in addition to the already required background checks with licensed dealers. Lincolnville voters approved the change by 71 votes (810-739), but statewide the measure was defeated 52 percent - 48 percent. Our vote was close enough to see us as nearly evenly divided on whether there should be more checks on who can buy a gun. Half and half. This seems to me to reflect where we, in this town, are today on many issues. Half on one side, half on the other.

Here’s where I can’t resist retelling a story from 1950s Lincolnville; skip it if you’ve heard it before. In 1948 a New York City couple, Myra and Lou Polan, bought a property deep in the woods at the end of an almost abandoned road near Coleman Pond. It would be their retreat from the hotbed they’d found themselves in when Lou had been called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC ), Sen. Joe McCarthy’s effort to root out Communists. Was Lou a Communist? Did he know people who were? He wasn’t saying. He refused, in the resounding tones of a Shakespearean actor (which he was), that the Committee had no right to ask those questions. So, some years later, Lou, now an out-of-work blackballed actor and part-time resident of Lincolnville, came into the Center Store on a summer evening to pick up a quart of milk. “What’s going on at the Grange?” he asked the clerk. “It’s all lit up.”

“The Democrats are meeting,” whispered the woman across the counter. “They have a right, too, you know.”

And that’s the town we moved to 46 years ago, basically Republican with a smattering of long-time Democrats, often a disposition that had been passed down with the family genes. Funny how that happens….

The election may be over, but the vitriol remains. How, I wondered this morning, will we go forward in a town so divided ideologically? Sure, we’re pretty civil when we meet up here and there, but if you’re a Facebook user (or lurker) you see how it can quickly break down, even between actual acquaintances. So I decided to go visit Donnie Heald at his gun shop, Four Aces Arms on Beach Road.

If our roadside sprouted an orchard of liberal candidates and causes, his was the antithesis. Could two people hold more opposite views? I just wanted to talk, I said, about the things that we disagreed about, to see what we could agree on. He said fine. Right off the bat we established that he was born just a year before Wally and I moved here. Though I can never claim native status, it has been my only adult home, as it has been Donnie’s.

Donnie loves guns — fixing them, studying them, shooting them, selling them, talking about them. He has since childhood. Going into business as a gunsmith and gun dealer has fulfilled his passion about guns. I respect that and admire him for finding a way to make it his job. Yet listening to him talk about them, about the Second Amendment, about the need for self-protection wasn’t easy for me. All my liberal points against the proliferation of guns were on the tip of my tongue. I wasn’t there to argue, but must admit to this:

“Obama didn’t take away your guns,” I said.

“He put through some executive orders that regulated them,” Donnie countered.

“The man stood before us time after time, mourning yet another shooting; he aged 15 years in eight years,” was my best shot (sorry for the pun).

In the end, two hours after I arrived, we parted, agreeing, I think, to disagree. But in the disagreeing, to respect each other. And to realize we are fellow townsmen, neighbors. He was my grandchildren’s favorite bus driver. We helped at a fundraiser for his dying cousin. Donnie and his wife helped organize the fundraiser for our grandson. Wally and Donnie worked side by side to shovel snow off his grandmother’s barn roof. We go way back.

Here’s a funny thing; we have guns in our house, inherited from family members, passed on by hunters too old to hunt, etc. My husband has hunted every year that I’ve known him. He has a reverence for his guns, and by extension, so do I. I even built a case for them as a Christmas surprise years ago, complete with carefully padded slots for the barrels. It doesn’t seem a contradiction to own these well-used, well-loved guns and to vote for more regulation on the sale of guns.

Election Day generally follows right after the first day of hunting season, the month that really did, for many if not most in town during our early years here, constitute its own season. Hunters’ breakfasts were popular, pickups full of hunters prowled up and down the roads long before dawn watching for deer crossings. It wasn’t unusual to wake up at 2 a.m. to headlights illuminating the bedroom ceiling. There really was excitement in the air.

And it was in our house, too. My husband had been cleaning his gun, digging out the blaze orange, planning his strategy for weeks. At the end of that first Saturday deer could be seen hanging from barn doors, bucket loaders, dooryard trees all over town, signaling who’d had a successful hunt that day. The handwritten list of hunters and the weight of their deer hung at the Center Store, the official deer tagging station for many years. We all checked it out every time we came in.

Like many women, but by no means all, I was a hunter’s wife, though not a hunter myself. I enjoyed the excitement of the hunt vicariously, getting up at 4 to start the requisite bacon and eggs breakfast, home fries on the side, needed to fuel the hunter. A couple of years there were even homemade donuts, fried on the spot. (Must do that soon…. they were good!) I like to think I wasn’t resentful that for all the November Saturdays, as well as the whole Thanksgiving weekend, I was left home alone with three little boys. It was just that two of our sons were born in November, which meant that on two of those Saturdays there would be a birthday party and even more little boys to manage. The hunter-father did manage on those days, reluctantly, to put in an appearance before tromping off into the woods again.

Today’s hunting season seems a pale version of the years I remember. Aside from the occasional deer carcass you might spot hanging in a dooryard and blaze orange hats or vests, the only real sign I notice are the pickups parked in random spots, off the road and at the edge of woods or field. These are a sure sign that a hunter has hiked in to a favorite spot and is waiting for “his” or “her” deer to come by. Even today I know of several successful women hunters who wouldn’t miss the season for anything.

My favorite part of this hunting season has been watching Wally cross the road, gun in one hand, the warm-your-butt cushion in the other, and walk up into the woods. I like to watch his blaze orange jacket disappear bit by bit among the trees until it’s gone. Four months ago he was in a wheelchair, three months ago on a walker. Neither one of us dared imagine this. If he brings home a deer — hooray! If he doesn’t, who cares? It’s been the best November yet.

Renew Dog Licenses

This is a vacation week for most area schools.

The school’s Parent Teacher Organization has a new email address: feel free to email them any news, photos or event information pertaining to your LCS student so they can post on the PTO Facebook page.

By the way, did you know it’s easy to reach any LCS, Hope, Appleton, Camden, or CHRHS teacher or staff member by email? All their addresses are simple: [first name]_[last name]@fivetowns.net

Library News

Librarian Sheila Polson writes: “This Tuesday, Nov. 22, is needlework time again at the Lincolnville Community Library. Everyone is welcome to come between 4 and 6 p.m. to work on a knitting, sewing or other handwork project. This group has grown in popularity since it started last spring and people say they love coming to chat, share their projects and relax with friends. Plus there is always someone happy to help. 

“The library book group had a great time last week talking about Ann Patchett’s novel Commonwealth and also planning what to read next. This month everyone will choose a Lincolnville Community Library book to read and tell about at the Dec. 20 meeting. Members hope others will also be inspired to come check out something from the library’s varied collection of novels, memoirs, history books and more and then join the next discussion. 

The book choice for the Jan. 17 discussion is Lab Girl, a memoir by scientist Hope Jahren. Then for the Feb. 21 meeting the group will read Arundel by popular Maine novelist Kenneth Roberts. The story follows Steven Mason as he joins Benedict Arnold in his march to Quebec during the American Revolution and is a favorite of those who love Maine historical fiction.

Small Business Saturday

S.B.S. follows Black Friday, which follows Thanksgiving. How much more pleasant to roam around Lincolnville looking for Christmas gifts than fighting the crowds anywhere else? Here are some places to go:

Viking Lumber, Atlantic Highway – tools, etc.

Dot’s, Atlantic Highway – baked goodies, wine, gifts

Green Tree Coffee Roasters, Atlantic Highway – coffees, teas, mugs, coffee and tea accessories

Beyond the Sea , Lincolnville Beach—books, jewelery, scarves, gifts, notecards, candy and more

Lincolnville Fine Art Gallery, Lincolnville Beach – paintings, sculpture, quirky antique items, pottery

Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs, Beach Road – rag rugs, hats, ornaments, beaded jewelery, Advent Calendars, Lincolnville history books: shop on line

What’s Cookin’ with Rose and Annie, Beach Road, home-cooked meals, baked goods

Western Auto – automotive gadgets, snowblowers (a great gift!), appliances, lots more

Four Aces Arms – guns, ammunition

Ank Ceramics, Boat Club, Lincolnville Center – potter: shop on line

VanderVen Studio, Lincolnville Center – pottery, sculpture: shop on line

Sewall Orchard, Masalin Road - T-shirts, organic cider vinegar

Most of these places will issue gift certificates if asked.

Music and Reflection for the Season of Advent, a series of Sunday afternoon programs — seasonal music, readings and a few moments of silent reflection — will be held at United Christian Church, 18 Searsmont Road in Lincolnville Center, starting Sunday, Nov. 27, 4–4:45 p.m. The First Sunday of Advent, Nov. 27, will feature the Windfern Ensemble with Maho Hisakawa on flute and Nathan Hillman on viola. Maho, a Lincolnville resident, is principal flutist of Odeon Adult Orchestra and plays in various venues as a soloist and with Windfern. Nathan, of Monroe, is a composer and music arranger and is principal violist of Odeon Adult Orchestra. The classical flute and viola duo is available to play at weddings, memorial services, receptions and churches services. TJ Mack, also of Lincolnville, will be the reader. All are welcome.

Local Giving

In addition to the Town Office Giving Tree, (see above) Camden District Nursing Association services those who “fall through the cracks” of our health care system. You can send them a donation at P.O. Box 547, Camden, ME 04843.

Belfast’s Waterfall Arts supports art and art education at a very local level. Read about them here .

And Grace Street Ministry, founded by the Rev. Mair Honan, a former Lincolnville resident, does the hard work of ministering to people living on the streets of Portland. They work on a very slim budget, and every dollar helps them help people: P.O. Box 7967, Portland, ME 04112.

Let me know of local causes you’d like to promote! I’ll add them.