Lobsters on the Shore

This Week in Lincolnville

Sun, 07/05/2026 - 4:38pm

Ed O’Brien

The view from Don French’s shore. (Photo by Ed O’Brien)

The view from Don French’s shore. (Photo by Ed O’Brien)

Yesterday we celebrated the Fourth of July, and the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The birthday of the United States.

For the eighth year running we marked the occasion on a little piece of land on the shore, with our new found family.

Back in early 2018, two people still grieving their partners of 50 years met each other. My wife made me aware that some guy in a big black truck had picked up my mother for a “drive’. Never a family to keep secrets, we soon met this mysterious gentleman, Don French, and he, and his family, have been part of our lives ever since.

Don is a descendent of the French Family of Lincolnville Beach, and therefore is distantly related to a good chunk of our long time residents. He lives in the ancient family homestead on Atlantic Highway. The property stretches all the way to the shore. Don, his eyesight mostly gone these days, still manages to keep his landscape enviably well maintained, from the lawns around the family house and barn, to the expanse of field planted with Christmas trees, to the wide path through the woods which leads to the rocky shore of Penobscot Bay. He must do it by memory, knowing where all the rocks and divots are in the old field.

Cooking lobsters on the shore is a long tradition for the French family, and since the beginning of our parent’s relationship, the O’Brien family has been part of it. Don’s daughter Jen carries on her mother’s very specific instructions on how to properly prepare a feast of lobsters, steamers, burgers and dogs on a little spur of land over the ocean.

Jen’s husband Morgan and I generally stay back as she and my wife Tracee handle the cooking, understanding that we will only get in the way of these two strong women, who have developed a powerful, if somewhat frightening connection over the years. Ma and Don, as the matriarch and patriarch of their respective families, sit in folding chairs and watch the chaos of the younger generations around them.

Our oldest, and Jen and Morgan’s youngest child, have developed their own bond, cemented over the years of the Keating family coming from New Hampshire to visit the place in Maine. Only a few months apart in age, the two girls once falling into the beginning of adolescence have become the young adult women they are today, slipping back into an easy friendship with every gathering. Ella plagued with several older brothers, and Maggie similarly dealing wth two little brothers.

My two little boys running around and wrestling with Morgan have grown into what my younger brother refers to as “your large adult sons”, though both my brothers are reluctant to push them too far — they are girl dads, and teenage boys can do damage if they get their minds to it.

Lobsters and steamers are dispatched, the sun sets, and the new neighbors from across Atlantic Highway show up to watch Jen carry on her father’s tradition of setting off a few pyrotechnics; yes, I understand that there are divisive views on fireworks, but it is once a year.

The patriarch and matriarch head back up the hill to bed, the neighbors and brothers say their goodbyes, and then it is just us. Two couples brought together by our parents. People who found love in shared grief.

Jen and Tracee spearhead the cleanup, directing Morgan and I and our children to pack up chairs and coolers, survey the grounds for any detritus of our afternoon on the shore, filling the trailer attached to Don’s old John Deere mower. The fireworks seen across the bay from Bayside, Islesboro, and Mount Desert had subsided, and the ever more impressive display of the Milky Way spread across the sky. My youngest perched himself precariously on the rail of the trailer as Jen slowly drove up the hill to her ancestral home.

There were probably more impressive celebrations across this nation yesterday, but I cannot imagine they were more perfect.

Strawberry Festival

As always, the Saturday after the Fourth is the Lincolnville UCC Strawberry Festival. One of my favorite events, it will kick off Saturday, July 11, at 10 a.m. with the parade down Main Street to the church and community building. Bikes, scooters, and strollers are encouraged to gather at the library at 9:30 a.m. to get decorated and join in at the front of the procession.

The Lincolnville Town Band will be present, and will play a set at the church parking lot. Expect hot dogs and popcorn, strawberry ice cream sandwiches, and of course, large helpings of strawberry shortcake in the community building. A gift basket from the Red Cottage will be raffled off. Following the Lincolnville Town Band, Lise and Rose will perform.

The Strawberry Festival is a long standing Lincolnville tradition to support the UCC, and just a darn good time.

There will be plenty of activities for the kids, including face painting, silk screen printing, and a scavenger hunt. Miniature horses Annie Sue and Cricket will be present to say hello, as well as our favorite clown, Marie Berry.

Invite your summer visitors, come see small town Maine life at its most idyllic.

Library Happenings

Needleworkers will meet at the library Tuesday from 3-5 p.m. Noon Friday will be MahJong for everyone; join a game or learn to play. Friday will also be the free family movie night, showing the family friendly movie Goat at 6:30 p.m. Refreshments will be available for purchase.

I woke up this morning to sit down to write, and found myself actually a little chilly for the first time in days. I had to turn off the fans, as they were blowing in too much cool air from the outside. It seems the heat wave has broken, for now.

Summer in Maine, always a little unpredictable, like Mainers.

Keep those gardens and dogs watered. Our pups like nothing more than getting hosed down from the deck as they run around their fenced in yard.

If you already have peas ready to harvest, and your corn is “knee high” I don’t want to hear about it.

Have a fantastic summer week, Lincolnville. Do good and be kind. Reach out to me at ceobrien246@gmail.com.

Municipal Calendar:

Monday, July 6

School House Museum open, 1-4 p.m., 33 Beach Road

School Committee Meeting, LCS, 6 p.m.

Tuesday, July 7

Library open 3-6 p.m. 208 Main Street

AA Meeting 12:15 p.m., Community Building, 18 Searsmont Road

Wednesday, July 8