It took me a while to figure out where I lived back in the fall of 1967. I’d moved to Maine from Chicago on a whim, or rather, by acting spontaneously on a lifelong dream.

I’d grown up on my dad’s stories of his boyhood summers on the shores of West Gouldsboro where he’d been sent to stay with a great aunt. He thought maybe his mother was glad to get him out of her hair, so she put him on a train bound for Bangor. It was 1918, and he was 14.

The story began with a grueling ride in a Model T from the train station down to the coast. Apparently, the only kid in a household run by an old lady, he was free to roam the shore, row a little boat, and generally be an unsupervised boy in a world nothing like his structured life in Evanston, Illinois.

So, though Dad was thrilled at my move to Maine, my mother was appalled. Never mind that, I was 23 years old and just did it. The address of the house I rented said “St. George”, but I actually lived in Tenants Harbor, in Wildcat to be precise. Or, to be more precise, in Elinor Rawley’s house. A few miles down the road it became Port Clyde. But actually, the whole peninsula that includes these places is the town of St. George.

When Wally and I moved to this house in Lincolnville it was to Sleepy Hollow, to the Claytor place, to the Beach, to RR ! Box 16, later changed to RR 1 Box 4025, and finally, when the nationwide E911 initiative came in, and all the roads had to have names, to 217 Beach Road.

Wally went to work in the Center as teaching principal at Lincolnville Central School. Of course, he was still in the same town. I stayed home and took care of babies, a changing population of animals and this old house – at the Beach. Summer week-ends we hung out at Ducktrap, the town’s third village.

All these ways of defining place, yet it’s the same, one town. With the coming of summer (and thankfully, we’re finally “open”, able to see one another in public places again) the Beach and the Center become actual destinations.

Of course, the Center, home to the library, the school, a satellite post office, and the town office outweighs the Beach, which can only boast the town’s main post office and as of this winter, School Union 69’s administrative office.

But of course, there’s more to Lincolnville. The Center has two grocery stores, one of which has the town’s only gas pumps, Janis Kay’s Red Cottage shop, a boat launch and swimming beach, United Christian Church and its Community Building. And as of this spring, the Lincolnville Public House.

The Beach? Well, naturally it has the beach, the ferry to Islesboro, a boat launch, two stores for food (Dot’s and The Beach Store – see below), Green Tree Coffee Roasters, two art/antique/craft galleries, three restaurants, the Historical Society, an Edwards Financial and Bayshore Baptist Church.

Ducktrap, our third village, is the best kept secret town beach for picnics and tide pools, a secret that everyone in town knows about, and home of King David’s Masonic Lodge. It was indeed our third village back – way back! – in the day, with a sawmill, gristmill, patent lime kiln, terminus of a mule-drawn railway, cooper shop, brickyard, grainery, shipyard, and two stores. A bit later it was a favorite late night dropping off point for rumrunners.

Today’s village designation for the area is more honorary than actual.

Scattered around town between these three villages is a garage (Mike’s), hardware/tire store (Western Auto), Youngtown Inn, Grange, various small shops and farms– Ducktrap Woodworking, Dolce Vita Farm, Sleepy Hollow Rag Rugs, 

Artists and craftsmen are at work in home studios such as Simon van der Ven, Janet Redfield making stained glass, Antje Roitzsch,  jeweler and sculpter of mobiles, and jeweler Jordan Barnett-Parker, Three Bug Farm, Jennifer Temple

Homemade signs advertise Eggs, Honey and Quail eggs, Fiddleheads, Campwood, Blueberries, and everyone’s favorite – “Free Stuff”.

And several lodging places, mostly at the Beach but increasingly around town at Airbnb sites that provide places to stay for a night or a month.

That’s a fair amount of economic and civic activity for a town of 2,312 people. This doesn’t even include all the people working their own gigs – carpenters, plumbers, electricians, site developers, wood cutters, lawyers, caretakers of the infirm, elderly and children as well as of lawns and properties, clerks and accountants, realtors. We have poets, novelists and musicians, teachers, painters and sculptors, actors and architects, doctors and nurses. Etc. Etc.

Who have I missed???

We’re not just a rural town that nature has richly endowed, but we’re rich in people as well. With such a diverse working population and people from varied backgrounds and experiences, it’s no wonder we hold disparate political views.

Rainbow or Ukranian flags, BLM signs (you’ll see Black Lives or Black Flies Matter, depending which road you drive), a permanent Trump/Pence banner, an early “LePage for Governor”, or just the simple big red heart that crops up here or there – they define our town as, to put it mildly, multifaceted.

Now that an election year is moving into full swing, the lawn signs will sprout, hawking our personal favorites. Before long we’ll be reminded once again of our neighbors’ views.

Sitting on the bleachers at the special Town Meeting last week, when the vote on the moratorium on oceanfront piers was held, gave me a clue as to how people were going to vote. I kept a mental tally as people came in – this one will be for, that guy against. This couple for, those two, probably not.

How did I know? For one thing I’ve lived here long enough to know the players. We’re a fairly predictable lot. So, I really can’t say, except I sensed a quiet earnestness on one side and a boisterous determination on the other. Subjective? Sure. Unfair? Probably.

Did I guess correctly? Yeah, because I figured it was going to be close. And at the 8-vote differential, it was. The discussion of the issue went back and forth, landing often on the meaning or apparent vagueness of the moratorium’s language, and carefully avoiding the hot buttons – “I can do what I want with my land” and “the ocean bottom belongs to the people not an individual”. There was no bad-mouthing anyone, not the moratorium supporters and not the owner of the proposed pier.

I think everyone was relieved at that. Too many of us remembered the vicious battle we waged against one another on those very bleachers over the police several years ago.

But, in the course of avoiding discord, we missed the big point that I think the moratorium supporters were making: how do we want to see Lincolnville develop; how do we want the town to look in the future? Hopefully, we’ll have that one as the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee works through its charge.

Changing minds by talking about it, debating it, sifting through facts on both sides of any issue that divides us, is the only way we can move forward as a community.

There’s no way of knowing if the long discussion changed any minds, but I think it might have.

And that’s a good thing.

Town

From the town website :

“Town Meeting will commence with secret ballot voting, for both candidate balloting and referendum balloting, on Tuesday, June 14, 2022.  The polls will be open from 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. at the Lincolnville Central School (gymnasium).  Absentee ballots can be requested in person during normal business hours at the Town Office or by calling the Town Office at 763-3555.  Email requests are not permissible.  Absentee ballots must be returned by 8:00 p.m. on voting day.  The "open" portion of Town Meeting will continue on Thursday, June 16, 2022 in the Lincolnville Central School.”

One selectman position is contested, Jordan Barnett-Parker and Steve Hand are both running for the position Jordan currently holds. Read about these two candidates: Steve Hand and Jordan Barnett-Parker  on Penbay Pilot.

School

In addition to this Monday’s regular monthly school committee meeting, the three school committees for School Union 69, including Appleton Village School, Hope Elementary School and Lincolnville Central School, will be meeting jointly on Tuesday, June 7, 6 p.m. at the Hope Elementary School.

Garden workshop at Library

“The Lincolnville Community Library will host a pollinator-friendly garden certification workshop and open house on Saturday, June 11 at 10 a.m.

“Using the library’s gardens as an example, a volunteer with the University of Maine Cooperative Extension will show how to complete the application to certify a garden as pollinator friendly. They will explain all four steps of the process and discuss the importance of each one for supporting pollinators such as bees, beetles, butterflies, hummingbirds, and more. Certified gardens provide plenty of food, water, shelter and good habitat for pollinators.

“This will also be an opportunity for people to tour the library’s beautiful gardens and learn more about the native and heirloom plants growing there. The library's team of garden volunteers will be on hand to answer questions.”

Reading about the pollinator workshop reminds me that I haven’t seen a single bumblebee this spring. The rugosa roses are starting to bloom. Since I usually have to dodge bees to get at my mailbox, which is buried in the white rugosa hedge in front of my house, I’ll be looking for them in the weeks to come.

Women’s Club Annual Yard and Bake Sale

Yardsalers, mark your calendar for Saturday, June 18, 8 a.m. to noon, for the Women’s Club annual yard and bake sale at 2460 Atlantic Highway, across from Dot’s.   This is always a fun sale with a huge selection of furniture, antiques, clothing, garden tools, and jewelry .... plus an array of home-baked treats.

Rain date is June 25.

Beach Store

Those of us who live in this village (Beach) have been eagerly anticipating the opening of The Beach Store, the local convenience store that’s been closed for the past two years and more. Matt Hohnen, the new owner, is preparing to open with full hours (7 a.m. to 7 p.m.) as soon as he’s fully staffed, in a couple of weeks, he hopes. Until then his hours will be 11 to 7 offering pizza and some sandwiches. Once fully open he’ll have beer (waiting on that license) cold and hot subs, wraps, etc. and breakfast sandwiches. Around the first of July seems reasonable, he says. I told him since we (either my D-I-L or me) are down there every morning emptying trash and picking up butts, wrappers and dog poop (!) we’ll keep an eye on his progress!

And Beach Gardens

These are the folks who answered Lee Cronin’s call to come out and clean up the gardens at the Beach last week: Cheryl Weinges, Deanna Hartel, Peter Hartel, Christine Leary, Mariette Scheier, Diane O'Brien, Don French, Kim Cronin, Karen Cronin, Kristine Dahl, Lillian Amborn, Dorothee Newcombe, Marge Olson, Nick Jachobelus, Sue Mitchell, Spouter Inn, Edward Jones, Necole Janczura, Michelle Curtis, and Lynn Wildnauer.

Lee, organizer of the gardeners who each pick a bed to tend all season, says “Special thanks to Gene Flanagan of Lincolnville Viking Lumber for donating and delivering twenty five bags of mulch to give the gardens a finishing touch. We hope that everyone in our community will stop and view the gardens this summer.”