As Spring blooms around us, a certain segment of our population thinks about work. That truck they hope to buy, once they get their driving hours in to take their license test. A new phone. Looming tuition costs... Summer jobs.

I have spoken before about side hustles many Mainer take on to make ends meet. I think many of us started this mind set with our first jobs. 

I always had some concept of work for cash. This probably started with the $1 a week my brothers and I earned for keeping the wood boxes full, an especially arduous task during the period my parents thought to heat the entire house with wood, hot water included. The boys and I were not disappointed when that experiment ended.

With a dairy cow and a pony to feed, August always meant haying. Always the hottest days of summer were reserved for gathering the winter’s hay. Trying to sling bales bigger than myself onto the old farm truck on Dale and Taylor Mudge’s fields on Van Cycle Road. And there was always a thunderstorm looming, and the rush to get the bales into the barn before they got wet. Many a barn has fallen prey to wet hay and the fire that follows…

Blueberry raking was also a chore meant for the hottest time of year. Leaning over the low-bush wild blueberries on a shadeless hilltop, sunburns and yellowjacket stings came with the territory; but for $2.50 per bucket, you endured. My older brother claims a record of 212 buckets in a 12-hour day. 

Babysitting. I did a lot of that, and enjoyed it. I love seeing how those I sat for have made their mark in the world. Stacking wood for neighbors, weeding gardens, so many mowed lawns....

A very memorable job involved the summers I helped out Margaret Page. A close family friend and local teacher, Margaret’s side hustle was picking crabmeat. Picking crab meat is a labor-intensive job, which I assume is why fresh picked crab can be so hard to come by. Give me a crab roll over a lobster roll any day.

Margaret had a bad back, and she needed an assistant. Early every morning, I would ride my bike to the docks, where Margaret would pick through the crates of crabs, a bycatch of the lobster fishery, and pack them into net bags. I would carry these bags of snapping little spiders up the dock ramp to her truck, claws reaching out in attempts to take a nip out of my calf. Buckets of sea water, to cook the crabs in, also had to be hauled up. Low tide was the worst, when it all needed to be carried up a ramp that more resembled a ladder.

Needless to say, as an early adolescent, I was not always the most reliable employee, and more than once, I awoke to find Margaret standing over me, yelling at me to get up and get to work. She was a cool lady, and I miss her.

Through high school, summers were spent working for Rick McLaughlin, at what is now McLaughlin’s lobster shack. So many clams breaded. This was my first job with a timesheet and an “official” paycheck, and I have to say, Rick was a fantastic first boss. High expectations with the kind of demeanor that is well suited to running a business which depends on a largely teenage labor force.

I also spent many years working for Stacy Glassman’s Swan’s Way Catering, learning high-end food preparation and service. Every event we put on seemed like a new adventure; usually we were setting up a fine dining establishment for the afternoon in the middle of some field, in someone’s barn. Even long after college, I still got enlisted to work an occasional wedding. 

I hear people say that kids today don’t work. As someone who’s current profession puts him in frequent contact with the youth of the community, I would challenge this. Teenagers continue to work all kinds of jobs, and I have been impressed with the work ethic I have seen. Of course there are all kinds of other demands on the time of the youth, but they are out there, and they are working.

And then there is the wider discussion about the labor shortage. Even with wages rising, many industries continue to struggle to find employees. There are myriad factors, but I would point to the drastic housing shortage in the area. It seems that everywhere I look, new, high end housing projects are being built, but where is the affordable housing? I think this is something we all need to start focusing on on many levels, if we are to preserve the character of our community.

French Cemetery Cleanup

Sunday, May 7 from 1-4 p.m., there will be a Spring Clean-up day at the French Cemetery, at the Beach. The French Cemetery stands behind Dot’s Market, and is a super cool place to check out. And here is the eternal resting place of little Elenora French, the Maiden of Maiden’s Cliff. When she was little, my daughter used to pick wild flowers to place on her grave.

The winter storms left a number of downed branches and other detritus. Take your work gloves, rakes and wheelbarrows, or contact Jeff Brawn, maineah53@gmail.com for more info. I have it on authority that there may be snacks!

Okay Lincolnville! Enjoy the spring, get your peas planted! Be kind and reach out to me at ceobrien246@gmail.com