I took last week off from work. Not always an easy thing to do when you are self employed, but I recognized that it was important to get away from my office. Unfortunately, that also means being away from my air conditioner, and man, it was a bit toasty last week.

My wife also took a week off, but her being her, this means she suddenly decided to replace the deck. It was overdue time, and it is a miracle no one went through the boards in the corner. This on top of the final crunch as she worked on organizing the Strawberry Festival.

I helped. Well not much, really. It is hard to get inspired to yank nails out of boards when its 85 and about as humid as possible. We did get her away for a day to head to Reid State Park in Georgetown. The massive surf and long stretch of sand was pretty great. Unfortunately I forgot to sunscreen my feet so my toes got burnt. Small problems.

And nearly every afternoon, I tossed a folding chair and a paperback into my little Honda, and took myself to that spur of land that is Howe Point. Ducktrap. Where some afternoons it was even a bit chilly.

There is an ongoing debate about where the first settlement in Lincolnville was, the Center or the Beach. The Beach, at time of white settlers, meant Ducktrap. At one time it was quite the thriving little village, with mills, stores, and a school. Meanwhile people of the Penobscot Nation had clearly been heading to Ducktrap for millennia, as evidenced by shell mounds which dotted the shore in my memory, now lost to erosion. 

The whole of Howe Point, which separates “the trap” from the harbor, by way of a deep channel, seems to now be itself endangered by the ocean waves. The old ash and apple tree, that stood at the bottom of the road were washed away this winter, and the already narrow strip of land has become ever narrower.

This place is inhabited by so many ghosts. Not the ones in sheets seeking vengeance on a dark night, but the bittersweet ghosts of memory. Myself, learning to swim in that channel, jumping off that massive tree trunk that used to stand in the middle of the warmer, briny Trap, where the Ducktrap River meets the sea. Making sandcastles at low tide, with moats filled with live crabs, terrifying guardians for the imagined inhabitants of the sandy fortress. The family and friends, so many long gone, who joined us there for long ago cookouts in the fog. My father. My Uncle. Margaret. Dale. The ghosts of the children my brothers and I once were.

SonI sit there, and listen to the crashing waves; to sit with the ghosts and read a book. And breathe.

My mother must have been having similar thoughts this warm summer, as she sent this to me this morning:

The Way We Remember, by Diane O’Brien

Anyone who spent the night with us is likely to mention Wally reading to me early in the morning. The guest, coming down in robe or pajamas, would quietly slip by us as she realized it wasn’t conversation she’d been hearing but Wally’s measured voice, unspooling some author’s carefully crafted sentences.

We referred to it as “our” reading time; we talked about the book “we” were reading, though I was knitting or stitching or some such handwork, the kind that allows the body to do work while the mind does its own. An hour or more, sitting by the fire, while dawn crept in at the windows, as he’d read dense biographies or histories or . . . . and here’s where I can’t say for sure what we read.

I don’t remember.

It was such an intimate time, just the two of us immersed in the same tale. So personal that it’s been too painful to call up in the years since he’s been gone. If it wasn’t for the witnesses – the old friend, my sister, our niece – to remind me I may have lost it completely, along with so many other details of our lives together.

But not shelling the peas. There’s been no escaping the memory of those moments, hours really, spent in the shade of the screen porch, each of us with a bowl in our laps and an overflowing basket of pea pods between us. He’d picked ‘em; bending over the rows of vegetables — peas, beans, carrots — under the hot sun has never been my job.

Wally was a natural harvester. He loved nothing better than bringing in a basket of green beans from the garden or a big bag of blueberries from Cameron Mountain. He’d pick wild blackberries or raspberries and with gusto, strip the dry pods off the trout beans or soldier beans or kidneys in the fall.

And then sit in the open barn door on a warm October afternoon splitting the pods and carefully assigning the beans into their proper bowl. Some years there’d be four or five varieties. Our banner bean year (whenever that was – I’ve, of course, forgotten) we put up 25 pounds of them, lining the mason jars proudly on the kitchen shelf.

But somehow, it’s the long afternoons of shelling peas that’s come back to me every year since he’s been gone. So here we are in mid-July. The pods are filling in, one by one to their own time and I’m out there picking them. And shelling them. And remembering.

Strawberry Festival:

I think anyone who made it by Lincolnville Center Saturday can agree, the 2024 UCC Strawberry Festival was a massive success. After a lot of fretting about the whether, Saturday morning ended up beautiful, if a little warm. The parade headed down Main Street to the church and Community Building, led by the Honor Guard from Post #30 of The American Legion in Camden. A pack of children on bikes followed, a line of restored vintage cars, and the Lincolnville Volunteer Fire Department, who pulled out all the stops. 

Hot Dogs, shortcake, and baked goods were plentiful and delicious. Thankfully, this year I had a lot of help with face painting, including Lincolnville Resident and Camden Public Library’s Children’s Librarian Miss Amy Hand, who showed us all up with her skill with a brush. Not to mention the delight of so many little ones to see Miss Amy there. That woman has a gift.

I’m not going to attempt to list all the volunteers that made this event possible, but they are not only a gift to their church, but to the entire town. I got to witness first hand how much work goes into putting it on, and they all deserve to be commended for their contribution.

Library Events

At 6 p.m. this Wednesday, July 17, join the Marine Mammals of Maine will be at the Lincolnville Library for a presentation on a seal’s journey of life on the coast of Maine. Through stories, videos, and photos, the program will introduce seal basics, such as whether it is normal for a seal to be out of the water and why you might see a baby on its own, and when and why they may need our help.

I love those clever little sea pups.

State of the Town with The LIA

This Thursday, July 18, the Lincolnville Improvement Association will host its annual State of the Town with Town Administrator David Kinney at 5:30 p.m. at the Tranquility Grange. All are welcome, bring a dish to share, ice tea and lemonade will be provided.

Monthly Flea Market

This Saturday, July 20, from 9 a.m. to noon will be the indoor flea market, sponsored by the UCC church at the Community Building. Look for antiques, handcrafts (fancy work), value-added farm products, and baked goods. It’s also just a great place to catch up with your neighbors.

Well back to work for me tomorrow, and back to the AC. I still may need to stop into Ducktrap after my final session though, it is a fantastic place just to clear my mind. And commune with the ghosts. Be well and do good. Remember to look away from the screens and at the people around you. Most of them are pretty decent. Reach out at ceobrien246@gmail.com.

CALENDAR

Monday, July 15

Lincolnville Historical Society Museum open, 1-4 p.m., 33 Beach Road

Select Board Priorities Workshop, 6 p.m. Town Office

Tuesday, July 16

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

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

Wednesday, July 17

Lincolnville Historical Society Museum open, 1-4 p.m., 33 Beach Road

Library open 2-5 p.m. 

Comprehensive Plan Review Committee, 6:30 p.m. Town Office

Thursday, July 18

Heart & Soul Team, 6 p.m., Lincolnville Community Library

Friday July 19

Lincolnville Historical Society Museum open, 1-4 p.m., 33 Beach Road

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

Library open 9-12, 208 Main Street

Saturday, July 20

Library open 9-12, 208 Main Street

Sunday, July 21

United Christian Church, 9:30 a.m. Worship, 18 Searsmont Road

Bayshore Baptist Church, 9:30 a.m. Sunday School, 11:00 worship, 2648 Atlantic Highway