7/2/09 addendum

Addendum to the first Now and Again Notes from Maine

Sunday, July 5—Well, my wish came true—Agnes and I decided to go to Eastport for some of the 4th celebrations, hitting a few other towns on the way. We had a long and fun day, starting with those miniature lobster boats, which were meticulously made and tore around a lobster pound on Beal’s Island, just as advertised. The coast was completely socked in with pea soup fog, so happily the miniature boats have to be seen up close and the fog did not affect that, but the large lobster boats—real ones done up for racing—were not able to race—though Agnes and I sighted one dimly through the fog roaring down the reach between island and mainland Jonesport, hung with big round orange buoys looking like large balloons and full of people on the back deck whooping and hollering at a…yes, believe it—WATERSKIER off the back!!! He or she was needless to say wearing a wet suit!! Yee gods, what fortitude—or idiocy, depending on how you look at it. And what a sight! Lobster boat pulling water skier!

Jonesport was having “events”—mostly a group of people selling food to each other—great bargains on lobster and crab rolls, for sure! The road out was lined with more sellers, too and lots of people strolling up and down and houses and railings were decked with bunting—very festive. We resisted the crab and lobster rolls and continued on up the coast another 40 minutes past miles and miles of blueberry barrens, to Cutler (or Cahtlah, as my friend Warren used to call his hometown), yet another amazingly picturesque town –this one on slopes on either side of a beautiful bay full of lobster boats. We went there because the Congregational Church was having a lunch to benefit the Cutler Scholars’ Fund—we learned that the fund was founded about 4 years ago by “a gentleman from Florida who fell in love with Cutler and the people of Cutler” and wanted to give back. He started a fund to send Cutler students to college (more like he was trying to raise the standard of living and average amount of education in Cutler…) So he seeds the fund to the tune of 10K a year and the local Fund group raises more—last year they gave $23,000 divided among three young women at different colleges—one is a senior and going on to veterinary school, one is in culinary arts school and the other in business administration. The lady who told us about this is from Georgia herself and rolled her eyes and said it is the young women who take hold in college. The boys tend to fade after freshman year….

The lunch—barbecued pulled pork or chicken, home made baked beans, corn, cole slaw, dinner roll, berry shortcake—was DELICIOUS! (Isn’t this called “doing well by doing good?”) And the church where it was held still has its ORIGINAL pressed tin walls and ceiling all through the church!! Amazing that it hasn’t been replaced with fake wood paneling! The tin below the chair rail line had Grecian Urns in bas relief! So cool.

From Cahtlah, we headed north at last to Eastport, through more miles of blueberry barrens, arriving just as their parade ended. We parked across the street from Raye’s Condiments! Of course we went in and had a short tour—really just a look at the huge tubs and grinding stones that were found by the original owner in 1902 in New York—they are French quartz, but no one knows how old they really are. [SIDEBAR: the lady giving the tour said everyone puzzles over how they were brought to Eastport because each is about 5 feet in diameter and weighs a full ton—but all I could think of was how the blocks of granite for the Washington Monument—AND for the dock at the island—were brought from quarries up the Maine coast—and each was at least that big—so shipping huge stones was evidently not that unusual] The original mustard was made to to pack the sardines, which Eastport produced unbelievable amounts of until fairly recently. It was moved from the little factory to the packing plants on the water by train. According to every sign, Rayes produces the only stone ground mustard in the US now—and has won nearly every prize at the condiments contests in California—evidently a BIG deal. The fourth generation owners now make about 20 different flavors – really GOOD, too!!

Eastport is VERY interesting and picturesque in a run-down sort of way—it is reminiscent of Portland, with big late 19th century brick buildings where the shipping businesses were housed and warehouses lining the streets next to the port, plus fancy old bank buildings. Now these buildings are slowly being taken over and renovated by artists, and indeed as my neighbor Richard noted, there is a thriving art colony there—pottery, painting, sculpture of every type—gift stores full of expensive furnishings and oddments--one wonders WHO comes to Eastport and buys it all—certainly not the locals including the mostly impoverished Passamoquoddy Indians, whose reservation one must traverse to get into Eastport. Evidently there are LOTS of Canadians who come—the grumbling EXCELLENT professional waiter (up for the summer from Sarasota, FL) we had at a restaurant on the water said the Canadians do not tip because in Canada service is included in the total—his “partner” waiter had quit during the afternoon after being stiffed for the 6th time!!

I didn’t find Sarah Graves’ house, but the hardware store where she gets supplies for her renovations featured all 13 of her books in the window. She gives most of them titles having to do with tools and renovations.

Eastport is famous for being the easternmost city in the US—by a few yards east of Lubec as near as we could tell—and for being near the “Old Sow” whirlpool, out in the bay at the end of Deer Island—a large island. It is apparently the real thing that whirls and sucks down things when the tides go in and out—we didn’t get a boat to see it—next time. The vistas of pine-covered islands, boats, lovely inlets and bays and coves and salt marshes are breathtaking in all directions.

We looked at all the booths lining the streets (I was pondering some nice beaded bracelets being sold by a man who COULD have been a Native American, but turned out to be an Indigenous Ecuadoran from Boston…) and listened to a terrific steel band that was wearing T-shirts from Toronto—not sure that is where they are from. (I may have mentioned this in summers past, but this coast has more steel bands than you can count on two hands! Not sure why, but there are people who make the pans and teach classes. My friend Ann’s young son has just graduated from the little kids’ band to the intermediate band.) We had a couple of hours of weak sunshine—relief from the fog further east—and then the fog rolled back in with cold and damp and another fireworks display was cancelled due to fog (it was scheduled for early evening, too—before dark for some reason)Agnes and I have had two other 4ths together in fog too thick to see the fireworks! So we headed home—but on our way through Machias, (Mah Chigh-us for those of you who don’t know it) –which is about 45 minutes east and a little north of us in Steuben, the sky was clear and a lovely almost-full moon was coming up over the river and people were lining up for fireworks, so we parked—and a little later enjoyed a very respectable display out over the river. By the time we got back to Steuben, it was raining! Like we NEED rain!!!!

So no parade, but lots else and finally clear weather for fireworks. The erratic nature of the fog and clear skies is typical of the coast of Maine,-- everyone just sighs and shrugs.

Today it was breezy and sunny—got up to the 70’s!! I just kept my nose to several grindstones—writing, gardening, working in the house.

Oh well- -you all probably think I am nuts…

Love to all—Moon is full –looks like the original moonstone tonight- luminous, pearly color in a clear, light amethyst sky—with fireflies flickering along the shores of the bay—gorgeous!! Tomorrow am going to see the state’s yo-yo champion with the little neighbor kids from across the street, whose mother is Peruvian. Today one of them brought me a bouquet!! And then she played for almost three hours with the doll house and cowboy and Indian stuff I have out in the front bedroom—so cute!

Come see me in Maine!!