And then:
Tag: Maine
Looking forward to another open stage night
Here’s a shoutout to our monthly open stage at the Eastport Arts Center at 6 tonight or, if the weather’s bad, the same time tomorrow.
It’s always a lot of fun, alternating live music and spoken word. I even tried a section from Quaking Dover last month, instead of poetry or fiction, and some found my reading emotionally moving. I did bill the genre as creative non-fiction rather than history. Well, there are no footnotes and I’ve focused on the overall story and people more than mere names and dates. The reaction has me looking at additional opportunities for presenting the work.
Here’s one band that showed up, and I’m hoping they’re back. They do look quintessentially Maine, and you can imagine their joyful sound.
The free event’s billed as “open mic” but I’ve long hated that spelling of “mike,” even if it’s become too widespread to counter.
Still, we had a fine turnout and went an hour longer than planned. I’d be really surprised if you wouldn’t be wowed by at least something. There’s so much talent around here.
Now leveling our Cape
Well, not completely level, but 5½ inches closer than it was. Those ten-by-ten pillars on concrete bases are definitely a big step forward.
So what’s down in your cellar?
It’s always a fun time
For those of you living in New Hampshire or southern Maine, here’s an invitation to Dover Friends’ annual Arts & Letters event now rescheduled for 2 pm Saturday, March 18.
It’s one way to sample the local Quaker community as members of all ages display their artistic talents, from painting, drawing, weaving, and photography to original music, poetry, and fiction, perhaps even dance or furniture-making.
The mix each year is different. I remember our amazement when we first saw the museum-quality quilts a newly retired English teacher had begun creating as well as the array of Sculpey figures one of the kids produced. The afternoon even includes a potluck, billed as culinary arts.
The historic meetinghouse is at 141 Central Avenue, just south of the downtown.
Cheers!
Another promising start
Ambush Rock
What the marker in Eliot, Maine, doesn’t mention is that Major Charles Frost and Dover’s Richard Waldron concocted the mock wargame that led to the hanging of Native men sent to Boston and the sale of about 350 Penacook women and children into slavery in the West Indies.
This was hardly an attack on an innocent party, then. The Natives waited years to extract revenge, and did it at a time and place that spared others.
My history Quaking Dover adds details.
Sea smoke
When the air temps drop to near zero Fahrenheit or below around here, these sprites start dancing atop the ocean.
Our fishing boats are louder than you’d think
As his Canadian colleagues keep asking Eastport’s leading skipper, “When are you getting a muffler?” Meaning on his boat, the Ocean Obsession.
From our house, they often sound like propeller airplanes. Without looking, I can tell when the fishing fleet is venturing out, often before sunrise these days.
On the other hand, we rarely hear sirens, highway traffic, or aircraft.
It’s our principal ‘big city’
Bangor, Maine, population of 31,753, is the third-largest city in Maine. For us in Way Downeast, it’s also where we go for airline flights, medical specialists, the mall and big-box stores, and much more. It also has the region’s daily newspaper.
Thomas Hill Standpipe overlooks the city and valley below.
Oh, yes, it’s still a 2½-hour drive from Eastport.
Sometimes a small city can have a big impact
Bangor, Maine, has about the same population as Dover, New Hampshire – 30,000-plus.
But it’s the center of a wide region and has the spotlight to itself. In fact, though I live a 2½-hour drive away, it’s the place we often turn to for what many folks take for granted.
Here’s some perspective.
- It’s where the Penobscot River meets the ocean, so historically it was the world’s leading producer of lumber, which was floated down from the North Woods, milled, and then packed on ocean-going ships.
- Well, that did lead to Old Money, which can be seen in the remaining stately homes and churches built by lumber barons in the 19th century.
- The river also separates the city from Brewer, which adds another 10,000 or so to the metro population and provides some of the services and products we seek.
- Not just the mall and big-box stores, though some of them do deliver way out to our fringe of the state. Don’t overlook new auto dealerships and their service departments, either. Well, we do have one dealer out here in Sunrise County, but it’s not Toyota.
- The vast Northern Light Eastern Medical Center on the bank of the Penobscot River is the hub of an integrated health system spanning much of the state. Frequently, that means this is where your specialist is.
- Bangor International Airport. It’s where you have to go if you need to a commercial airline connection or are meeting an arrival.
- Media. Starting with the Bangor Daily News and Maine Public’s studio.
- University of Maine in neighboring Orono. Well, its impact spills over into downtown Bangor, should you be looking for funky.
- By the 1880s, Bangor was also a leading producer of moccasins, more than 100,000 a year. Should that be a footnote?
- The downtown was struck by major fires in 1856, 1869, 1872, and 1911 – the last one destroying the high school, post office, custom house, public library, telephone and telegraph companies, banks, two fire stations, six churches and a synagogue, about 100 businesses and 285 residences.
Jnana's Red Barn 