Jay and Carol Sanford from West Boylston, MA, who were spending a week at Castle Island Camps for at least the twelth time, had a chance meetup with Take It Outside columnist Pete Kallin. More…
These archival articles are presented “as is.” Except for minor corrections or clarifications, most have not been updated since they appeared in print. Thus, some details may be out of date, and some hyperlinks may no longer work.
Footprints of the 4th
by Esther J. Perne
It is the 4th of July holiday, the week leading up to it and the week leading away from the 4th and we live the rituals and traditions during this time that those who fought to establish this country might have dreamed for us: celebrations sane and simple; gatherings fun and festive; food typically and basically American; the parades, the fireworks, the flags.
It is summer, the real-time season and the way summer should be season, when, for all its weather ups and downs, the outdoors is doable and inviting for venturing forth. Trails and waterways, parks and picnic areas, outdoor arenas and starlit stages are as good as a celebration can get.
It is a time for vacation or a long weekend or a long day off to take the family or friends and take advantage of the region. Differences of ages, abilities, fitness, interests, shrink as the pursuit of the many activities in the area pulls people together.
It is the holiday itself, the formal gatherings in Augusta, Belgrade Lakes, Farmington and Winthrop. The crowds getting sunburned or rained on, eating concession fare, feeling friendly and enjoying the wholesomeness of the event.
It is the memories, the day after, the months after, the years after…
We did only what is typical and traditional of the holiday, following in the footsteps of those who founded this country, who might have dreamed such a legacy for us … and wasn’t it wonderful?
Before I tell you about my wonderful grandmother Alice Johnson, I need to fill you in on some background.
As a youngster, meaning more or less the age span from 5 to 10 years, during the 1950s, the winter activities in Belgrade Lakes were probably not any different than those of any small New England village. Somewhere in town or perhaps on the outskirts, a hill was claimed and named the "sliding place."
In our little village that many of you know from walking the street in the summer, a rather nondescript little hill exists behind what was then my parent’s house. It is the house directly across from the lime green house, about midway through town.
At any rate, when conditions were good after a snow storm, we few kids in the village would improve a sliding track down over this gentle grade that ran all the way to the Mill Stream. To make this a "fast track" we would snowshoe up and down the hill until we had a track perhaps 4 feet wide. Just at dusk, about 4:00 p.m. in those cold months, we used my mother’s sprinkler can and lugged water from the kitchen sink spigot out to the track and sprinkled it on. During the cold night an ice track was created by mother nature. Most days after school, we kids would have wonderful gatherings which we called "sliding parties."
The track was fast for us little munchkins aboard the Flexible Flyer sleds and aluminum discs, even an old time bob sled that could take as many as 5 or 6 kids at once. Sometimes a big chunk of waxed paper worked well too. The one rule that mother enforced was no going out on the Mill Stream ice. Sometimes we were going so fast that we had to purposely tip over just before leaving land for the iced over stream.
No ice travel was permitted until the fathers had checked the ice thickness and given the okay. If the thumbs up came we not only slid out onto the stream but in later years had skating parties too, with bonfires right on the ice. Some years the conditions were right to skate all the way out through the narrows and onto Great Pond, though most usually that was not the case. When the dam is open the stream is never safe to skate on.
As you can imagine, kids got wet from the ice and snow and cold hands were a problem. Some kids came with no mittens, and that’s where Grammie J. showed her colors. While my mother made hot donuts for us sliders, Gram would call in any kid without mittens. She would instruct them to lay their hand on the table over a piece of felt cloth, then briskly trace around the perimeter of the little hand and send them back out.
Within fifteen minutes she would cut out 4 "hands" and sew up 2 mittens that would more than do in a pinch. She’d then yell from the back porch for that child, who left with warm mittens to make a few more sled runs before heading home with warm hands.
That was Grammie Johnson, who lived her adult life on School Street in the Lakes. My grandfather Ernest built the house in the early part of the 20th century where they raised 3 boys, Clifford, Albert and Walter. Grampa J. died in 1952 while tending a trap line down in lower Long Pond, actually Ingraham Stream. Grammie spent a lot of time at our house after his death and wintered many more years with Uncle Al and Aunt Lydia Johnson in Boca Raton, Florida where she died in 1959.
Thank you Gram for your generosity to all, and for your good humor. I remember that you liked to steal my biscuits at the supper table!
Daughter Joan nets a three-pound smallie for her dad on Father’s Day.
by Pete Kallin
The week began with a Father’s Day visit from my younger daughter, Joan, and her husband, Taber. After visiting the farmers' market and picking up brunch, we headed home for a delicious meal made from fresh, locally produced ingredients.
It was a nice day so we decided to do an afternoon sightseeing cruise around Long Pond. I took along a couple of fishing rods, "just in case." As it happened, when my son-in-law, Taber, wanted to drive the boat for a bit, I sat up in the bow with a flyrod.
As we were motoring slowly up Beaver cove toward the base of French Mountain, I took a cast and connected with a nice bass. It jumped several times and with some alacrity, my daughter netted it for me. I’m not sure that would have happened if it weren’t Father’s Day. I know I created some fond new memories. Judging by the look on her face, I think my daughter was also creating memories although perhaps not quite as fond as mine!
One day last week I volunteered to fill in for one of BRCA’s regular Courtesy Boat Inspectors, so he could attend a special staff event. As soon as I got to the ramp and sat down, a dozen members of the Saco Valley Castmasters, a bass fishing club based in southern Maine and NH, showed up for an all-day tournament on Long Pond. I inspected all the boats as they launched one after another to make an 8 a.m. shotgun start.
Major League Fishing used the Belgrade Region for their national championships last year and more and more bass fishermen from across the country are coming to our area to visit and experience some of our truly outstanding bass fishing. The clubs come to the region, spend a few days in a local hotel and typically spend a couple of days scouting or "pre-fishing," before a couple of days of competition. The excellent fishing also attracts more visitors to local sporting camps such as Bear Springs Camp (Great Pond), Whisperwood (Salmon Lake), Alden Camps (East Pond), and Castle Island Camps (Long Pond). Good water quality is important to these local businesses and they are all strong supporters of the local lake associations, and other conservation organizations such as the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance and the Maine Lakes Resource Center.
John Rice from Castle Island Camps organizes and judges the loon calling contest that takes place in Belgrade Lakes every year on the first Saturday in August. It is a unique and fun event and if you have never been, I highly recommend you add it to your "bucket list," especially if you have young kids or grandkids.
The Grants from Fairfield on French Mountain.
I frequently meet visitors from these camps on our lakes and many of them eventually become permanent residents after years of visits. On a recent windy day Jay and Carol Sanford, who were spending the week at Castle Island Camps for at least the 12th time, sought shelter in the lee of the same island and struck up a conversation while fishing in the same area. They are from West Boylston, MA, where my older daughter lives, and very close to where I grew up many years ago. Turns out we knew several people in common. I later caught up to them and snapped their picture silhouetted in front of McGaffey Mountain and Roundtop in the Kennebec Highlands.
I also spent a few days hiking some of the local trails and ran into the Grant family from Fairfield. Mom grew up in this area and frequently hiked French Mountain while growing up and decided it was a perfect place to take Kiera and Alex out hiking for the day. French Mountain is an awesome place to introduce young kids to hiking, maybe with a picnic lunch at the top.
This area offers some great outdoor recreation, whether you like to hike, bike, birdwatch, fish, sail, or paddle a canoe or kayak. Pick up a map of the local trails at Day’s Store or from the BRCA at the Maine Lakes Resource Center. And make sure you take a kid along on your next outdoor adventure. Also, please check the MLRC web site for details on some interesting events scheduled this summer. Check the web site and keep an eye on the sign out front.
After the two "Dam" novels, The Dam Committee and More Dam Trouble, which brought much hilarity to the Belgrade Dam area residents, we now have an historic novel about Waterville Lebanese immigrants in the good old 1950s, prejudice and all. Remember Elvis Presley and the black and white TV your neighbor had before your family finally bought one?
Seems like yesterday. The popular music, dance steps, high school nervousness, first dates: all this in Waterville with Colby College in the mix. Earl Smith portrays his very sensitive story through the eyes of a teenage girl who has no trouble flaunting custom. She is quite the free spirit and the reader can not help but root for her.
Angela Jamal somehow learns to play classical piano without having an instrument to practice on everyday. The public school music teacher discriminates against the Canadian French (Canucks) and the Lebanese students. This occurs in selection of leads for the musical productions as well as the use of the pianos in the school.
Despite an abusive, drunk father, Angela often finds refuge next door at her best friend’s home Margaux Mathieu (polio shriveled leg) and at her piano teacher’s home Mr. M. (Lebanese name too long for most). She is nicknamed Angel by her caring piano teacher … it is a wonder that no one else endeared her this way before her teenage years? The two girls trek around Waterville to places like The Opera House, various churches, the wire bridge which is on the book cover, etc.
A murder mystery is within this teenage trauma story involving the drunken father who spends too much time and money at the local dive. The two girls confront the bartender and somehow force local police to investigate Angela’s drunken father’s death more thoroughly.
Since most of us have enjoyed many occasions at the Opera House, it is wonderful to read about the musical production held there by the Waterville High School students. Our Angela becomes prominent at the last minute, much to the surprise of everyone.
Her love of Beethoven and Mr. M’s fine piano teaching is beautifully described along with the comfort of a warm escape from a terrifying father. The coziness of Mr. M’s small apartment with upright piano and cuddly cat is quite the contrast to Angela’s home where the curtains blow in the winter cold. Her brother escapes by signing up for the military and her mother copes by working and attending mass daily.
The cardboard keyboard certainly plays an important role in the story of learning music. Mr. M. explains her talent: she has an ear for music. She practices so much that her homework suffers. Angel loves music. When her courses are changed to boring subjects, Angela decides to buckle down and do her homework with friends helping her to catch up. Fortunately, her courses are switched back to college prep, even though her family can not afford the expense of college.
The repeated yearly flashbacks of news bulletins was helpful to bringing context to the Waterville scenes we were being so intimately immersed in. I must admit I had to Google the meteorite that hit a woman in Alabama. Remember that one? She was fine, only minor injury to her hip. Laugh out loud humor happened when "Ode to Joy" was silently thought about for her Father’s funeral. La-Di-Das are mentioned often and the reader is clear about who they are!
This fine novel about Waterville in the 1950s makes me curious about Earl Smith’s two histories: Mayflower Hill: A History of Colby College and With the Help of Friends: A History of the Colby Art Museum. Off to the library I will go to check more books!
This week I’d like to introduce you to a couple of "characters" who I’ll try and feature in future "Conservation Too" articles. The first is Lush Lawn Lenny. Lenny, or LLL for short, has a huge, well manicured lawn right up to the water’s edge. It looks great from both the water and the family deck which overlooks the lawn. He can be seen weekly using his riding lawnmower, one of those zero-turning-radius rigs, as he mows and bags the lawn clippings. He frequently fertilizes with a heavy dose in the spring to make the lawn turn green quickly. He also uses herbicide to keep those pesky broad leaf weeds at bay. He doesn’t use the lawn much, though the grandkids occasionally visit and may play in the area.
Just down the pond’s shoreline is another landowner, known in the neighborhood as Unruly Ursula. She has chosen to let the underbrush grow in beneath the large canopy of pine trees and has even planted a mixture of viburnum, dogwood, and other flowering and fragrant shrubs. She maintains a relatively narrow pathway made of stones, gravel and erosion control mulch down to the water’s edge, where she can launch her kayak and sailboat from a small, seasonal dock. From the water, boaters would hardly know that her three-season camp exists. Her view from the deck is out over the thick, low-growing shrubs and beneath the pines. She can seen rummaging around in the yard, pulling invasive plants and replacing them with some of the native plant options.
We would recommend against the drive to have a lush lawn. Go with a "Maine lawn." Many of us would not have a lawn without the dandelions or other broad-leaved weeds. We recommend only managing a lawn and yard that you actually use. The drive of many landowners to create and manage their prize "lawnscape" is definitely more work and the methods used can harm the pond, lake, stream or wetland’s water quality.
Each year, an average family with a one-third-acre lawn will use up to 18 gallons of fossil fuels in their lawn manage efforts. That includes gasoline plus the petroleum products used for fertilizer and pesticides.
An attractive lawn can be grown without regular use of pesticides (weed, insect, or disease controls) and little or no added fertilizer. What are the options for people who still want that great, green and lush yard? You need to ask yourself a few questions:
How much of your yard needs to be lawn? (I’ve visited LakeSmart sites with none.)
How much of your yard even needs to be managed? Let some of the property grow back to a more natural state with local varieties of plants and little to no need for maintenance. (Some people only mow trails and have a spot to play croquet or locate a picnic table. Control any invasive plants.)
Given the amount of lawn you need, what sort of grass would be best? Different varieties grow better in different conditions and soils. Get a soil test to learn what will be best and what, if any, soil amenities you need, i.e. fertilizer.
Once a lawn area is established, how and when should you mow and maintain it? The following information may help:
If and when fertilizer is applied, it should be done only once or twice a year in late August or September. This approach provides fertilizer when the grass can best utilize it, not when it is likely to run off into waterways (Always sweep fertilizer back onto the lawn from sidewalks and driveways). Fertilizer should never be applied to frozen or saturated soils, or in advance of expected heavy rain.
Select grass seed that works in your area and demands less maintenance. Turf-type tall fescues and fine-leaf fescues require less fertilizer and water and are more shade-tolerant. In small amounts, perennial rye grass, because of its quick growth rate, is perfect for overseeding bare spots but it is not as suitable for covering an entire lawn.
Mow your smaller lawn to maximize its health. Higher mowing heights leave a lawn with more resistance to water movement, therefore reducing runoff. They also tolerate a higher population of pests without significant damage. Taller grass shades out weeds and reduces the number of seeds that germinate.
In much of Maine, an appropriate lawn needs little watering. Only if absolutely necessary, deeply soak the lawn once or twice a week with a total of 1" of water. Shallow watering encourages shallow root growth, thatch buildup, and increases the potential for pesticide and fertilizer runoff.
Remember why you like spending the summer here in Maine with its great lakes and streams and greenery. Here is a hint: IT’S THE WATER! How you manage and care for your yard, can have a disastrous impact on water quality. DO YOUR PART!
My yard care can seem like anarchy. I seldom water the grass, then only a small patch in front of the house. Much of the original lawn is now garden mulched with old leaves and stump grindings. The gardens are situated to collect nearly all the water runoff from my yard. The remaining lawn is only mowed in selective areas. Whole sections just have pathways mowed through and the "wild stuff" is allowed to grow until late fall when I cut and compost the summer’s growth.
