Maine \ Another Year

Our 18th summer.

This was a Go year.

Some years are Sitting years.  Everyone congregates on the rocks with their coffee and books (that are never actually read down on the rocks, but, rather, are hauled back to the house to be read in the perfectly tempered warmth of after lunch and before badminton resumes as the sun casts long shadows) and cameras and no one really leaves, except to migrate further down towards the water to sit and look for sea glass.

On a Go year, someone sets out to do something–rummage sale, thrift store, library book sale, frappe in town–and no one wants to be left behind, so we all pile in and off we go.  There is the usually murmuring and complaining when the town errands take longer than one or the other anticipated.  Really, though, that is just part of the whole Maine experience.

This year I found stilts in the attic.  Huge, old stilts.  I am quite pleased to say that my stilt walking skills have not been lost.  This, of course, means I have to admit that I loved a pair of swedish blue stilts as a kid and that, being the loner that I was, I perfected the art of walking forwards and backwards, up and down stairs.  So.  While I was pleased about being the only sibling who could walk with these stilts, it also meant I had to suffer through the gentle jabs about why I even had this archaic skill to begin with.  Hey.  You never know.  Maybe zombies can’t catch people on stilts.   Ok.  Probably not, but it was worth a shot.

Anyways, this was a Go year.  While we missed our absolutely favorite rummage sale, we did make out like bandits at the thrift stores and library book sales.  A good book on the history of trees is important in every family library.  And, we ate lots of ice cream, piled high and generous, from our favorite drug store.  More on the food we digested later….