TALES FROM THE ATTIC: Things I remember

 From a talk I gave. 

THINGS I REMEMBER. . . .

 I remember at age nine being caught with some others in a thunderstorm out in the bay, sitting it out on Bustins Island and being towed back when it was over.

I remember working with Walter Stowe, caretaker of the place and former Massachusetts Highway Department supervisor.

Once I helped Mr. Stowe use a couple of ordinary jacks to jack up the 120 foot long big barn and put some new foundation stones under it.

When you picked up your end of a plank, the instructions never varied: "Head her southeast!"

How much does it cost: “25 cents, two bits, two dimes and a nickel, one quartah of a dollah."

And when his  brother-in-law, died, he said,  "That fella never was any good. Now he's upped and died right in the middle of hay season."

I REMEMBER LEARNING TO DRIVE AT 13

I REMEMBER LEARNING THE MAINE VERSION OF RECYCLING A FEW DECADES BEFORE THE TERM BECAME POPULAR

"Fix it up, make it do, wear it out, use it up, do without."

I REMEMBER TALBOTT KILBY

Kilby was a graduate of Freeport High School and had done well enough at some point in his life that he still went to Boston or New York once a year to check on his investments. The other thing that Kilby would do once a year was go to the dentist, who spread a sheet over the chair to protect it from Kilby's residue. Kilby would get a shot of Novocain and then leave the chair to go to the bank to get the money to pay the bill. By the time he returned, the Novocain had taken hold and the dentist could get underway.

I REMEMBER LEARNING MAINE HUMOR AND MAINE STORY TELLINGS

 Bob Guillamette 

·      How much further is it to Freeport? . . . About 3,000 miles the way you're headed. 

·      How do I get to Skowhegan? . . . Don't you move a goddamned inch.

 ·      How do I get to Boothbay Harbor? . . . Can't get there from here.

 ·      How do you get to Bangor? . . . Well, I usually get my brother to drive me

 I REMEMBER READING THE POLICE REPORT

SUNDAY , SEPTEMBER 3

420 PM. Kids moved their bikes from the sidewalk in front of Freeport Variety in order to make room for pedestrians, at the request of Officer Fulmer . . . 1010 PM. While investigating a suspicious person at the Middle School, Officer Walker was relieved to learn it was only Clayton Carkin, science teacher, feeding his spiders . . . 1020 PM. Officers Fulmer and Gillespie joined forces to battle a trash can blaze at the corner of Main and Mechanic Streets.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12

810 AM. Officer Carter responded to a call at the Brogan residence for a dog unable to get out a pool. In the process of getting the dog out of the pool, the dog bit Officer Carter. . . . 855 AM Officer Carter went back on duty after changing his trousers at home.

 I REMEMBER LEARNING TASKS SUCH AS

 Hauling ice from under the sawdust in the big barn back to the icebox, hauling trash to the dump, standing in holes ten feet deep and five feet wide as I helped to dig wells, stacking lumber, bringing up coal from the basement for the stove, taking garbage up to the barn to feed the pigs, painting and rigging the boats, helping pick an acre and an eighth of cucumbers, driving the results to the pickling factory in Portland, as  well as mowing, raking and spreading manure on fields 

 I  REMEMBER LEARNING TO SAIL

 When I was around 15, taking a couple of friends out who had never sailed before and getting caught in a 75 mile and hour storm in a 19 foot sailboat Being saved by a lobster boat that grabbed our bow line and kept us into the wind until it was over. I learned that day what Joseph Conrad meant when he said, "Of all the living creatures upon land and sea, it is ships alone that cannot be taken in by barren pretenses."   A phrase I would be reminded of often as operations officer of a Coast Guard cutter involved in heavy weather search and rescue. 

 I remember being junior treasurer of the brand new Harraseeket Yacht Club which had dues of 50 cents for adults and 25 cents for juniors, the cheapest in the country and getting a kick out of seeing us listed in a yacht club director with the Bermuda and New York equivalents.

 I remember my hero Harry Parker, owner of the boatyard including a work craft called the CAN DO  and former a PT boat skipper, I crewed for him once in  the New England Men's Sailing championship and we lost every race. Thinking that if that's the best Harry can do, I'd better give up trying to be racer. Years later, I modified this view when at two of the other competitors - Ted Hood and George O Day - became America's Cup  skippers.

 I REMEMBER WATCHING MY FATHER - two years before the publication of Silent Spring -  successfully sue the Central Maine Power Company for spraying power lines on his property.