Summer 2018: Time to Celebrate

by Esther J. Perne

Live here? Summer is especially welcome. Vacation here? What a grand season to return to. Visit here? Discover the find of a lifetime.

All summers in this beautiful region are wonderful, welcome, something to celebrate. But the summer of 2018? Bring it on.

Following a winter of record length and bitter strength and a spring that wouldn't be, the Belgrades and all of Maine are ready for the greening of the land, the climbing heat, even the bugs.

The region is ready for seasonal businesses to open, tourists to stroll the sidewalks and water ways to sparkle in the distance around almost every bend in the road.

The region is ready for a good old-fashioned summer, whether it's sandals to work or bare feet in the water, ready for that first dip in the lake, that first tug on the fishing line, that first cookout, picnic or visit to a scenic height and all the other celebrations of summer.

This is the season when dressing less is best, when eating outdoors is awesome, when it's fun to sit in the sun or jump in the water. It's also fun and easy to visit the area's historic and cultural sites, pack into crowded seasonal events and attractions, linger in parks and outdoor cafes, take part in all the free activities and presentations that the region provides or plan an awesome day trip to the coast, the mountains or Maine destinations yet unfamiliar.

This is the season when for those who have work schedules as usual, with regular jobs or with seasonally long hours helping others enjoy summer, there is celebration, too, be it the occasional day or hour or break.

This is the season when there are moments to be taken to appreciate that living here is what guests to the area only get to dream … and seasonally visit … and celebrate.

Celebrate the summer of 2018: Bring it on.

Letter from the Editor

Dear Readers:

Welcome to the summer of 2018, to the season of warmth and renewal, to the time of year when outdoor events abound, when relaxation is in the air and when nature provides a full array of adventure and discovery, of beauty and peacefulness.

For Summertime in the Belgrades, summer means greeting returnees to the world they love, encouraging year-rounders to take part in the vacation side of this beautiful, bountiful region, delivering the paper in Waterville, Augusta, Skowhegan, Farmington, all the Belgrades, all the Kennebec corridor and river towns in central Maine and wherever we have advertisers, and enjoying some of the many opportunities for theater, art, music, festivals, public suppers, water sports, scenic drives and views and back-to-nature opportunities featured in our pages.

With each new season — this is our 27^th — there will be change: new faces, new names, new construction, new places to eat and new first annual events. But there is changelessness, too: the same scents and sounds of summer since time way gone by, the same delighted expressions of children splashing in the water or eating ice cream or cheering on a parade, the same appreciation of adults from all over the world who vacation, visit or pass through this area and recognize that here is a special place.

It is changelessness that Summertime in the Belgrades will refreshingly provide throughout the season of 2018. The same popular columnists are returning: Pete Kallin is "taking it outside" and encouraging everyone else to do the same; Belgrade's "luckiest boy" Rod Johnson is sharing the town's history; Dale Finseth and team at the Kennebec County Soil and Water Conservation District are presenting conservation wisdom; Martha Barkley is reviewing a potpourri of Maine books; Dick Greenan is offering dam reports; and conservation groups and organizations are reporting on their decades-long work toward goals of protected waters and preserved lands.

Summertime's Calendar of Events will again reflect the continuity of annual occasions and outings, the Notebook will be filled with actions ad visions that have endured and each issue will promote advertisers who have a long history (as long as 27 years) of supporting us — for which we thank them.

Welcome to the summer of 2018. Take a hike, go jump in a lake, listen to an outdoor concert and enjoy reading Summertime in the Belgrades.

The team: Esther, Corey, Ethan
Michael and Gregor

Time to Rember, Time to Look Ahead

by Rod Johnson

A spring snow in Belgrade Lakes Village.

Welcome, all. Here we are again, meeting for the first time in 2018. Thanks to Esther Perne and the Summertime news crew, each May and June we gather and catch up — with renewed hope and excitement that another summer is nearly upon us.

Speaking of winter, let's chat briefly about what a brute it was for all that stayed here. Like many, I'm a coward and ran away to Florida, but saw all the photos and heard the chatter about how tough it was at times. No sooner had the area semi-recovered from the late October storm that devastated much of the state of Maine, when the temperatures plummeted to some record setting low numbers. As people adjusted to the severity of the cold temperatures, it warmed up slightly and dumped snow storm after snowstorm to set more records on given dates. All in all, with the longevity of winter thrown in for good measure, people were TIRED of winter when March rolled around.

Happily, spring has sprung and summer is on the forefront. How do we know all this? Let us ponder it and list some of the signs. We cannot ignore the forsythia's bright yellow flowers as we come up the Maine Turnpike, or the crocuses that have popped up around the foundation of the houses. Both are early bloomers, and as dependable as old friends. Memorial Day weekend is not far off and is the first major drawing card. It signifies a beginning, an opening time, and shoots us out of the gate into full-fledged summer.

As we move ahead through June and look forward to family and friends visiting, the July 4^th fireworks and boat parades, let us thank our lucky stars. We have the beautiful State of Maine and in particular, the gorgeous Belgrades and surrounding area in which to enjoy some time. Let us also thank all the people who, in various organizations, work their tails off and donate money to preserve what is here.

Things are not without change. This summer, changes in Belgrade Lakes village will be extremely evident as the rebuilding of the road and sidewalks is beginning. The initial phases will no doubt shock us, as part of the project involves taking down most all of the elderly maples that line Main Street. Each of us must come to terms with the new look that will emerge as the final phases are completed in 2019/2020 — and be patient during the construction period.

In closing this "remembrance and looking ahead" story, it is appropriate to give a salute to those Belgrade dwellers who passed away during 2017 and early 2018 — and welcome the newborns that have taken their places here among us.

Having just read E.B. White's Once More to the Lake, I personally am excited and elated that another spring has sprung. Welcome, all!

The Great War 100 Years Ago

by Martha F. Barkley

Last summer at the Belgrade Public Library, Richard Rubin from Brunswick, Maine, reminded the crowd gathered that the French have not forgotten what the American soldiers sacrificed for them one hundred years ago. Maybe we Americans have, but the French have not.

The Last of the Doughboys, 2013, and the newly published Back Over There by historian Rubin both tell the stories of "The Forgotten Generation and Their Forgotten World War." After he spent years traveling to interview WWI veterans across the USA before they died, Rubin's historical account made such a splash that the New York Times sent him to France to find the farm fields and forests where these momentous battles were fought when American troops entered in 1917.

We were shown slides of some of the WWI vets covered extensively in Doughboys: Moses Hardy of Aberdeen, Mississippi on his 113^th birthday and Samuel Goldberg in Greenville, RI at age 106, et al. Yes, alive and responsive to Rubin's several visits and multiple interviews. "Some say (doughboys) refers to the phenomenon of infantry, covered in dust after a long march down dirt roads, looking as if they had rolled in flour; others attribute it to the popularity of doughnuts — distributed by the Salvation Army…"

Most of the slides shared at the library presentation were from Rubin's later visits to the verdant Alsace farming country and tractor roads where the bloody battles took place. The beautiful Argonne forests have vacation pathways where off, in the trees, are trenches, cement and earthen, and much evidence of WWI. He collected many a souvenir of war, one quite dangerous that he did not touch. His local guide and WWI museum owner, sprayed the dangerous munition with bright orange. After twenty or so such finds, the explosive experts will arrive to remove them. Too often people are hurt or killed in this area of embattlement 100 years later.

One particular find surprised me greatly. Rubin said there were many, like mushrooms, when fields were tilled. They are the German electrical connectors for all their cement trenches and underground tunnels. The Germans electrified villages as they conquered them.

"In the last forty-seven days of World War I, 26,277 Americans were killed fighting in the vicinity, in what is now known as the Meuse-Argonne Offensive; it remains, to this day, the deadliest battle in American history. More than fourteen thousand of them are buried in Romagne, spread out over 130 acres in what is the largest American cemetery in Europe". General Pershing was the man in charge of these magnificent cemeteries with rows and rows of crosses or the Star of David for every soldier.

Not many Americans visit these places, but the local French people smiled every time Rubin revealed he was American and not British. Perhaps some of us could make the pilgrimage to find these same places so carefully explored in Back Over There: One American Time-Traveler, 100 Years Since the Great War, 500 Miles of Battle-Scarred French Countryside, and Too Many Trenches, Shells, Legends and Ghosts to Count.

Welcome Back to Summer

by Pete Kallin

Amanda Simpson of Sidney snowshoes with her kids at French Mountain on the first day of spring.

When I was growing up and there was any kind of ruckus in the house, which was pretty common with six kids, my mother would tell us to, "Take it outside!" We would then head out to the woods behind the house to find something to do.

My mother was a wise woman. Fifty years before Richard Louv wrote Last Child in the Woods in 2008, she had an innate understanding of "nature deficit disorder" and knew that direct exposure to nature is essential for a child's healthy physical and emotional development. Louv later proved that kids who spend a lot of time outside are healthier, have longer attention spans, and are less likely to suffer from depression or childhood obesity. If you haven't read Louv's book, you should.

I hope this column will inspire you to take advantage of all the outdoor recreation opportunities in our area and especially about the importance of getting youngsters outside and interacting with Mother Nature. Mother Nature is an amazing teacher and we can all learn from her.

A 22″ salmon showing a wound from pike near the anal fin.

Like last year, this winter seemed to come and go, with snow followed by melting, rain, and then more snow and cold. The ice fishing was tough due to the cold and wind but the skiing was good in protected areas. The ice went out in the fourth week of April, more like the old days rather than recent times. The fishing has been good, especially for bass, pike, and trout. Once the surface water hit about 50°F, the fish began to get active and I caught a lot of very large (3- to 4.5-pound) bass on flies fished deep near the bottom in about 20 feet of water near dropoffs.

By the time this article is published, the water temperature will be in the mid to high 60s in most of our lakes and the bass will be in the shallows, either on their own beds or chasing sunfish on their beds. Fast action can be had with streamer flies, surface poppers, jerk baits, or Senko type jigs.

There have also been some nice trout taken in the spillway below the Belgrade Lakes dam, including a couple of nice salmon I caught just after ice-out. I released a 24″, 4-pounder and kept the smaller of the two (22″) because it had recently been wounded by an attack by a large pike and wasn't doing well.

Salmon fry.

Every spring I act as a "Fish Friends" mentor for the Atlantic Salmon Federation. I work with several schools (and the Maine Lakes Resource Center) to help students raise Atlantic Salmon fry in refrigerated tanks in the classroom from eggs we receive from the National Hatchery at Green Lake in Ellsworth. The students study salmon life cycles and migrations and the fish are eventually stocked into the Bond Brook in Augusta to help restore this Federally-listed endangered species. This year the MLRC and students from Readfield Elementary, Winthrop HS, and St Johns in Winslow released nearly 800 salmon fry. This is a great program and gets young people excited about this critical species.

Gabriella Blanco of Winthrop High School takes pictures of her salmon fry with her iPhone.

The hiking trails in the Kennebec Highlands and nearby 7 Lakes Alliance (formerly the Belgrade Regional Conservation Alliance) properties like French Mountain, Mount Phillip, and The Mountain are beautiful, verdant, and awash in spring and early summer wildflowers like trillium and lady slippers and birds and other wildlife. Check the 7LA FaceBook site for upcoming events. In April, students from the Kent's Hill School worked a Community Service Day with the 7LA Stewardship Committee to help clean up the trails on The Mountain.

I encourage everyone to take advantage of the wealth of recreational opportunities this area offers. Take a kid fishing or on a hike, or paddling in a canoe. It's how memories are made. Or take a parent, so he or she can become a kid again.