Memories of Winter Harbor

Since reconnecting with some dear old friends from a time long passed here on Facebook, I've been fortunate to have a flood of memories from those days. These days are specifically from the 6th to the 9th grade in Winter Harbor, Maine. My Dad was stationed at the Naval Security Group Activity in Acadia National Park. He remembers that assignment as one of the worst of his career due to a fractured chain of command and a lot of drama, but for us kids growing up there it was the times of our short lives. There was something special about that place, there was something special about that time in our lives, there was something special about the world and our place in it.

I recently posted a request for all my Maine friends to post favorite memories for those days, favorite places, whatever. From getting dipped ice cream cones on the way home from Church at Jordan's to going for a soda and candy after school at Marie's. Trips to the movies, skiing, bike rides, bowling, swimming (and freezing our butts off, as Cassandra reminds) at Grindstone and the Lighthouse pools, roller skating Saturday nights. There are things that will live on in our hearts and minds forever. The 5 & Dime URL_REMOVED Winter Harbor Grammar School (does anyone else even have Grammar Schools anymore? Most places have Middle Schools now), Fisherman's Inn, Chipman's Grocery Store, the Post Office, the Lobster Festival, and last but not least playing in the snow and going to the service station to get a patched up innertube, icing down Suicide Hill and making ramps to jump whenever we had a good enough snowfall...

Then there are specific memories from the time, such as kicking the crap out of Gouldsboro's soccer team every year, playing the Artful Dodger in Oliver (Aaron you made a great Fagin), Mark Hall's psychotic short stories, Vicky and her broken leg, Billy Bickford being the fist kid I ever saw smoking a cigarette, school dances...in our classroom, picking fresh blackberries and blueberries in the summer, borrowing Bobbi Jo Conley's Duran Duran album (on vinyl, of course) and then losing it in the snow on the way to school (I replaced it though), playing basketball in each others' driveways, making pavement drawings with chalk, skinning my whole leg on barnacles as I slipped on the rocky coast, and having crushes on Jan Brewer, Shannon Gentile, Stephanie Ludwig and most of the rest of the girls in the class. I remember learning about the world in Maine, learning about the arms race and what a "cold war" was, being scared shitless that the world was going to end after I learned what a "nuclear winter" was (remember that show we watched in class about it?), and seeing the Space Shuttle explode in Mr. Rudolph's class was our equivalent to Kennedy's assassination, "where were you when..."

Anyway, I thank Facebook for reminding me of all this, reconnecting with old friends from that time has reconnected my memories with that time. I might even have to plan a trip back to visit. :)