The floats are going back into the water, one by one. More boats are appearing in the harbor. At night, when I look across the water, it’s not as dark as it used to be. Lights are beginning to twinkle here and there in hidden houses along the shore. On my own road, there are also more twinkling lights at night to interrupt the severe darkness. We don’t have any street lamps around here, so a house light is always noticed. There are more cars on the road, too, and soon there will be a ton of them.
What does it all mean?
It means the “summer people” are coming back. That’s what we call them. They only stay in Maine in the summer but leave by fall for
their homes in other states. It means
they’ve deemed the weather safe enough to return. There will be more people to wave to on the
road, which I often walk alone during the other seasons. There will be a general hustle and bustle, a
coming and going, and considerably more noise.
There will be an influx of cash into the local economy.
 |
| The shores are getting busier. |
I’ll be honest: The
summer people give me mixed emotions. On
the one hand, I’ve grown to like some of them and it’s nice to see an old face
after not seeing it for so long. It’s
nice to stop and chat and see what people have been up to. It’s nice to catch up on news and hear about
interesting planned outings. But on the
other hand, there’s a lot more noise and a lot more rudeness (that doesn’t
apply to them all). There are a lot of
big city attitudes and rushing around and turning up of noses to the local
country bumpkins. Like me, for example.
Still, most Mainers are happy to see the summer people come
back because it means that it will soon be summertime--and summertime means
fun! Yet most Mainers are also happy to
see the summer people leave because it means that we get our state and our
roads back, and things get nice and quiet again. It’s a mixed bag of blessings.
The old folk here in Maine
have a saying: If you can’t stand the
winters, you don’t deserve the summers.
I have to agree.
