4406-R2_CIC_September2016_Calendar_Web

Marty’s Memories: September Sighs by Marty Trower

September is the month when things thin out around here. Not so many people on the roads biking, walking, or running; not so many cars parked up the road from the Stone Pier, at the Island Market, or at the boat yard. The kids will be in the pool at the Rec Center, but only during physical education class. The yellow school bus will be rounding them up and dropping them off, tanned and eager and ready for anything. It will be just a little quieter all around. I remember what a huge wrench it was leaving around Labor Day to go home to Montreal when I was a young summer girl. Once, when my best friend Maggie was leaving for her year-round home a day before I was, I woke in a state because I had to see her off at the boat. It was what we did. I was late and had to run up the road with Skipper, our springer spaniel, following me and panting. Later, when I was around ten, I wrote a school essay about leaving Chebeague in September entitled “A Thing of Beauty Is a Joy Forever.” Here is an excerpt: Burn permits are still available for free through Ralph or Kim Munroe and Lisa Israel or online for a cost of $7 ($2 of which goes to the town) at www13.informe. org/burnpermit/public/index.html . As quite often happens this time of year, we are experiencing extremely high fire danger days. Please be aware and follow the rules before starting any fires. All fires must be attended at all times and require a burn permit. Ralph Munroe Cell 712-3827 Ralph and Kim Munroe Home 846-4654 Lisa Israel 274-0716 Important Resource Numbers AA 24-hour Hotline................. 774-4335/800-737-6237 Al Anon/Alateen to help family/ friends of alcoholics... 284-1844/800-498-1844 NA Hotline............................................... 800-974-0062 24-Hour Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention Hotline..................... 888-568-1112 Statewide Sexual Assault Crisis Hotline... 800-871-7741 Family Crisis Services............................... 800-537-6066 Firefighter Footnotes

I stopped at the top of the hill, catching my breath, looking down over the golf course to see the Nellie G, gleaming white against the racing blue water at the Stone Pier. When I arrived, Maggie’s mother was in a panic. Their cat had just had kittens, and she was frantically trying to stuff them all back into a duffle bag. Furry paws poked out from the gathers of the drawstring. Then the little mewing heads. She pushed them back in as if they were rolled up socks she was packing. Maggie reminded me to put some flowers on the grave of the bird we’d found and buried the day before. How sweet it looked, the violets and Queen Anne’s lace blowing in the breeze, the wooden cross tied together with grass and the pine needles and boughs lying beside it! I realized then that I was spending my last hours in the sunshine of this beautiful island. Tomorrow, I would be the one on the boat as the shores faded from sight. Chebeague truly is a thing of beauty, which will be a joy forever for me. Chebeague is home now, and I am so grateful. I won’t forget that tug I felt leaving it each time. I will also feel that tug when school starts and I am not there. And I will be missing William.

Charles W. Hal l

Builder

R EMODELING R ENOVATIONS

W INDOWS & D OORS

D ECKS

Sweating the details since 1999

Fully Insured

207-210-4982

charleshall@chebeague.net

11

SEPTEMBER 2016 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR