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One Man’s Island by Bob Libby

Years ago, the Rec Center marked October with a scarecrow contest on Chebeague and we built a tall football-helmeted, white-jersey–wearing number 18 quarterback who was meant to replicate Peyton Manning, the recurring nemesis of the Patriots. Now we’re erecting another scarecrow in our new garden and struggling with which scary image to portray. Preliminary sketches favor a large pumpkin head coifed with cornsilk blond hair atop an overstuffed trash-bag body wearing a dark, extra-long business suit and an extra-long red tie. At the end of each extended arm is a really small garden glove. Yard art is a Maine tradition and Chebeague has its share of novel pieces. In spring the Maines’ Easter egg tree is a favorite, and the lobster buoy collection on Boisvert’s house always draws the eye of passing traffic. The great painted heron on the old oak stump at the top of Wharf Road has its admirers, and the granite blocks from stone sloop days give a perfect edge at the Historical Society Museum. For serious yard-art aficionados there is a giant monument to the history of satellite TV: the first cement dish erected in Bob Dyer’s yard almost fifty

years ago. Next time you drive by Roy Hill Road, check out the agriculture equipment display in front of Second Wind Farm. This is all preamble to the recognition of Chebeague’s pièce de résistance in the yard-art world: Tommy Calder’s fire truck. The 1963 LaFrance pumper truck found its way out to Chebeague a while ago after a distinguished career in the Portland Fire Department and was driven briefly on island and in at least one Fourth of July parade before its relegation to the field behind the Clam Shack. We have only encountered one other lawn- ornament fire truck in our travels. In West Newfield, about five miles from our Mountain Road farm, an ancient ladder truck from Cape Porpoise lounges in a yard on Route 110. October is the month that we who plan for the coming gardening year plant the bulbs, seeds, and shrubs we hope will appear and thrive after winter passes. We have learned from long experience that autumn is the best time to plant many specimens that will reward us for years to come. The tradition of the Recompense daffodils is a favorite reminder that spring will come again.

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OCTOBER 2018 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR