6280-R1_CIC_March2019_Calendar_Web

Marty’s Memories: Hamilton Beach by Marty Trower

I try not to think about change too much, but sometimes it’s good to just stop and look at it and acknowledge it. The thing is, I love Hamilton Beach just the way it is now, but I remember it other ways too as it has evolved over the years. The most exciting vision comes not from my own memory but from a jerky 8-mm movie that my father took at a picnic with his teen- aged cronies on Capps’ Point. The almost grownups are sitting and standing and milling around a campfire built into the rocks. They are batting away the smoke, moving to get away from it. There is no sound, of course, but I recognize a young Jack Zaugg sitting, beaming up at a young woman who just might have been Mary (“Meow”) Capps Stelle. He is flirting like crazy and very happy. The most extraordinary part of this clip is the quick flash of a view of the majestic, gleaming white Hamilton Hotel off in the background. I never saw the hotel, but I heard so much about it because my father spent his summers there from the time he was a young boy until World War II.When the war came, the grand place had to be torn down because visitors were unable to come and the owner couldn’t pay the taxes. The guest cottages remain and are summer homes now. I’ve heard that one of the outbuildings was removed and taken to the Harmon property on Soule Road and is now Michael and Barbara Porter’s home. The hotel was a fancy place noted for its dances with music provided by a live orchestra, tea parties, and a large front porch where older ladies sat and bobbed in rocking chairs, looking out over the beach. My grandmother, apparently, was one of them. A long wooden pier extended out from a walkway from the hotel, and guests strolled and sat on benches, admiring the prize tunas caught by anglers from sports fishing boats. SAint Patrick’s Day Community lunch At The Hall March 13, 2019 butter • Clapshot • Green salad • soda bread • chocolate stout cake suggested donation: $7 Doors Open at NOON! if you’re lucky enough to be irish, you’re lucky enough! Generously sponsored by jack’s property service ! Corned beef • colcannon • carrots glazed with Honey

My father sailed and horsed around with other summer kids whose families and descendants still come to the island. Most were in cottages near or around the beach: the Beeches (Fred Martindale), the Hubbells (Rich and Liz), the Harmons (Michael Porter, Mary Cushman, Maggie Bossi, and Norah Alper), the Cookes (Rozzie Read), the Zauggs (Alexandra, Mimi, and Renee), the Buxbaums (Don and Bob), Margaret and Polly Newell (Jack Turner), Steve and Mary Capps (Rosemary Capps Merchant), the Swanns (Sarah Van Fleet), the Gwillims (Sue Whitney Burgess, Lee Whitney, and Mark Gwillim), the Estabrooks, the Layngs (Joan Dayton, Brian and John Layng, Sue Bogle, and Sally Crapser) and the Moultons (Julie, Jennifer, and James Ragan). Gertrude Jones’ old cottage is still filled with photographs of the beach the way it was. My best friend Maggie and I used to go exploring where the hotel once stood. I remember finding rusting fencing, remnants of the tennis court, tangled in weeds. We used to swing from branches that draped over the sand and rummage around the exposed round brick well that served the hotel. A good part of the pier survived, upright pilings that gradually disappeared with every passing year. Today, only a few stubs of these pilings remain in the sand, to the left of John Layng’s house, and the odd brick from the well shows up occasionally, lodged in the sand at low tide. The sand has come and gone so often, it’s hard to keep track of it. The banking, where Native American middens expose thin, white bits of clamshells, still tempt us to look for arrowheads. I finally found one once, the beach-combing highlight of my life. Living in my parents’ cottage on the beach year-round now, I often wake up at night during blasting winter storms and wonder how I will find the shore when I walk the beach in the morning. Classified Ads Top Shelf Cleaning and Services: Cleaning, moving cars to and from the Stone Pier or Chandlers Wharf, snowplowing and snowblowing, and winter house watching—daily, weekly, or monthly—lawn mowing, and light tractor work. For more information, call Cindy at 207-846-1055. Seasonal Rental at 13 Island View Rd: Fully equipped summer home with 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, and private right of way to the water; $900 per week plus a $300 security deposit. Contact Richard Bowen at rhbowen3@gmail.com or 207-831-6148. Notices Ladies Aid: Please join us for crafty projects and camaraderie at 11:00 a.m. each Thursday. Catholic Communion Service: A regular Catholic Communion Service will be held every Saturday at 4:00 p.m. at the church. Sew Good: Sew Good will meet March 13 and 27 from 1:00 to 5:00 p.m. at the Parish House. For more information, please call Lola Armstrong (846-4737) or Karen Corson (846-0938).

nt Patrick’s Day munity lunch At The H ll arch 13, 2019 rned beef • colcannon • rots glazed w th Honey r • Clapshot • Green salad • bread • chocolate stout cake uggested donation: $7 Doors Open at NOON! ’re lucky enough to be irish, you’re lucky enough! rously sponsored by jack’s property service !

SAint Patrick’s Day Community lunch At The H ll March 13, 2019 Corned beef • colcannon • carr ts glazed with Honey butter • Clapshot • Green salad • soda bread • chocolate stout cake suggested donation: $7 Doors Open at NOON! if you’re lucky enough to b irish, you’re lucky enough! Generou ly sponsored by jack’s property service !

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MARCH 2019 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR