I’m guessing you came to Maine in August during a so-called Red Tide algal bloom. I got sick on clams myself one August when I was a kid. I didn’t eat clams for years and years afterward. There really is more to Maine, however, than nasty clams!

I’m glad your memories are better.

Frank Bean, the man who originally built most of the cottages at The Cape, was legendary for making do with what he had.

That is how a bank of metal kitchen cabinets that suddenly fell off the wall in one cabin was repositioned with a single railroad spike!

That is how a ’47 Chevy, with the windows rolled up and the seats removed, was rolled into a ditch and covered with dirt so that it could serve as a septic tank for another cabin.

They’ve long since gone legit around the place, of course, but people still like to tell the stories of the old days.

One of my favorites is a recipe for preparing the land-locked salmon from the lake. The recipe is called “twice-poached salmon” and reads as follows:

1. Catch out of season.
2. Steam until done.

—–

My parents sold the place they had in Stow in 1985. I’ve only been up there a couple of times in the years since. The place where that camp was situated was, I swear, the black fly and mosquito capital of the universe.

Ah yes, I remember the weekend you and I rode in the back of your Dad’s pickup truck to your family camp in Stow. The only electric was from storage batteries from a system your father invented (he was a skilled electrician). Rustic, peaceful, a fond memory.