We are off! Well, actually, by the time you read this, dear neighbors, we are here, settling in the summer camp, getting things ready for the onslaught of family and friends who make the yearly trek up to our little town of Orland, ME. Since 1970, my family has called this our “happy house” as 5 generations have brought kids, dogs, friends and all sorts of paraphernalia to our 1870s house.
My Grandparents, Fred and Ethel, owned a hunting/fishing camp of ten cabins on the lake across the highway since 1947. My cousins, brother and I spent our childhoods there, but after GP Fred died, my mom and her sister Lyle decided that being innkeepers up in Maine was not for them. But loving the area so much, they bought two camps on the lake downstream of the Toddy. We are on Alamoosook Lake, which is Wabanaki for A Gathering Place. And so we gather.
First Mission will be for my cousin-in-law, Christine, and me to sit lakeside with a glass of Scia white and toast our parents for giving us this wonderful place. Chris and I have had wine time every Friday at 6 pm for the past 7 years, since my cousin Wayne
(her husband) passed. But it's on the phone. Now, every year we start our summer off together at her dock or mine with this initial toast. So I raise my glass to all of you, wishing you a happy and fun-filled summer. And don’t forget to take pictures for upcoming issues of the Chatter!
