Southport Column: Food, religion and voting

Tue, 06/23/2020 - 3:30pm

Last week I mentioned a food trailer in the parking lot next to the post office. That lot is also for “Sweet Dreams Bakery,” which continues to be open for orders. Owner Marie Kelley can be reached at 633-2817. Her niece is working on the planning for opening the food truck, so stay tuned for more information on that eating opportunity.

Last Sunday was the first time for services at All Saints by-the-Sea summer chapel, which like so many services these days, was and will be online for the summer. The photography at the beginning of the service takes you down the path as if you were physically attending, and shows your way along the dock as if you were coming by boat. A drone has also taken aerial pictures that you can see at the end of the service. Thanks to all the folks who make this new method of worship possible. You can read an article elsewhere in this paper describing the coming services and times the chapel is physically open for prayer and meditation.

The Southport Methodist Church remains open for traditional, in-person worship at 9 a.m. on Sunday mornings.

Our Southport Town Clerk has joined several other clerks in the area asking that we obtain an absentee ballot for the primary voting for state offices on July 14. You can do so by using this email address: https://www.maine.gov/cgi-bin/online/AbsenteeBallot/index.pl. Kit and I found the process very quick and simple. Although our polling situation is seldom crowded, especially for a primary election, mailing in an absentee ballot is one less venture into public space that we need to make. A letter to the editor in this paper contains the request and more information.

Our Southport General Store will still deliver orders to anyone under quarantine, but will no longer deliver other orders or provide curbside service. Since people can now come to the state from Vermont and New Hampshire freely as long as they are well, and from elsewhere if they have received a negative corona virus test within the past 72 hours, perhaps we do not need quite as much service, and with more folks here on the island the store is very busy. Last Sunday we even had to eat our breakfast pizza with sausage because all the bacon pizza was gone at the time I stopped by. Still good though.

No need for anyone in our area to be short on food due to being short on money. Last week I wrote about the process for folks 18 and under to receive free lunches and breakfasts. This week Helen Meserve tells me that the Boothbay Region Food Pantry has plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables plus other foods. The Pantry, located at the Boothbay Harbor Congregational Church, is open from 11:30 a.m. until 1:30 p.m. every Friday.

You will find an obituary for Southport summer resident Bill Thompson in this week’s paper. We miss him and his wife, Julie’s, quiet presence on the island.

Summer has begun. Let’s make the most of it.

This column has been updated from its original posting. Corrections were made to the first paragraph.