The Sprucewold Association annual meeting was held Aug. 1 at the Linekin Green. Cheers to our president for running the shortest meeting I can remember. The annual potluck was held at 5 p.m.; I’m certain it was well attended. We had dinner guests and didn’t attend.

Dotty and I both like to cook, but it’s hard to resist eating out with the many great choices in Boothbay Harbor. Lunch at the Top of the Tugboat is a favorite of ours when the weather cooperates. 

I wish to add some information to James Rayball’s excellent column on the original Sprucewold cabins. They were mostly built during the 1920s. One bedroom has a wooden double bunk bed. The great room has a small, but lovely, useful desk. It has two large tables including a dining table with benches, like a large picnic table. There’s a comfy sofa and three benches with locked lids allowing storage for lines, comforters, and clothing. Our cabin has all of these; it is considered the least altered original one; it was built in 1927 and has 2.6 acres of woodland.

WOLD is the Dutch word for woods, Melany Wold Martin is a Sprucewold member. Her father told me he was the Sprucewold caretaker; cleaned, opened, and closed the cabins; and brought fireplace wood for all them. He stayed in the building in back of the lodge.

On Tuesday, Aug. 8 we had a very successful chipping day. Sunset Road seemed to have outdone itself. Anyone driving by certainly had to notice the number of very large piles.

Dotty and I have been visiting Sprucewold since my parents purchased a cabin on Sunset Road in 1964. We’ve known many residents and year-long Boothbay Harbor folks who are no longer here. We remember the Romar candlepin bowling alley, the sardine and crabmeat packing plant, Carbone’s grocery, Bob’s Appliances (here one could find any appliance imaginable. Our range, fridge, washer, and dryer are from Bob’s). We remember when Brown Brothers didn’t have a motel, and was a small building serving great food on family-style tables. Yes, at 83 we remember many things that have gone away.

You can see that retirees have few assigned tasks but keep busy doing what they want to do. I often tell folks I haven’t attended a meeting I didn’t want to, now for almost 20 years. I’ll now get a glass of red wine and go sit on our porch to watch birds at our feeders.