It’s the middle of August and friends and neighbors have begun to depart Sprucewold to go back to school or work. The weather has been fair and we have had many good beach days this month. Thinking ahead about cordwood for the fall, we received a load of greenwood that we will use next year from Pete Barry, 1-207-751-7288. Our children and grandchildren were all here so they stacked it in Norwegian or Amish/Shaker style in a high cylinder this year, the wood is supposed to dry faster than the way we usually pile it up in a long row. Now to find dry wood for use this year.

The grandchildren received payment for such hard work and could not wait to go over town and spend it. When they arrive for vacation each year they create a to-do list of all the things they want to do and places they want to go. They are 4, 8, 10 and 12 years old so their favorite place is Enchantments; also Sherman’s, Orne’s Candy Store, Downeast Candies for salt water taffy, Coastal Maine Popcorn, and the Smiling Cow. Activities include: Sprucewold Beach, Hendrick’s Head, Barrett’s Park, Boothbay Railway Village, Boothbay Region Land Trust’s Oak Point natural playground and Porter Preserve, the Ice Cream Factory (at the small mall–less atmosphere but no lines), boat rides with aunts, uncles, and great aunt and uncle and cousin, and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens. Best places to eat on their lists are: Karen’s Hideaway, The Trevett Country Store, Ports Pizza, Pier One Pizza, Shannon’s Unshelled, Linekin Bay Resort, Cozy’s, and Baker’s Way. We were able to check off many items on their vacation bucket lists and they left happy looking forward to next year. We miss them terribly, they came every morning for breakfast with Nana and Papa and it is much too quiet here at the cabin.

When we arrived at Linekin Bay Resort last week with our family party of 24 for our last vacation dinner together, we saw two other large groups of Sprucewolders enjoying the food and the view; you can’t beat gazing across Linekin Bay at Sprucewold at sunset as the lights come on on the wooded hillside. Just beautiful!

My 50th class reunion from Boothbay Region High School is on Sept. 9 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Boothbay Lobster Wharf. Most of us still call it either “Crab and Lobster” or “The Co-op” as it has been all three in the intervening years. A small but committed group of us got together at Elise Andersen’s memorial service in June and decided that since we are not getting any younger and we haven't had a reunion since the 20th, I think, it is now or never. We have been meeting at a classmate’s home at Ocean Point every two weeks or so since June and have put together the list of 62+ classmates including those who moved away during school. When we went to elementary school there were still separate schools in each village: Boothbay Harbor, Boothbay, and East Boothbay; and Southport who still have theirs. We also have the sad task of listing those who have passed away since we graduated, eleven so far.

All the reminiscing about the years since 1973 as well as the plans/ideas to either build a new high school or consolidate the high school with Wiscasset has caused me to look back at the huge changes over time. Townsend Avenue was all family homes with a few exceptions where families lived over their shops. We lived at 70 Townsend Avenue, now 66, and once we were old enough to cross the Avenue we could play in backyards from the Methodist Church all the way to where Mung Bean is now. Roy Kelly lived behind the Register on Union Street, families lived on both sides of Townsend Avenue from the Register office and the gas station all the way to where Hannaford is now, that area was called the meadow. The Schmitmann family home was torn down to become the Damariscotta Bank. Kitty Seider’s Drug Store was on the corner of Union and Townsend and at the other end at the By-Way and Townsend Avenue was the First National Grocery Store (my father worked there in high school, class of 1947) where the popcorn store is now and the A&P was where Sherman’s is now, Carbone’s Boothbay Fruit Store was where the Tides gift shop is. Orne’s Candy Store is the only constant in the neighborhood. When we moved across the harbor to 1 Atlantic Avenue we all still walked to the old school on School Street. We would cut up Latter Lane from Union Street and cross Curt and Dolly West’s back yard to school. The kids on Kennyfield Drive would take a path through the woods by Pat’s Pond and climb the cliff at the back of the old school. The American Legion Hall was at the end of the footbridge and across the street was Bryan Rowe’s Store next to them was Pierce and Hartung Lumber Yard, a little further along was Zinah Murray and Mr. and Mrs. Cooperman, the cobbler, Brewer’s Market and the old Eastside Grammar School. Businesses and small shipyards lined Atlantic Avenue with family homes mixed in along the way.

Massive changes have taken place over the past 50-60 years and I have only touched on the center of town where my three younger brothers and I traveled daily as children. It makes a big difference to a community to have affordable and available family homes and local schools. Summer colonies like Sprucewold and all the others can maintain a timeless nostalgic feel, Vacation Land, but the town has to move with the times and adapt to the economies of the day.