Working Waterfront

Pondering the poverty question

I grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in a small ranch house on a quarter-acre of land in suburban New York. When I was ten, my parents doubled the size of the house with a first-floor addition. “Poor people” were those who lived on the other side of a two-lane… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Forecasting the Maine coast’s future

Dinosaurs never knew the coast of Maine. As rugged and timeless as it appears, our coast is a relatively new feature, formed and revealed as ice sheets melted away, roughly around the time the seeds of human civilization were sprouting roots around the world. No one could have foreseen back… SEE MORE

The Grindle Point Lighthouse on Islesboro.

Working Waterfront

Grindle Point Lighthouse: A beacon still shining

From the top deck of the Margaret Chase Smith ferry, the first thing that can be seen approaching Islesboro is the Grindle Point Lighthouse. Standing at the northern edge of Gilkey Harbor and next to the ferry pen, the lighthouse greets residents and visitors alike to the island. [caption id="attachment_36164"… SEE MORE

Stephen Etnier’s “Inside Haskell’s” (1969), oil on canvas.

Working Waterfront

Stephen and David Etnier: A legacy of place

In his autobiography Overworked Guardian Angel, published posthumously in 2009, the painter Stephen Etnier (1903-1984) paid homage to the stretch of the Maine coast around South Harpswell where he lived and which he haunted for a good part of his life. This “series of coves and inlets with fingers of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Letters: ‘Cogent,’ public spaces, and fog

Cogent newspaper To the editor: I read virtually every word of the April issue of The Working Waterfront and am so impressed with the quality and pith of the contents. It bespeaks the breadth and depth of Maine life more cogently than any publication I’ve read—indigenous ones—since I’ve lived and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Here we go!’ time

In mid-March, the early afternoon sun was streaming through my kitchen window as I caught up with my friend Mary over a cup of tea. The warmth was appreciated but the angle of the sun meant “cozy time” would soon come to an end. “I’m not ready for winter to… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The community born of kitchens

Kitchens make a house a home. Kitchens create community. Our island has at least ten non-domestic kitchens in public gathering places. Stoves, sinks, fridges, counters, pots and pans, coffee makers, mugs, dishes, and flatware are enlivened with good smells and conversation. We cluster up to exchange news and views, and… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

The care that backs up caretaking

My husband Bill went off-island to visit family during Vinalhaven’s two-week March break, so naturally Penrose and I both got sick. Pen came down with it first, an upper-respiratory crud that had made the rounds through the high school before filtering down to the younger kids. She spent a delightful… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Class clashes and conspiracy logic

Land of Cockaigne By Jeffrey Lewis, Haus Publishing Ltd. (2022) The central thing you need to know about the protagonist family in Jeffrey Lewis’s novel Land of Cockaigne is that they are from away. Walter and Catherine “Charley” Rath arrived in Sneeds Harbor, located somewhere along the rim of Mount… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Remembering conflict on the home front

Memories of long-ago events are cemented into our hearts and minds when they are baptized in emotion. Where were you when…? Without a visceral response at the “what,” the exact “where” gets fuzzy. With other big news events in recent weeks—another school shooting, the legal woes of an ex-president—an important… SEE MORE