The day the lights went out

Yesterday my friend Lorraine was here from Connecticut to see me. Some of you know Lorraine from when she and her family lived on Culebra, so yes, that Lorraine! We'd planned on playing at 'let's be tourists' in Boothbay Harbor and in fact, did for quite a while and quite a few shops, even after the lights went out, came on, went out, stayed out. But walking around in dark stores here is sort of almost exactly like walking around dark stores on Culebra, but darker because the stores are bigger. And some of the bathrooms have no windows - a challenge, but not one we couldn't overcome!

So...we went to Wiscasset, which was a not so long, though very slow, due to bumper to bumper traffic, drive down the road. Wiscasset is the home of the famous Red's Eats that I posted about a short while back, the alternative place my friend Janet and I ate, when we'd actually been going to Le Garage for dinner, but were, alas and alack, too late. This time (sorry Janet!), we hit it in plenty of time for lunch, and an excellent lunch it was.

During our meal (steamed mussels, bruschetta, with smoked seafood and the haddock sandwich, all delicious), Lorraine got a message which, due to some sad recent happenings in her own family, she apologetically took.

It turned out we needed to get to a fax machine toot sweet, but with no electricity in Boothbay Harbor, we asked if we might be able to use the fax at the restaurant (it was pretty critical). The server talked to the manager, who talked to the, as it turned out, owner of the place. She escorted us upstairs, where we hung out almost an hour, waiting for modern communications to instantly not happen. But lucky for us, because it meant we got to have an hour talking to Cheryl Rust, who has owned the place 34 years. She told us the story of buying it from her parents, and about running a popular restaurant year-round in a small Maine town. She told us about parts of her life on the executive fast track in Boston before she moved to a small town in Maine...and why she has stayed, not taking a vacation since those 10 days in 1986. Why? Because she believes she has a place in the world to help kids who otherwise wouldn't get a chance to work in a situation calling on all of their skills, while develiping new ones.

Huh? Um, you stay open year round, not really making much of a profit and sometimes really not, because you want to get some small town kids off to a good start in the job world? Wow, they must think you are a goddess! 'Oh,' says Cheryl, 'they think I'm a perfect bitch.' Well, they might or might not, but I do know they are learning about integrity and honor and how to do a job well from the inside out. So I guess the goddess part comes later sometimes.

One story she told  was about her executive chef ordering some lobster from a local source. He told her he got a great deal; the lobster was delivered and the truck driver was also struck by the great deal. Turned out the provisioner had misquoted the price, but stuck by the quote, as Le Garage was a good and constant customer (as you can imagine, bills are paid on time). So Cheryl told her chef to get right on the phone and tell them to adjust the bill to the market price - a fair price - telling him 'If the situation was the other way, where we'd been overcharged, you can bet I'd be on the phone all over the place! Why shouldn't it work the other way?" Those are the lessons her chef, her staff and the provisioner learned that day about how Cheryl does business. A pretty great person...but Shep? Take a holiday!

Oh, while we were eating, these guys were workin' on the railroad, literally. I, as some of you know, love machines that do neat stuff and the (usually) guys who operate them are just ballerinas of a different sort. This machine picks up the railroad tie and moves it into place where the old one was. Human help is involved as well. It was pretty good entertainment! Thanks, railroad guys!

After that slightly stressful, but very enjoyable, couple of hours we went to a few antique shops, a store full of Thai wonders - like these clever little gorgeous and unique flower candles that the shop owners design and have made in Thailand...should have taken a photo, should have remembered the name, oops - and finally ended up at the Butterstamp Shop, where we learned about butterstamps, those old wooden or metal molds used to decorate butter and now being used to create wax, wooden and metal decorations. The shop owner was an encyclopedia of knowledge about the subject; he and his wife have owned the shop, making these unique crafts, for the last thirty plus years. Counting the Smithsonian as one of their customers, I guess the butterstamp business is a good one! "It put my two children through college," he told me, "It's worked out for us."

 An esplanated apple tree on an outside wall in Wiscasset - with apples!!!

The buttermold guy came along as I was taking photos and said, oh, too bad you didn't see it before, they just trimmed the tree way back, as it was loaded with apples. 

It looked pretty cool to us anyway!

By the time we decided on dinner, we figured the lights would be back on in Boothbay and they were. We went to the House of Pizza and got some bbq chicken along with the biggest calzone I've ever seen and one of the best I've ever eaten...even if I only ate a third of it. With some Black Box wines and lots of catch up conversation, the Cinderella clock was close to chiming. Thanks, Lorraine, for a wonderful day and evening. The shops thank you, too!

Have a truthful Tuesday! Do something treat-like.