My Two Maines
For a boy from Rumford Point, the coast was a strange and magical place.
By Dan Abbott
The Maine of my childhood was two Maines. Not north/south, rich/poor, or rural/urban, but inland/coastal. I grew up in Rumford Point, a tiny village in the western foothills where Abbotts went back at least seven generations and generally stayed put. But Aunt Ruth, my father's sister, married a local boy and headed out for the coast, where they set up housekeeping in Boothbay and split the family geography in ways my family would never forget.
Around harvest time, we inlanders often headed for a day at the coast, a pilgrimage that must have required multi-stage advance planning.
Around harvest time, we inlanders often headed for a day at the coast, a pilgrimage that must have required multi-stage advance planning.
