Opening Night tomorrow! Cheer on our McKay Road thespians! Samantha Beam will be playing Ado Annie in "Oklahoma!" at LCCT, and her ma, Debbie, will be Aunt Eller. Performances are July 28, 29 and 30, August 4, 5 and 6 at 7:30 p.m.. Call Lincoln Theater 563.3424 for information and tickets.
The American-Scandinavian Student Exchange International Program is looking for local host families for students from around the world. (The group started with Scandinavia; now it's global!) If you would like to be a stand-in parent for one of these kids, find out more by calling New England ASSE coordinator Joyce McKenney at 737.4666 or 1-800-677-2773.
Condolences to the family of William Parish White on the Cross Point Road, who passed away July 17. Fascinated by how things work, Mr. White was a notable inventor, particularly of boats and nautical hardware. His Wiscasset business, Mechanical Applications, Inc., has produced such useful items as the "Pinchuck Insertion Tool" and the "Original Magic Weeder." There will be a graveside service on Sunday, July 30
Bruce and I spent Saturday traveling to the Sebago Lake region, to visit the Blacksmith Winery in South Casco. Nice trip going out, except that we had not paid sufficient attention to the recent promotions of Yarmouth's Clam Festival! Yarmouth's Clam Festival is a big deal, and entirely pedestrian. We had to creep along behind a school bus which had been commandeered into shuttle duty for the event. But the event had its vicarious pleasures: We watched the Yarmouth Fire Department drag along their hoses and string assorted cables through trees for a readiness demo. They all smiled cheerily, excusing themselves nicely as they scooted between us and the back of the bus.
Blacksmith Winery is very small, physically. We joined the Parker family, who operate the Homestead Winery in Ivanhoe, Texas, for a tour of the operation, fitted neatly into a glorified garage: a new cutting-edge tech bottling/labeling machine from Europe, four huge steel vats for the fermentation, four (two metal, two plastic) portable vats for bringing wine grapes in from the West Coast or from New York State. Blacksmith's fruit wines are from local fruit: blueberries blended with Vidal Blanc, a sparkling cranberry wine, even rhubarb! We had met owner/winemaker Steve Linne in Augusta, that time we went to the legislative hearing on direct shipping of wines. Mr. Linne is a committed activist on the subject.
As we left the winery, and were creeping back through festivating Yarmouth, didn't the rain come down! Hoo boy! We stopped for dinner in Brunswick. It was less wet when we emerged, although there were several more frogstranglers (see prior column) on our way home.
However, as we crawled along, I had a happy thought: How about an entirely Maine wine and cheese tasting to benefit the Fort Edgecomb effort? We've been to four Maine wineries: Blacksmith's, Cellardoor in Lincolnville, Winterport in Winterport, Bartlett Estates in Gouldsboro. There are several others. Many, many Maine cheesemakers! Some very close, like Whitefield! If anyone out there favors this idea and would like to help us with it, please get in touch! You know where! 234 River Road, 633-2978, bonesukl@midcoast.com. This column appears in several local papers, and at www.Edgecomb.org.