living on matinicus island
The world across the waterAmericahad not yet quite arrived. A nurse visits the island homes, and there are telemedicine facilities on board to e-link in doctors as needed. I had only a half hour before it departed so I said my goodbyes, agreed to be a pen pal to the students, and walked to the airstrip, picking and eating an apple along the way. Thirteen years ago, he bought his own. And hes the one who brought the guns to the argument., Three summers ago, the summer before the shooting, the island got together and threw itself a high-school prom: men, women, and teens, many in 30-year-old tuxes or too-tight, floor-length dressesone guy even in white tierocking out to Boogie Fever in the church basement under crepe paper and string lights, popping flashes, selling raffle tickets, drinking spiked punch from a bowl in a neighbors yard. I know that for every 1000 cases of some obvious and common sniffle or boo-boo, there could be one instance of a rare and insidious malady. There is a library of books in his study, enough for a lifetime of reading, which I expect they had provided. So now we got problems. The parrot in the living room wished us good mornings and otherwise was mostly friendly, though Harold believed the parrot didnt respect him very much. By the time the road with the designated forks petered out to a couple of ruts that looked as though no one had driven in them yet this season, there was in fact a house there. How could they possibly, with all their troubles? As the ferry cautiously made its way into the picturesque Matinicus Harbor, there was simple beauty all around. On summer Saturday nights on the boat dock, Hussey and his guitar lead dance parties that turn out the whole island. Matinicus is a small community by any measure, but it's hard to count how many people actually live there. You can call our office at (207) 594-9209. Stunning cliff-side views and seascapes, along with a special island light, entice many artists there every summer and their studios are often available for a tour. The people who are really necessary in civilization are the folks who deal with logistics and freight and utilities and emergencies and human care, not the men in three-piece suits. A two-man boat would come in with a three-day haul of 4,500 pounds, worth $14,000 or more. The protagonist, Gil Hodges, has gone to the Island . Harold had bested me in bringing less, simply a large beach towel draped over his shoulders (Douglas Adams would be pleased) and some peanut butter crackers. We all dined together and then headed to the beach, walking past the island graveyard, to explore for the rest of the day. Their cottage was without water and electricity. Of those, Matinicus is the most seaward, and the most indigenous. He was a great host and let us be as active or passive those days as we wished. The day we talked, a warm May day in the front yard of the couples island home, hed just put his boat in the water for the season. According to Bill, there is no evangelical pressure, which he appreciates. But how about other trash? Theyre archetypes, all of them: Rugged Individualism, Frontier Justice, The Good Old Days. He seemed at a loss. You had to fight then, too, but it seems like the rules were more moral. Spend your days strolling the island and collecting seashells on quiet beaches, and your evenings relaxing in a comfortable living room with a flatscreen TV. Matinicus Isle is the most remote year-round island in Maine, located 20 miles off Owls Head in the Midcoast. Nope, not one little bit. See Up the coast without a car for details. Without a word, Philbrook was out of the cab, and for the next several minutes the two unloaded traps together in the rain. We dont have any of those here. Just so delicate. Its a boat no serious lobsterman has worked from in probably 60 years, but it leaves no carbon footprint, and thats important to Hussey. He was new. Eva Murray: Baking bread and watching chickadeesMonday, April 20, 2020, Eva Murray: Does this count as school?Tuesday, April 7, 2020, Eva Murray: Cleaning HouseWednesday, February 26, 2020, Eva Murray: Snowshoe holidayWednesday, December 18, 2019, Eva Murray: A trip with Honor Flight MaineThursday, November 21, 2019, Eva Murray: Tenants Harbor and Matinicus Island combine effort for shoreline cleanupThursday, June 27, 2019, Without an Agenda: talking with the crew of the SunbeamTuesday, April 2, 2019, Without an agenda: talking with the crew of the SunbeamFriday, March 22, 2019, Eva Murray: Island winter weather, food, and the owlsMonday, February 18, 2019, Eva Murray: An accidental twitcher birding on Matinicus IslandSunday, January 13, 2019. . I know as an EMT that the best patient care generally means close contact and the human touch. In winter the Sunbeam will do some icebreaking for the harbors she visits. He came home and got a job as a sternmanan assistanton another islanders lobster boat, then other boats after that. A gentle, funny giant He drove a boat like it was an extension of his body Kind and generous, tough and strong ). The trip takes over 2 hours. Then last year, with what happeneda man opening fire on the public dock. But lately, since that July morning two years ago, when Vance Bunker shot Chris Young-and the islands clan-based, sometimes brutish culture was suddenly the stuff of cable-TV newsthe islanders devotion, while no less total, has stiffened and turned fearful. In their many many decades on the island together she had slept on the couch and he sitting upright in the chair. The small open, car ferry makes the 23 mile, two and a half hour crossing only 20 to 30 times a year, running once a month in winter, but twice now in May. And now its all about the old days and the way it used to be., He had so much to lose, an islander would say to me later. But there was no time for a fire in the old stone hearth. You dont just let someone come in and take that away from you.. There have been so many changes to school. We passed Bath, Wiscasset, Darmascotia, Thomaston, and Big Als Super Value Store, all places worthy of a stop or detour. About a year ago, as we were discussing our next such Monhegan trip, Harold and I shared that we had never been out to Matinicus Island, actually a small archipelago, somewhat further out from Monhegan. We were nestled in a small clearing with fresh breezes blowing through the house. Its happened to me, to the islandits happened to us all. Probably also its future, whatever that may be. Thanks to our readers and especially our supporters who help to keep PenBayPilot.com an open and accessible community hub. These were not adorned with floating docks at the end of convenient ramps swinging up and down with the tides, made for small boats, deep water anchorages and a lot of maintenance. She had just finished her second and final year as the islands teacher; her six students had ranged from kindergarten through sixth grade. He said he worried sometimes that with the way things were going, his son, Nick, could be the last Philbrook to make a living here: that if people kept leaving for the mainland and just coming back to haul lobster off the bottom (taking and taking, and never giving back), the island, like all those others, could die a lingering death. Everyone knows that the kids are the future of the island, Heather Wells told me when I met with her last summer. This was a crossing exposed to the open ocean. Sunset on Matinicus (Photo courtesy Gary Peabody), An island haircut: Eva Murray gets her hair trimmed by her husband Paul Murray, the Phone Man. Our two days at the inn could be best described as simply peaceful. Forget about ambling around with a little basket over your arm, scrutinizing the obscure tropical delicacies in the produce section and picking out the very plumpest tomato. The Matinicus Island Ladies Literary League and Subversive Activities Committee, also known as the Red Dahlia Society, was . Not even one. Back last spring everybody in America was waiting for butter and flour and toilet paper. But the deeper causes had more to do with other things: pride, greed, progress, family, what it means to claim a place as home. On Matinicus Island, until that July morning two years ago, it was still that time. There is a year round population of maybe around 40,making a living lobstering mostly. Well, it was grounded Friday and Saturday due to heavy fog and again on Sunday because of very strong winds. But a bad hurt has happened. His second shot hit Chris Young in the neck. Thats the way were built here. As a child, she spent her summers on this island and now has returned here with her family. Matinicus Isle is the most remote year-round island in Maine, located 20 miles off Owls Head in the Midcoast. Everybody understands a little better now. Danger and illness aside, one might argue that wintertime island life is something like 2020 with a scenic view. It was just down the rutted road past his place, the one that didnt look like it was being used much anymore. We didnt do very much. And probably a few other professions I dont know about. Although he still does business on Matinicus and hauls traps in its waters, he lives year-round on the mainland now, his island home of 30 years up for sale, his life there a lifetime now behind him. A fragile, prized way of life, unchanged for generations, has never seemed more in peril. The DIY appliance repair (with the indispensable tutelage of You-Tube) is a bit trickier, but you will get it. Inside and outside temperatures were the same at around 50 degrees; it was late May. The sand was dark and very fine. This was not a story dating back to an earlier era, 100 or even just 50 years ago. Memories, connections, personal histories. In fact, less than 100 people live there year-round on this island that covers an area of less than 10 square miles. We all of us out here would.. After drinking the scalding top half of a cup of tea, and partly filling my backpack with a few days worth of clothes, I drove the mile down towards the point to pick up another cousin, Harold. Indeed, many old battered traps can be found on the beach, apparently washed up in storms. Then shed left, and returned again as a young wife and mother when her husband first took up hauling traps: Weve always had to fight to hold on to what we had, always. Though not born here herself-she arrived with Tom less than 30 years ago, which makes her almost an interloper by the islands way of seeing things-she can trace her own ancestry here back nearly to the settlements beginning: to Phebe Young, who came with her husband in 1763. The Magazine. ), Out on the water, Nat said, Youre close to your work, youre wet, its noisy, its real, sort of like farming must have been at one time. Lisa, for her part, talked about the silenceYou listen carefully, you hear individual things: the wind, the bell buoys, the generator at nightand the spareness of day-to-day life: That whole Walmart mentality, theres none of that out here. We arrived at the ferry facility by 730 am, early enough to allow time for a walk into town for breakfast. When an islander needs groceries, they fax (not email) an order to Shaws on the mainland and a small plane will deliver them to the airstrip at the north end of the island, for pickup (fax machine is at the post office which is in the basement of the parsonage). They began spending parts of their own summers. Breakfast was supplied by Bill and included his homemade English Muffins. The wind gusted to 70 mph on Sunday near Matinicus Island, about 20. Matinicus boat owners began wintering in Florida, or buying second homes on the mainland. Matinicus Rock. At some point Janan Miller yelled Hey! and pointed the shotgun at the stepbrothers. That's the island way! Were probably not going anywhere except the airstrip to collect the milk order anyway. Thats just how it works.. If they died out, I dont know where wed be.. A bright sun peaked over an island across the sound and it promised to be a clear day, one where the blue in the sky will be surpassed only by the deeper blue reflecting from the water. And so theyd made it formal: If youre born here, you can fish hereor if youre the child of someone who was. By the summer of 2009, the price of lobster was at a 12-year low. Well, he just put more in, and they cut them again. Threatening notes were left in bottles; trap buoys were tied with half-hitches to warn away encroachers; and sometimes, trap lines were cut. There was activity on the dock and cars lined up waiting to board as we pulled in and docked. Bill is Matinicus oldest resident, lives fulltime there and has for the past 32 years. Hussey is a lawyer in his forties, a slight man with thin features and tousled, receding brown hair. Its all around us, layers and layers of it. The day I walked it, the only movement I saw was a woman feeding an animal at her back door. They might have been a bit bigger. But things were changing, and he couldnt deal with that, I guess. It's rustic, it can be difficult to reach and it's the most seaward of all the islands in Maine. However it happened, traps were cut, tempers flared, violence was threatened. Captain George Tarkleson of Matinicus Excursions offers the quickest water trips between Rockland and Matinicus with his boat Robin R, which takes under an hour and a half, and can carry up to 16 people. The pair find inspiration amid . Though even some of those may take extended winter vacations in places like Florida. In past columns I have remarked once or twice that people who have something to say about an island not being part of the real world have a strange idea of the real world, as in, the real world is where you have to pick up your dry cleaning. MATINICUS, Maine The snow had begun falling overnight, and fell throughout the day, draping the towering pines and the lobster traps, stacked up on land for the winter, in blankets of white. Birthdays, anniversaries, national holidays, religious observances, and scheduled hooliganism are routinely postponed on islands to work around storms, fog, FedEx, visiting grandparents, and possibly the Coast Guard. Due to the ferry cancellation they were gearing up to run flights back and forth all day. She is the islands historian, the clerk-secretary of its church, and a member of its school board. His boat, the Samantha J., was tied up alongside. Being an early retiree, with lots of time on my hands, I was happy to accept her invitation to visit and experience the island life. (What type of father would pull the trigger? his lawyer had put to the jurors. But there was never any doubt about whom we were talking. Penobscot Island Air also services the island year-round, nearly daily ten-minute flights from Knox County Regional Airport. Staying overnight allows the visitor to experience the peace and isolation of a remote island after all the day-trippers have left. Robins, crows, sparrows, cardinals and jays were everywhere as well as a few hummingbirds. And on this little island, where a brooding sort of silence has settled over things, its hard to find anyone who doesnt fear for the future. He collapsed in a pool of blood at his stepbrothers feet. So now they think they got a right to it. From Metinic we moved on to Tenants Harbor, just five miles to the northwest . One of the first indications how Matinicus differed from our experiences on Monhegan were all the pick up trucks on board the ferry. This is Aunt Belles house, [someone will say]. Still, after years of islanders begging, Doc, really---cant I just describe it to you over the telephone? because a trip to the mainland physicians office would run over $500 in transportation, hotel, and lost worknot including the doctors billfinally the doc is in agreement that yeah, that probably would be a good idea. Most are aggravating, to be sure, but a few really are for the better. The yards are large and flat; a few have small gardens. When we were out for an afternoon walk we missed Bills monthly visit by the nurse from the Maine Seacoast Mission. The first of these was on a Tuesday and the next that following Thursday, which would permit a two day stay on the island. All this Philbrook explained to me one rainy spring morning, as we sat together in the cab of his pickup, parked that day at the Matinicus dock, the site of the shooting in July 2009. Metinic Island is a 330 acre island in Knox County, Maine, southeast of Port Clyde on the mainland and west of Matinicus Island. In season there is a gift shop, a bakery and an island resident runs a taxi service. Once we loaded three cars, two pickups, a dump-truck (which barely fit), and four passengers on foot, we set sail for the 2.5-hour trip. What a glorious natural classroom! They also provide sporting events, cultural enrichment such as concerts, island schooling for kids, scholarships, a food pantry and other vital services to these places. Danger and illness aside, one might argue that wintertime island life is something like 2020 with a scenic view.
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