‘Going to miss it’
North Edgecomb summer resident Cindy Gorman, left, of Oakland, Va., and Ruth Wheeler of Fairfax, Va., sit outside St. Philip’s Church in Wiscasset on August 11, before what may have been the church’s final, Monday chowder supper. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Steve Burton, left, and wife Nancy Burton of Damariscotta on August 11 have salads to start their meals at St.Philip’s last planned Monday night chowder supper. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
North Edgecomb summer resident Cindy Gorman, left, of Oakland, Va., and Ruth Wheeler of Fairfax, Va., sit outside St. Philip’s Church in Wiscasset on August 11, before what may have been the church’s final, Monday chowder supper. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Steve Burton, left, and wife Nancy Burton of Damariscotta on August 11 have salads to start their meals at St.Philip’s last planned Monday night chowder supper. SUSAN JOHNS/Wiscasset Newspaper
Kristen and Tim Cowing have been helping serve the summertime, Monday chowder suppers at St. Philip’s Church in Wiscasset for years. It’s how the Dresden couple met, one of at least two marriages to come out of the suppers.
On Monday night, August 11, they were there as usual, taking trays of chowder around to tables where supper-goers were sitting with other portions of their meals. Also volunteering were their daughters Isabella and Abigail. However, Monday may have been the Cowings’ and everyone else’s last chance to take part, whether as a volunteer or a diner.
The church recently announced an end to the tradition’s decades-long run.
The announcement cited dwindling attendance and spiraling costs to put the suppers on.
“I’m in denial,” Kristen Cowing said.
Many in attendance were longtime regulars and, like Cowing, were sorry to see it go.
“Going to miss it,” said Damariscotta’s Steve Burton, attending with wife Nancy Burton. What kept them coming back? The fish chowder is great, and they’ve met a lot of people there over the years, they said.
Among others who came Monday were some first-timers, who had heard about the supper’s end and wanted to go to while they still could. And then there was Cindy Gorman, North Edgecomb summer resident and sometimes attendee, joined by friend and fellow Virginian Ruth Wheeler of Fairfax. Wheeler had never been to it before, but, sitting outside minutes before the event started, she was looking forward to it.
Gorman said the suppers provided an experience she can’t get back home.
“In northern Virginia everyone is running around and they don’t have things like this,” she said. She had called another friend to join her and Wheeler, but that friend, who has been to the suppers before with Gorman, was in Portland and couldn’t make it.
“It’s kind of sad,” Gorman said about the church’s plans to stop holding the suppers.
But as with any drawn curtain, this one may be pulled back, at some point. The church’s announcement left open that possibility, giving some, including Kristen Cowing, something to cling to.
“I can still have hope,” she said.
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