It’s weird sometimes what bubbles up in the wake of tragedy. The “Beach Cove” fire, as awful as it was, caused me to recall my times at “The Lakeview Motel” where I spent a couple years, off and on, as a handy person who would do, or try, almost anything. I mowed, I raked, I washed, I carpentered, painted, washed dishes, tended bar and unloaded luggage from early tour busloads of folks from New Jersey and Pennsylvania. My time at the motel would have been late ’70s, early ’80s.

Joe and Helena Bernath worked very hard to improve things on the property. There were always projects, renovations, and lots of painting. Joe believed in paint. A sparkling coat of new white on almost anything improved the visuals. There were railings everywhere, and trim. It was a spring and year round ritual.

Rollie Hale and family business “Holiday Linen” managed laundry processing. Rollie would arrive daily with huge heaps of bagged up linens. The family serviced properties throughout the region. It had to be back-breaking work! Melvina Boyd busily prepped rooms and added considerable levity. She was married to an old Goudy & Stevens friend “Ridgerunner,” a force of nature who had pretty strong ideas about how things were meant to be done. He and Melvina were quite a team.

Kenny and Debbie Yereance of “Village Cash and Carry” fame made bread products for what was to become the “Greenhouse Restaurant,” which was created by Jimmy Bryer, Fanny Latter and maybe Steve Gaudette. Once the frame for the greenhouse was erected, I did the glazing which leaked like a sieve after the first downpour. All the bedding material washed out. I had to redo the whole thing, which mostly didn’t leak much after that. Vicki Reineke and Donetta Striegel worked as servers and Charlie and Nancy Peebles and Wendy Rego prepared food.

Walter “Wally” Freddy Fudpucker Schultz tended bar and eventually I filled in. Walter was retired Boston police and a great storyteller. He had a grand following with regulars, after work Department of Marine Resources personnel.

Back then the neighborhood included Bobbie and Bradford Reed who lived across the street. Bobbie worked the front desk as did Wanda Nolan.

Joe had many contacts in New Jersey and set about to schedule regular bus tours, which in the early ’80s were not entirely well received. But Joe persisted, bringing many to visit the area with Starr Tours and Jim Lynch tours from the Carbondale area of Pennsylvania. At the first of it Jim Lynch pieced together an old MCI bus, scraping together groups as he could. When Jim retired he had developed one of the premiere bus groups in the Northeast with trips throughout the country and a fleet of beautiful Prevost buses. We used to help unload baggage when the buses arrived and I would do a group photo then rush home to overnight process and print 8 x 10s for the group before departure.

Eventually, when I departed my job at the motel, Bob Hunter, who was related to the Hale family, took over and managed all variety of projects handily for Joe and Helena. I recall making a photograph of Bob and his very young daughter at the entrance road to Holiday Island Campground, off the Knickerbocker Road in Boothbay, when they were moving to the area from Worcester. The Hunter family owned Holiday Island at the time so Bob had plenty of chores available between the campground and the motel.

I’m sure I have forgotten others who worked at the Lakeview Motel during my tenure. It was an interesting slice of time then with an abundance of lively activity. Others who lived along Lakeview Road would have plenty of stories I’m sure. The aerial I’ve shared was made long after I had driven my final nail through the plastic water line that fed the ice machine and the window I broke playing golf with Joe on the front lawn. Joe said I had a natural swing.