A highlight of summer in Wiscasset is the weekly concerts on the Green, sponsored by members of the Chamber of Commerce and organized by Realtor Sherry Dunbar. The first concert this season featured the Salty Dogs, a rock and roll group playing 70's and 80's rock and roll.  And the players have to be among the hardest working people in rock and roll.  They were on from 6pm to 8pm. Non-stop. Kids romped on the grass, folks got up and danced and clapped along.  People brought chairs, their favorite beverages, and nibbles. This week’s concert features the Liz Lannon blues band

My first assignments in journalism were to write about evening band concerts.  A summer job with the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa. the job involved nothing more than going to the bandstand, listening to music and writing about how big the audience was and what songs were played. When I went to a concert, sometimes I was allowed to sign out a car.  And on the door was The Morning Call.   WOW. I used to drive on Tilghman Street with the window rolled down and my arm casually draped over the side.  Man, I was ‘big stuff’!  I was The Press!

Lobstah!!!!!

Our friend Lynn made the Sign of the Cross as she dropped lobsters, one after another, into the boiling water. We’d coddled them all night in a pot, with ice on the bottom of the pot, then a layer of seaweed from the river, and then the lobsters. Fifteen to 20 minutes later, we had half a dozen bright red crustaceans..  Along with corn on the cob, pickles, and coleslaw it was a feast.  An ingredient gave the shedders’ meat a slight sweetness.  “Salt in the water,” Lynn said ... an old family secret.

The six of us moved to the table on the deck. Marthe sat next to me, trying to avoid having her chair’s leg fall thru a rotted hole. Luc-the-dog lay under the table, keeping guests’ feet warm. And a few of us talked  about the Cornhole game we’d just played.  Besides Donna and me, there were four other people.  Two of them, Marthe and Eilen, are here for an art workshop, and Lynn and Steve are new, rabid, recruits to Maine vacation home rental

The lobsters came from the North End Coop.  About a dozen boats call the small harbor home.  They fish the river, from Wiscasset at the north and as far south as Booth Bay.  Neil, who’s working the piers to help unload the day’s catches says the boats all come at the same because they are going by the tides.  It’s easier to haul a lobster trapout of 20 feet of water than 50 feet.

Our lobsters were delicious.  Price at the boat this past weekend was $8.50 for shedders and $9.50 for hardshell.  For desert, we enjoyed the baking of Georgetown Island's   

Pie Sisters. 

The state transportation people installed some stanchions on Route 1.  This is the same Route 1 where the state spent millions of dollars over the past two yers to improve traffic flow.  The new stanchions which appeared overnight were installed almost as stealthily as the Town public works people removed the fence around the Ancient Cemetery.  They’re quick and quiet when they want to be.  Critics of the stanchions point out that if you stopped at Sprague’s for a lobster roll, you have to drive across the Donald Davey bridge, to Edgecom and do a U turn.  Some people don't want to do that, so they are taking a left out of Sprague's anyway - sometimes doing a U turn on the two lane bridge.