Last weekend, my bride and I ventured off the peninsula on a shopping trip.

When we got to Wiscasset, there was a long line of northbound cars, bumper to bumper, stretching from Red’s Eats all the way to Ames hardware store. Hummm, I thought. I guess the tourists will be coming back this summer.

If you don’t believe me, look at the parking lots of the Hannaford grocery stores in Boothbay Harbor and Damariscotta. They are filled with strange new cars sporting out-of-state license plates.

Inside the stores, couples from away, some with bored children in tow, search for items that don’t seem to be located where they are in the stores back home. The store cash registers are accepting cards from folks who are from away.

The Chamber of Commerce folks tell us that lots of tourists are on their way back to the Great State of Maine. That is good news, but all is not normal – yet. Everywhere, it seems, our stores display signs that say: “We are Hiring.”

Last week, officials from the Maine Department of Labor partnered with the Harbor’s Chamber of Commerce to stage a hiring fair at Boothbay Region YMCA. Hannaford was there, represented by Chuck Cunningham, who has worked there since high school. He said they had openings and would like to hire a couple of dozen folks.

Randy Cruz, the manager of the Damariscotta branch of Camden National Bank, stood behind a table. He was looking for a manager to supervise tellers at their Boothbay branch. East Boothbay’s Washburn & Doughty was looking for shipbuilders. The big construction firm Reed & Reed was looking for workers to build bridges. Vacasa, the cabin rental agency, was looking for folks to clean and straighten up cottages. They were offering to pay $25 per hour, plus mileage and a signing bonus.

Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens hoped to hire someone (maybe they wanted someone to watch over their trolls?). A couple of motels were looking for help. Even the event’s host, the Y, could use a front desk employee.

The employers were there, but the applicants were not. “We got some mothers who were looking for jobs for their kids,” said Cunningham.

It was not as if the Department of Labor was not trying to help.

Sue LeClair, Kim Moore and John W. Wagner got tired of just standing around so they walked outside and stood on the sidewalk and held a big yellow sign advertising the fair. They got more than a few honks and lots of waves, but no takers.

Although this was a local event aimed at local workers, they knew they were facing a national problem. My friends on the right blame the federal government for the generous unemployment benefits sent to folks who were laid off because of the pandemic. My friends on the left blame the employers for trying to hire workers by offering them low wages.

I suppose it is a lot more complicated than both sides would admit.

For the last year, we have stayed home hiding from a deadly virus that killed hundreds of thousands of our friends and neighbors.

All around the globe, it is the same story. A few get sick, the government reacts by shutting down commerce. Then all get nervous about the economy and open up a bit and Mr. COVID-19 comes back with a vengeance and thousands get sick and hundreds die.

Can anyone blame folks who are reluctant to go outside, take a new job and meet lots of new people?

I know lots of us are vaccinated. The Maine CDC reports that most of our towns have vaccination rates ranging from 77% in Wiscasset, to Boothbay Harbor and Edgecomb around 85%, and Damariscotta and Newcastle topping the list at 99%.

That should make us all feel pretty safe, and I do. But, and it is a big but, we still see reports of those who refuse to believe in, and/or participate in the national vaccination programs, as is their right.

In some states and communities, politicians make jokes about the vaccines and say they are unproven and might do more harm than good. I wish them well, and I hope Mr. COVD-19 and his cousins do not strike their families.

It is summertime in Maine and the tourists are back filling up our parking spots. And, we know, lots of us have been vaccinated.

Yet some of us are still nervous.