Weather-wise, the summer was a bust for Mainers. June and July brought too much rain. August had us turning on air conditioners. September offered moderate temps but each day seemed more grey than the last. Dull. Dull. Dull. Only pickleball could distract us.

In June, the Wiscasset Recreation department announced it would offer pickleball classes. Several dozen people, beginners and experienced players showed up and have been playing several times a week.

I know ...Not another pickleball story! :( About how much fun it is; how men and women play it together, how there’s more laughing than muttering at missed shots.

Pickleball is an easy game to play. And the internet has several channels, filled with instructions and tournaments.

Yes, Donna and I have been playing pickleball with Mainers. People who live here year-round. People who have been stacking firewood for a month. People who do corny things like pick apples from their 25-year-old trees, slice and mash them into apple juice. Real, tart and tangy.

And so it is that we were at an apple cider. party. After few months, a few dozen people who live in the same area, but didn’t know each other, have become friends. This Sunday Cider Crush was at least the fourth social gathering of people who, a few months ago, were neighbors but didn’t know
each other.

When Sandy a few days ago said she was having a juice-making party, how could we say no? Juicing is kind of a cultural thing here in Maine. And it’s Sandy and Ron have been making juice all week. We were part of their fourth party this week. Sandy loves to have parties, Ron not so much.

In Maine style, these folks take it seriously. That big windy storm from last week helped. It knocked hundreds of apples off branches. The women-folk peeled and sliced apples. John and who dumped the apples into a big grinder thing that turned the fruit into mash. Then men-folk filtered buckets of the mash to produce gallon jugs of fresh apple cider.