House on the water

 

While on vacation in Maine we spent every night of the vacation at my grandmother's old house on North Haven.  We usually spend a few days on the mainland but not this trip.  Granny 'Thurby',  or great granny 'Thurby' to Nora and Stuey, lived in the house from some time in the early 1950s right through the 1980s.  My mom even spent her teenage years in the house (on this trip Stuey slept in her old room).  Locals knew my grandmother as 'Polly Davis', and even on this trip when I called an electrician and was telling him where the house was located - 48 Main Street did not work but the Polly Davis' house elicited an immediate positive response.  Everybody still knows Polly Davis's house even if she has not lived there in almost 35 years.  We knew her as Granny Thurby because she had a great big Newfoundland dog named 'Thurber'.

The house has not changed much in the last 35 years either.  All the old art and posters are still on the walls, and the racing pennants that my grandfather won all still hang from the ceilings.  When I sit in the kitchen it is quite easy to remember my grandmother cooking peas on the stove and the kitchen full of cigarette smoke.

The house is a perfect vacation house and is in the heart of it all on the water downtown.  From the porch you can watch everybody arriving and departing at the local yacht club and keep your finger on the pulse of the town.  You also jump off of the porch at high tide and go swimming.  One of my favourite activities (especially after I tore my hamstring) is reading a book on the porch.

Patrick

Evening light