Bath, Beatles, and Penny Lane

There's a new dog in the city! Her name is Penny Lane, like the Beatles' song:

"In Penny Lane there is a barber showing photographs
Of every head he's had the pleasure to know
And all the people that come and go
Stop and say hello....

Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes..."

Beatles - Penny Lane Lyrics | MetroLyrics

It's funny how a good dog can lead you to good people, and good people tend to gather in good places. Last year we moved into our Maine house just in time for the dog days of summer. As a teacher, I have the whole summer to play, but my husband is not quite as lucky. From time to time, he had to return to Chicago to work, and that meant Penny Lane and I were in charge of finding new friends in Bath! For Penny that was an easy task; for me it was a bit more daunting. In Bath, you see bumper stickers circulating around town that say, "My Dog Digs Bath." Translation: the people of Bath love dogs, all dogs, and anyone who cares for them! Penny Lane, our little rescue dog with woeful brown eyes and long-haired dachshund, sheltie fur, practically guaranteed our acceptance into the neighborhood. Within the first week, we met Popeye, the loyal companion of our neighbor from around the corner. And as it turns out, "from away" like us. In fact, he used to work at Northwestern University's library in Evanston, Illinois. How ironic that my daughter attended NU and might have seen him there. It's a small world after all! On one of our many walks, Penny Lane and I also met Maya, the realtor's dog, and Atticus, the innkeeper's dog and lots of sundry people who just wanted to stop and chat about life in Bath and the dogs they know and love. It's amazing how easy it is to start a conversation when you walk with a dog! Another neighbor, who also turned out to be from away, as far away as Texas, rushed across the street to tell me she had noticed Penny from afar and wondered what crazy mix produced such an adorable dog! Penny Lane was becoming the newest celebrity in Bath. And her name, Penny Lane, fit the city so well. It's true that there's not a single street in Bath with the name Penny Lane, but there is definitely a British connection!

Fifty years ago, on February 9, 1964, John, Paul, George and Ringo, the Fabulous Four from Great Britain, came to America to perform on the Ed Sullivan Show, and the rest is rock and roll history, but the untold story is that they never came to Bath, Maine, a place that would have wrapped them in a warm hug like an old, familiar friend. Bath and Great Britain just seem to go together. Why, there's even a Bath in England, so the similarities appear everywhere you look: Big Ben in London; Hallet's clock on the corner of Front and Centre; high tea with English society; Mae's scones on High Street; London Bridge far away; Sagadahoc Bridge here to stay; Harrod's of London; Reny's of Maine; crossing the Thames or kicking back on the Kennebec; the Beatles on the radio or Max Ater's Band performing live; fish and chips or fish and chips. It sure tastes like home!

Of course, the British Invasion of the 1960's was not the first landing of Englishmen on our sandy shores. As early as 1607, it was the English who settled Popham Colony at Fort Saint George, and it was there, so close to Bath, where they built Maine's first ship, the Virginia. In recent times, the city of Bath has launched the Main First Ship (MFS) project to reconstruct the Virginia as a hands-on history lesson for high school students. Determined, young history buffs can be found in Bath's well known and well preserved shed on Commercial Street working like shipbuilders of yesterday. As a seasoned high school teacher, I have to applaud the vision of the master teachers, skilled tradesmen and students involved in this extraordinary construction! You can follow their progress on line at mfship.org!

The moment Ringo Star began to sing "Yellow Submarine" on prime time television for  the Grammys' salute to the Beatles, the wheels of my random thought generator began to turn, and Maine's cool little city, Bath, came softly into focus.  "And our friends are all on board, many more of them live next door, and the band begins to play...We all live in a yellow submarine, a yellow submarine..." For the past week, I have been humming that Beatles' song as I spy in my mind's eye the Bath Iron Works' 220-ton crane scraping the sky over the Kennebec River, standing ready to build another stealth destroyer for the United States Navy. It is a majestic image, and it makes me feel proud to be a resident of Bath!

P.S.  As for Penny Lane's transition to Bath Time, she did hit a small bump in the road when we told her that Bath Heritage Days' Five Mile Run was for people only. Thank goodness my daughter-in-law is a licensed counselor. Lauren was able to convince Penny that the rules existed for safety reasons. Lauren also managed to win a third place trophy for her age group, which is typically very fast and forever young!