Strike up the Band! Let Summer Begin!

Follow the L.L. Bean boot!

In Bath time, summer begins the second weekend of June with a parade of events second to none! In order to arrive for the start, Joe and I packed up our “vintage” SUV and headed east on the fastest U.S. highways. In Ohio on the Interstate near Toledo, we spotted the L.L. Bean boot and followed it far into Pennsylvania before we lost it at a rest stop outside of Erie. The boot, of course, had a coveted Maine license plate. Our SUV, on the other foot (Get it?), had an Illinois license plate, but our bumper was sporting a large Bath sticker, and it was clear that both vehicles were going the same way!

For Bathites, the high season climbs to full speed towards the Morse High School Alumni Association’s Reunion Weekend. As the oldest alumni association in the country, they set the standard for reunions! Morse welcomes their returning graduates with a blue and white banner across Front Street, a score of shop windows displaying old yearbook photos and letter jackets, and wide open doors at all of the local inns, taverns and restaurants around town. This year Maine’s Cool Little City seemed to be humming as early as Wednesday night because that’s the night we arrived from Chicago to find there wasn’t a single vacant seat at Byrnes’ Irish Pub on the tenth of June! Except for the absence of snow, last weekend felt a lot like Christmas in downtown Bath. Everyone was saying hello with a hug, and lots of people were out strolling. They were telling stories and laughing at old, familiar jokes. Their joyful sound seemed to cast a silvery net around hearts that will be forever young when they come home to Bath.

The Mitchell School (a.k.a. Universe Gym) is 100 years old.

 Officially, the first big party of summer was Friday night’s 100^th Anniversary celebration of the Mitchell School at 361 High Street. Today this impressive brick building is home to the Universe Gym and Fitness Studio, which has been owned and operated by Bath’s native son and daughter, Shane and Kari McKenna, since 1996. The building was originally designed by Lewiston architect Harry S. Coombs as a primary school for children in the South End  and was praised for its fire safety because it was built with two stairways at opposite ends. As a high school teacher who works in a three story building built in 1929 in Oak Park, Illinois, I salute the attention paid to safety. I also appreciate the large windows that allow for the entrance of natural, inspiring light! If Joe and I had not been busy preparing our house for the second big party of the weekend, Sagadahoc Preservation, Inc.’s 13^th Annual House Tour, we would have been at Friday night's celebration to applaud the preservation of one of Bath’s genuine treasures! But as fate and Bath would have it, our house on Washington Street was scheduled to be the third “Marching Band” in Saturday’s parade of historic homes. We could almost hear the 76 trombones (a.k.a. docents)!

 Looking back, last weekend seems like a foggy dream. I believe Joe and I together greeted at least 200 people as they passed through our home, and that number of hellos can leave you dizzy.  For us, however, the most amazing aspect of the House Tour is how we became a part of it. Joe and I have only owned our home in Bath for two years, and last year we attended our first S.P.I. House Tour, which happened to take place in Phippsburg. Our participation in this classic Bath-style event seems impossible, but then that’s the magic of Bath!

A community filled with talented volunteers can make the impossible inevitable. How does magic happen? The director of S.P.I., Lorena Coffin, asked us to open our house to possibly 300 visitors and promised there would be docents to guide and watch-over the flow of people. She also offered flower arrangements for the dining room and entry hall, and I am a fool for flowers! Needless to say, Lorena convinced me that people would come if I only opened the door. I said, “Yes.” In turn, I persuaded Joe that it was the right thing to do if we were truly committed to preserving the beauty of this historic city of shipbuilders. How could he refuse? He said, “Yes!" Funny, a song that frequently plays in my head is Before the Parade Passes By. I‘m a fan of the Barbara Streisand version:

Flowers from the Bath Garden Club

Before the parade passes by

I’m gonna go and taste Saturday’s high life

Before the parade passes by

I’m going to get some life back into my life…

When the whistles blow

And the cymbals crash

And the sparklers light the sky

I’m going to raise the roof

I’m going to carry on

Give me an old trombone

Give me an old baton

Before the parade passes by…

We all choose different songs for our playlist. Clearly, I love parades, and the City of Bath loves them, too! You could call me crazy if I were the only person, who wanted to join the parade and play the trombone, but there were twelve houses/gardens on the tour, and many of the owners resembled Joe and I. On Thursday evening, we met the other homeowners and most of the volunteers at the docent meeting at the Winter Street Center. There were almost 80 docents who helped Bath throw the baton, blow the whistles and crash the cymbals during the House and Garden Tour. They were fabulous “musicians” who showed up as early as 9:30 a.m. to review the histories and distinctive architectural features of their assigned homes. I had the pleasure of volunteering with my musical daughter, Katie, as well as Roger and Sukey Heard, who were seasoned docents and helped me feel at ease. I was also honored to have the help of Polly, the owner of Brick Store Antiques, a store which captured our hearts and wallets when we first moved to Bath. After twenty years as a shopkeeper, Polly recently closed the store on Front Street, but she continues to be an active antique dealer in the region. Marilyn Reed, Bath’s famous tap dancer, also guided people through our home, and she did it in her signature pink shoes! Cynthia Galea rode her bike, with her readers and her guidebook in the basket, down the street to our place to direct the visitors upstairs. Joe, Katie and I feel as if we have made some new friends, and that is always a good feeling!

Can you see the glass door knob?

We learned a wealth of information from our docents and guests. One visitor from Phippsburg told me that the glass knobs on our doors were from the 1840’s, but the few brown knobs were from the later, Victorian era, and they are less unusual. A lady from Bath told Joe that we had great fireplaces and could restore them to full use without much trouble; another visitor from the area told us she had the same bannister in her house and knew that a father and son carpenter team made this federal-style bannister only between 1820 and 1840 here in Bath. After touring our home, a neighbor commented that she and her husband had shared their home on the House and Garden Tour four years ago, and even though they had lived in Bath for many years, they met new people and enjoyed the experience. Joe and I agree. By opening our doors to the community, we not only helped support the preservation of Bath’s distinctive architecture, we also deepened our appreciation for our hometown. Bath is a place where people know how to build a caring community as well as strong ships!

Ornament's owner is a proud Morse alumna!

Truth be told, some mighty Bathites volunteered to help at multiple celebrations last weekend.  A few incredibly generous individuals were involved in all of them! I know for a fact that Marilyn Reed left our house and went directly to the Morse Alumni Reception to help serve refreshments. Of course, she was still wearing her fancy pink shoes! And the inimitable Ms. M., who was the chairperson for the entire crew of docents, was also attending the anniversary celebration of the Mitchell School as well as the 2015 Morse graduation! Her grandson graduated, and her daughter, Kari, celebrated her own Morse reunion in addition to celebrating her son’s graduation and the Mitchell School’s 100^th Anniversary! That is officially a party weekend! The good people of Bath certainly know all the lyrics to Before the Parade Passes By, and they like to sing in perfect harmony! Even though I am not a graduate of Morse High School, I certainly enjoyed rocking and rolling with the Shipbuilders!

Now it’s full speed ahead to Heritage Days and the next parade, which will actually include real marching bands with real whistles and drums. I can hear that song, Before the Parade Passes By, playing in my head again:

Look at the crowd up ahead

Listen and hear that brass harmony growing

Look at the crowd up ahead

Pardon me if my old spirit's showing

All of those lights over there

Seem to be telling me where I’m going…