In an instant and then it's gone

A Polaroid Highlander made 1957-1959
Photo: www.Wikipedia

  Edwin Land introduced the first Polaroid Land "instant" camera on February 21, 1947, the first camera sold about one year later.
  Mr. Land worked at Research Row in Boston and developed a method for chemical reaction that could be contained in a "film packet" layers of emulsion would make a negative of the photo and a by-product would print the picture.  Don't ask me how.
  The name was changed to Polaroid after Mr. Land retired in 1982, and the last camera model was introduced in 1983.  Digital photography stuck Polaroid hard when people discovered that they could take a photo and print it at home.

Mr. Land and the first color Polaroid Land Camera
Photo: www.shootingfilm.net

USS Maine ACR-1 or the Battleship Maine

The Maine enters Havana harbor in 1898 - looking at the aft end of the ship
Photo:  www.wikipedia.org

  The USS Maine, built as an Armored Cruiser and later called a Battleship sunk in Havana, Cuba on February 15, 1898, 116 years ago today.  Over 260 American sailors lost their life.  It was, at the time, deemed sunk by Spanish forces and was the cause of the Spanish American War.
  Much later it was discovered that the sinking may have been caused by overheated boilers igniting and ammunition storage room.  Three or four studies have been done, the Rickover Commission in 1974 seems to have come up with the proper cause.  The Navy had switched to bituminous coal which burns hotter than the previous coal, the boiler would overheat.
  You can read more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Maine_(ACR-1)
The original bow decoration can be seen in Bangor, Maine where a ceremony is held each year to commemorate the loss of life.

The USS Maine bow décor in Bangor, Maine - click to enlarge
Photo: www.navsource.org

Endangered?

Robbins's Cinquefoil
Photo: USFWS

  Forty years ago President Richard Nixon signed the Endangered Species Act.  Since that time many species that were in danger of never being seen again have recovered.  Those include "little known" plants like the photo above, a flower that grows in the White Mountains of New Hampshire to those as well known at the Bald Eagle.
  It would be a different country without the mighty Gray Whale, or the Peregrine Falcon, or the flowers on a New Hampshire mountain.  These are among many that have recovered, for other there is still a distance to travel before the Canada Lynx is back

Brown Pelican
Photo: USFWS (US Fish and Wildlife Service)

What if they made a movie?

View from the "lamp room" of Moose Peak Light
Photo: Erica Fae

  Erica Fae, a New York City resident, has proposed making a movie in Jonesport, Maine and the nearby lighthouse of Mistake Island, Moose Peak Light.
  Ms. Fae is experienced in film, acting, and production and wants to portray historical women in the film.  The first Federal jobs, other than clerical work, open to women was for Lighthouse Keepers, and two very well know women worked in Maine.
  The owner of the light, a Connecticut businessman has given permission for use of the lighthouse, which he bought a auction several years ago.
  We will follow this story to wherever it leads.

Moose Peak Light on Mistake Island, Maine
Photo: Erica Fae

Seasonal stuff:
First music by Willie Nelson, "Pretty Paper"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_1CLPH9rqs

And the photo:

Santa came to town Union Square, San Francisco
Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle

The Eastland Hotel is reborn

The Eastland Hotel, Portland Maine - click
Photo: Portland Monthly

  For many years, I think, the Eastland was the most prominent building in Portland.  Located on High Street near Congress Street (the main street).  It had over 100 rooms and most of the time it was the best place to stay in the city.  Over the years it did run down some, rents became less expensive and tenants become more long term.  Mostly that was caused by new motels/hotels being built and the expense of keeping constant upgrades.
  In the past few day the old lady has a new name The Portland Westin, and a very expensive make over.  So the "east went west" as the saying is.
  When I first came back to Maine in 1978, I met a man who knew my father, Maurice Lord a retired Army man, who according to him, was the man who did my enlistment physical at Fort Williams when I joined the Navy.  We went to the Top of the East and had some drinks - probably too many.
A couple of years later when I was living on the street I used the restroom off the lobby to try to shave every couple of days.

The Top of the East overlooking Portland Harbor all new again - click to enlarge
Photo: Robert Witkowski Portland Press Herald

Seasonal Photo:

McArdle's Garden Center Greenwich, Connecticut - early 1950's - click
Photo: www.kansas.com

Rear Admiral Grace Hopper, USN

Commodore Hopper in 1984
Photo: U. S. Navy via www.wikipedia.org

  Grace Hopper served in the U S Navy from 1943 until 1996, with two brief (less than a year) breaks.  She was born in 1906 (today, her birthday, she would have been 107), educated at Vassar in Mathematics and Physics, she worked in the labs at Harvard University.
  She joined the WAVES of the U S Naval Reserve in 1943 with an exemption for her weight, she weighed 15 pounds less than the 120 pound minimum, she served in the Bureau of Ships, where the Navy Computer Labs were in infancy.
  She wrote the first computer language that was close to English and is know today as COBOL.  She is the person who coined the term "debugging" after she removed a moth from a computer to solve a problem.
  She is one of the very few women with a Navy ship named for them, the USS Hopper DDG-70 was commissioned in 1996 and is know as "Amazing Grace"!
  If you look at the website Google you will find an animation of Admiral Hopper, one of my personal heroes, at work.

Seasonal photo:

Ryan McDermott at Gooches Beach, Kennebunk, Maine last week
Photo: Portland Press Herald

Thar she blows! or the Exploding Whale

The Whale that beached itself
Photo: www.wikipedia.org

  November 12, 1970 will live on as the "Day of the Exploding Whale".  A 45 foot long, 12000 pound Sperm Whale beached itself near Florence, Oregon.
  To take care of the remains the State of Oregon tasked the Oregon Highway Department.  The beaches in Oregon where considered "roads" at the time, thus the Highway Department.  The job fell to a man named George Thornton who decided to blow the whale up using dynamite.  He thought the whale would be "blown to bits" and eaten by birds and animals.  He decided to use 20 cases of dynamite.
  He found Walter Umenhofer, a man who had explosives training in the Army.  Umenhofer was shocked by the amount of explosives that were planned to be used, he thought 20 sticks of dynamite would do the job, not 20 cases.
  20 cases won out, they were place in various places under the whale.  The Explosion moved a lot of the sand under the whale and the whale broke into big pieces, not little bits.  A half-ton piece of blubber landed on Mr. Umenhofer's brand new Oldsmobile 98 convertible, it had been purchased from a dealer in Eugene who was having a "Whale of a Deal" sale.
  The Highway Department buried most of the large pieces, the birds who were to have eaten the little pieces were scared away by the noise.

Kaboom!
Photo: www.wikipedia.org

For more information go to www.wikipedia.org

Electricity is scary stuff

  When I was four or five I discovered a light socket that was empty upstairs.  What happened next is a good explanation of how I grew up.
  Using a bureau that was underneath the socket I opened the bottom two drawers to use as "stairs" and climbed up. This is not a recommended step-ladder.
  I stuck my finger is the socket and WHAM!  Now 110 volts isn't usually fatal and I did live through it.  But, the shock of the shock tipped me over with the bureau on top of me and yelling for my mother.  She kind of thought it was a stupid idea and now I'll have to agree.
  I am scared of electricity to this day, it's dangerous stuff as you'll see.

  Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were a married couple and convicted spies.  Julius worked at the New Mexico labs where the A-bomb came from, he was an engineer.  Ethel was a secretary but her brother, David Greenglass was a spy and she typed the documents he, and her husband, supplied to the Soviet Union.
  Julius and Ethel were sentenced to death while Mr. Greenglass, who testified against them, served 10 years of a 15 year sentence.
  On June 19, 1953 Julius and Ethel were put to death in the Electric Chair at Sing Sing Prison in New York.  The executions were done in New York because the Federal Prisons did not have Electric Chairs.
  On June 19, 1953 when I was still twelve years old my family listened to the live news cast from Sing Sing as the Rosenberg's were put to death.

I am still scared of electricity.

Number Four of Trolley Parks in Maine

The entrance to Lake Grove Park, Auburn 1900 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  How about roller skating and then dinner while watching the Powder Puffs musical act?  Even if it's on the eastern shore of Lake Auburn?  Not even if there is a slide show with "dissolving pictures" made from hand painted glass slides?  Even if it just costs five cents to ride the horse-drawn trolley?
  Such was entertainment in 1900, and that is what this park, and most of the others, offered.  Times had changed by the 1920's and changed even more after World War Two when, I'm guessing, most of us were born.

Building that house the attractions at Lake Grove Park 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net
 

Part three, Trolley Parks (Portland area)

South Portland's Grand Casino 1897-click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  The Portland and Cape Elizabeth railway opened the Grand Casino on Simontons Cove on Willard Beach.  It opened one week before Riverton Park (see yesterday's blog).
   The newspapers described this building as immense, it was 110 feet long and 65 feet wide with 3 floors.  It had, on the first floor, 75 dressing rooms and a heated salt water pool, and many more things live a movie theater and dance floors.

The Cape Cottage Theater 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  This theater was a typical playhouse where sometimes popular actors came to perform, usually in the summer.  This particular theater is still hosting plays, the building has been altered over the course of a hundred plus years, but it stands on the South Portland/Cape Elizabeth line.

Cape Cottage Casino c1900 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net
 

  This Casino was located on a rocky bluff where visitors could watch the activity of the shipping channel, right from the dining room!  There were dance halls, food service facilities, bake shops, dressing rooms and swimming.
  A very popular destination for day trippers the biggest draw was "fresh air" which considering the size of Portland may have been better (horse "droppings") if you get my drift.

Riverton Park, Trolley Parks part two

This is blog number 1425, it's been about four years now, on un-hospitalized days or Hollie's vacation days.

Riverton Casino, Portland 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  For twenty cents Portland Railway riders could board a trolley on Preble Street and be transported to Maine's most luxurious casino.  It was a popular destination, 10,000 people showed up on opening day.  There were bridal showers, card tournaments, or you could watch the Great Roberto parachute from a hot air balloon, he was The Human Meteor.
  There were parks along the Presumpscot River, outdoor movies, and boat rides.  Ahhh! The fresh air and still in the city.
  The casino operated into the 1900's but after World War Two when the lines shut down the place was razed and city housing now is on that site along with a nice golf course.

The indoor reading room/dining area/smoking lounge - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

The Red Room, 1907, parties in luxury - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

Trolley Parks, part one, Southern Maine

  Way back when most small cities and larger areas were connected by inter-urban trolley lines, the trolley companies were happy.  What could make them more happy was more revenue.  And that's where Trolley Parks come in.
  Trolley Parks were "amusement areas" at one end or the other of the trolley line and they were owned by the trolley company(ies).

The Atlantic House, York Beach, Maine c1905 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

 The Portsmouth(NH), Kittery and York Street Railway ran a special trolley, The Comet, where for ten cents you could ride to York Beach and visit The Atlantic House.  You could walk on the beach for some fresh air, dance in the ballroom, and of course eat some not-so-healthy food.  Sometimes these types of places, if they were on or over or near the water were called "casinos", but not the gambling kind.   The building is still there.

St. Aspinquid Park, York, Maine c1908 - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  A bit north of York Beach visitors were able to go the Saint Aspinquid Park where visitors could "experience" the life of Native Americans.  The center of attraction was a giant statue of Saint Aspinquid, or Passaconaway (his real name).  Legend tells that St. Aspinquid converted to Christianity and became a missionary to other Tribes in North America.  There were also very extra-large Bibles on display.  Unlike The Atlantic House building these buildings are no longer around.

The casino at Cape Porpoise (Kennebunk) - click to enlarge
Photo: Seashore Trolley Museum via www.mainememory.net

  This was the recreation area for Sanford-Springvale-Kennebunk riders.  The round trip fare from Sanford was fifty cents in 1909.  The railway had a line to Cape Porpoise to haul coal to the schooners which docked there; the casino, was just an idea for profits that worked.
  Visitors could dance and eat dinners and lunches - mostly seafood which was reported to be delightful.
  The casino remained in business until September 6, 1915 when it was consumed by fire at the end of the Labor Day Weekend.

Sanford, Maine over 100 years ago

  I never lived in Sanford but in the "Town next door", I did start High School at Sanford High before my family moved to Ohio and took me with them.  After three years when I graduated we moved back to Maine.  Sanford is where I found the Navy Recruiter and joined.
  I was baptized in Sanford (the first time) because that Baptist Church had a "baptismal" - an artificial pool type arrangement - in back of the pulpit and behind a curtain.

First Baptist Church - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Committee via www.mainememory.net
 

  This is the church on the corner of Main and Kimball, it's not much different to this day, the windows have been changed, and I'm not sure about the chimneys.  This is the corner where we waited after school for my father to get out of work - then we went home.  The high school is a mile or more up Main Street toward Springvale.  We just walked down and waited, of course we took our time.
  Springvale is part of Sanford but it's treated almost as a separate Town.  It's where the ice house and the railroad station are, and the Shoe Factory that's now housing the elderly.  Nason College was in Springvale too, my cousin Norman graduated from Nason and taught business classes in high school.

The Murray home and Livery Stable in 1910 - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Committee via www.mainememory.net

The Twelve Apostles - click to enlarge
Photo: Sanford Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  These were some of the houses built for workers in the Goodall Mills on Cottage Street, I don't know if they are still there, I would hope so.
  Goodall is a "major" name in Sanford, Goodall Hospital, Goodall Library etc. etc.  Those mills were the town when I was young, now I hardly ever go there except for a funeral, I live about 180 north and east of Sanford now.  It was nice to visit this way.

Making the sail

  On Limerock Street in Camden, Maine there's a house with a sail loft, the home of a sail maker.  Amos Perkins Lord used to live here from his birth in 1896 until his 1957 death.  Mr. Lord made some of the new sails for "Old Ironsides" the USS Constitution.
  In 1976 Grant Gambell bought the house and loft, he is also a sail maker, he uses a lot of Mr. Perkins tools.  Oh sure, there is some machine work, but fine sails need fine finishing touches.  Tools like a large lump of beeswax to make the needle slide smooth, or a Roping Palm a sort of "thimble" for the hand that pushes the needle through several layers of canvas.

Sample seam of a handmade canvas sail - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

A sail makers needle, there are different sizes. - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

A Roping Palm - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net
 

On the (Taber) Wagon

  Silas W. Taber was a blacksmith, building and repairing wagons and farm equipment in 1900, and then he had a better idea.
  The potato fields of Aroostook County weren't smooth.  They certainly weren't smooth enough to navigate with a wagon full of barrels of picked potato's; and Mr. Taber had a better idea.  And the Taber Wagon was born.


A loaded wagon on display at a farm in Caribou - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net

  Mr. Taber designed a "dropped axle" that would allow the wagons to be easily loaded with the barrels and they were easier to navigate the fields.

The dropped axle, or crank axle the wagon sets on the lower part. - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net

A newspaper ad for the wagon. - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net
 

Legally Built

  Frederick Wheeler Hinckley was an attorney in Portland.  Mr. Hinckley became wealthy through his work.  Mr. Hinckley also had an odd hobby, he designed houses, he also built some of them.  He started a development in the 1920's called Sylvan Site in South Portland.  He had built his own home, Clyfdale on Sawyer Street, and turned his acreage into the development.
  The photographs in this piece are by Walter Fenley are were hand tinted, they're very nice.

Bungalow, 970 Sawyer Street, South Portland c1920s - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

Colonial Revival built in the 1920's - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

This house was owned by Dr. Waldo T. Skillin a Portland physician.  The Skillin School on Wescott Street in South Portland is named for him.  Coincidentally when I worked for the South Portland School Dept. my office was located in a building next to Skillin School.  Small world.

House with a cross gabled roof, 5 Adelbert Street, South Portland c1920s - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net


 

Le Petit Pont - The Swinging Bridge

The Brunswick-Topsham Footbridge in 1895 - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net
 

  Built to accommodate workers for the Cabot Mill in Brunswick that came to work from Topsham.  Topsham, a neighboring town, had some of the tenements owned by Cabot.  Most of the workers were French-Canadian and walked to work because wages weren't very high.
  Similar bridges are in Skowhegan which crosses to Kennebec to the section of Skowhegan that used to be the Town of Bloomfield.  There is the "Two-cent Bridge" between Waterville and Winslow.  I'm sure I have listed them all.  The Two-cent name of that bridge came from the toll charged for using that bridge.  My wife an I have walked across these bridges plus the one in Bangor over the Kenduskeag Stream, it's a pleasant walk on any of them.

The fall of the river seen from Le Petit Pont in 1895 - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net
 

The 1936 flood covers the footbridge. - click to enlarge
Photo: Pejepscot Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

 

The game of summer - baseball

Portland v. Houlton in Houlton c1895 - click to enlarge
Photo: Aroostook County Historical and Art Museum via www.mainememory.net

  Baseball has been around in Maine for a long long time, even longer than the age of the above photo.  The fields have changed over time, but there are still nine men on the field for each side.
  Even I can remember when almost each town had a team, the Lebanon team used to play three of four games a week at Goodall Field in Sanford.  We used to have a great time at those games.  Now most of those teams are history as are many of the fields.  Kids don't go outdoors as much and form "teams" of four or five on a side - we used to play with four of us, each had our own score and we just rotated positions - it worked.

Bowdoin College Team c1896 - click to enlarge
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  In the photo above there is one interesting thing.  The young man in suit and tie (left, top) was the team manager Percival Baxter.  Mr. Baxter became many things including Governor of Maine and the man who gave us Baxter State Park.

Cabot Mill Team in 1930 playing in Brunswick - click to enlarge
Photo: Pejepscot Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  Many companies or mills in Maine sponsored a team; they may have played against town teams or games with other companies.  Now with no mills those are history too.
  Now there is Little League and Senior Little League (World Series in Bangor, Maine), American Legion teams and college teams in Maine for those who care to play or watch; but it seems the neighbor kids playing everyday outdoors are rarely seen.

Summer Camp

  I went to camp one summer for a week, maybe more than once.  Camp was supposed to make the "rustic life" fun so you could appreciate "more luxurious life".
  Well since we lived in an old farmhouse without running water or inside "facilities", what rustic life was I supposed to have fun in, hell I was having fun already.  No, camp for me was, in reality, a vacation for my mother - she needed one.

The truck for Camp Winnebago in Fayette, Maine in 1940.
Photo: Camp Winnebago via www.mainememory.net

  The truck/bus was used to pick the boys up and return them to the train station.  It was also used for day trips to the ocean or other locations.  The truck was retired in the 1960's.

Camp Technology for MIT students.
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  This camp run by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was to expose students to subjects other than math and science.  I imagine it was a memorable break and it was "rustic".

Girls play basketball in Naples c1930
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

I can not imagine how much fun camping must have been for girls.  All those activities in a skirt or dress.  No wonder most camps were single sex things.

....and there was music

Chandlers Band, Portland Maine 1898
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  A long time ago, before even Wilbur or I were born, there was no radio.  People still liked to listen to music.  As a result most towns of any size had a band.  The band in the top photo might have been the best dressed and have "professional" musicians, but other bands throughout Maine went over just as well.
  I wonder why they just didn't embed a small chip in the newspaper.  (that's a joke)
So we'll take a look at some other bands that were popular:

The Union Brass Band, Ferry Village Cape Elizabeth 1873
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  Note the year on this photo.  Yes, Ferry Village is in South Portland, now, but South Portland didn't split from Cape Elizabeth until 1875.
  Anyway this was a very popular band in that part of the town, I even used to live in Ferry Village but not when the band was playing.

Gem Theater Orchestra, Peaks Island, 1910
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  The old Gem Theater was a going concern on Peaks Island until about 1915 when things changed for one reason or another.  After 1915 there was no orchestra and the building became a roller skating rink.

Fifth Infantry Band, Fort Williams, Cape Elizabeth c1923
Photo: Maine Historical Society via www.mainememory.net

  I am not sure this photo was taken on Fort Williams, but I don't think it was, even the parade grounds weren't that large, this may have been a part of a larger parade in Portland or some other town.
  I took my first enlistment oath at Fort Williams about 55 years ago, by then it was just a processing station.  In the present time it's home to some organizational offices and a day care.  Fort Williams Park is also the home of Portland Head Light.