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Marty’s Memories: Night Life by Marty Trower

In my land of memory, night life on Chebeague took on many forms. My earliest memories are not images but sounds of adult storytelling voices, big band music, and show tunes drifting up through the narrow stairwell and heat grate. At sleepovers at Maggie’s, we kids would cuddle up under the slanting ceilings and coax her writer father Jack to make up or continue stories he’d concocted of Princess Rose and her royal family. We would all be part of the story- making process as he would ask us for suggestions, plot twists, and new characters. Later, the big event was always the Saturday night square dances at the Hillcrest Hotel. We started to care what we looked like. Maggie would leave her hair unbraided all day, shaking it out, tossing it back and from side to side while we sailed down Casco Bay in the Islander , the heavy wooden cat boat our families shared. We even started to walk down to the village on rare occasions, but if a car full of boys came by and called out to us, we were terrified and jumped into the bushes and hid. A big change occurred when “The Restaurant” opened at the Stone Pier. There was a long counter, some tables, and a jukebox. Maggie told me she had learned

to drink coffee over the winter. I was stunned. She slid up onto a stool at the counter and announced “I’ll have coffee. Black.” But it was our crush on the same boy—a tall, dark-haired “bad boy”—that tested our loyalty to each other. We were there one evening. Heartthrob Ricky Nelson was singing “Lonesome Town” from the jukebox, our curfew was nearing, and the boy walked slowly over to where we stood quivering and asked Maggie to dance! Blessedly, the song ended seconds before he took her hand and our friendship was saved! There were years of being picked up by our gang and riding around in cars, scooping up others, summer and year-round kids, and starting a bonfire at the shore, and storytelling took on a whole newmeaning. Later, Saturday nights at the Bounty Lounge in the basement of the hotel became the ultimate nighttime experience. Everyone came, every generation swayed or gyrated to the compelling music of Marlene, Med, Gary, and Brother. I remember looking over our table once and seeing my father smiling and appearing to enjoy the loud, raucous music and thinking that was unusual until I saw the white fluff of cotton sticking out of his ears! Property Maintenance Lawn Mowing, Bush Hogging, Wood Chipping, Stump Grinding, Brush Removal, Rototilling, Driveway Grading, Snow Removal, and more...

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SEPTEMBER 2017 CHEBEAGUE ISLAND COUNCIL CALENDAR