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Summertime in the BelgradesContentsfor Printing
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Reflections of 76 Years on Lake Messalonskeeby Audrie Drummond Owsley Spending summer vacations on the lake near the North Belgrade station is a family tradition. I came my first time at age six months. Needless to say, I don't remember that or the next couple of years, but from then on there are a lot of wonderful memories. My grandparents were always at the camp (starting in 1902), and the different families took their turns visiting with them. Eventually there were five camps owned by Drummond relatives. In those days when we drove down through the woods and pastures on the dirt road, you blew the horn in case someone was coming the other way so one of you could pull over. This would also let those who were expecting you know that you were on the way and to meet you at the end of the road with a wheelbarrow. We had to go down through the woods over roots and rocks and a small stream to get to the camp. After we settled in, it was two or three weeks of wonderful days. I remember hiking up through the pasture with our buckets to get drinking water from a spring and putting pennies on the track on the way. I bet I still have some of those smashed pennies somewhere. I recall pumping water into a big barrel for dishes, etc., sweeping the porch but not disturbing the cobwebs because grandmother said they caught the bugs (we didn't have screens on the porch and I think she was right), filling the wood box, and getting ice out of the ice house. (It's still there but is now a small guesthouse.) When I was big enough I can remember getting the ice with the tongs, going down to the lake and rinsing the sawdust off, and putting it in the icebox. After the morning chores were done, we enjoyed the outdoors. When very young we played in the cove and boathouse for hours. As we (all the cousins) got a little older, we would go on hikes into the pasture for a picnic at "big" rock, up to the farm house on Route 11 for fresh milk, or over to North Belgrade to the post office and small store. The only phone for years was at the train station; we all would go up the embankment and walk the tracks to the station. For a few years there was a small store at the farmhouse behind the station but I really don't remember that. Thinking about the train station — it really was a big part of our entertainment. We always ran down to the cove to wave to the engineer and if a freight, to the man in the caboose after we counted how many units they were pulling. The passenger trains had a lot of folks to wave to. The first time the new Streamliner came through was very exciting. It was shiny silver and very sleek, for those days, and fast. Sometimes the trains stopped if the Station Master put out flag or there were passengers to get on or off. The boys going to Cedar Crest Camp on the other side of the lake got off and were met by counselors that brought canoes to the cove to take them across to camp. There was a big water tank that was filled with water from the lake and then pumped into the train's boilers to make the steam to run the engines. All these wonderful events that kept us amused are long gone for more modern ways. I guess I got carried away telling train stories of which there are more but this is enough. On rainy days we still were kept busy playing in the cove, in the boathouse, or, as we got older, in one of the camps, playing card games. The boathouse was a wonderful place to put on plays or do acrobatics on the iron bars that must have been there to help put the boats in and out. There was a great big winch at the back of the boathouse that we didn't play with. It was used to pull the big boat in because this boathouse was on dry land and not over the water as some were. When the family first going out to camp in 1902, they took a trolley from Waterville to Oakland to a landing somewhere near the dam and then went by boat to the camp. Once they moved out to the lake, they didn't go back and forth like we do today. My grandfather (A.F. Drummond) did go since he was Treasurer of the Waterville Savings Bank and someone had to bring the groceries back to camp. At one time there was a little island about a mile out from the cove, and when the boy cousins got old enough they would take the challenge to swim to it. They always had someone in a rowboat with them. I never got to do it because in those days girls didn't do those things. We did finally convince our parents to let us swim across the lake to the Smith's camp that was near the Music Camp. The "little island" had trees and big rocks, but as the lake water has gotten higher and higher, they slowly disappeared to just rock slightly below the surface. There is a marker showing they are there. Another adventure the boys could do was taking an annual canoe trip through the lakes. They started in North Pond and spent two nights camping along the way. In those days they could find a camping site in the woods on the shore and not be near anyone. These wonderful events could occur then because there were very few motorboats, no Sea-Doos, and no water skiing. There were just canoes, row boats (we all learned to row), and an occasional motorboat used to enjoy a ride around the lake to see whom they could wave to and say hi. Wouldn't it be great if we had a canoe trail through the lakes with camping sites — a way to enjoy the loons, eagles, beavers, and maybe some fishing for supper? There were days when you could see the bottom of the lake and tell what color the rocks were. I don't think there's a chance that will happen again but if everyone would work at keeping our lake quality up, it might not get any worse. Audrie Drummond Owsley spent her summers on the North Belgrade side of Lake Messalonskee; in the fifties her father purchased property on the Sidney side of the lake and she has summered there ever since. This article was originally published in two parts in the June 11 and June 18 issues. | ||