Pond Reflections

Colby Historian Earl Smith reflects on the College, life in Central Maine, and anything else on his mind. He is the author of Mayflower Hill, a history of Colby. His first novel, The Dam Committee, is a humorous Maine murder mystery, soon to be published by North Country Press.

Guilt by Association

11/01/2011
Earl Smith

I don?t understand the fuss. Folks in Belgrade, where I live, are in a tizzy about my new novel, The Dam Committee. Not only do they insist that the book is about Belgrade, but worse, lots of them think they are in it. Nothing could be further from the truth. This cozy, comic, crime caper is about the fictitious Village of Belfry, a Maine lakeside tourist town. I?ve been giving glimpses of it for months on this blog, and as followers know, the town of Belgrade has nothing to do with it.

Guilt by Association

11/01/2011
Earl Smith

Early Gloom in Belfry

10/05/2011
Earl Smith

In Belfry, most years the spirits of native lift right after Labor Day, and this general good nature continues for a long while, sometimes even through the winter holidays. Not this year. This year the cheerfulness along Main Street lasted barely three weeks before the grumpiness settled back in. It was as if the Village had filled back up with tourists. No surprise. The Red Sox are to blame.

Early Gloom in Belfry

10/05/2011
Earl Smith

In Belfry, most years the spirits of native right after Labor Day, and this general good nature continues for a long while, sometimes even through the winter holidays. Not this year. This year the cheerfulness along Main Street lasted barely three weeks before the grumpiness settled back in. It was as if the Village had filled back up with tourists. No surprise. The Red Sox are to blame.

Free-Range Cows

9/21/2011
Earl Smith

A recent page-one story in the local paper recounted the plight of a Sidney farmer, cited by the animal control officer for letting his cows and goats wander too close to the highway.

Be Careful What You Wish For

9/07/2011
Earl H. Smith

Labor Day is a major holiday in Belfry, right up there with Christmas and the Fourth of July. This year, the locals sat on their lawns most of the afternoon, waving happily at the taillights of overloaded SUVs as they zeroed in on I-95 for the long ride home. By nightfall, the village was about empty of flatlanders, and a crowd began to drift into the Sunrise Grill.

Fires of Hell

8/24/2011
Earl Smith

The Rev. Eugene Peppard claims all of Maine is going to hell in a hand basket. Of course he often claims such things, using the pulpit of Falling Waters Church in Belfry Village to remind the faithful of the imminent demise of all that is good and the urgent need for immediate and full salvation. These days however, he has new ammunition for his warnings. Fireworks.

Job Security

8/17/2011
Earl Smith

Belfry natives are grumpier than usual this summer, probably because the July tsunami of tourists arrived on the same wind as a withering heat wave. Tempers followed the mercury. Now, even with the weather more seasonable, there is a grouchy hangover all around the village, especially along the quarter mile of crowded Main Street.

The Curse of the Gabe

8/08/2011
Earl Smith

Most people in Belfry Village remember exactly when Gabe Brumley came out of the closet. It was two years ago, in August. The Yankees swept a four game series from the Red Sox, and Gabe, who previously kept his personal tendencies to himself, marched bravely down his driveway and slapped a Yankee sticker on the mailbox. The effect was stunning. So far as anybody could remember, Gabe was the first and only Yankee fan in town.

Unlearned Lessons

7/27/2011
Earl Smith

In 1932, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., commissioned well-known Mexican muralist Diego Rivera to paint a large mural for the lobby of the nearly completed Rockefeller Center. The artist chose to portray workers at important moments in the evolution of industry and capitalism. He titled his work Man at the Crossroads.

Sound familiar?

Fowl Play

7/07/2011
Earl Smith

Why is the Belgrade Lakes Association, a conservation organization, chasing ducks?

Saving English

3/30/2008
Earl Smith

You may have read of the death of Marie Smith Jones, the last native fluent speaker of Eyak, once used along the Copper River in south Alaska. The notice set me to wonder if perhaps the day is not far off when we will be informed of the demise of the last known defender of the King?s English.

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