Family Pastimes
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1. Visiting relatives in Connecticut.
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Apart from the fact that nearly everyone in town is a cousin, or third
cousin, or related in some such way (except me), it seems that everyone
has relatives in Connecticut. Except me. My relatives are in places like
New York, or Hong Kong, or San Francisco.
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2. Cruising. I swear this is true.
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3. Going to the lake.
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Actually, this is pretty nice. I love the lake. Lots of people in town
own summer homes or "camps" on the lake (although lately more and more
Canadians have been moving in). The summer homes are very simple, of
course (ours is pretty dilapidated), nothing like Martha's Vineyard or
other yuppy places.
My dad used to take us across the
lake in our little boat with a 7.5 hp motor to get ice cream in Sinclair,
or to eat at Bert's Restaurant in Birch Point. Sometimes we would have a
cookout on the "beach" (beaches in Maine are all rocks and pebbles) below
the camp.
The driveway to our camp (filled with wild strawberry plants and
pretty flowers which my mom ruthlessly mowed over one summer) used to have a
wooden sign with my dad's Chinese name on it, until the tree it was
nailed to rotted and fell over one winter. A friendly neighbor sawed up
the tree for us and left the sign on the pile of wood.
The first time me and my dad went to our camp this summer, there was another tree
blocking the driveway. A dead tree, I meant. It must have fallen over during the
winter, and someone sawed it up for us in a nice neighborly way (again!)
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4. Going to the shopping mall.
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The first ever shopping mall in Northern Maine opened just about three years ago.
Before that, the closest mall was in Bangor, a 3.5 hour drive away. Designer labels?
We don't need no stinkin' labels!
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5. The annual Maine Potato Blossom Festival.
- Yes, a full-blown rural festival, including the Miss Potato Blossom Beauty Pageant.
Unfortunately, neither I nor my equally lovely sisters ever entered this event.
People would have gawped at us because they most likely had never seen Chinese
people before (except on T.V.).
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