A Lifetime of Summers

by Janice Hamilton

My mother lived for the summers she spent in Biddeford Pool. She had a lovely home in Montreal, but the two months she spent near the ocean recharged her batteries and helped her get through the winters, especially as her health declined.

In late June, 1994, she arrived at the Pool, fragile but hoping to regain strength as usual. She suffered from emphysema and osteoporosis. A few days later, she died in her own bed, in the place she loved the best.

42 L.B. Orcutt around 1993

Her family had been summering in Maine for many years. The southern coast of Maine, including Scarborough, Old Orchard and Ogunquit, has long been a favourite with Montrealers.  Her mother enjoyed many vacations in Kennebunkport, Maine before she was married. In fact, my great-grandfather died of throat cancer in Kennebunkport in 1912. I imagine that the family decided to take their usual vacation on the coast, even though he was ill, thinking that the sea air would do him good.

My grandparents, Gwendolyn Bagg and Fred Murray Smith, were married in 1916. They planned to get married in Kennebunkport, but Gwen’s brother was injured in an automobile accident, so at the last minute they moved the wedding to Montreal. My mother, Joan Murray Smith, their only child, was born two years later.

My grandfather is on the far left.

When Joan was about six years old, her family started staying at the Ocean View Hotel at Biddeford Pool, a few miles from Kennebunkport. I don’t know how they first heard about it, but they loved it. The hotel catered to families, and my mother later described the fun she had as a child and teenager, playing on the beach and participating in Sunday evening hymn-sings. But when World War II broke out, vacation travel between Canada and the United States became difficult. Joan did not return to Maine until after the war.

In June, 1946, she married Jim Hamilton. When I was four years old, my parents returned to Biddeford Pool, and they never missed another summer. Every July, they rented a small cottage that belonged to Mr. and Mrs. Bartlett from Milwaukee. When the Bartletts arrived for their own vacation in August, my family usually rented another cottage, but the Bartletts’ house was always our favourite. My parents bought it in 1963.

My father spent his two weeks of vacation at the Pool, where he enjoyed playing golf with a group of men every morning. My mother and I spent our entire summers there until I started university in 1966. After my father died in 1980, Mother continued to go there, accompanied by a cook and caregivers. My husband and I started to vacation there after our first son was born in 1984.

When I was young, my Mother used to take me to the rocks, where I played with little plastic sailboats at one of the tidal pools. We both loved the beach. A huge gang of baby boomers grew up at the Pool, and there were lots of activities to keep us busy, including a playgroup for the younger children and sailing for the teenagers.

Mother at the beach in the 1970s or 1980s. Note the healthy sand dunes.

Perhaps that sounds idyllic, however, I was very shy and not part of the in-crowd of kids. Maybe it was because my mother, always wanting to protect me from catching a cold, made me wear wool shorts and knee socks. Even at age 12, I knew that wasn’t cool. Meanwhile, both my mother and I cringed on hot days when my father wore shorts, exposing his white, skinny legs and black socks!

There were always lots of cocktail parties at the Pool in the 1950s and ‘60s, but my parents were not party-goers. Nevertheless, my mother developed some good friendships over the years, often inviting people for afternoon tea in the sunroom or chatting with her neighbour over an after-dinner drink.

After she died, I inherited the house. Basically, little has changed. My mother loved that cottage so much, her spirit lives on there.  

(originally posted Dec. 13, 2018)