Closing down the town

I am behind in my postings- work on my house to get ready for winter has kept me busy. To bring you up to speed, we are now in the official season of returning the town to the locals and closing up most shops and restaurants.

But to recap some happenings, on Halloween people come from miles around to go trick or treating on mainly one street in Bar Harbor, the one I live on. Now the population of the town is around 4000 but we get almost a thousand kids. Ah, you say that is what people do in the winter around here to keep warm! Well maybe, but the majority of them come from off

island and as far as 50 miles away. Droves of children line up to collect their booty

as we hand out candy in a production line fashion. Contrary to popular opinion, this is not town sponsored and although people do contribute candy at the local supermarket none of us on our end of the street benefited from their generosity. But we decorate our houses and the town closes the street and there is a festive air to it that makes it special for the children who come.

The next day I walked around town to catch the last cruise ship of the season- the Queen Mary 2- and count all the places closing down for the season- actually it is easier to count the ones that remain open. Some of the shops will stay open to reap the benefits of the Pajama Sale and Midnight Madness before shuttering their store windows against the winterstorms. But few restaurants stay open and choices for a night out become sparse.

Some new shops have promised to stay open through the winter and we hope they last. A new wine shop- House Of Wines- promises to hold monthly wine tastings and the locals all gather at the first to insure they do.

So now we have the town all to ourselves and although it is relief to be able to once again drive down the streets without having to play "Dodge the Tourist" or be able to walk down the aisles of the supermarket and actually know the people shopping there, there is a touch of sadness that comes with the town rolling up the carpet for the winter. We know that soon cold and dark descends early and winter snow cannot be too far away.

But wait, there are the crazy sales to tide us over until the holidays and then Reel Pizza will be open again (more later about this ray of light in the winter) and there is a calmness that descends that lets us store up energy to face another tourist season!