Phil Crossman - Away Happens

The fullness of life on a remote Maine island is found in the nearly unavoidable interactions we who live here have with one another. It comparessometimes favorably, sometimes unfavorablywith life elsewhere, but it is certainly a complete experience.

Vinalhaven is an island village in Maine, about fifteen miles from the mainland and accessible only by boat, state-run ferry, or air taxi. Its 1,276 people are sufficiently removed from the rest of the world as to occupy an insular environment in which we all work, play, love, and hate. Some of us travel extensively; others never leave the island. Still, when push comes to shove, as it often does, we live here with, and respond to, one another. We share and continually contribute to a mercurial body of common knowledge that is our community baggage, and therein we find our strengths and our shortcomings, our accomplishments and our misdeeds. We are compelled to endlessly consider ourselves in the context of others, and it is the time spent in such contemplation that gives our lives a wholeness (not to be confused with wholesomeness). More than anything else, though, we find a communal circuitry and involvement with one another whether we like it or not. Some of us clearly dont. Nonetheless, were all players on this stage of forty or so square miles, and nothing in our lives is more present than familiarity.

Several years ago it was revealed to me that creative nonfiction was a legitimate literary genre. It was the most liberating experience of my life. All these years I thought Id been simply lying. Most of these essays are examples of creative nonfiction. The shorter of these were published as columns in The Wind, Vinalhavens weekly news and events paper. Love, etc. was commissioned and published by The Maine Times. Nearly all the rest were published by the Working Waterfront, a monthly publication of the Island Institute in Rockland, Maine, for whom I write a bimonthly column, and one of those, Away Happens, was also published by Yankee magazine. The essays describe or address events and circumstances occurring in or around my own life on Vinalhaven during a typical year, beginning in the fall.

My wife and I are innkeepers. We own the Tidewater Motel. Elaine is an artist and runs the New Era Gallery right across the street. Im also a builder.

When an islander dies, whether a year-round or seasonal resident, a basket containing a scrap of paper with the name of the deceased is placed on the counter at Carlenes Paper Store. The exhibit, even if the deceased was well heeled, cues patrons to make contributions of cash, each signing the slip of paper, until quite a sum has accumulated. When a baby is born to an islander, an announcement appears on the window of Bobs hardware store and a flag is flown announcing the birth and the gender. The presence of the basket or the flag is how most of us keep abreast of comings and goings.

The ferry is often referred to as the boat; the 7:00 A.M. boat as the first or early boat; the late afternoon ferry as the last or late boat.

It is important that you know these things.

Bait Bag: A small nylon net into which is stuffed bait, usually herring. The bag is then suspended in a trap to attract lobsters.

Davit: A hydraulic device for hauling traps.

Gear: Lobster traps, rope, buoys, and related equipment.

Gurry: Unappealing fish parts, guts.

Out to Haul: Aboard a lobster fishing boat and about the business of harvesting lobsters, hauling traps.

Phil n the Blanks: An acappella singing group comprised of four men, one of whom is me.

Pot Heads: Cone-shaped nets installed at the entrance to and within traps to keep captured lobsters confined.

Pot Warp: Rope used in lobstering, usually the one that connects the trap on the ocean bottom with the buoy on the surface.

Quarry: A deep hole, sometimes several acres wide, where granite had once been mined, now filled with cool spring water and often used for swimming in the summer and skating in the winter.

Roller: A wooden rectangular container built of lathes spaced apart and used for collecting harvested clams.

Seinin (Seining): Fishing with a large net, floating on the top, weighted on the bottom.

Skidder: A large powerful tractor used to haul logs from the woods.

Washboard: A reenforced portion of the gunwale where lobster traps and gear are hauled aboard