July 4 -- The Glorious Fourth, Portland Style

A hot clear day. We had a late breakfast in town while walking to The Victoria Mansion at the far western end of town, where we had never been before. At breakfast, and again later, at the Standard Bakery, which they had recommended (in the background), we met Robin and Bill,

who we had also met two days before at the Maine Jewish Museum and yesterday at the Art Museum. Both are teachers, vacationing here by car, from New Hampshire. Portland is a small town in a small world.

The Victoria mansion, however, was closed for the holiday.

On our return trip we walked almost the length of Commercial Street and spent a good part of the afternoon aboard. I took care of some sewing projects and looked into the possibility of buying only the inside plastic parts, made in China, of the ship’s clock which now tells the correct time only twice a day. I bet the greater part of the expense of this item is the brass case and brass enclosed glass cover, which I’d like not to replace, but merely to shine up. We also plotted out our next week or so, here in northern and eastern Casco Bay.

Then to the Celebration of the Glorious Fourth. Our walk there took us past the Portland Observatory, built in 1807, which is at the highest point in the city and looks like a lighthouse, but is not.

We had climbed it in 2002. It was used, in the days before radio, to make merchant ships’ calls in Portland as short as possible -- so they could get out to sea again to make more money. Armed with a telescope, the operator could see ships approaching the port while they were still out at sea. By raising coded signal flags, visible in town, he informed the shore-side representatives of the ships to muster their crew of longshoremen to unload and reload their cargoes.
Many cities think their civic patriotism display is “the best” and Portland is no exception. They have a great venue: the east end of town. It is called Eastern Promenade and includes a wide park consisting of a hill sloping from the high street to the water, covered in grass. They expected 50 to 70 thousand people but projected the crowd at 30,000. It was enough. The street at the top of the hill was lined with trucks vending food so no one need go hungry.This shot was early, before the spaces filled in.

They do not vend alcohol which keeps the crowd from getting rowdy. We looked for our friends, Dave and Bill and Robin, but without luck.

There is a big tented stage near the bottom whose shape put me in mind of the Parthenon, perched over Athens. These Maine people seem to love art, culture and reading -- lots of independent book stores -- not yet invaded by the Barnes and Nobles of this world.

Many boats were moored or anchored in the waters below, to the left (the lights); we had contemplated going there but for my aversion to anchoring in crowded places at night with revelers.

We got there a couple hours early and sat on our lawn/boat chairs and watched the sunset.

The area in front of the red white and blue bunting was reserved for those who paid $100 for a barbecue dinner and a good seat. But we were as close as we would be at the back of Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center home of the New York Philharmonic. The Portland Symphony Orchestra performed, with Maine resident Don McLean as a guest star.  He did both Starry Starry Night and American Pie, with lush orchestration. They also had a Lincoln presenter who, in top hat and tails, read the Gettysburg Address in a dramatic voice, on the day after the 150^th anniversary of the end of that momentous three day battle, accompanied by music composed for such a reading.

The lovely woman sitting next to us, Sue,

who works as the accountant for a lobster packing business that supplies many of New York’s lobster houses, had told us that both of her great grandfathers had been in or near the battle, one as a private and the other as a officer. 

And of course Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, with its Marseilles and Russian peasant dances, followed by stirring Sousa marches, were accompanied by fireworks.

A wonderful stirring evening followed by a warm dry calm night.