HOLIDAY WEEKEND POTPOURRI: Best SWH fireworks ever; town to turn pink
SOUTHWEST HARBOR, July 7, 2024 - Double click the above video to view the finale of what many say was the best fireworks display ever in town. The show sponsored by the Southwest Harbor and Tremont Chamber of Commerce started promptly at 9 p.m. July 4 and lasted almost 20 minutes.
The fireworks were shot off from a barge in the harbor, near the end of Beal’s Lobster Pier. They were visible from boats anchored in the harbor, Clark Point Road, Shore Road in Manset and various points at the head of the harbor.
In Asia, where I grew up, fireworks were commonplace, so I never developed the allure for them as is the case in the United States around certain dates like July 4. But they were fun. And the display last Thursday night did not disappoint.
Anytime Americans may gather and celebrate something is a good thing these days.
REPRINT: How a Chinese stowaway spawned an enduring family on MDI
Here is a reprint of one of my favorites articles from my archive. I started the blog in March 2020 on the Wordpress platform but when I transitioned to Substack in early 2021, I lost all my Wordpress articles.
Luckily, this one was a survivor. It was my contribution to the full history of MDI, which did not only start in 1761 when Abe Somes and John Richardson came ashore at the head of the sound in their two-masted Chebacco sailboat.
Too much of the written history discounts the thousands of years the native people sustained the island a lot better than the job we are doing.
Daniel Cough was the first Chinese to settle in Maine and the first to be naturalized a United States citizen. When I published the article three years ago, the count then was 176 Cough descendants who have as much a historical footprint here as the Stanleys, Savages and Higginses.
$25 lobster rolls to benefit Common Good Soup Kitchen
SOUTHWEST HARBOR - The soup kitchen and cafe here will add 100 boxes of lobster rolls and chips to its usual popover offering Saturday July 13 at the end of the annual Flamingo Festival parade.
Debi Estes, director of the Common Good, hopes to raise $2,500 for the soup kitchen.
This is the schedule for next weekend’s events:
“The annual Harbor House Flamingo Festival is whimsical, lighthearted and decidedly pink,” according to the Harbor House Facebook page.
The Islander reported that the festival got a jumpstart in 1996 when the founder of the plastic flamingos and his wife began coming to Southwest Harbor. Don Featherstone died in 2015.
Best photo of July 4 festivities
Quilt raffle for YMCA’s 125th birthday celebration
“Sharks quilt raffle going on now! A talented member, Cara Ryan, made this quilt we are raffling off with proceeds going to our 125th Anniversary fund to benefit the McLeod Fund for free swim lessons for all 5-year-olds in our area,” according to the YMCA’s web page. “Get your tickets at the Y! $5 each.”
Here is the full schedule on Facebook.