Dear Yankee | August 2017

Fields of Gold

 “Fabulous article and recipes! What perfect dishes for summer evenings spent outside. I can’t wait to try the grilled corn with herbed bacon butter. The recipes alone makemy mouth water.” —Shannon

 “Thoroughly enjoyed this well-written article. It made me crave fresh corn, right from the pot, piping hot. This is the epitome of fun in the summer.” —Patty

 “Brilliant article and delightful recipes! Still remember that Berkshire corn tastes better than any other.” —Kristin

A Place to Get Away

  I so enjoyed Wayne Curtis’s May/June article, “A Place to Get Away.” My husband and I bought our “get-away place” on a lake in southern New Hampshire in 1990, which allowed us to escape our hot Boston apartment every weekend. It came with two bed frames, and both a stove and a refrigerator (c. 1950s) that still work beautifully today. The freezer unit is the size of a shoebox, exactly the same as the one I grew up with….

Curtis’s commentary on the correct name for a summer home made me laugh out loud. After telling everyone they had permission to call our place whatever they wanted to, I had three lovely birch bark signs made for a wall: They say “Cottage,” “Cabin,” and “Camp.”

And yes, we also have our opening rituals for late May, and our closing chores for after the last foliage leaf has fallen in October.

Nancy W. Weibust Newton, Massachusetts

  Thank you for Wayne Curtis’s lovely piece “A Place to Get Away.” My family has had a cottage that we built together on the shores of Damariscotta Lake when I was 10. We called it a “cottage” because we had come “from away.” Like many others on our dirt road, we were from Connecticut.

Over the summers, we grew to love Maine more and more, and we moved to Maine year-round in 1977. I have been there ever since, although my brothers had to leave because they couldn’t find good jobs. Although our family has now spread out all over the country, the cottage is the one place where everyone likes to come back to be together.

We just opened up the cottage for our 47th summer season on the lake. It is bittersweet, because my dad is no longer with us. His spirit prevails in every board and nail.

There is no place else where we sit together as we listen to the loons, play Scrabble, swim, and read paperback books together. We also have some amazing meals that we enjoy cooking and grilling all together, not to mention the birthday parties and other raucous festivities.

Whether you call it a camp or a cottage, it is a magical place where time stands still. And in these go-go days, that’s a blessing for which I will forever feel grateful to my dad for envisioning a place where his family would enjoy being together.

Nancy Marshall North Nobleboro and Portland, Maine 

  Thank you, Wayne Curtis, for “A Place to Get Away.” While I’ve never been to a camp, I could see and hear the swinging door and the splash of the kids in the lake. However, I do enjoy what a camp represents: a place to get away from the rat race and get back to the basics of life without all the rush and technical bling that bombards us on a daily basis.

While I would love to own a small camp like Curtis’s, at this time in my life “A Shed of One’s Own” [May/June] is more my speed. Thanks, Kate Whouley, for a great article. Move over, “man cave,” it’s time for “she-sheds”!

Christine Ochadlick Point Pleasant, Pennsylvania

Talk to Us 

Or email us directly at editor@yankeemagazine.com