I Remember.. Breaking Bread with a Rusticator By Sylvia M. Kurson I F you were born and brought up in Belleview, commanding a view of the Bar Harbor in the early 1900s, you whole bay, had inspired one of our local called the summer people rusticators wits to call his own place, which and they called you natives. Both terms commanded a view of nothing, No could be safely used if the relationship View. was civil and, as important, profitable, We darted sidelong looks at each or they could be insulting if either other. She said Hello. I said Hi. And group failed to keep its proper social that exchange terminated our distance. The line of demarcation, conversation. Too hungry to care, I rarely if ever referred to, was a fact of opened my shoebox and rummaged life and generally accepted as such. through its contents: pot roast But one year, the local YWCA sandwiches, stuffed eggs, a big wedge conceived a plan whereby the twain of chocolate cake with fudge frosting, could meet in natural amity - and the some molasses cookies, doughnuts, and little children were to lead them. The two bananas. method of accomplishing this social was munching away happily on my cross-pollination called for a first sandwich when I noticed that minimerger of the summer and local Augusta was fumbling around trying branches of the Girl Scouts. how to handle our own food; theirs, to untie a small bag that hung on a As one of the natives, I had no way of which could conceivably include such string from her uniform belt. "Aren't knowing how the summer girls felt exotics as the artichokes and alligator you starved?" I blurted out. "Where's about this experiment; neither did my pears their parents ordered through your lunch?" island school friends. However our markets, would have posed a She looked at me and then at the bag. suspicious or hopeful, we never problem we were in no way equipped to "This is it," she said, miserably, and confessed our uneasiness, not even to resolve. took out two hard-boiled eggs. ourselves. After all, Maine people When we assembled in the gym on "Is that all you want?" I asked, pride themselves on being "as good as the appointed day, we natives hung incredulous. Such a starvation diet the next one." Still, I knew that to the together for mutual protection, a seemed to raise an even more rusticators our Down East accent was garrison troup frozen into combat insuperable barrier between our "quaint," which, translated, means readiness. The summer girls, who had differences. amusingly rustic; and to us, theirs was arrived in chauffeur-driven cars, The expression on her face was a "stuck up" and high-toned. might have come from another planet, queer mixture of anger and Apart from self-consciousness about where war or rumor of war had never embarrassment. "Of course it isn't all our accents, we village girls were threatened. They were laughing, want. It's all I could get. Cook didn't uncomfortably aware of the immense calling out to each other in high spirits. want to be bothered." difference between our families' bank Yes, they talked, but only to each other. I looked with frank astonishment at accounts, houses, cars, boats, and styles We stood stiffly silent, watching them. this daughter of Belleview who didn't of recreation. For example, their so- At this point the experiment in detente have a sandwich or banana to her called cottages, which used up the seemed headed for disaster. name. Then in a rush of sympathy I entire shoreline, were Italian villas, However, the nature walk was SO said, "Have some," and passed my French chateaux, English stately regimented that it allowed for no shoebox towards her. "There's too homes or, more often, huge rambling advance, retreat, attack, or cessation of much for me." While that was a long shingled affairs with acres of lawns, hostilities. The lady in charge, a way from the truth, I thought it would tennis courts, stables, docks, gardens, governness to one of the summer girls, sound like bragging if I said, "There's and scrupulously manicured had laid down the law before we left plenty." driveways. As for our houses, not too the gymnasium. Talking was "Oh, thanks ever SO much! It looks much could be said of them beyond the forbidden; we must listen with full lawfully good." She was smiling now, fact that they withstood the blasts of attention to her identifications of trees, and if I hadn't known the difference, Maine winters and that they sheltered mosses, birds, and insects, all of which, I'd have said she was just one of us the storekeepers, gardeners, it turned out, were prefaced by the hungry kids who had endured a nature carpenters, plumbers, masons, and commanding admonition, "Observe!" walk only for the reward of a picnic at laundresses who served the At last we were permitted to break its end. And soon we were talking "cottagers." ranks for the picnic. As [settled myself easily and naturally, our social The initial step in bringing the with a sigh of relief on a boulder, differences forgotten in the pleasure of unbridgeable twain together was to Augusta Nichols dropped down beside eating. And so for at least two of us, take the form of a nature hike and me. I knew who she was from seeing the merger of rusticator with native picnic in the woods. We were to bring her around the village and having her was a temporary success. Thanks to our own lunches. That part of the plan, pointed out as the daughter of a that great leveler, food, we had crossed at least, was reassuring, for we knew multimillionaire whose cottage, the line of demarcation. 132