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A Maine Summer IslandThe Story of Bustins by F. Benjamin Carr $16.95
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Bustins lies in a quiet corner of
inner Casco Bay just a mile or
two offshore from the hustle and
bustle of the tourist mecca of
Freeport, yet most people know
little, if anything, about it. Bustins
features more than 100 homes,
some more than a century old, and
boasts its own ferry service. Still,
it has no electricity, no businesses
and almost no vehicles.
Ben, a
longtime Bustins summer resident,
takes readers from the island’s
beginnings as a farming community
and a stop for fishermen through its
days as a year-round community
to its transformation into a summer
colony with its struggles to remain
a summer oasis while adapting to
a changing world. And, he explains
what the island means to him
and why he considers it, above all, “home.”
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About the Author
Ben Carr grew up in
Worcester, Massachusetts.
He graduated from
Worcester Academy and
Cornell University and
holds graduate degrees
from Union Theological
Seminary, Andover Newton
Theological School, and
the University of London.
Ben and his wife, Marilyn,
were summer residents
of Bustins Island for many
years before they moved to
Maine full-time in the early
1970s. Ben served as a high
school principal for twenty one
years at Narraguagus,
Noble, and Southern
Aroostook. Marilyn taught
art for the Machias School
District in the late 1970s,
and later taught art for
many years at Massabesic
Junior High School in
Waterboro. Between them,
Ben and Marilyn have five
children and seventeen
grandchildren. |
Excerpts from A Maine Summer Island
“ ‘Where are you going?’ asks a visitor at the South Freeport Town Landing. ‘We’re going home,’ we answer.
“That’s explanation enough, as far as we are concerned. We know soon our ferry will ease us out through Harraseeket Harbor, slide between Wolfe’s Neck and Pound of Tea Island and cross two miles of open Casco Bay water before nudging gently against the Public Dock on our little Bustins Island, barely three-quarters of a mile long by one-third mile wide. Soon after we will unpack bags and put food in the fridge in our cottage, one of more than one hundred such summer cottages that sit tooth-to-jowl, lining the island’s edge like a multicolored necklace.”
