Scientists first warned the world about global warming with an 1975 article published in SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN.
‘Inadvertent climate modification’ sounded like gobbledygook to the common man, who was more terrified by the possibility of a ‘nuclear winter’ produced by an atomic bomb exchange between the USA and USSR.
American oil producers pooh-bayed the National Academy of Science findings on atmospheric carbon increases as unproven fear-mongering by radical environmentalists and US politicians dependent of corporate contributions for re-election rejected climate changes like a football fan asked to change the channel from the Superbowl to a PBS special Ice Skating.
People had their head stuck in the past. Cars were good. They made living in the suburbs possible, however on December 25, 1990 Bing Crosby couldn’t have sung WHITE CHRISTMAS in New York. The city's streets and sidewalks were bare of snow, sleet, and slush. The unseasonable warm weather continued into the New Year of 1991 and thousands of Manhattanites flew south to celebrate the rebirth of Miami Beach.
In 1975 while the rest of America was beset by blizzards, I shelter through January at the Bellview Hotel, however I rejected the exodus to the reincarnated art-deco district east of US 1. Too many people who regarded themselves VIPs crowded Ocean Avenue for my tastes, plus I came from New England and wanted to see snow in the winter.
Two nights after New Year's Eve I shared this desire, Philippe, who ran a rock nightclub in the Meat Packing District. The longhair Englishman was equally put off by the Miami Beach’s transformation into an artistic mecca.
“Nothing worse for tradition than fashion people.” The thin Englishman was wearing a Yojii sweater and a slick leather jacket.
“They put it back on the map.”
"I preferred it lost."
"No one's gone to Miami Beach since the closing of the Jackie Gleason Show."
The big man knew how to have a good time.
“So what about doing the exact opposite of everyone and head north until we find snow?”
I unfolded an old fishing map of Moosehead Lake in Maine. Earlier in the day I had phoned for the weather in Maine. The temperature was below freezing in Portland, the Kennebunk River was frozen solid, and snow was three feet deep in Fort Kent.
“Winter is always winter up there.”
“How we get there?”
“I have a car in Boston. We drive up the coast to Bar Harbor and then swing inland hoping for the best.”
"My friend is making a film about ice-fishing up here."
Bill and I went back to 1978. He was famous now. His biker movie was my older brother's favorite movie.
"Do you know where he is?"
"Someplace off Route 1. Fish River Lake." There wasn't much up in Aroostook County off that road other than pine trees and frozen lakes. "We'll find him.
"And if you don't?"
“Maine has the best lobster in the world.”
“Then count me in.” Philippe had a good appetite for a thin man and he ordered two tequilas from the bar. “North."
"As far was we can go."
We clinked glasses and downed our drinks.
Two days later an Amtrak train transported us from Penn Station to Boston.
My father met us at the 128 and drove us to my family home in the Blue Hills south of the city.
The grass behind our house was a withered yellow. Not a sign of snow.
My mother cooked beef stew in the kitchen. My aunt helped her. Sally was a Maine native.
I looked at the thermometer outside the window. The dial was stuck on 35 F.
“Did you get any snow yet?”
“Not once.” She smiled at me. “You boys hungry?”
“For your stew? Always.” Her recipe had been passed down from my Irish grandmother. It was a good winter meal, even if the season was more like autumn.
“Smells delightful, m’am.” Phillipe had good manners.
'"We'll be right back."
I led him downstairs.
“Let me show you our ride.”
The gray 1982 Cutlass in the garage had good heat and a working stereo. The passenger window was paralyzed by faulty wiring, but the Detroit V8 was tuned for a long road trip.
“I only use it on weekends in the summer.” I told Philippe and we entered the den where my father watched TV.
Even with six children in a Ford station wagon my old man liked road trips and I asked, "You want to come with us?”
“I know what winter looks like in Maine.” The sixty-eight year-old Maine native had spent two long seasons in Jackman for the phone company.
“The trees crack from the cold. They sound like cannons. Why can’t you be normal and go to Florida?”
““I want to see Lake Manicouagan.”
Millions of years ago a five-kilometer meteor had struck the Laurentian Shield to create a circular impact crater.
"Where is it?"
"North of the St. Lawrence.
“The roads that far north will be closed for the season.”
“It has been a warm winter.”
“This time of year there is nothing warm north of the St. John’s River.”
The four-hundred mile stream served as the border between the USA and Canada.
“And that’s why were going there. To see winter and a friend, who's making a film about ice-fishing.”
"A movie about ice-fishing?" guffawed my father. "Can't think of anything more boring than looking at a hole in the ice."
"You're probably right, but I want to see winter."
"I understand," my mother commented from the top of the stairs. She loved to travel, and also loved the change of seasons. "Time to eat. Are you hungry, Philippe?"
"Always."
We drank wine on the sun porch with my aunt Sally.
“Hope you like it.” My mother served Philippe a healthy portion of stew. “There's not much open up north this time of the year and you could use a little more weight on you.”
"Thank you."
Philippe ate with relish.
My mother liked a good eater as much as a young man with manners.
““You have lovely hair," my mother told Philippe, as he cleared the dishes.
“My son had long hair once," my father commented from his rocking chair. “He looked like a girl.”
“Couldn’t have been a pretty girl,” Philippe joked and both my parents laughed like he wasn’t off the mark. We told family stories for another bottle of wine and they went to bed around 9.
I showed Philippe my younger brothers' room.
I had slept in the bed as a child.
“Have a good night’s sleep. We have a long ride ahead of us tomorrow.”
I went to my bedroom and lay on the mattress to read Kenneth Roberts ARUNDEL, a forgotten novel about the 1775-1776 invasion of Canada. It ended in diaster at the walls of Quebece in a snowstorm.
My eyes shut before I reached page 25.
In the morning my mother made us breakfast.
Bacon and eggs with sugary milky tea.
The sky was clear and the temperature had risen to 38.
“You won’t see snow until Bangor, if you're lucky.” My father put down the Boston Globe.
I picked up the broadsheet.
A blizzard had buried Northern Europe.
Scores were dead.
“We’re staying the first night in Camden and then north to waist-deep snow."
“A waste of time, but have a good time.” My parents walked Philippe and me into the garage. We loaded the car with our bags and I hugged my mother.
“Buy yourself a nice lobster at the Porthole in Portland. It’s a good restaurant.” She kissed my cheek and pressed $40 in my hand.
“Darn good. ”My father loved Maine cooking as would any native from the Pine Tree State.
“We’ll lunch there.” I gave my mother a hug.
“Drive safe.” My father was firm believer in defensive driving.
“I’ll keep the car between the lines.” I hadn’t had an accident since 1974.
Getting through Boston took the better part of an hour and I stayed on 95 as far as Portsmouth, then exited onto Route 1 to cross the old bridge over the Piscataqua River.
“It feels good to be here.”
“How long you live in Maine?”
“Only seven years in the 1950s, but this state will always be home. When I was young, the pine trees were tall and now they are taller.” I thought of falmouth Foresides, the aroma from the B & M bean factory, the sulphuric stench of the S D Warren papermill, my grandmother's house on Main Street, Italian sandwiches, summering on Watchic Pond, and a good friend drowning in Lake Sebago. There were too many memories to recount to Philippe and I stepped on the gas.
Passing through York, Ogunuit, and Wells we listened to NEVERMIND. Nirvana sounded good on US There wasn’t a patch of snow off the road.
“This isn’t looking good.” Philippe touched the window.
At least the glass was cold.
“We’ll see snow or else.”
Neither of us asked what 'what else' was, but it wasn't Miami Beach
The Canadian border was seven hours from Portland. We weren’t going that far today and stopped for lunch at the Port Hole. The poached cod was exquisite and the halibut tasted of the wild Atlantic. We would have lobster farther up the coast.
After a coffee we got back into the car and drove to Falmouth Foresides to see my old house. The harbor was at the end of the street.
I didn’t get out of the car. It was cold. The neighborhood looked deserted.
“When I was a kid, my older brother and I jumped off the roof into the snow drifts.” The house was painted white same as it had been in 1960.
“You would break your legs doing that today.” The grass was as yellow as my parents’ backyard.
“My grandfather used to say there were two seasons in Maine; the season of good sledding and the season of bad sledding.” The doctor had driven a horse sled to make his winter rounds. I put the car in drive.
“He ever mentioned anything about the season of no sledding.”
"That was never a problem back then."
Something was broken with the weather and I drove out of my old neighborhood, slowing while passing Chaney's house. His family didn't live there anymore.
A half-hour later we stopped at LL Bean, where Philippe bought winter clothing good for -20 Fahrenheit.
"What if there's no snow."
“Better to be prepared.” He looked warm in his lambskin coat.
“More like cooked.” The temperature in Freeport was a sunny 40.
“It has to get cold sooner or later.” He stashed the jacket on the back seat and got in the front.
“The farther north we go the colder it will get.” I started the car with the window open. I like the fresh air.
“And then we’ll see snow.
“You can bet on it."
We off-tracked to Bailey's Island.
We stood on the pier.
There was no one in sight.
It was bitter cold and we jumped back in the Cutlass to continue north on the old two-laner through Bath, Wicassett, and Thomaston.
Each coastal town held a story from my childhood and I told Philippe about Navy ships sliding down the Bath Iron Works slips into Kennebec River and pointed out the Hesper and Luther Little two forlorn trrade schooners wallowing in the Sheepscot River's tidal flat. Nothing said Downeast mmore than them.
The day faded from the sky, as we reached the frozen quarry before Thomaston.
The water at the bottom of the quarry pit was rimmed with white.
"Snow."
"No, ice." We were finally getting someplace.
We arrived in Camden at dusk and booked a motel room overlooking the harbor. The picturesque seaside resort was asleep for the winter. A few boats waddled on the wake of a lobster boat returning from the West Prenobscot Bay. The temperature was below freezing and hoar frost skimmed on the rocky harbor.
After settling into our rooms we walked outside.
Our breath hung on the night air.
“Getting cold.” He pulled on his shearling.
“Just wait.” Maine had a lot more of north left in the state. “It will get colder."
We ate at a restaurant by the falls.
We ordered lobsters from the redheaded bartender in her late-twenties. The waitress promised that it was fresh. In Maine fresh meant an hour off the boat.
The waitress and bartender wore a flannel shirt and overalls. The other women in the bar looked like dykes. None of them sneered at us.
“Is this the norm style for women up here?” Philippe lifted his head from his lobster.
“Firstly this isn’t up. This is Down East, but yes, everyone down here dressed for comfort."
"I can't tell the difference between the men or the women."
It's easy. Any woman in Maine is twice the man either of us will be.”
“So no pretty girls?”
“They leave here quick. When I was eight, I was in love with Cathy Burns. She was cute. I did everything to make her notice me.” I still had a picture of her from second Grade at Pine Grove School.
“And she didn’t know you were alive?”
“She only had eyes for my friend, Chaney."
And where is she?"
"I haven't seen her since my family moved south to Boston in 1960." She could have been any woman in the restaurant.
“Here's to Cathy.” Philippe poured more wine and lifted his glass. “And snow.”
We clinked glasses and I noticed the bartender eyeing Philippe like she wanted to be more than a friend. When he went to the men's room, she approached me and asked, "Has anyone told you that your girlfriend looks like Francoise Hardy?"
"The singer?" I had had a crush on the Yeh Yeh Girl ever since hearing LES PREMIERE BONHEURS DU JOURS on a Quebec City radio station.
"Yes."
""I don't see it, but maybe Charlotte Rampling."
"Yeah, I can see that too."
"She's not my girlfriend."I didn't tell Philippe about her mistaking him for a woman.
"Free?"
I shrugged.
After all wintertime was slim pickings for straight men and lesbians on the prowl.
I left them at the bar. A light snow was falling. Philippe would be happy to see that and I returned to the motel to read ARUNDEL.
The November march up the West Branch had been hell for the Revolutionary soldiers under Benedict Arnold, but I thanked that I was nice and warm under my blanket. On page 54 I mumbled 'Quebec' and fell into dreams about blizzards and Cathy Burns at age 39.
The next day the temperature hovered around freezing in the morning fog.
After breakfast I stood on the dock.
Philippe showed up twenty minutes later.
"How'd it go last night?
"That bartender kept on buying me drinks last night."
"She must have liked your accent."
"No, it was something else."
"And did you go back with her?"
"I walked her home, but she got weird when I told her my name was Phil."
"Old memories."
"I guess so." I said nothing about his resemblance to Francoise Hardy. "Let's get going."
To the right of US 1 ice crept into the sea. We stopped at Lincolnville. The Pound was closed until summer.
"When are we going to have lobster?" Philippe shivered blowing into his hands.
"In Bar Harbor. We'll get there for dinner."
We took our time driving up the coast. A few patches snow on the ground. We passed some buffalo in a pasture. They didn't look cold, but they faced the wind in snowstorms.
"I bet they make great coats."
"I bet they do, but as a kid I had a caribou parka from my grandmother's next-door neighbor. Her father had discovered the North Pole. Nothing warmer than that."
"Robert Peary?" He had gone to the North Pole in 1898. The explorer wasn't fit enough to reah his goal. His companion Matthew Henson went all the way with three Thule Inuits. None of them received any credit.
"Marie had been good friends with my grandmother."
"Didn't Peary have an Eskimo wife?"
"Yes, but no one ever spoke about Ahlikahsingwah or her child."
"But you know her name, so someone must have said something."
"Maybe I read it someplace." I couldn't recollect how I knew Ahlikahsingwah's name and we continued north on the empty US 1.
Plowed snow accumulated on the sides of the road and we listened to Tom Rush's URGE FOR GOING.
His version of Joni Mitchell's hit was a good road song.
We reached Bar Harbor mid-afternoon and booked into a cheap motel room. We were the only guests.
After unloading our bags Philippe and I drove over the Shell Beach. He was a good driver.
The polar air was crisp as a potato chip.
Small waves rippled onto the snowless beach.
“This was the first time that I had been cold this year.”
Philippe was once morehappy in his sheepskin jacket.
“It will get colder soon enough.”
“You keep saying that.”
“Only because it’s true.”
I pointed out the massive Beehive rising from the marsh.
"In the summer bears harvest blueberries from atop that rock."
"And now?"
"They're waiting out the snow."
"Just like us."
That evening we ate lobsters.
Philippe and I were the only two diners.
No one was drinking at the bar.
“What you boys doing here?” The hefty blonde bartender looked like she had spent the summer gorging on wild salmon.
“Trying to find snow,” Philippe said before sipping his beer.
“It’s been Christly warm this year.” She was missing a front tooth. “You’re Outta Stata, ain’t you?”
“I am, but my friend is from Portland.” Philippe pointed to me.
Out the window snow drifted into the harbor.
"Where?"
“Falmouth Foresides.” I didn’t tell her that I had been born in Boston. To Mainers foreign birth excluded any inclusion to being a Mainer and there was nothing worse than being a Masshole.
“That’s almost Outta Stata, but I ain’t got nuttin’ ‘gainst flatlanders. Name’s Billy.” She proved that by cuffing the next round.
We reciprocated with tequila shots for Billy and the skinny waitress called Shirley. Her nose was as crooked as a moose antler, but she had a nice smile and I pushed my hair into shape.
After three more shots I took off my glasses and Shirley started to look like Audrey Hepburn, which I mentioned to Philippe.
He laughed at my attempted seduction.
“She's no Audrey Hepburn.”
“Maybe Cathy Burns.” Skinny was better than big in my book.
I sucked the meat out of the lobster's knuckles and joked with Shirley.
“She's uglier than sin.” Philippe had eaten every morsel of lobster and his shirt was stained by butter.
“Nothing wrong with ugly.” I had drunk enough to make me good-looking in the bathroom mirror.
“You’d regret it in the morning.” He was scared of sharing the room with rutting Mainiacs. As I paid the bill, the bartender asked Philippe, “You want some wicked fun?”
Billie was starting to look like Dollie Parton and I called Shirley Cathy twice.
“Thanks, but we have a lot of road to hit tomorrow.” Philippe shook his head and paid the bill.
“You remember me when you’re on your death bed and you’ll think, “Maybe I should of.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“You boys have a good time up north, it’ll get nippy up in the willy-wacks.” The fat bartender winked, as if she knew a secret.
"Willywacks?" The expression stumped the Englishman.
"The sticks." Down East possessed its own language.
“Thanks for the warning.”
The bartender went to the kitchen to join the males of the staff.
A cook and dishwasher.
"Thanks for killing my night."
“You were only leading her on.”
“Aren’t there any attractive females in this state?” Philippe asked under his breath.
“Not according to tradition.” I watched the skinny girl, who was talking to the chef.
I started for the kitchen.
"Where you going?'
"To try my luck." I wasn’t expected it to go anywhere further than holding hands and tossed down my last drink. I was catching a good buzz.
"Not tonight."
Philippe dragged me out of the restaurant before I done something stupid.
"You're a real downer."
"You'll thank me in the morning."
"Hard tellin' not knowin' what I didn't do was wrong." I walked away. Philippe returned to the bar. I didn't ask why.
He went back inside. A million stars traversed the clear sky and my breath was the only cloud in the air. The temperature had to be in the 20s. My bare fingers were cramped by the cold on the walk to the hotel. It was a good sign. We were getting north.
Back at the hotel I sat in the old-fashioned telephone booth and looked for a Cathy Burns in the phonebook.
There were none in Bar Harbor and in my bed I dreamed of BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY, which was better than freezing in ARUDNEL'S plains of Quebec.
"You talked a lot in your sleep," commented Philippe after breakfast in the car.
"I was someplace else." I didn't feel like sharing Audrey Hepburn with him. "Someplace good."
"And what about snow?"
It's coming." I felt it in my bones.
Throughout the morning we traversed the barren potato fields of Aroostock County. A few battered pick-up trucks sped south and burned houses bore the sign of a general migration south. North Maine wasn't South Beach.
The snow cover was thin past Dover Junction, but the gray skies didn’t renege on their promise of snow. Thick flakes clotted the air. The highway was plated by the tire-trampled residue of a recent blizzard.
"Are we going to see your friend?" Philippe had the map in his hand. "Fish River is coming up."
Bill had given me the name of the hunting lodge serving as their base for the movie.
"Yes."
And we turned west off US 1. The Cutlass slid over the icy road several miles to a snowed-in fishing lodge. We stopped at the office surrounded by chest-deep drifts and the owner laughed when I asked if I could see Bill.
"They're out on Fish River Lake. Only way to get there is by snowmobile. I wouldn't suggest it. Tonight's gonna be a cold one."
I didn't like missing Bill and John, but the owner was right. The night would be deadly cold and we got back in the Cutlass.
Old US 1 ended at its northern terminus of Fort Kent. Key West was 2377 miles to the South. Snow drifted chest-deep against the houses. Philippe tested his new jacket.
“It works.”
“I wouldn’t expect anything else from LL Bean.” I was wearing layers. Heavy boots were a must. We had reached winter and night fell fast and frigid this far north.
We got a room at the motel nearest to the ice-clogged river. The grinding floes filled the black air with horrid crunches. This was winter. The northern end of US 1.
“Tomorrow we’ll drive to the St. Lawrence and catch a ferry to the other side.”
"It's not frozen solid."
Icebreakers kept the seaway open for shipping throughout the winter. We can reach Manicouagan Lake in two days and maybe make Newfoundland. It’s no Miami Beach.””
““I can’t go to Canada.” Philippe held his hands over the motel’s radiator. Ice glazed the exterior of the windows. A naked man wouldn’t last thirty minutes outside.
“Why not? Winter will only get more winter farther north and French-Canadian girls are very attractive.”
In my youth the sexiest girls at Old Orchard Beach were vacationeers from Quebec City, who looked like either Brigitte Bardot or Francoise Hardy.
“I don’t doubt it, but I have a problem.”
“What kind?”
“My visa is out of date.” He was embarrassed by this admission.
“How long?”
“Two years.”
“Damn.” We were 673 miles from Manhattan.
I had been dreaming of standing on the shores of Manicouagan Lake for years and grabbed Philippe's arm.
There's always walking across the river."
"In this weather?"
"The St. John's is frozen solid. Put on your coat.”
“It’s cold," Philippe protested without conviction.
“This is northern Maine. Of course it’s cold.”
I forced Philippe to walk up US 1 onto the snow-covered steel truss bridge. The wind off the frozen river was ten degrees south of zero and Philippe’s long hair whipped across his face. He didn't look like Francoise Hardy. Just a cold Limey.
"That’s Quebec.” I pointed across the St. John’s River.
“I know.” He refused to look at the other side.
“They have good food in Canada.” I appealed to his weakness for good food. "Fort Kent only got doughy pizza and greasy burgers. And there’s a great French restaurant in Clair. The Resto 120.”
Fine cuisine was a specialty of the lost tribe of France and the restaurant had been recommended by our motel manager. Her last name was Quellette.
“Tourtires, soupe aux pois, et pommes persillade. Cheese. Wine. Good bread.”
“Really?” Philippe licked his lips.
““And like I said French-Canadian girls are cute. I dated one in Paris. 1989.” Gabby had been too beautiful for my own good.
“Prettier than Cathy Burns?”
“Much prettier, so?"
The Londoner shook his head.
“I can’t risk it.”
“What’s the risk? On the way back you can hide in the trunk. It’s heated.”
If the technique worked for millions of wetbacks from Mexico, running a snowback over the Canadian border couldn’t be too much trouble at a sleepy border crossing.
“No way.” His nose was reddening from the cold wind.
“No way.” Philippe shook his head. His nose was reddening from the cold wind.
“It’s either that or a greasy burger.”
“Sorry.” He walked away from my grasp.
“Sorry?” I trailed him thinking about dragging him across the desolate bridge.
“You can come back in the summer.”
“I have no idea where I will be in the summer, you damn limey. I'll tell you a story. Chaney and I had vowed never to go swimming unless we were together. I moved to Boston and a week later he drowned in Sebago Lake. I've always thought that like my mother said about me being her eyes that I would be Chaney's eyes, which is why I want to go so bad.
"Sorry."
"Me too, but I understand about not wanting to risk deportation."
Philippe liked living in New York."
“Burgers and fries tonight are on me.” Philippe scurried through the deepeningsnow to the nearest bar. Neon signs FOOD and LABATT BEER flashed in its window. I stared across the icy river with disappointment and then joined Philippe in the Moose Inn, which had a pool table, jukebox, and wooden bar with draft beer.The crowd was lit and a band played on stage. Nirvana's TEEN SPIRIT. It wasn't Quebec, but it wasn't South Beach either.
Giant moose antlers hung from the ceiling.
Philippe took off his hat and his hair fell to his shoulders.
The loggers, snowmobile sledders, and the state road crew in the bar were wearing theirs long too and I couldn’t tell the difference between the men and women.
“Fuck the Resto 120.” There were no pommes persillade on the Moose Inn’s menu. I threw my watch cap on the bar. "We're here and I'm drinking to Chaney tonight."
My first round was a Labatt draft and a shot of Seagram's Canadian Rye Whiskey. Most everyone else drank Bud. Canada was only a hundred yards away. This was America.
Labatt's promoted beer at hockey games on TV. The first pint went down in less than thirty seconds. The second took two minutes. The third lasted almost a quarter of an hour.
We watched the Canadians played the Bruins. Theirs was a longtime rivalry. We ordered burgers and fries. My fifth beer washed down the hockey puck of a paddy and the sixth soaked up the sodden fries. At least I was warm and the cover band was playing GIMME SHELTER.
A storm was due in two days, so everyone was getting buzzed tonight. The dancing raised the room temperature.
The crowd cheered when the bartender stripped off his shirt. I bought drinks for the road crew. Philippe played DJ on the Jukebox. The crowd danced to LOUIE LOUIE. I was nearing forty. He was only twenty. Cathy Burns was my age, but in my mind she was still pretty. I wondered if she was here.
A bearded young drunk tapped my shoulder.
“What?” I clenched my fists for a fight.
“My name’s Rick.” The twenty-year old man had a cross-eyed squint.
“Please to meet you.”
“I was wonderin’ if I dance with your date?”
“My date?” I was confused for a few seconds, then glanced over my shoulder at Philippe.
“She’s better looking than any of the other girls in this town. Heck, she's the prettiest girl in Northern Maine.” Rick lit a cigarette with a match, which flared over a calloused thumb. The townie didn’t register any pain and said with a dull vice, “Girls around here weigh as much as moose in a peatbog. I like them skinny."
"Me too."
"So you don't mind?”
“Be my guest.” The Englander’s illegality in America had halted my exploration of the North and I smiled, saying, “But just a dance is just a dance with the prettiest girl in Northern Maine.”
“That’s savage good of you.” The townie staggered off to Philippe.
His mouth mouthed ‘you wanna dance’.
I put down my beer before I spit it out laughing and the bare-chested bartender asked why.
I told him about Rick's mistake and he had a good laugh too.
The Brit came back to the bar and picked up his beer.
“Some guy just asked me for a dance.” Philippe was outraged by the offer.
“And you said no?”
“Of course I said no.” He was horrified by the thought that I presumed that he might say ‘yes’.
“Just so you know, he had the politeness to ask me if it was okay.”
“And what did you say?”
“I gave him the green light. Let’s face it, you have to be the prettiest girl in Northern Maine by a long shot.” I figured that we were even.
“Thanks.”
“Did he offer to buy you a drink?”
“Yes.” Philippe had said the magic word.
“So go get us a round for Chenay, Thelma.” I went over to the jukebox and dropped two quarters to play KC and the Sunshine Band and Nirvana. They were good dancing songs.
"Fuck you, Louise." Philippe gave me the finger.
I returned the favor. I was ready to party along the St. Johns.
Visiting the meteor lake was for another day or season.
I ordered tequilas and everyone laughed about Rick’s mistaking Philippe for a woman. The logger bought another round and announced, “I’m not gay.”
“Only blind.” I tossed down the tequila.
“Being blind helps when you’re mating with swamp donkeys.”
They laughed even louder, because swamp donkeys are tough to run down in any season.
“Drunk too for mating with a moose like you," a fortyish woman with a nice smile shouted an inch from my ear. She had a nice smile. “But not the prettiest girl in Northern Maine.
She pointed to Philippe. He was dancing with a cute fat woman with a glowing red face. She was happy to have a stranger in her arms and I squinted to see if she was Cathy Bates. There was no resemblance and I returned to my beer.
None of the woman at the Moose Bar asked me to dance.
I wasn’t their type, but I was good with that, because Fort Kent’s dead of winter was 2200 miles from Miami Beach and I didn’t see anything wrong with humming WHITE CHRISTMAS for my old friends, Cathy Burns and Chaney Noyes.
It was a good way to end the night, because tomorrow would dawn on a good day for sledding, both for me and the prettiest girl in Northern Maine.
Fotos by peter Nolan Smith and others.
Last night I watched Wim Wenders AMERICAN FRIEND 1976. I hadn't seen it in almost a half- century. Six years later as a semi -fugitive from New York I ended up there working at. nightclub BSIRs. Back then the DJ Henri Flesh and I roamed the city looking for the film's locations. I'm presently rewriting my 1997 unpublished novel ALMOST A DEAD MAN set in Hamburg.Very noir about a black Reeperbahn pimp, a dominatrix and an Irish thug. I haven't ever been back to Hamburg, as my life there was more like then Art. Still it was good to see the Elbe and 1976. Great film with. Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper.
On Criterion
