What to do on July Fourth in Maine when there is no more parade in West Athens?*

Check out Father Sébastien Rasle.
Who?
At a pit stop a few days earlier, on our drive north, I picked up a brochure about Somerset Country. All the other brochures were gone, and amazingly, coincidentally, Somerset Country is where are. In that brochure I learned of the existence of Father Rasle, who is named as one of the four (4) famous people of the county. The other three are Benedict Arnold, Margaret Chase Smith, and George Walter Hinckley of the Good Will-Hinckley School, so you can see he is in good company. The brochure, when it isn’t misspelling his name, tells us that Father Rasle was a Jesuit of the early 1700’s, at the time of the French and Indian Wars. The Abenaki Indians – in what was not yet known as Somerset County - were allied with the French against the English. Fr. Rasle worked to convert the Indians, and to that end he created the first French-Abenaki dictionary, the first Abenaki dictionary of any kind.

This is where I became quite excited, because I am interested in early saints and missionaries who, in the course of trying to convert native peoples - an enterprise I am not in favor of - often compiled dictionaries and wrote down languages - enterprises I think are entirely brilliant and worthwhile. (Another of these lexicological priests was Jean de Brebeuf, who compiled the French-Huron dictionary, and famously named the Huron’s favorite sport Lacrosse, because the stick they used reminded him of a bishop’s crozier.)
I also learned that Fr. Rasle’s grave is in Madison, on the other side of the Old Canada Highway from West Athens, and not so far from us. What else could we possibly hope to do on the anniversary of independence? CSB, whose interest in Jesuit philologists could not fill a thimble, was wonderfully agreeable about heading over to Madison, a town we generally note only for its frequent appearance in the Morning Sentinel’s Police Blotter.
So without even stopping for a quick drink at the Solon Hotel (ever-tempting)
we went to Madison and found the cemetery where Father Rasle was buried. Here is CSB looking really happy to pose. The cemetery was full of French Canadian names, and some wonderful gravestones. But this was my favorite. I am guessing that both Robert and Beverly love to play golf. CSB pointed out that they are not yet dead.
On our way home, via Skowhagen, we met up with the Grannies for Peace, marching back and forth across the Old Mill Bridge over the Kennebec, all day long. Being deprived of marching their annual plea for peace in West Athens, they brought their cause to the metropolis. They were delighted to have their picture taken, and of course we talked about our grandchildren.

R.I.P. West Athens Parade and Happy Anniversary Cuban Blockade

The news came from my sister at the first glimmer of dawn today: The West Athens 4th of July parade has been cancelled this year.
My sister who lives in Maine does an excellent job keeping us apprised of hot news in Maine that may not be fit to print in the New York Times, but which she knows will be of compelling interest to CSB and me; items such as the possible closing of the Caratunk Post office (tragic) or the rescue of the Good Will-Hinkley School, by a grant from the Alfond Foundation (good news) or the infestation of the Admiral Peary Historic Site on Eagle Island by rabid lemmings (unsure).
And since she knows how religiously we attend the West Athens Fourth of July Parade she knew we would need to know immediately. This is a terrible loss for creative counter culture, for the marijuana industry of central Maine, for coolers filled with lite beer, for Tattoo Pride of Maine, and for devotees of burning rubber. But we suspected this was coming.
The parade began about 40 years ago with a group of hippies and back-to-the-land, off-the-gridders got together to celebrate Independence in their own way. The floats featured raucous political satire, arcane cultural commentary and great costumes. Over time, alas, the focus shifted to inebriation, scanty costumes and burning rubber. If you, like me, have lived a sheltered life, chances are you have never witnessed so many trucks and ATV’s burning rubber on purpose. If you, like me, are clueless, then you have no idea why anyone would do this on purpose.
So with many fond memories and a few disclaimers, here are a few pictures from last year’s Fourth in West Athens.







In other news, I just received this email from my father.
On the television they mentioned the 50th anniversary of the Cuban blockade. Tell me what this is all about because I have lost this. Has this been good? Apparently other countries have dialogues with Cuba. Have we accomplished anything by continuing it? I don't know.

He can recall WW2 and the pony cart overturning as they went to first grade, but not this. And why should he?
I should note that he dictated this email and it was typed by his secretary, because the emails he types himself require creative translation. The emails he types himself look like those word verification gizmos to “prevent automated systems from adding spam”, and that may be why his offspring are quite good at deciphering Captcha and other forms of gibberish.
In case you are wondering, CAPTCHA is not a slang rendition of Captured ya (à la Gotcha) but an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing Test To Tell Computers and Humans Apart.
Also in case you are wondering, I wrote back to my father that no, the Cuban blockade has not been a good thing.

Independence day at the Free Republic of West Athens, Maine

Athens, Greece, the cradle of western civilization, lies across the sea from Alexandria, Egypt. In the ancient center of town is the Parthenon, the classical temple to Athena that is emblematic of the artistic achievements of Attic Greece.
Athens, Greece is south of Rome, northwest of Cairo, and east from Madrid.
Athens, Maine is north of Rome, northeast of Paris, northwest of China, northeast of Mexico, and north of Peru.
There are 800 residents and there is no center of town that you would recognize as such.

This is what we did on the Fourth of July, while we were at Pleasant Pond in north central Maine, which I am sorry to report was not as Pleasant as normal, on account of wind, rain, fog, grey clouds, low temperatures, mosquitoes carrying a new strain of arctic malaria, loons calling off-key and more of the same. We read in the Morning Sentinel about the parade in Athens and decided to go. We stopped at Jimmy’s in Bingham to ask directions, and the cashier said, “I hope you have a very open mind.” The man at Berry’s in West Forks said, “They’re a bunch of ne’er do well potheads. I’ve never been.”

We headed down 201, the Kennebec Chaudiére, turned left after Solon and left again towards Athens.
We arrived around 11, pulled over by a field and walked along the road until we saw a scrum of revelers. There was white van parked at a corner with a tattered doll dangling from a fishing pole.


This was the mascot of the Fallen Angels.
Because we did not have a cooler on wheels filled with BudLite, we realized we were unprepared for the event. I have never seen so many coolers on wheels in one place in my life, but that may say more about my activities than anything else. Every group of teenagers – and their children– was accompanied by their cooler on wheels.

It turns out the West Athens parade is a tradition of some 36 years standing, which would put its inception at 1973. An overriding theme seems to be the movement to legalize marijuana, but each year there is also a topical theme, this year’s was the stimulus and how it was not stimulating much in north central Maine.
The parade ends up in an old quarry for a play and the traditional Fourth of July salute from the Free Republic of West Athens: everyone, old and young, faces south, raises their middle fingers skyward and shouts out. That was the moment when I thought: we really have entered another zone here.
But back to the parade.



There was the Wild West Athens float featuring stoned gunslingers, kinky harnesses & revelry. And a man in a bathtub taking a bath.
There was the I Miss America pageant, presented by the antiwar group, CODE PINK. Contestants included I Miss Truth, I Miss Defied, I Miss Represented, I Miss Used Funds and Abu Barbie.
There was of course a Michael Jackson float. And the anti-Michael Elvis impersonator.


Here are the Corn & their banner. Are they protesting genetically modified crops? Or same-sex marriage? Neither? Or both?

There was a Legalize Marijuana Float.


There was a float with a young man standing in front of a keg of beer. A tube was attached to the keg’s spout and passed through the young man’s legs, so that he could piss beer, which he did, and beer was dispensed freely for young and old.


The Shroom Float featured mushrooms atop a pile of garbage. And a scantily clad young woman.
Scantily clad young women were to be found on most floats, de rigueur.


Next to the rolling coolers, the most important accessories were multiple tattoos. I have never seen so many tattoos in one place before, but CSB says that is because I don’t get let out much.
My favorite t-shirt slogan (that I am willing to put in print): IF WERE NOT RELATED/THEN WE HAVENT DATED.
I fear my description and pictures do not do justice to the West Athens Parade. It was marvelously transgressive. It was also terribly depressing to see so many teenage parents dead drunk at noon while their children watched. It was, clearly, the anti-Fourth of July Parade. Not a fire truck to be seen. It was also a meta-parade. The concept itself is being taken into another realm. The humor was often Shakespearean, delighting in cross-dressing and gender-bending. At other times it was Chaucerian, with the broadest of sexual jokes and scatological references. (These last are also the staple of the nursery-school school carpool, as I fondly recall.)
The last ‘float’ to sputter its way down the road was the white van bearing the Fallen Angels, their wings off-kilter, their white face paint smeared, and in many cases, literally falling down drunk.

Such is Independence Day in the Free Republic of West Athens.