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Thursday, May 27, 2004
Let the vacations begin Memorial Day marks start of 'real' tourist season
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||||
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The holiday itself dates back to the aftermath of the Civil War, when the graves of both Union and Confederate veterans were decorated with flowers. Maine joined the tradition early and passionately. More than 70,000 Mainers -- about one of every 10 residents -- marched off to battle in that war, and 9,400 never came back alive. Every war since then has produced its sad roster of honored dead from Maine, including the yet-unfinished current one. Nine soldiers with ties to this state have died in Iraq, including these four so far this year: l Sgt. Jeremiah Holmes of North Berwick, who died when his truck was hit by a bomb March 29.s l Spc. Christopher D. Gelineau of Portland, killed in an ambush of his military convoy April 20. l Sgt. Lawrence Roukey of Westbrook, killed in an explosion in Baghdad on April 26. l Spc. Beau R. Beaulieu of Lisbon, killed in a mortar attack outside Baghdad on May 24. But if Memorial Day officially is dedicated to remembering those who have served in the military, it has long since been extended to the civilian side as well, taking in family and friends who have passed away. We tend their graves and honor their lives on this holiday, too. In that sense -- and in another as well -- it is a transitional holiday, a bittersweet one for Maine. Memorial Day is the first of the two holiday bookends holding the tourist season together. The other one is Labor Day, which marks the end of the season. The hospitality industry, as it is called, does not readily acknowledge these parameters. Its members never tire of trying to promote Maine as a four-season vacation state, and they find that Memorial Day-to-Labor Day business too limiting. They have a point. In fact, fully half of the $3 billion or so that the tourists bring into the state each year gets rung up outside the summer months. Nevertheless, this holiday weekend is when the big surge comes, the season when even the natives become tourists of sort, traveling around to enjoy our beaches and lakes, parks and golf courses, white-water streams and hiking trails. Something like 350,000 vehicles pass through the Maine Turnpike toll stations this particular weekend. Countless others enter from New Hampshire on open roads along the border or pour in past Canadian checkpoints from New Brunswick and Quebec. In this one weekend alone, I figure the population of Maine increases by one-half to three-quarters, if not more. It remains to be seen whether these statistics are affected this year by soaring gasoline prices. Probably not, though. In these threatening times, there is something comforting about keeping two feet and four wheels on the ground at vacation time, fuel costs be damned. Besides, is it really all that bad? The other day on Maine Public Radio's musical nostalgia program, "Down Memory Lane," I heard host Toby Leboutellier read a 50-year-old story from the Bangor Daily News about gasoline prices running to 29 and 30 cents a gallon. The contrast between then and now may seem astronomical, but how many products can you name that have not gone up in price by at least eight or 10 times in the past half-century? We might not see as many sport utility vehicles charging up the turnpike this year, but I would bet we will be able to count as many visitors as usual, even if they are tucked into smaller, simpler vehicles with fuel-consumption levels running somewhat less than your average M1 Abrams tank. Driving to Maine in the summertime is a habit many Americans in this corner of the globe developed even before the demise of passenger trains (also about 50 years ago). It was a natural outgrowth of the rusticator impulse that began here in the late 1800s. Henry David Thoreau might have been the state's first tourism publicist in the 19th century, but it was Henry Ford who opened the state to visitors by the millions in the 20th century. These two were the founding fathers of Vacationland, by the way, the first chronicling the delights of nature in this wilderness region and the other almost literally paving the way here for people of ordinary means. Officially, Maine tourism might be a year-round affair -- although even the best of the state's advertising copywriters cannot seem to make mud season attractive to outsiders -- but unofficially, traditionally and actually it runs from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The first of these seasonal benchmarks is at hand for 2004. Welcome, traveler. Jim Brunelle of Cape Elizabeth has commented on Maine issues for more than 35 years. His e-mail address is jbrune@maine.rr.com. |
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