As he got older my dad was more inclined to talk about the changes he’d seen in his lifetime. Born in 1905 he grew up in a house with gas lights, watched automobiles replace horse-drawn vehicles, and was a spectator to the beginning of flight. But he was a kid, and I suspect it was only in retrospect that he thought much about the way the world had changed.

He was too busy figuring out a way to talk his mother into letting him camp out in the nearby woods. He had to agree to join the Boy Scouts and learn to do it the right way before she’d relent. Which he did and then promptly quit, barely making Tenderfoot, but with his mother’s consent, he spent his adolescence exploring the woods and streams near his Evanston, Illinois home.

Camping out was just one of the ways he escaped the confines of his Edwardian-era homelife. As the second son, I think Bud (my dad and my husband were both “Bud” to their families) grew up under the radar of his mother’s sharp eyes. Number one son was her favorite, he always maintained, and that may have been so. But in many ways, Dad lucked out, because, apart from the camping thing, she apparently let him go his way – a summer working on an Iowa farm at 13, and two summers traveling, alone via train to Maine, to stay with a great-aunt who’d “married well” and had a “cottage” (picture Islesboro’s shingled edifices) in West Gouldsboro on Frenchman’s Bay.

Probably the whole reason I, who also grew up smack in the middle of the country, dreamed of one day living in Maine.

An aside: mothers, fathers too, feel the push-pull of their competing children. Number one makes you a parent, throws you headlong off your pedestal of self-regard and into the miasma of responsibility-for-another-being. Then, just as you get your feet under you again, learn the drill of parenthood, number two arrives and all those feelings of falling in love you had for number one resurface. But it can be more complicated as your first born tries all the tricks to stay in the spotlight even as his rival is gurgling and ga-gaaaing and doing those baby things we’re biologically programmed to, yes, fall in love to. We went on to do it three times, all boys; my grandmother, Helen, eventually had four, all boys.

But what has my dad’s boyhood to do with Augmented Reality? And what is AR anyway? When in doubt ask Wikipedia:

[It] “is an interactive experience of a real-world environment where the objects that reside in the real world are enhanced by computer-generated perceptual information… AR can be defined as a system that fulfills three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects.” 

Got that? It’s only my own latest bump against change; most likely to many of you this is old stuff. But the changes are accelerating at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. Gas lights were replaced with electric lights. Big deal. It was still the same function, just a different delivery. Cars replaced horses. Stuff still got moved.

But computers and the web have pushed us to previously unimagined places, places we didn’t know we wanted to be. Those tiny “phones” we all carry in our back pockets can do way more than the systems that took man to the moon in 1969. People vacuum their houses with little robots, answer their own doorbell from thousands of miles away, turn on the lights, turn on the heat, turn on the car with a voice command.

I can’t help thinking of Dick Tracy and the two-way wrist radio he wore on his arm.

So this AR can be something of, literally a parlor trick, sending a tiger or a sea turtle strolling through your living room. Or it can be animating an old photo like this. According to my very shallow understanding of AR there are numerous uses of the technology in many fields from archaeology (of course, I think of local history), to architecture to urban design to STEM education to business.

Already a small cadre of enthusiasts are thinking up ways to animate local history, turning today’s neatly re-built Beach area back to the rough, little 19th century seaport depicted in early photos. Or flipping a woodsy parcel to the open sheep pasture it once was. I have no idea how this is done, but I’m excited to see it. As I’ve often noted, we all live on the layers of the past, and here in Lincolnville that past is made more accessible by all our public, undeveloped land.

But there’s always a flip side to every new thing. We traded the problem of horse poop on city streets for the smog of gasoline-powered vehicles. Easy flight around the world is a huge benefit that comes with the cost of quickly spreading viruses between populations. And on and on.

AR can make photos of long-dead people wink and blink and cock their heads. That’s kind of fun, though a bit creepy. But AR run amok brings us fake videos that can be used politically to convince people of a false narrative, and this at a time when a significant number of us believe in a reality that is not fact, not true. We watched, some of us in horror, as our Capitol was overrun in service to a lie about the election.

It turns out, according to some polls, that we Americans are divided in what we believe to be true. Certainly people have always held different opinions, but opinions and fact are not the same. I’m immensely curious to see how we’ll sort this out in the years to come. Can’t think of a better reason to stay alive for a few more decades.

USDA Farmers to Families Food Boxes

The Belfast Soup Kitchen, Waldo CAP and other local organizations are offering a 25# box of food to anyone (no eligibility requirements, 1 box per household) on March 19, 9 a.m. to noon at Athena Health, 3 Hatley Road (enter from Routes 3 or 52). Boxes contain 12 pounds of produce, 5# each of meat and dairy as well as milk.

Town

From David Kinney: “In partnership with the Northeast Mobile Health Services (the Town’s ambulance service provider) the Town is co-sponsoring a COVID-19 Vaccination Clinic (for those 60 years of age or older) on Wednesday, March 10^th from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Lincolnville Community Building located at 18 Searsmont Road (State Route 173).  As the supply is limited pre-registration is required.  Vaccinations will be offered free of charge and have no out of pocket expense to any individual.  Health insurance information will be requested but no copay or deductible will be necessary. For those without health insurance all expenses are being incurred by others. To pre-register for your appointment time please visit this web sitehttps://www.nemhs.com/vaccine You will have to scroll down the page to the Lincolnville box and then “Click to Register”.  From the next page click on the time you wish for your appointment.  Please make sure to click on the “MORE” button if the earlier times are full.  If you need assistance in registering please call Maria Russell at (207) 239-5762.

“Please make certain that you are on time for your appointment, wear a face covering, and practice social distancing.

“A special thank you to Northeast Mobile Health Service for partnering with the Town to offer this service (at no cost to the Town) and to the United Christian Church for making the space available to the community for the clinic.

“Don’t delay, pre-register today.  Stay well.” 

The Selectmen recently voted to update the current Comprehensive Plan, last updated several years ago. A standing town committee will be selected to do this work. Comp Plans take a long time to develop as there are many aspects to consider and input is needed from townspeople for much of it. Here’s a great chance to get involved in the way our town develops in the future, something we all ought to care about. Contact the Town Office if you’re interested in joining this committee.

The Board of Selectmen receive a packet of agenda information a few days before they meet every two weeks. This packet is now available to the public ahead of the meeting, which is important if something you’re interested in will be discussed. See the packet here. Find it on the town’s website by going to Board of Selectmen>Document Library.

School

It’s that time again. Kindergarten pre-registration for all Lincolnville children who will be five years old on or before October 15 , 2022. Call – 763-3366 -  or email Marie Pierce for more information

Check out the Lynx newsletter this week for photos of Walsh Common decorated with palm trees (thanks to food service director Angela Wheaton) and student science experiments.

Pie Day this Sunday

I got the date wrong last week; the Lincolnville Historical Society’s Pie Day will be this Sunday March 14, (not the 13th!) with pick up of pre-ordered pies 1-3 p.m. at the LHS, 33 Beach Road.

Condolences

Sympathy to the friends and family of Gina Knight who passed away unexpectedly a week and a half ago. Special thoughts go, as they always do, to Roger, her husband. The loss of a loved one is always hard on those left behind, but especially to that “half of every couple”.