Over the years it had evolved from a cup of cocoa served from a thermos at the Beach to a community party at the Beach Schoolhouse, complete with food – sandwiches, cookies, wings, soup, hot cider – decorations made at school for the tree, photos with Santa, cookie decorating.

Pared down to the basics – bonfire, caroling, Santa – the event was perfectly satisfying. At 3:30 the fire was lit and burned well into the evening.Įd O’Brien, back-up to Morgan Keating who couldn’t make it this year, led the caroling with the help of a few eighth-grade girls. With the help of an excavator (!) and a hardy crew of volunteers, the logs and brush, the boards and planks were assembled into a towering pyre. Like magic the huge pile of burnables arose on the sand. Within days Aaron Boetsch and Briar Lyons stepped up, saying, okay, they’d do it. It’s hard to say how traditions start, but somehow, this has become one of ours, this lighting of a huge bonfire on our Beach.Īnd on the first Saturday in December the Beach is, at last, ours.įor a while it looked as if the tradition would die as Andy Young, long-time bonfire organizer, said he was ready to hand over the reins.

It’s a magical night, or as close to magical as a little Maine town gets, on the first Saturday of December. The bonfire blazed as bright as ever last Saturday afternoon: Dusk fell, a hundred or more townspeople gathered, while the ferry came and went.

Ranch rush 2 week 4 friday