Being the daughter of Judy and John Marsh and the
grand-daughter of Paul and Alix DeRocher, I have spent
many years at Paul’s Marina, thirty plus to be exact. The
marina has change dramatically over the years. It has
always offered a beautiful view of Casco Bay and the only
deep water access in the Town of Brunswick, but the
marina is special mainly because of the people who
patronize the business. Without these people, we might
not be the full service Marina that we are today; These
people are from Brunswick or towns out of State, they are
people of title and those of character, they are people
who sail and those who motor, they are people buying gas
and those sailing to Florida…Doctors, truck drivers, Navy
folks, teachers, lawyers, builders, salesman, State
workers, professors, actors, engineers, mechanics,
retirees, islanders, Point families, locals, and vacationers.
Each have their quirks and each have contributed to the
memories that built Paul’s Marina…
When my mother was young the marina had gas, a launch
service, a lobster pound, and a small store offering
canned goods and an old fashion Pepsi soda machine.
She worked summers and has loving memories of her
friends from Birch Island, the Point, and the Blackstone
cottages. Recently she was reminded, by Dana Wallace a
longtime family friend, that near the old gas pump hung a
sign informing patrons to use the pump and leave their
money in the can. The trustworthy patrons were summer
folk from the islands - Renee Miller from Scragg Island,
the Kaufholz Family from Upper Goose Island, Rose Ford
and her girls from Birch Island, Jack Walsh from Birch
Island and the locals Bill DeRocher, Frank Vertilla, Kippy
Higgins, Walter Higgins, Sr., and Cynthia Rydholm (Seltzer
and Rydholm).
When my mother left the marina, she handed her summer
job down to her dear friend Posie Ford, a Birch Island
teen who was willing to work with my ornery grandfather.
Soon after, my mother was married and moved to West
Gardiner. She visited the marina but did not work there
for many years, instead concentrating on raising her
family and being a Game Warden’s wife. During this time,
the marina remained a weekend business with both my
grandparents working full time during the week.
When my brother Damien and I were little, the marina was
a one story building, housing nothing more than a gray
metal desk, charge account forms, a cash box, and the
gas pump switch. We kept ourselves busy by tromping
through the mud flats at low tide, catching hermit crabs,
and digging in the tidal pools. Our work consisted of
bailing dinghies - on a slow day we would re-fill the
dinghies with jelly fish and hope the owner was not coming
down over the hill. My grandfather ferried people out to
their boats in a wooden dory with a very small motor (the
dory had been built in the early 1950s). Launch service
was usually only provided on the weekend or when island
folks came for the season. During the week - you were on
your own and the honor system still applied.
In the years following, Paul invested in a modern Pepsi
soda machine, ice chest (old freezer we covered with
bumper stickers), and a boxes of Marathon candy bars.
All these new perks were added to the old business of
ferrying and selling gas. The once hobby, was starting to
take shape as a business the closer it came to Paul’s
retirement from the Department of Marine Resources. A
small business meant someone had to attend the facility -
most of the time. The attendant could have been just
about anyone - Paul, his second wife Louise Perrotta, my
mother, or my brother and I along with whoever was
babysitting us that day.
During these summers, I first developed my memories of
the people at Paul‘s Marina. Ray and Madeleine Labbe
were the nicest people with a lots of children. Charles
Hurley, a Navy man right through to the bone, was
particular about his boat telling you everytime how to
approached it correctly. Mrs. Hurley, his lovely wife was all
smiles and class - she even packed the glass stemware
when venturing on a cruise. Art and Mel Lane, another
Navy couple, choose to motor instead of sail. Burleigh
and Terry Deemer were locals who came every Friday
after work to cruise out to the Goslings. And Rose Ford,
a teacher from Newton, Ma, who lived on Birch Island for
the summer. Rose was organized and timely. She would
call ahead and we would be waiting to help her unload her
wares. I fondly remember the beautiful red geraniums
she brought with her to the cottage every summer.
In 1975, my grandfather Paul was diagnosed with bone
cancer and three years later he had his left arm and
partial left shoulder amputated. He was retired but still
continued to captain a research vessel for the
Department of Marine Resources while running the
marina. He and his wife Louise felt it was time to find
summer help. They hired Doug Niven and Dave Millar,
along with her son Jay Perrotta who helped whenever he
was able. They were the weekend launch boys who
stepped-up to a Boston Whaler, when the old dory started
to sink and became part of the landscaping filled with
flowers. The faces were new but the business basically
stayed the same .
As a family, we pitched in to help whenever needed, but it
was not until my grandfather died in 1983 that the
business changed hands. Still mainly a summer business,
we worked weekends and moved down after school was
finished. I had just finished my 7th grade year and
honestly I did not want leave my friends. But the marina
became our investment and we all had to do our share.
Thankfully we hired Greg Lennox, a Brunswick High
School student, to help. He was clean cut and had
personality, a perfect addition to the marina team. Plus,
he could put up with John, who called him "Gregory the
Great". With Damien and Greg, John was happy. And I
was happy to just pump gas and drive the launch.
Over, the next couple of years we also called in help from
our friends in West Gardiner, our high school friends,
local college students, and neighbors - if you could run
the launch and pump gas, you could hang out but you
might only get paid in Pepsi. The marina was busier on
weekends, but during the week we worked on our suntans
and floated around in a rubber raft until someone needed
help - my kind of summer job.
Oh yes, we did our fair share of towing, mending, and
rescuing. All jobs that required problem solving skills
and ingenuity. John was learning his new trade and
owed much of his success to Win Smith, a neighbor and
owner of the nearby boatyard.
New to the business, we welcomed the customers fondly
referred to as "the doctors" - Dr. Henry, Dr. Kanwick, Dr.
Montegut, and Dr. Schmidt. Along with Angus King,
David Pitt, and Chuck and Priscilla Vaughan (teachers
of both Damien and I in Gardiner. They were newly
married at the time. Three children followed Matthew,
Mike and Mary. We watched all three grow up and work
at the marina.) We continued to serve the families of
Dave Gardner, Tom Black, Clem Wilson, Joe Stevens,
the Conrads, Ray Morin, and Dick Ames - who always
brought his little daughter over for an Orange Crush.
As services increased and we started to out grow the
little one story building. We had invested in a new ice
chest always filled by O‘Hara, and started to carry small
useful items in the tiny store. However in 1988, Paul
and Jeff Biette ceremoniously tore down the old building,
crushing the roof that was painted with the names of all
the original workers. Gone were the lazy days of
summer.
The new two story building was built by Glen Wilcox and
Lee Hewey. The lower level would be a store for
hardware and necessities, like chips, soda, and ice
cream. The top was designed as a function room for
lobster bakes and receptions. Many wedding rehearsal
dinners were served in the hall, along with the Annual
Chip & Dip Contest that Connie Bean always seemed to
win. We hired Scott Roberts to fill Damien and Greg’s
big shoes. John named him “Scott Buster“, and he did
the job with pride. Also when Emily Schmidt was finally
old enough, she was hired and became the little sister I
never had.
Home from college for the summers, I learned to love the
ocean and the people that came to the marina. We
started making sandwiches and serving Giffords’ ice
cream to boat loads of people from Bustins, Goose, and
Chebeague Islands, and as far away as the Royal
River. People came back every year to see what was
new, neighbors like Judy and Bob White, or the Holmes
and the Debevoise families from the Point. Others
decided it was time to build on the islands, so
construction started for the Bean, Kilbreth, Emerson,
Roberts and Higgins families. Roger Clemmons
brought the Godspeed and Kris Kinzel moored the
beautiful steel hulled Harrison Bartlett for two seasons.
New friendships were made with the Wonson, the
Grimnes, and the Zimmerman families, all having
children who worked at the marina for many years.
In the early 1990s, Damien graduated, was
commissioned in the Marines, and married Lana
Lybarger (a Birch Island girl and sister to long time
employee/friend Linda Gardner). I graduated from
college and came home. It was inevitable that someday
I might actually meet a Navy man in Brunswick. And I
did. Rob Harrower, a New England native, was thrown in
the mix during a lobster bake. Just introduced to my
father, he willingly offered to help serve lobsters- he
reached into the steaming crate and has never looked
back.
Rob and I continued to work weekends for a couple
more years, but he was due to transfer in 1995. So I left
my Maine and moved to Virginia. I was not the only
move that happened - the marina store expanded to the
upstairs, leaving a large hardware selection to fill the
downstairs. A full service sandwich counter was
constructed and the penny candy collection enlarged.
Two offices went in at the far end of the hall. For a few
years, Black Lab Marine owned by Jay Perrotta brought
new customers to Paul’s Marina. By this time everyone
was calling my father “Paul“, which was not always worth
explaining.
More moves…Damien to Virginia with little two girls, and
Rob and I to Italy with a little boy and girl. More
customers, more services, so more room was needed
along with two more launches. Offices shifted and a gift
shop with coastal and marina theme clothing and items
appeared. More sandwich choices, bringing the
fabulous chicken salad and lobster rolls. Morning
muffins, Green Mountain coffee, and fresh milk from
Smiling Hill Farm - neighbor Charlie White will tell you
this addition was well worth the wait. No more room for
lobster bakes, so the catering business went from eat-in
to take away, but still full service offering all the same
great foods.
Another move for Damien to Okinawa and my family
back to Virginia. Now we both have children old enough
to enjoy spending time at the marina, and they beg us to
return to Maine so they can scoop ice cream with their
Memere and drive the launch as their summer job. They
want to learn the names of the boats and work with their
grandfather “Whumpa”in the yard.
Just as we did, our children love the feeling of family that
comes with the marina. Our patrons are friends and
loyal customers. They are people who are not in a hurry
for change. They like that we know their names and ask
about their children. They own a boat because they
have three precious months of summer that can be
spent sailing or motoring amongst the most beautiful
islands on the Maine coast with the relaxing scent of the
sea in the breeze. And they know that bigger is not
always better.
Helene Marsh Harrower
