44
— Aroostook County —
D iscove r Ma ine
Bud’s Camp In The County
by John McDonald
This summer my wife and I were invited to a barbeque at what a friend called his “camp.” Having been to a Maine camp or two over the years, I knew all about “going up to camp” and expected to find a traditional rustic place down a long, rutted dirt road deep in the Maine woods, where black flies outnumbered mammals about a trillion to one. I guess I hadn’t kept track of things lately and had no idea how well my friend had been doing or, for that matter, how Maine camps had changed when I wasn’t paying attention. The “camp” we arrived at was a modern two-story, 10-room, 4-bedroom dwelling with two-and-a-half baths, two satellite dishes and a sprawling kitchen that must have cost as much as two or three SUVs. I happened to think of the kitchen comparison because my friend, as it turned out, had two slick, new SUVs sitting side by side in the dooryard.
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I was too stunned to even notice the black flies. The whole experience made me think of Albert “Bud” Leighton, our old neighbor back home in The County, who had a camp up near the Canadian border. I once asked Bud if his camp was in one of Maine’s organized or unorganized townships. He just said folks in Augusta call it “unorganized,” but to him it seemed to run a lot smoother than the so-called “organized” towns he’s dealt with over the years. Bud would often talk about all the things that happened to him while at camp. He said he was once chased by a bull moose and was lucky to escape with his life. Another time he told a story about the worst thunderstorm he’d ever been through at his camp in the County. He said huge, angry, dark clouds rolled in from nowhere to block out the sun, and then the skies opened up and it rained like he’d never seen it before.
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