Allow me to go back a bit - before iPods and laptops, HDTV and MTV, all wheel drive and triple-bladed razors, and ATMs and IRAs - to a time when families watched Walt Disney on Sunday nights, girls always put their hair up in curlers at night and wore dresses to school, and boys went fishing and played baseball, a glove always hanging from the handlebars of their bicycle.
Back in those days, you were lucky if you knew someone who had a camp somewhere - it didn't have to be far away, just someplace other than where you were most of the time. Someplace not quite familiar. It was usually on a pond or small lake. Rustic. Simple. It probably had electricity, but maybe no indoor plumbing. Just a place to get away to - to relax, to nap, to swim and fish, to listen to the cicadas buzzing in the trees, to hear the June bugs bumping on the screens at night while the easy voice of Curt Gowdy called the game at Fenway, coming in over the transistor radio.
These days most camps have been updated, at least a little, but finding that semi-remote place on a small body of water, where a 10 horse motor is all you really need for your boat, and one bathroom with a shower is more than sufficient, is getting a little harder to find. However, Mr. Lakefront loves these modest places that feature peace and quiet. Here are a couple that come to mind:
West Pond in Parsonsfield is off the beaten path, 140 acres in size and has a maximum depth of 28 feet. Smallmouth bass are plentiful, I'm told. The loons do that weird laughter thing at night. The sunsets are gorgeous. The West Pond Asscociation keeps a watchful eye on the health of the pond and invites seekers of tranquility to vacation and recreate here. If you seek a straight-forward camp on the water, look no further than 92 Shady Lane for $199,900.
Sand Pond in Norway is just ten minutes from McDonald's and Dunkin' Donuts, but might as well be a hundred miles away. Down a country road, not far from a beautiful, old 9-hole golf course (the Norway Country Club), Sand Pond is a 136 acre gem, clear and cool, and 56 incredible feet deep. It, too, has a concerned group looking after it - the Lake Association of Norway. If an authentic L.C. Andrews log cabin at water's edge sounds interesting to you, you might want to check out this one at 421 Sodom Road for $275,000.
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