There was a time BP (Before Pandemic), when at the All Day Breakfast, just across the river from Dock Square and on down the road a piece toward Wells, some folks would take the cute little salt and pepper shakers from their table as they finished their meal and left, while others would bring imaginative and fanciful new ones to leave behind on the table when they had finished theirs.

It’s not that some of them were bad people and some were good people, but some were takers and some were givers. It’s a social process. And that’s the way of people.

The Vineyard Collection of made-in-Maine salt and pepper mills. Photo courtesy Fletchers’ Mill

On one hand, being a taker could be a pleasant thing, because, along with the practice comes the growing feeling of wealth and substance, if not downright respect from other members of the group, while the downside of being a taker was the problem of where to put it all.

On the other hand, being a giver might make one feel good about oneself, while garnering respect and admiration from the others who, having been told that it was better to give than to receive, nevertheless soon faced the problem of locating a reliable source of things to give. So, here, for the giver, the problem becomes, not where to store the stuff, but where to get the stuff so as to be able to continue giving.

Reason would suggest that, if you were a giver, needing stuff to give, it would be useful to locate a nearby taker, who was having trouble finding a place to store the stuff he took, and try to work out some sort of arrangement, whereby you could help the taker by giving away his stuff to folks, who still had a place for it.

Another solution might be for you, as giver who needed stuff to give, to arrange with a taker who had no place for his stuff, to simply exchange roles at certain times, so that you could become a taker, while he started giving.

Now you may ask, what about the folks at the All Day Breakfast? Didn’t they object to this coming and going of salt and pepper sets while some folk took and some folks gave? I think the owner and personnel enjoyed watching the process, and it saved them the trouble of procuring new salt and pepper shakers as they disappeared, and new ones arrived to take their place.

Once the folks, who would come up here to Wells, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise and Goose Rocks Beach, had eaten a certain number of lobster rolls and fried clams, something would go click in their head and they would take to joining the social process at the All Day Breakfast, bringing some cute new salt and pepper shakers to leave on the table, and taking home a new set to show the folks back home what a real souvenir looks like. That’s the way of people.

The taking and giving of salt and pepper sets was a social thing, now lost and mostly forgotten. Salt and pepper come to the table in little paper packages, but you can still get a pretty good meal at the All Day Breakfast.

Orrin Frink is a Kennebunkport resident. He can be reached at ofrink@gmail.com.