Bath is the home of my youth. The red and white crane visible just as one approaches the first exit off Route 1 might be the most beautiful site I have ever seen, because it has always meant that soon will come rest, family, fun and friends. I would have sworn as a child that the lit tree on its top in December was real and not just a string of lights in the proper shape. Whatever it may have been, I always saw it as magical.

My family memories go back generations in our small city of ships. I spent my childhood in a home that was once owned by my great grandparents and I’m told that when the circus came, it came to the field across from us — though I only knew it as being home to a grumpy old skunk before it was sold so two more houses could be built right before my eyes.

My zip code may look a little different in adulthood, but I know I will always be a Shipbuilder and that my answer to that question, “Where are you from?” will always be Bath, Maine.

My family is in Bath — not just my relatives, but also all those amazing people who knew me before I knew myself, and I feel the friendliness of old memories in each visit that I make. Standing at the basketball games awaiting a scoring shot is a feeling that can’t be accurately described. The walk home from the fireworks after Heritage Days each year gives me a similar feeling. I may not know the people the way I used to, but in that moment we are all looking out for each other and hoping that no one meets that grumpy skunk. In that moment, we are a collective with a goal. I am sad for those that can’t claim the same affection for their first home.

As is the case with most people, I didn’t truly understand how special Bath was until I moved away. My husband grew up in the mountains, and the first time he took me home I made him stop at the rise on a hill so I could drink in all the beauty that Western Maine has to offer. I then brought him to our city and as we crossed the bridge to enjoy some Dairy Queen he became awestruck by a destroyer casually sitting in the Kennebec River. That was the moment I realized the uniqueness of what we have. That I could look at an Aegis destroyer and just imagine it was part of a normal landscape is unfathomable to me now, but I suppose when one has seen something every day it can be easy to forget its scale.

I have been fortunate to celebrate many milestones in the Library Park, with the requisite pictures on the bridge by the Spirit of the Sea. Have you been to the Patten Free Library? It is a joy all its own. When I was a child I used to catch tadpoles in the pond there, an activity I know is still engaged in today. I’m honestly astounded that there are still tadpoles to catch after the decades of manhandling they have endured.

And I have walked everywhere in our city. It has always been easier for me to navigate if I don’t have to drive a car. Growing up I loved walking to and from the basketball games in the winter with my family. I can still remember the sudden relief of being outside in a quiet that only cold can bring, after hearing hours of pounding and echoes on the court. I learned how to find the North Star on one particularly chilly jaunt home. In the Spring and Fall I’d head to the track to watch field events or play in the band for our football games. That is when I would see evidence that one team or another had been running up and down the hill by the middle school so often that it created an “M” made from dirt. In those days, I was very happy to have not contributed to that beautiful “M.” In the summer, and even now, I would walk to Heritage Days. July means reunions to me as much as June means graduations, and it is made all the better by the fried dough and lemonade that is readily available.

The most rewarding walk of all is to downtown for the sake of being there. The shops are amazing, the food is delicious, and if there isn’t time or money available to spend, the beauty found on the route alone can be restorative. I have caught up with many old friends just sitting on a bench in the Waterfront Park, though each time I sat there it was with the intention of reading a book.

We have an amazing community in Bath. I make anyone who is uninitiated promise me that they will visit the Maine Maritime Museum. I love to share stories of the class windows decorated downtown during alumni week, the banquet that highlights every five year class at Morse High School, and the city hall decked out in Blue and White. Anytime someone mentions a class reunion I make sure to tell them about My alumni association and the amazing things that it (and also our Sports Boosters) have accomplished. I am truly thankful to the Bath High School Alumni Association for a scholarship that helped me with my college expenses many years ago. It would be easy to pretend that what makes Bath tick is entity larger than any one person, but the truth of any community is that it takes good people who work hard to keep it knit together when every day could be another chance for everything to unravel.

And maybe that’s what I love the most about Bath. We don’t have anything that couldn’t be had by any other town in America (and certainly other places have their own claims to stake), but we do have something special. We have more than a hundred years of people coming together to build something. Be it a ship, a football field, a parade, or a future: Bath, Maine is a city of people who have defined and continue to define what it means to say “We are all in this together.”

———

Barbara Maxfield is a former Bath resident.