Travel Leisure & Maine transports travelers back in time

By Glenda C. Booth

On a summer stay in Boothbay Harbor, Maine, I decided to go to a concert at the local opera house. When I picked up my tickets at the box office, the agent opened a plastic box, grabbed a batch of tickets bound with a rubber band and handed me my paper tickets.

No internet, no password, no clicking, no online headaches. The whole experience took two minutes.

Such is Maine. Longing for root beer? Old Harleys? A 1950s drive-in? Many spots in Maine take you back to yesteryear.

Fresh lobster, saltwater taffy

Head for the Atlantic coast and you’ll likely happen upon the essence of Maine: a lobster pound, operating (and smelling) as it did 70 years ago.

Here, fresh-from-the-sea lobsters are cooked in seawater on the spot, as seagulls stand ready to steal a morsel from tourists, and boats sputter in and out of the harbor, bringing in the day’s haul. Most pounds are modest wooden buildings with walk-up ordering windows, outdoor tables, and plenty of paper towels for messy dining. The classic dinner is a whole lobster with melted butter, an ear of corn and, of course, a bib. Patrons also can feast on lobster rolls, chowder and steamed Maine clams and mussels.

Many small towns in Maine have an oldfashioned candy shop, too. “Candy knows no social barriers,” reads a sign at Orne’s in Boothbay Harbor, established in 1885 by Addie Orne.

The one-room shop’s tantalizing glass cases and tables are full of lobster pops, saltwater taffy, chocolate blueberries, redlace licorice and Needhams, a Maine tradition — candies with coconut and mashedpotato centers covered with chocolate.

Much-loved diners and drive-ins

Traditional diners from pre-interstate days dot the state, like Moody’s in Waldoboro. “When I get hungry, I get Moody,” read the T-shirts for this beloved eatery, which Bertha and Percy Moody opened in 1927. The couple had nine children, some of whom still work there.

Loyal locals and tourists chomp down fat haddock Reubens, hearty chowdahs (Maine-speak), and homemade fluffy biscuits to die for.

At the counter, you’ll likely chat with a truck driver or lobsterman and indulge in Moody’s famous homemade pies — blueberry, lemon meringue, banana cream and peanut butter. On an average summer day, Moody’s makes 50 to 60 pies and serves as many as 1,500 people.

Maine’s 1950s drive-in restaurants remain in full swing today. At Fat Boy’s in Brunswick, open since 1955, a sign instructs, “Lights on for service.” Turn on your headlights and a server sprints out to your car, takes your order, hooks a tray onto the car window, then returns with your burger and fries.

Fast Eddie’s drive-in, located in a former Texaco gas station in Winthrop, also has carhop service. Inside, there’s 1950s memorabilia, gold and burgundy vinyl booths, a checkerboard floor and a working jukebox.

At the Fountain in Bath, customers can choose a soda fountain stool or a blackand-white semicircular booth under a pressed-tin ceiling and enjoy Maine blueberry treats, milkshakes, sundaes, cream soda and root beer.

Bowling, puffins and general stores

Maine does offer much more than food. For indoor amusement, try candlepin bowling, a game likely “imported” from the Canadian Maritime provinces.

Players fling balls smaller than traditional ones, without finger holes. The skinny pins they aim to knock down resemble candles. Candlepin alleys only have several lanes, so they’re not as noisy as typical urban bowling alleys.

Trips to see Atlantic puffins never disappoint. Boat tours from Boothbay Harbor, Rockland and Port Clyde reveal a closer look at the islands where puffins return every year to raise their chicks, known as pufflings. There’s also shopping. Every shopper’s bucket list should include a roam through a Reny’s Department Store. Mainers would never call it a “chain,” but Reny’s has 17 locations around the state.

Walmart it’s not. Shelves are crammed with everything from crayons to spatulas, moose-themed pajamas, lobster socks, blueberry preserves, Katahdin coffee, flannel shirts, balsam candles and insect repellent. Their motto of 73 years: “If Reny’s Doesn’t Have It, I Don’t Need It!”

Nostalgic for your old stick shift, metal bumpers and backseat, pre-seat-belt adventures? Maine has four car museums that spotlight antique vehicles.

The Owl’s Head Transportation Museum displays more than 150 of them, including automobiles from 1886 to 1963. You can reminisce about teenage hot dates as you ogle the lipstick-red 1957 Ford Thunderbird and some old Harley motorcycles.

Or try the Seal Cove Auto Museum near Bar Harbor, with cars made between 1895 and 1917. The Stanley Museum in Kingfield preserves “the Stanley Family genius” — 1905, 1910 and 1916 steam cars,