You must be kidding!

That was the reaction the first August we were here. A look out the front of the house showed that the maple tree across the street was already turning colors, and it was so early!!! While the trees on our property were still green, this one was well into its autumn uniform. And it was so early in the year!!!

Six of Freeport's historic bed and breakfast inns (including Brewster House) are members of the Historic Freeport Bed and Breakfasts. This group seeks to provide information on B&B availability, information about the B&B's, and about Freeport events, to help visitors to the area find the information and lodging opportunities they are seeking.

How has your summer been going, so far?

There are interesting aspects to the question. First, it is a friendly query by other local businesses, usually intended to find reassurance that others are having the same type of summer (whether business is up or down). Second, it is a question by guests, concerned about gasoline and oil prices and other economic issues. Third, at face value, it is a simple question about your summer - good or bad, whatever that may imply.

Freeport, said by some to be the "Birthplace of Maine," has a rich and vital history, whether or not its claim to be the location where Maine's statehood was born is valid.

Most visitors and residents alike are familiar with the Bean family, or at least with Leon Leonwood Bean, who founded the empire that is now L.L. Bean, Inc. But Freeport's history goes back much farther, to 1789, just after the American Revolution, when the town of Freeport had grown to where it had enough families to support its own church, and so was separated from North Yarmouth and incorporated as its own town.

This week marks the first big holiday of the summer season (OK, I know that in many parts of the USA Memorial Day holds that honor, but the busy summer season in Maine doesn't really get started until after July 4, so that pretty much leaves Memorial Day out of the "summer" plans).