On Great Pond

Watertown, Maine -- We looked out over Great Pond on this pretty-as-a-postcard Monday. The radio from a briefly-abandoned boat played Bob Dylan.

Hey, Mr. Tambourine Man, play a song for me.

Great Pond was the inspiration for Ernest Thompson's hit play "On Golden Pond," later made into a poignant motion picture starring the Fondas, Henry and Jane. Here in Maine, anything less than 50 feet deep is considered a pond. You might know them as lakes.

We crossed the campus of Colby College, its Georgian architecture resplendent. Parents were dropping children off for fall semester. Students were throwing frisbees in front of the magnificent library. I longed for days gone by on The Hill.

It was a lazy, somewhat lugubrious Labor Day despite its beauty. Fall, which seems forever, is upon us, followed by winter's freeze.

I am falling in love with Maine. It may prove very hard indeed to leave Vacationland.