Private Lanes

Bayview Terrace is just an ordinary country lane, about a half-mile of woods with a few houses bunched up where it ends at the ocean. As some readers of this blog may remember, it's also perfect in its plain-ness, for in and around its unassuming trees and underbrush I've seen deer, woodpeckers, owls, frogs, grouse, winterberries, raspberries, blackberries, streams of water rushing in the gulleys like real rivers, little bogs and wetlands, the lush camouflage of deep August, and now the stark bare outlines of a cold January. Even the name is perfect, anticipating the popular reward of surf and islands and osprey at water's edge.

Now here is the list of private-lane names approved by the Town of Owls Head during 2009.

Mimilou Way
January Lane
Chara Lane
Long Haul Lane
Dory Lane
Knoll Road
Gigi's Place
Itssocosy Lane
Harley Lane
Stellar Blossom Way

Undoubtedly each is merely a glorified driveway for a new house, name chosen by the owner (one of these is in my neighborhood and I'm not saying which), but I'm a little disappointed with folks' vision, which seems to be limited mostly to memorializing daughters and wives and possibly cats. Long Haul Lane has possibilities, however: one imagines a couple scrimping and saving for years and finally building their dream house in a quiet corner of Maine.