Emplacement

Countless times growing up and later as an adult, I've ventured over to the SMCC campus (Southern Maine Community College) and the area around Spring Point Light called Ft. Preble. I can remember going to Willard Beach with the family in the station wagon and having to stay out of the water for two hours after eating. What to do? I'd look off to the left and ask Mom if I could go to 'the fort' and climb the rocks to the top. "Not now", was always her refrain. For a young boy... can you say frustration? At least at low tide, I could get past the large rocks and close to it. In later years, I found out that it really was a fort: Ft. Preble in South Portland. It was used to help fortify Portland in parts of three wars. I loved (and still do) to sit in the gun emplacements and look out at the passing comings and goings of the harbor. This photograph captures one of the 'windows' and looks off towards Cushings Island. Just a side-light, when the Queen Mary II and other huge ships like the USS John F. Kennedy pay the city a visit, this is a magnificent viewing point. However , be an early riser that day, they always arrive in the early morning to loaded throngs of onlookers.