Among its many positive features Midcoast Maine has one often overlooked asset: the helpful and friendly attitude of most of its inhabitants. This was strikingly illustrated on April 19, when my wife and I, both on canes and ignorant of the office hours for the Department of Motor Vehicles, entered the DMV building at 4:32 pm., two minutes after closing. Two customers remained to be served but despite appeals to the nearest clerk and to the manager, stressing that we had driven 35 minutes from Phippsburg, that my license had expired while we were wintering in Florida, and that it would be difficult to come back another day, the decision was that we couldn’t be served. Without a word a woman, one of the two remaining customers, stood up, picked up her coat, and handed us her customer call slip. As she left, she said that she lived five minutes away and could return easily the next day. I quickly renewed my license. We were so overwhelmed that we failed to get her name or phone number but we remain eternally grateful to her. Over the 30 years we have lived in Midcoast Maine we have experienced other similar kindnesses but this was particularly noteworthy.

Jack and Anne Thompson,

Phippsburg