Word: towns
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...truth is that the town is already a tourist hive in season, and George Bush has nothing to do with it. The population swells to around 30,000 in the summer, and 19,000 cars cross the narrow two-lane bridge into Dock Square each day in peak season. Gridlock comes with the Coppertone. "Ocean Avenue is already a zoo," concedes selectman Drew. Adds Tom Bradbury, whose family has been in town for generations: "The Bush factor changes the name on the souvenir, but the souvenirs were already here...
Kennebunkport was not always a summer mob scene. When Bush's maternal grandfather George Herbert Walker built his house in 1903, the town was a quiet refuge for well-heeled gentry from New York and Boston. They built sprawling "cottages" along Ocean Avenue and played tennis at the River Club, while the natives fished and built ships on the Kennebunk River. Life remained peaceful until a decade or so ago, when the southern coast of Maine was discovered by tourists and developers. Dock Square used to have a gas station, a hardware store, a market, a movie theater. They...
Others are less sanguine. "I can see this town is going to hell fast," says Mike Day, a lobster fisherman. Adds Rick Griffin: "We're already maxed out. We may be in for what Hyannis experienced. I don't see any way to stop it. I'm amazed at the number of people who are excited about this...
...worse will be the media, who will be as thick as black flies whenever Bush is in town. The Washington press corps already left its mark on Kennebunkport over Thanksgiving. Roland Drew was talking to a photographer before Bush arrived at the South Congregational Church for Sunday services when a reporter snapped, "Get out of my way!" Says Drew, more in wonder than anger: "No one talks like that around here." Day defended some firewood that two reporters planned to liberate to warm themselves while camped out near the Bush compound. "How do you 'borrow' firewood?" Day asks...
...Real estate prices will go up, no question about that," adds Bob Dennis, the town Republican Party chairman. This is bad news for many residents whose modest incomes do not match the town's tony image. Says Mike Marceau, a lobster wholesaler: "George Bush does nothing for commercial fishermen. Workingmen can't afford to buy a house here. I don't make enough money to buy property in this town, and I was born here...