by Sage Collins

The memories of Sage Collins transport us to an earlier time in Blue Hill, Maine, the small coastal town where he grew up in the 1950s. It was a time when things were different for kids, when boyhood included explorations, bikes, boats, puppies, Huck Finn rafts, young love, “boy time”—and the steady hand and kind eye of his Uncle Oscar. Those who know the town and the area will delight in in Sage’s recollections of Blue Hill life at the time—and will likely recognize some of the characters. Even if Blue Hill is not familiar to the reader, his memories transport us to that era when life was gentler and time seemed to pass more slowly.

Sage’s stories first appeared as the column “Uncle Oscar’s Beeline” in The Weekly Packet, Blue Hill’s long-running weekly newspaper that was established in 1961. The book contains 34 stories and includes photos from The Packet’s early 1960s files.