Moose I Remember... the early years!

Growing up in Maine as I did, I remember so many, many moose I couldn't begin to count them all, but each one made it's mark, some had their 15 minutes of fame, and some (just like some humans) died way too young. All have continued to heighten the affinity I feel towards them.

There always seemed to be an abundance of moose around back then. I saw my first moose less than 3 miles away from our house when I was about four. For many years we saw moose almost daily, all within a 10 mile radius from home, many quite close by. From our upstairs window we watched one across the road in my neighbor's field. My mother thought it was a horse at first glance. And another time someone called one morning to say on their way home from the drive-in they saw a big bull moose standing in our driveway. I went out to scout the driveway for tracks and found a large tooth that I was sure belonged to the moose. In spite of the fact Mom thought it was a cow's tooth and I was some kind of crazy 5 year old girl, I kept it for a long time. I never knew whether I lost it eventually or Mom threw it out. (I would never have thrown it away!)

We often saw moose in the little bog just beyond the one room school house I attended starting in 1946.

On one occasion I was playing in our front yard when a car coming down the hill stopped suddenly almost in front of me. The lady in the passenger seat rolled her window down and was obviously very distressed when she pointed down the road and asked "WHAT is that...that great beast in the road?" I glanced down the hill and standing there in the road was a bull moose. "Oh, that's just a moose, he won't hurt you," I said casually. She asked me how my mother dared to let me play in the yard with animals like that "walking around loose". I laughed and ran inside to tell mom about the moose AND the lady. What the lady didn't know was I not only played in the yard, but I ran through the woods almost daily, and sometimes took carefree naps in mossy clearings. (You know, I never did see a moose in the woods back then!)

The one room school house was closed back when I was six or seven. It was bought by a local couple who converted it into a family dwelling. One day (when I was maybe about twelve) our phone nearly rang off the wall. It was the lady living in the school house. I babysat a few times for her. She was so excited I could barely understand her. Mostly I heard her shouting "NINE MOOSE!! NINE MOOSE!!.. came out of the woods... NINE MOOSE!!... looked like a (#@//"%!#) parade!... NINE MOOSE!!" I walked down to see her and she told the story all over again, pointing excitedly to the kitchen window all the while. Apparently while she stood there doing dishes, glancing out the window occasionally, she was caught off guard by the sight of a bull moose walking out of the woods (less than twenty feet away) and coming straight toward her kitchen window only to turn at the last possible moment to walk off to her left and through her neighbors yard. No sooner had it turned than another moose came out and followed suit. One by one, like a line of soldiers, out they came straight towards her window and turned until nine moose had come and gone. It was one of those wish I'd been there to see it moments. I laughed then and I still do when I think about it. Every one should have at least one good moose encounter to tell about! Hers is one of the best I've heard.

For many years it was common to hear about car moose accidents near the bog bordering route 11 just before the intersection with route 26. About the time I was going to high school 1956-1960 there was one summer that at least three moose were hit in the same area.

A couple years after that my best friend and her husband bought a new car and were headed home across the "Promise Land" road (north side of the bog that crosses route 11). Her husband had been driving but he agreed to let her drive once they were on the back road. Her driving career took a sudden and spectacular turn that day, so to speak... They, and their bright new car ended up in a ditch, the car on it's side, with a bull moose looking down at them through the open window. I always figured that particular moose car accident had a happy ending! She had avoided hitting the moose by swerving sharply. The moose responded by taking a considerable amount of time checking them out before walking away once he decided his work was done, and they were finally able to climb out and walk home as well. That was the only car moose accident I ever heard about that they all walked away from!!

You must be getting the full picture by now... Not only did my mom mark my height on the door casing, not only am I now one of the Old timers who still measure distance by the hour, but my life - my lifeline - is dotted with "moose markers". Moose were in one way or another as much a part of my earliest years as the dresses my mom made for my sister & me each spring from grain sacks (it's true), or the shiny patten leather baby doll shoes for Easter, or the endless sun-filled summers, and snow-sledding winters.