Summer Surfing: webstyle
What happens when you Google 'Gray, Maine'?
By Jeanne Adams

The other day I searched Gray, Maine on Google - 1,430,000 sites came up. A lot of them are hoser sites: "Meet sexy women in Gray, Maine" or the like. As you would guess, our three most famous Gray attractions come up the most: Maine Wildlife Park, National Weather Service Station and the "unknown soldier" buried at Gray Cemetery - they're linked to hundreds of sites.

Of the 1,430,000 sites Google omitted "similar" sites and only put up 825. How can you have over a million sites be similar?
At http://www.norwaymaine.com/ I learned that five men from Gray, Maine purchased land near Pennesseewassee Lake, about 50 miles northwest of the seaport of Portland, in 1786 and this was the start of the Town of Norway, Maine.

Go to http://www.beans-around-the-world.com/grayme.html and you'll find one of those quirky sites where people submit photos. At this site all the photos must feature a can of S&W brand Baked Beans. One of the "frijoles" visited the Maine Wildlife Park. On the rest of the site I thought some of the "ineligible" photos were funny enough. I didn't click through to the "indecent" bean photos. I wasn't up for it, but you can let me know what you find there.
I'm a history lover and I enjoyed reading the text of this letter written on the site History Briker.com (http://www.historybroker.com/items/704a1b.htm). A girl from Gray named Abbie was visiting Portland and was answering a letter to her sister back in Gray. This letter is for sale at the website. Abbie begins her letter on Monday, August 15th, 1861 and writes: "I will try and answer your kind letter which I received one night last week and was very glad to get it for I did not know as I was ever going to hear from Gray again."

At Historical Ink you can buy reproductions of antique maps of cities, towns, and villages. (http://www.oldmapsne.com/pages/faq.htm) You can buy an old map of Gray for $11. Or New Gloucester Business Notices.

This caught my interest: an on-line magazine: Echo: Forensic Panel: it's the story of a parish priest and a lawsuit. The priest was sent to Gray for awhile during some legal troubles involving a married woman. According to the site, he was moved up North - the equivalent of a cold shower? See more at http://echo.forensicpanel.com/1997/8/1/waywardpriest.html

Gray's Antique and BBQ Barn came up on the site Barbecue Porch, it's 'all about barbeque' (http://www.bbq-porch.org/reviews/me.asp) The BBQ Barn got a pretty good review, opening with this sentence: "Gray is a small town and if you can't follow your nose to this place then you're either looking on a day they're not smoking (currently Wednesday through Saturday) or you could find the McDonald's and look across the street." I learned how technical and serious these folks are about their barbecue, even calling it 'Q' for short.

On my surfing ride along the internet, I read some fascinating people stories from Gray. At the US Olympic Committee site (http://www.usoc.org/73_3965.htm) I read that in 2001, a Gray Resident, Danell Libby, won a place on the Wheelchair Olympics Curling Team. That's interesting. The site tells how she was in a car accident and paralyzed in 1987 - four years later she was on an Olympic team. She is quoted on the site: "Curling has been an interesting challenge for me, because it's not a contact sport, but I am really enjoying the strategy and the opportunity for competitiveness that it brings to people with disabilities." I wonder if she's continuing her Curling Career.

Need a Personal Chef? Gray is home to one! "At Home on Your Range" is a site listing a personal chef from Gray, Greg Bartholomae. (http://www.hireachef.com/search/contact/?id=237) My sister is a chef and I was intrigued and e-mailed Greg for more info. He kindly answered my questions. He wrote, "I am still in Gray, although of all the clients I have had all have been coastal. Freeport being the closest, The client I have now lives on Orr's Island, just under 100 miles round trip. A typical cheffing job starts a week or so ahead of the actual cooking date. I mail a menu with 7 entree selections and some side dishes to my client and they call me with their selection of 5 entrees they want. (Sometimes 5 that I've listed work for them--other times they will ask for other things I've made in the past, not a problem.)"

"Then on cooking day, I load up my car and had to the grocery store to buy what I need. I usually get to their house about 11-11:30 and start cooking, packaging, labeling, fridging and freezing. I am generally done between 4:30 and 5:30. These 5 entrees, 4 servings each will last them for 2 weeks of dinners, so I cook for them every other week. "

"I have been cheffing since 2000. My client load has varied from 1-2 clients at a time so it never has been a full time job in the true sense of a full week. I now am Assistant Seafood Manager at the Hannaford store in Standish and chef every other week. I enjoy the "culinary creating" but didn't want the restaurant hours, so I got into and stayed in personal cheffing. All the clients have come from "word of mouth" if you pardon the pun. My first client had a personal organizer who had another client who I started cooking for. They in turn crossed paths with my current client and told them about me and I've been with this client for 4 years."

Whatever happened to Howard Black? Former Gray resident Howard Black and his wife Shelley used to live in Gray and were well-liked and active at the Historical Society and Library. Howard has published a book having to do with genealogy! They were nice folks and it was fun to see his book come up. http://marketplacesolutions.net/secure/heritagebooks/merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=HBI&Product_Code=B0886

I found a nice site for Libby Hill Forest with a nice trail map. From this map you can see what the impact of selling the Hancock property could cause to the trail system. I like walking up there with the kids and the dogs - it's close to the schools and beats waiting around for an hour while my child's activity finishes. http://www.libbyhill.org/html%20pages/upper%20frame.htm

Here's one of those, "It's not any of my business " but it's out there" on the web things: Tom and his wife Sherry live in Gray as does Denise Bean and her family. They are listed on a management site for Oakhurst Dairy. Howdy, neighbors. http://www.oakhurstdairy.com/about_mgmt.html

http://www.topix.net/city/gray-me This is a site to check out occasionally; they collect other printed news stories. I found out that a NH woman was killed in Gray on Little Sebago last summer, and read an article that had some locals in it and a Standish fire-fighter was hit by lightning in the recent storm.

Mickey's Mile Marker - Your road trip guide to WDW!" (http://www.themouseforless.com/tripplanning/MMM/Gray.shtml) I cracked up when I read that Gray, Maine was listed on this site which is all about planning a trip to Walt Disney World.

It lists the hours from WDW: (23) good restaurants, (Julien's, Jess 'n Nic's, China Village), Recreation/attractions you can visit while on your way to WDW, (Gray Wildlife Park, Libby Hill Trails, Crystal Lake, Little Sebago Lake, Poland Springs, Sebago Lake, Pineland- New Gloucester, Bradbury Mountain State Park). They even list the closest Disney store/outlet (The Disney Store Maine Mall - South Portland.)

And don't forget to check www.monumentnews.com!