Company’s coming.
That was the refrain in our household when I was young and my mother was preparing for overnight guests.
She’d scrub the floors, wash and iron curtains, make the beds with her best cotton sheets and bring out the new towels she kept stored between tissue paper in dresser drawers.
It was a big deal, having our relatives or friends come from afar. My mother threw open windows to air out rooms, cleaned rugs, polished furniture, vacuumed and baked.
Oh, did she bake.
Blueberry and raspberry pies, cinnamon yeast rolls, strawberry shortcake with fresh cream and chocolate cake, molasses cookies and her best home-made bread.
Anticipation was the name of the game. We were excited and eager for new faces and voices to fill up the house, rides to the ocean, shopping, and sitting around in the evenings catching up.
I think of my mother now as I prepare for company at our summer house on the lake.
I find myself doing the same things she did, flying from room to room, scouring floors and bathrooms, polishing, primping and even sweeping cobwebs off the outside of the house.
Like Mom, I take out the best towels and sheets, air out rooms, make beds and place welcoming gifts on dressers such as fresh flowers and candy.
The day that company is to arrive, I bake. Usually it’s chocolate chip, oatmeal or molasses cookies for our friends to snack on during their stay. I might make a cake, muffins, or my mother’s homemade chocolate syrup to pour over ice cream.
Nick and Barbara come every summer from Massachusetts, and Kimberly and Otis from New Hampshire. They typically arrive the third week of August, ready for adventure and always armed with food, wine and gifts.
Barb and Nick bring special cheeses, crackers, jams and a bagful of books Barb has read over the past year; Kim and Otis bring fresh corn on the cob from a farm stand along the way, plus homemade pesto or chowder.
We whip up a big meal the first night, report on what we’ve been doing since we last talked, hear updates on family and make plans for the week.
We do a lot of laughing and telling of stories, take day trips to the coast, sit by the lake and enjoy sunsets. We’ll swim, take boat rides and reminisce.
We are fortunate to have known each other nearly 50 years, Kim, Nick and I. Barb and Otis entered the picture not long after.
Nick and I worked at our college newspaper together in Connecticut in the 1970s. Kim, who attended a nearby dance conservatory, lived down the hall from me. The three of us became best friends. We’ve stayed in touch all these years through visits (some years more than others) and letters, Christmas cards and phone calls.
We’ve been there for each other through thick and thin — marriages, divorces, illnesses, the deaths of our parents. We show up at a moment’s notice.
They’re more like family than friends to me, and getting ready for their arrival is more fun than work as I anticipate seeing their smiling faces.
There’s nothing so delightful as waking in the morning to laughter coming from downstairs as the early risers brew coffee and hatch plans for the day.
Yes, company’s coming, and I’m counting down the days.
Ah, these sweet August days.
Amy Calder has been a Morning Sentinel reporter 33 years. Her columns appear here Saturdays. She may be reached at acalder@centralmaine.com. For previous Reporting Aside columns, go to centralmaine.com.
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