I grew up in an ocean-front community, and every year on Labor Day weekend, there was a three-day celebration for the residents, called “Short Beach Days.”

There were swimming races at the public beach, foot races at our little community park, tables of homemade food to sample, and even a teen beauty pageant on Saturday night. The festivities ended on Labor Day, with a parade traveling down the short section of Main Street that ran along the open shore. We kids were so excited to get dressed up and be in the parade, that we could not sleep a wink the night before.

I was about 12 years old when the committee for the celebration decided that it was just too much work, took up too much of their time and cost the little community too much money to continue having it again. It was also just too difficult for them to get enough residents involved to successfully have the celebration anymore.

The change in that neighborhood was not evident right away, but after a couple of years had passed, I remember my mom looking out of our front door one day and commenting that a “stranger” seemed to be hanging around in front of our house. Her face showed growing concern, as she said she wondered why he was there, and what he could be up to. After a while, with fear too obviously rising in her voice, she called the sheriff and asked him to come over.

It turned out the man had moved into town the year before and he had just stopped to look at the ocean waves across the street from our house. I remember my mom said, as if she had just realized it at that moment, that she did not know who exactly had moved into town, or who had moved away, for quite a while. “Oh yes,” she said, “not since when we had the last Short Beach Days.”

When we moved to Greene in early 2002, I was more than a little thrilled that Greene had a town day of celebration, complete with a little parade down Main Street, at the end of the every summer.

The former committee for Greene Village Day, worked very hard for 11 years to bring the town a great day of celebration. They decided, after the celebration in 2010, that they had done it as long as their lives allowed, and chose to not continue hosting the town event. Since there was no one else in town who had the time and energy to form a committee, Greene Village Day was put on hold.

When I learned that the selectmen planned to cancel the event permanently last year, I asked my husband and some of my fellow Androscoggin Grange members if they would help me form a committee to try to “save” Greene Village Day, if we could get permission from the selectmen to do so.

Everyone agreed to help, so with a few other town residents, (and a little too much drizzling rain all day), we had our town celebration again last year!

This will be our second year at working to keep the tradition alive. It is the only day all year when the town’s residents get together to share the joys of living here in Greene. The one day when we can all share the happy news of who was born in Greene in the past year, and the sad news of who had passed away.

It is the committee’s heartfelt wish that more residents of Greene, and every other small town in Maine, will read this story and realize how important it is to continue our wonderful Maine tradition of communities getting together to just celebrate life. Even just one day a year to just keep in touch, so hopefully none of us will ever have to experience the fear I heard in my mom’s voice that day, as she wondered out loud who that “stranger” was, hanging around in front of our house.

Joanne Boyington is chairman for Greene Village Day. This year, the celebration will be held on Saturday, Aug. 24.