ESSAY | ‘Twas back in ’58 . . .’you can’t get there from here’

A Kennebunk resident recalls the frustration and confusion connected to major sewer repair project while driving in Biddeford last year.

By JOHN FORSSEN | Contributing Writer

Yes . . . 1958 . . . that’s when it was —when that up-country commentator Marshall Dodge muttered his immortal words.

To a hapless tourist seeking directions to Millinocket, Mr. Dodge, after some discussion, offered the following: “Come to think of it, I don’t believe you can get there from here.”

Of course, Dodge had the accent for it, the certainty of all things nestled therein…and for extra good measure he spoke slowly enough that the tourist had an opportunity to cross the street for a tasty-Freeze before Mr. Dodge was totally done with that one sentence.

And by Gawd! Don’t you just know that’s exactly how I felt a year or so ago when I was trying to get my wife across the river to a doctor’s appointment in Biddeford.

downtown traffic congestion — **TRAFFIC ON MAIN STREET WAS SNARLED** as motorists used alternative routes during a six-month sewer upgrade project on Elm Street last year. | *Seaver photo*

‘Twas just like I had the old fellow riding shotgun, my wife settled in the back seat with the baby, the dog and the three cats.

This sounds far-fetched, I know, but a good deal of it is true. You have my word on that, so just bear with me.

Anyway, it was during that period a year or so ago when Biddeford seemed to be reinventing itself — four or five counter-intuitive detours, a few impassable trenches and several yards of asphalt at a time.

Biddeford residents knew it well, and word trickled down to surrounding communities that they didn’t much care for it.

However, like the residents of any nesting habitat, they soon learned to make their way from ‘here’ to ‘there’…and in their wake, for the benefit of those from a town or so over who might have business to conduct in Biddeford, they posted a plethora of seemingly contradictory instructions.

No matter where the puzzled glance fell, there seemed to be a sign saying “uh-uh – not here, not there, not anywhere.” Add Dr. Seuss to Marshall Dodge

Our first thought was to ride Elm Street straight through to the river like we always did, turning left just this side of the bridge…except on this particular day, both the left turn bridge and the road ahead were blocked: “Construction: No Entry”. It was like the negative response of a parent who very clearly says, “No,” despite the equally clear need for some further explanation.

So, we turned around, thinking Main Street might offer an alternative; but that was not to happen either. Coming back along Elm Street, it appeared that the full weight of the construction was now heading in our direction: heavy trucks, bull dozers and what I think they call level-finishers, a term I picked up in a Richard Scary book when my daughter was still playing Candy Land.

“. . .the construction was now
heading in our direction:
heavy trucks, bull dozers.”

This hiatus provided an opportunity for us to call the doctor and let him know that we might be a little late…as much as a month or so by the look of things at that moment.

Nor was Main Street easy because it seemed like quite some number of us had discovered it at about the same time, all heading into it from different directions. But a kind of collective hardship had reduced us by then to courtesy…the last resort of the suffering.

We all got along, despite the barricades…and who could ask for more than that? We even made it to my wife’s doctor’s appointment.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR | John Forssen of Kennebunk is a retired writer and painter who enjoys telling good stories,

He may be contacted at jforssen@gmail.com

Editor’s Note: The 2025 Elm Street construction project was a state-mandated and long overdue “combined sewer overflow” project designed to prevent wastewater discharge into the Saco River. That work is now taking place in other areas of the city.

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