The Salt Book by Pamela Wood (1977, Paperback)

The almost gone, long lost art of the people of Maine coast are captured in this book. The things that as a child growing up in New Harbor, Maine with over 350 years of fishing heritage I took for granted are in this fine book. The almost long lost art of "knitting potheads" and baitbags for the lobster traps. I fondly recall my grandmother and great aunt sitting in the kitchen with a cuphook screwed into the wall that was used for the start of hundreds of thousands of baitbags and potheads knitted in what seemed minutes each. The art of making seaweed pudding that my great grandma showed me and the way she dried the seaweed in her back yard. The long winter days my uncle would carve and paint hundreds of buoys then with his branding iron burn his name and "numba" in each one. All these and many more of the "daily choirs" of yester-year are captured in this fine book with plenty of photos. When, in the 1970's the new fangled wire lobster traps came out and the sissle warp was replaced with bright yellow, blue, green and white nylon warp the old days and the customs that went with them were gone, almost. The Salt Book, started as a project saved all the things we took for granted and kept them forever in this book. If your life is of the coast of Maine or if you had family that worked the sea for a living in Maine then this book is a must read! We can't go back to yesterday, but with fine books such as this we will never forget where we came from.