Seacoast History Blog #30
February 5, 2009

The potential demise of Frisbee’s Market in Kittery Point is not just one more statistic in an avalanche of bad economic news. The "oldest continuously run family store in North America" has been on the skids for years. But a bankrupt sixth-generation store rate special note. Frisbee’s longevity (180 years run by members of the Frisbee family) puts it in a class almost by itself. (Continued below)

We tend, less than ever before, to follow in the footsteps of our fathers and mothers. Odds are, your grandfather’s occupation may no longer exist. Odds are even greater that whatever high tech job you are now doing will look as prehistoric to your grandchildren as inking a Gutenberg printing press.

So when, against all odds, the Stuart family continues to farm their land in Stratham, we are impressed. And when the Sanders family rehabs their fish shop on South Street, we cheer. The Sanders family hasn’t been in that spot for ever, but they have been fishing these waters since the early 1600s. The Tuttles have been farming in Dover since the 17^th century, as have the Littlefields in York. Those who know the history, think of these families as Yankee royalty. And from what I’ve seen, these families suffer from the same dysfunctional dynamics as any royal bloodline. Parents and children and grandchildren often clash. It is hard, very hard, to keep a working class dynasty going.

But the bottom line is still the bottom line. Ancestral companies still have to make a profit. That’s especially tough for the Frisbees in an era when the New England general store itself has largely gone the way of the dodo. Harder still in a place like Kittery Point, a sprawling "neighborhood" of houses located along a narrow, winding seaside road. Locals have scores of convenience stores, supermarkets, malls and outlets to turn to.

The store and the accompanying Cap’n Simeon’s restaurant are ideally located at the Kittery Point wharf for the brief summer season. There’s lots of "old money" in Kittery Point. It returns each summer to its hereditary home. But keeping a general store and seafood restaurant going year round on a scenic back road is a challenge. Similar venues shutter up and fly south in the winter. Frisbees, however, has traditionally stayed open, surviving the lean winters. A kitchen fire, the death of brother Frank Frisbee III and the troubling economy were, apparently, just too much to bear.

But what can we do to help? Frisbee’s is a commercial, not a nonprofit company, so tax deductible contributions are out. A "friends of Frisbee" group could spring up, raising funds and spending their dollars there if the family can manage to bring their market back to life. And even then, it will take an ocean of seafood, ice cream, cokes, chips and coffee to cover a $200,000 debt.

To be honest, what’s special about Frisbee’s is less the product than the name. Knowing that there has been a Frisbee in charge on that spot for almost two centuries is a marvelous gimmick, ideal for branding. Calef’s Country Store (circa 1869) in Barrington, NH has done an incredible job of translating the old family name into a line of branded cheeses, jams, jellies, soup mixes and more. They have a nice online store for the off-season. But then again, the Calef family sold their name and their store years ago.

We are not the nation we used to be when Frisbee’s was established in 1828. We no longer need general stores. What we still need, however, are touchstones to the past. Preserving Frisbee’s, like preserving the Music Hall, the Ioka Theatre, or Wentworth by the Sea, helps us keep our perspective in a supersonic age. They remind us that – even if our name is not Frisbee -- we are all links in a chain that stretches backwards and forwards in time.

© 2009 by J. Dennis Robinson. All rights reserved.