Sandbox Camp Tales from a Maine Storyteller

A collection of stories and essays written by Randy Randall of Saco, Maine. His stories tell what it was like to grow up in the 40’s and 50’s and 60’s in Maine. Some of his other stories relate his adventures in the Maine woods and along the Maine coast. The stories that make up this collection have appeared in magazines such as “No Umbrella,” “Wolf Moon Journal.” “The Maine Sportsman” and “Points East Magazine.”

The book had its beginnings when Randy wrote the stories for his own family to read at their wilderness cabin. That old log cabin is named “The Sandbox” and so the collection of stories became “Sandbox Camp Tales”. Randy’s tales are the stories of many families who love the outdoors and recreate in the wild places. He freely admits that other families might see themselves in his stories and they may have had similar experiences. He has been gratified when his readers have sought him out just so they could meet him and tell him their own stories after reading his. The stories and essays are short and easy to read. In fact his sons have accused him of writing the perfect “Maine backhouse reader” because each story is just about the right length. His topics and ideas range from raising pigs on the family farm to climbing Mt. Katahdin with a bunch of other old timers. He tells about canoe trips on Maine rivers and bicycling along Maine beaches.

Randy and his family operate a small boat marina on the coast of Maine and some of his stories come from that experience. It’s as if everyone was sitting around a campfire on a summer evening and people begin telling stories; only Randy tells the most charming and the most compelling and the most humorous ones. You will be enchanted too by his easy style and his obvious love for his state and the friends and family he shares it with. Randy believes we should not take our selves too seriously and hopes that you’ll crack just the hint of a smile as you spend a few minutes seeing the world through his eyes. His stories are true and unpretentious. They come out of a lifetime of keen observations of the people and animals, the hills and rocks and rivers that make up the Pine Tree State.