Jeff Hurd was born in Bridgton, a town near the New Hampshire border. When he was little, the family to Brunswick where his mother almost always was working multiple jobs. After college, Jeff followed his mother’s example and took on multiple jobs himself. Among them were managing Gritty McDuff’s, a brew pub; having a painting business; and starting the Freeport Lobster Company. Jeff found Waldoboro while looking for real estate. On Friendship Street he spotted the Tavern building which used to be Uncle Henry’s, a buy and sell business before there was CraigsList. He liked what he saw, bought it, and converted it into the Narrow’s Tavern. That was almost twenty years ago. In that time, it’s fair to say that the Tavern has become one of the brightest and most enduring spots in Waldoboro. But Jeff didn’t stop there. With Josh Howell, he founded Cider Hill Farm. They cleaned and cleared the property. Fixed buildings. Salvaged a huge cider press for the Waldoborough Historical Society. Then, about eight years ago, they added disc golf to the property. And there’s more. Jeff runs an AirBnB. He’s an associate broker for real estate. As he did years ago in Freeport, he puts on lobster bakes for corporate and private parties. He cooks for the performers at the Waldo Theatre. And he’s open for a new challenge, though what it is, he doesn’t know yet.
Patience has always been something I’ve needed more of. When I was little, my mother would buy me small, decorative turtles to help me understand its value. To this day I have many turtles. And I have more patience, too. Only when you get older, do you start hearing your parents’ words. Back then, when I was younger, I never valued patience. But now I feel I’m living it.
Still, even when I was short of patience, I’ve always tried to put the work in. I’ve tried to stay clear of shortcuts. Even so, I make plenty of mistakes. In the past and now, and on every task I’ve ever attempted. But I don’t think of them as mistakes. They’re life lessons, of which I’ve had many! We all have.
So, all days are good. It doesn’t matter what’s going on, or what’s not happening but should be — there’s always a silver lining. I like all the different things I do because they’re all over the board. And when things do not go how I was hoping, I try to keep positive and move forward. It’s not the end of the world. It’s on-the-fly learning. And I find that fun.
I’ve had a lot of help from a lot of people, too. Building the Narrows Tavern – that was not a “me” thing. That was absolutely a “we” thing. I’ve always said, “People work with us, not for us.” Because you can’t do anything on your own. I mean, you can, but it’s easier to work with a team. But you have to be open to that.
Of course, you can say, “I did it all by myself,” but then you’re forgetting about the person who was your mentor or the one who took a chance on you, or that person who believed in you. The older you get, the more you understand that.
And now the Narrows Tavern has turned into a nice little hub. It’s a very consistent thing for a lot of people. Pre-COVID, we were open 365 days a year until midnight, no questions asked. COVID took us out of that rhythm a little bit. It took a lot of people out of their rhythms.
But no matter what, we always serve food when we are open because I honor the code of hospitality that says, “If someone comes in hungry, we will feed them.” We’ll warm you up some soup. Make a salad. Serve you a dessert. We’ll find something.
The disc golf course came together because we’d come to Cider Hill Farm and hung out after work. Friends would stop by. Then one day, someone suggested setting up a basket for tossing a disc in. So, we made a basket out of a bait barrel. It was one hole, and we’d just move the barrel around. That’s when we decided, “Let’s do nine.” So, we did. And then we thought, “Let’s do eighteen.” And we did. We’re on our third upgrade of baskets.
But all this stuff? None of it is me. What I’m proud of is that we did it as a group, as a community. I’m proud of what we have accomplished. It doesn’t seem like much to us now, but it means so much to a lot of people.
We have people traveling from all over to play that course. We’ve had two national tournaments there. We have schools coming to play. Leagues. The local high school has used it as a team-building activity. We are even adding a pro-shop this fall.
And when I think about the willingness of the vast number of characters that we’ve worked with, doing so many things, little and big, over all these years – I’m just thankful. I remember how it was in the beginning, with all the friends and family and all kinds of people who helped us, and other people in the community. A ton of people helped us. It’s amazing to think about them all.
That sort of energy and generosity can be contagious. Now others are doing the work. The Cider Hill Disc Golf Club is doing the mowing and maintenance, plus putting on tournaments. And there’s the Tuesday mixed doubles league, too. It’s dope to see how the energy that we put in has been picked up by others. It wasn’t in vain.
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