My wife Janice and I have a different habit from those habits Kent Ward referred to April 28. Our habit is more in Ken Ward’s park. We enjoy harness races and we travel about to enjoy this sport. We are sort of participatory spectators, that is, we like to get into the feel of each heat. We watch with baited breath and cheer with enthusiasm. That means we’re the kind who stand near the rail to watch rather than sit sedately in the bleachers.

I can’t think of any race track other than Bass Park that does not lend itself to this type of joy. At Bass Park a fence was installed about three years ago that is over 6 feet high between the area where racing fans usually stand and the track. This fence of chain-link nature successfully prevents spectators from clearly seeing the horses as they approach the moment supreme. We spectators are forced to wait patiently until wiser heads have decided the order of the horses’ finish.

I find this most disappointing. In fact, instead of each race being followed by an emotional outpouring of joy and dismay, it is followed by feelings of frustration directed at those people in Bangor who think that the spectators in this area are so wild and unruly that they cannot be treated to the sport of kings behind a fence over which they can/may see. It doesn’t seem as if corrective action is totally impossible.

As I said, no other park that I have visited in this state or out of state blocks the view of the spectators so that they cannot clearly determine that no more than the usual shenanigans are being perpetrated as the horses come down the stetch.

William J. Deering

Bangor