Sam Graves, along with his wife Betsy, has owned and operated South Bristol’s Harborside Cafe for 26 years.

But things weren’t always so stable for him.

Growing up in Los Angeles and Kansas among other places, Graves moved 18 times before the age of 16 and close to 30 times before he turned 30.

“People always ask me, ‘Were you a military family?’ And I tell them, no, it’s just easier to get a family to move than it is to clean a house,” Graves said, joking.

Graves’ father was the kind of man who would take his car to a local garage and when the mechanics told him the person who knows how to fix it wasn't in, he would ask if he could work there so that he could learn how to fix it himself. Graves described his dad as “inquisitive.”

That curiosity led to Graves’ father to stints making missile guidance systems for the Flying Wing, driving the city bus, and working as a nurse. He even owned a local grocery store and café at one point, something that Graves specifically mentions as having an impact on his own life and career.

Meanwhile, Sam Graves was a computer science and math major who left school to go to work with computers for Kmart, then owned by IBM, just as they were making the transition to computers.

“I actually wanted to be a teacher,” Graves said. “But everyone told me being young was all about making money.”

But he kept finding himself being pulled back into the restaurant business.

His brother was stationed at the Brunswick Naval Air Station and would periodically proposition Graves with the idea of opening a restaurant in the area. Graves joined his brother in Brunswick, and although the restaurant idea fell through, when his brother moved away to Florida, Graves ended up meeting and marrying his wife Betsy in Newcastle. He recalled asking Betsy where a good place to find work in the area was. She told him that L.L. Bean was one place, but that they had lines of people out the door looking for jobs.

“So I went in there and I told them I was looking for a job,” he said. “They said ‘Do you have an appointment?’ I told them no, but eventually they brought me in and I chatted with the guy and you know, I came out with a job. So Betsy was all mad at me about that.”

After this personnel job at L.L. Bean, Graves set off on a variety of career adventures: ball bearings, a restaurant in Massachusetts, working in Boston, and even graduating from McDonald’s corporate career training program “Hamburger University.”

“My father was something of a Renaissance man, and I kind of resented him for it,” Graves said. “I thought I would never be that way. But I guess that's how I ended up being,” Graves said.

Eventually, Betsy and Sam ended up back where they started. On one visit to the Newcastle area Sam noticed that the Harborside Café was for sale. He asked his wife if she wanted to retire to the coast with him at the age of 29. She agreed, and the couple has been there ever since.

Graves said that they wanted to own a place where the people could always feel comfortable, buy things inexpensively, and come knock on the door when they need help with something.

“Being a center has been kind of nice,” Graves said.

Pictures of entire generations now coat the back wall of Harborside, and Graves has been a basketball coach and a center of the community for years.

The place many think of as the heart of South Bristol is about to change. Sam and Betsy Graves are selling the store this fall, moving on.

“I’ve missed a lot of things in my life once they’ve ended,” Graves said, “but I’ve never much been one to look behind me.”