The Smiling Cow has been a Camden, Maine tradition since 1940. We are a provider of Unquie Maine Gifts including T-Shirts, Collectibles, and many Fine Maine Made Goods. Shop online anytime or stop by our store overlooking Camden Harbor during your next visit to the beautiful coast of Maine. The story of Mrs. Margaret Hawkey, founder of "The Smiling Cow, " one of the many attractive gift shops in this little coastal town, is the story of another woman who has learned that Shakespeare was right when he said, "Sweet are the uses of adversity." Like so many other courageous women, she has found that most difficult trials are often the spur to development of latent abilities. Suddenly faced with the entire responsibility of earning a living for herself and her five school-age children, Mrs. Hawkey started on less than the proverbial shoe string. "We really had absolutely nothing to begin with except the need to earn our living, " she told me, as we chatted on the shops pleasant little balcony overlooking one of Maines loveliest harbors. "I had had no previous training in business and the children were young, but we did have, all of us, courage and a lot of ideas and enthusiasm. The children realized the situation and were as eager as I to get started in some business that we could all work in and so stay together."