Making Our Own Fun In Maine Is a Local Volunteer Operation..Like ME Soap Box Derby Car Racing.
Living in Maine, when you move here full time or have a second home for part time enjoyment of “Vacationland”, your whole outlook changes to a simpler platform.
For starters, moving to Maine is not to make giant salaries, to wine and dine and to impress anyone. Maine is for folks that don’t want to bother anyone, or to be bothered by a sea of people. Northern Maine, Aroostook County is 11 people per square mile. That is elbow room. Means we don’t lock doors, don’t have to take the keys out of the vehicle, the car or truck in the door yard.
When you are in Maine, your fun is not tied to how much you spend on it. It does not propotionately translate in to how memorable the event, the entertainment is. Pick any of the four seasons in Maine. And the fun is being outdoors, seeing wildlife up close and personal, being on a Maine lake, river, something water related. The experience is a fire, cooking on it, with the back drop unspoiled Maine. Or your free time is spent hiking a hill, trail, mountain and just being humbled by the vastness of Maine.
Hate to say it but man here has not messed the place up. Maine is less people and the ones we have respect the place, give the real estate, property to their kids in as good or better shape then they got it.
Good stewardship and not a scorch earth policy of eat, drink and be merry. Easy, down to earth, lower key.
This pace could drive someone from an urban area nuts. Not stuck in traffic, not overwhelmed with noise. The smells of a city replaced with pine trees, the roar of horns, engines racing, people hollering sounds with lake loons singing. Sometimes all you hear is quiet. Maybe a cricket, the breeze in the leaves..a slight rustle but nothing highway related, man created.
Maine, it’s an adjustment but you start living again in a way you had forgotten existed. Simple. Getting back to basics of what is important. What you need in your day to day, what has been missing you had gotten away from. Healthy, not heavily mortgaged or loaned on at all. Free and clear. Owned outright. No worries. Maine, get the smile you had back on your face and relax. Get back to the land, become more self sufficient, happier within yourself here in Maine.
Where Author Of MeInMaine Blog Andrew Mooers Grew Up In Houlton Maine.
As a kid helping out, growing up on a Maine farm, alcohol was not preached as evil. Wasn’t prevalent or part of the childhood.
Maybe it was because my Dad’s brother, Uncle Bud was a professional alcoholic. Had eight wonderful kids, but only stopped drinking when he stopped breathing, was dead.
Maybe that is why I do not remember much involving alcohol in Maine on the farm. This is the highlight of what I can recall. On a blistering hot summer day, when it came around to 5 oclock quitting time, my dad might hop in the pickup. Head to Paul Drew’s store on Smyrna Street to pick up 2 16 oz Narragansett bottles of beer. “Nasty Gansett’s” another name for this flavor, octane of beer in Maine. And the kind that had a game in the bottle caps, a brain teaser to figure out as they were opened, put down the hatch I suppose.
Dad would sit under a lilac with mom, enjoying the sunset, savoring a hard day of work but great sense of accomplishment. Slowly drinking, savoring that one lone beer as the motivating carrot for the day, the reward for all that hard work.
It’s mate, the other beer twin staying in the refrigerator for months or longer. Beer was not evil, twisted, the ruination of all…just was not present, utilized. Missing from my childhood.
And once a year, Everett Curry, long gone like both my parents would drop in to the farm around Christmas, the holiday season. Dad would reach under a kitchen cabinet for a little sweetener with that egg nog or ginger ale.
Gurgle a splash of whiskey in his and the company’s drink. One drink sipped while conversing with the annual visitor.
No seconds, hollering, brawls, fights, commotion to spoil the Christmas season.
And that whiskey bottle like the Narragansett in our household lasted a long, long time. Add with a glass of wine once in a while, very very infrequently with Sunday dinner. That’s the small, thin family album of snapshots of alcohol appearances growing up. That’s it. The short list of images of any alcoholic beverage, or use of it in the Maine farm household I grew up in.
I also as I type, tap, hunt and peck vaguely recall, remember dad saying an Aunt Beatrice was a smart business woman, a peach of a lady who loved kids. But he and mom rented from here on Watson Avenue in Houlton in the early years of their marriage. And when Aunt Bea got a snootful of rum or whatever her spirit of choice was for the “recipe”, she would threaten eviction if my dad did not trot to the liquor store and bring her back a new “jug”. Aunt Bea was to be avoided when she was hoisting multiple glasses of ice and liquor, drinking it seems.
Oh sure, I think in their 20’s mom and dad would attend and have parties with more than soda, coffee, tea in that glass folks were holding, sampling, refreshing.
Let their hair down so to speak. Maybe my older brothers have more of a recollection to add to the little I just provided on the subject here in the blog post. But whatever it was, the alcohol usage seemed to run its course. And then they settled down to work on the farm, raising four boys.
There was not much of a place for the alcohol in the operation of farm life as I knew it on the County Road. Too much to do and sitting still for long knowing the farming operation was not whispering, but hollering your name to do this, this and this. Before those black clouds over head opened up and made that task completion a “wash out” for the day. Or cost a crop being planted, cultivated, hoed, sprayed or harvested if you did not tend to chores, business. That’s survival, not just living day to day and staying on a Maine farm.
Maine, Proud Of Our Heritage, Aware Of The World Around Us, With Farming Roots, Respect For Outdoors, Weather, Nature, Our Surroundings.
Life In Northern Maine means there are many things day to day we just don’t worry about..like stolen cars.
Or crime for that matter with Maine the fourth lowest state for the events that happen daily. That you notice on out of state television in a motel room while waiting for someone in the bathroom showering. And the nightly news reports none stop, horendous reports of drive by shootings, kidnaps, rapes, arsons, gang violence, drug busts.
Because we have a lower population, the terrain is unspoiled by man. The lakes are clean, wooded sections just inhabitated by wildlife. And you can leave your keys in a car, or leave it running while zipping in to the post office, in and out of a local store in the winter. No one is going to take it. Anyone looking to steal a car is not going to drive this far north to do it.
And if you are looking for something exotic like a Porsche, a 1967 Shelby GT Mustang…well, there are more of those in areas that are crowded to the south. Thieves are lazy, look for the low hanging, easy fruit by human nature right?
And in small Maine towns, if I see someone messing with your car, pickup, house, camp or cabin that looks suspicious, acts nervous, I get involved. Take a plate number, ask some questions and know my neighbor would do the same thing for me in return. That’s the way we roll when you live in Maine. Work hard for everything you have. Teaching your kids to respect other people’s property. To take care of their own too. We go to camp, spend time in the words, to figure out life, without the noise, distractions. Keeping it basic. As Anthony Bourdain learns, finds out about Maine when his Milo ME native camera man Zach Zamboni coaxes his boss, the traveling food critic in to the family wilderness hidden Maine lake retreat. What is the differences in a big state like Maine in what each area offers?
You’ll like the lakes, loons, sunsets, and less people aspect of Northern Maine, rural parts of the state. But you will equally like what we don’t have. Little crime, no traffic, no pollution and you can see the star filled sky at night. And daily overhead cobalt blue skies are a change from a population center like a city with smog, noise, too much activity. Maine, it’s way way different here. This video explains the differences a state this big offers..or at least the locals perspective on what it is like based on where they live in Maine.
Kids raised in Maine families can walk to the local movie theatre, to public skating, little league practice, home from school and nothing dangerous, awful happens to them. It is not like that everywhere in the country. Less people is one reason for little crime. And the people here get involved if they see something amiss, out of place. The entire “village” raises those kids, looks out for them, helps shape them. There is a connection here that big impersonal city living can not come close to, if at all. Volunteering and working on local Maine projects give the local residents part of that closeness, a pride that is powerful. More involvement and a home grown aspect develops, cements, mortars small rural Maine communities. That is the local flavor of a Maine small town loaded with tradition, family values, work ethic and desire to respect other peoples property, feelings, lifestyle. I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers
Cultures, Nationalities Make Maine Unique, Special, One Of A Kind.Mainers Know Who They Are, Where They Live And Feel Like The Luckiest, Blessed People On Earth. And They Are.
You’re on a game show, at a local diner out of state, filling your car with gas on a trip, and the question get raised..”Maine, what’s it like?”
In this blog post to hit all the highlights is hard. But still as a Maine blogger proud of my state, and ready to toot the horn about it’s people and the way of life and four season outdoor beauty. Here goes anyway.
One reason I have to make a stab at being in the “spotlight on Maine” is because so little about the state is out there on line or very accurate.
If someone moves to the southern tip of Maine and is from the west coast. And suddenly put on camera as a talking head for the place called Maine. More often than not, other than the coast, the rest of Maine is left out is the sound bite.
Like Columbus felt when talk of the world being flat came up at card games, the local livery stable or on board a ship sailing to the unknown corners of the new world. Maine’s like that. Pretty much a secret.
Maine for starters is one big state, and here is a quick ME geography, history, facts, figures house keeping run down from A-Z for up here in the right hand corner of the country.
And for images, rather than worlds scope out this eyeball candy Maine photo, image site. Ok, Ok, Here is a splash on Maine lighthouses too. Happy? Maine is so much more than lobsters, lighthouses, blueberries and potatoes.
Maine people are resilent, know who they are, don’t need life coaches or extensive couch therapy or mood elevators to enjoy life. Mainers are responsible, family oriented, friendly, neighborly, community proud with a ferocity. The outdoor four seasons of Maine is where the answers to life’s mysteries, complexities, pressures are found. The Maine forests, Baxter’s Mt Katahdin and 6000 lakes, rivers know the meaning of patience, time. We Mainers protect what God gave us to be good stewards with, to pass on to our kids.
Like To Kayak Or Want A Big Motor On Your Boat Or Jet Ski?
Maine is coming to terms with lower wages, smaller population centers.
But that makes us more resourceful, stronger volunteers, closer local citizens. Home grown, helping each other, more aware of the priorieties in life. No chip on our shoulder, or entitlement attitude or trying to short cut on any road to riches in Maine. Money to impress people? You won’t find that “look who I am attitude, what I have” attitude game played here. No pecking order, no steerage mentality of anyone being any better or worse than anyone else. We accept people, want the same done in return.
It’s how we roll in Maine.
Grange Hall In Maine Repurposed Into A Home.
Keep it simple, be helpful, make it real. Maine.
We don’t la-de-da as the Van Morrison song croones. Who we are is who you see. Whether talking one on one playing horseshoes or cribbage or at a large municipal town hall, grange bean supper or at a sporting event.
Jumper cables ready in the car or pickup and ready to stop, give you a hand. Make sure you are okay or need a lift somewhere, to call someone. To help you out. Mainer’s need each other but are self contained at the same time.
This small town Houlton Maine Meduxnekeag Canoe race video shows you how we interact with mutual respect, courtesy, friendliness, a mixture of gratitude in this case that spring is here. That means getting out on the water, a Maine river. This year’s canoe kayak race by the way is May 1st, so spread the word will you?
Canoe River Race In Maine, Been Paddling Down One Of The Many River Races On The Circuit?Growing Without Sprays, Chemicals. Organic Maine Homesteading Happens Around Maine!
Evidence that we thrive on cobalt blue skies, carving down a hill under a bright sun gaining strength signaling that spring is approaching. So when someone asks “what’s Maine like?” if you can only use one word answers, you could do it. If you had lived for awhile to see how different it is from most places.
To describe Maine one word at a time, I would pick “grateful”, “family”, “industrious,” “hardworking,” “resourceful,” “aware,” “outdoors,” “recreation,” “simple,” “grounded,” “clean,” “healthy,” “friendly”, “neighborly”,”unique.”
Fish Fresh From The Maine Coastal Sea. Barnacle Billy’s Crew Ham It Up For Tourists.
Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservation Season 6, Episode 12 television food/travel show covered Maine in broad brush fashion on a recent installment.
But at least with the help of a Milo Maine camera man, Zach Zamboni for a local perspective. Scope out a Maine Bourdain show video clip. It is so refreshing to have more than the Maine coastal areas highlighted, “pressed” by someone as the local talking head who not even raised here. With no childhood, family, local community perspective to really draw from. No real history, or life long experience with this place, state of mind we call Maine.
Not Just Singing, Expressing, Feeling The Music, Doing It With Dance As A Group.
For the second year, Houlton Maine was the host town for 39 high school music programs competing in the Jazz Show Choir festival.
Houlton Maine’s music director Joe Fagnant says it takes hundreds of workers and he has them in the local music boosters program, past students, parents, other teachers. Here is a video splash of just a taste of the event with schools performing from all over the state of Maine’s music programs on the middle and high school level.
The talents of these Maine music programs and students is so great and the productions so tight, that I still find myself singing, humming songs on from the event.
The singers, dancing so vibrant, full of energy that to have that kind of quality right in our own backyard is impressive, special, a source of Maine home town pride.
Performing before a crowd, being part of group and learning the fine art of singing, dancing and competing helps shape the citizens of tomorrow. A group that will appreciate, fund and keep fine arts alive for the next generation of Mainers. Here is a recap of last year’s performance to that was just as electric, sharp, memorable. Roll the Maine music video Jimmy.
Outdoor concerts will be starting soon at my home town’s amphitheatre. And the gift of music, the appearance of it in our every day life in Southern Aroostook County is evident in this McGill’s Band music performance video.
We are lucky to live in Maine. Music is one more reason.
Nearly 40 Maine High Schools travel to Houlton Maine to take part in the annual state Jazz Festival this weekend, April 10th.
The local Houlton Maine High School music weekend competition under the direction of band teacher Joe Fagnant and the Music Booster’s supporters are excited about being the state venue again for the many talented school performances.
Here is a taste of last year’s performance. This video shows just a slice, segment of the Maine musical productions from my angle MC’ing groups in one part of Houlton High School while three other MC’s did the same one by one performances through out the day.
