Peace and quiet, Maine small town living offers plenty of both.
At a state Maine REALTORS convention this past week in Portland, it was great to be in Maine’s largest city for lots of continuing education credits. To rub shoulders, to compare notes with other professionals from around the state is invaluable to my small Maine real estate operation up here in “The County”.
Congratulations to Martin Cates, Maine Association Of REALTORS “Realtor Of The Year” Awardee.
REALTOR Of The Year In ME Broker/Agent? Martin Cates Received The Maine Association Of REALTOR 2025 Award!
Well deserved for years of community volunteering, real estate listing sales mentoring service Martin!
Lots Of Maine REALTORS Attended The State Convention In Portland Maine!
Heading north up Interstate 95 after this year’s MAR convention wrapped up, I thought about all the many areas of Maine there are.
Hard not to as the mile markers rack up and township signs flash by the jeep passenger side windows.
One session speaker had done the math, counted over 480 communities in the great state of Maine.
The common denominator for many seemingly is lots of peace and quiet all for season.
A commodity not so plentiful in population centers outside of Maine. But don’t believe the low bidder ad agency that often wins the contract for providing out state generated tourist information.
I like see, hearing about the real deal Maine. Not the re-constituted spun kind that regurgitates old not accurate story lines.
Here’s the A-Z of what Maine offers in cartoon form.
Maine Is Low Cost High Beauty Real Estate! Welcome To Small Town Maine Simple Living!
Too many paint the picture that small Maine towns once were thriving but not anymore.
Change is inevitable in life and Mainers adapt, retool and press on in highly creative ways.
Squeezing more from what they spend is a life skill learned and earned early in life.
Picking in the potato fields, raking in blueberry barrens or harvesting seafood in fishing villages that dot the rock bound craggy Maine coastline.
One Basket At A Time! Picking Maine Potatoes Skills Learned By The Lucky Youth Growing Up In A Fall Harvest Potato Farm Field.
Please don’t get the wrong impression about what it is like in Maine.
It’s an easy trap to fall into when many are waving their fingers and flapping their tongues. About something making them hot and bothered on the national stage.We don’t make everything about who you did or did not vote for last election, the one before that.
When from our perch in a small Maine town, we think the peace and quiet out in the vast low population setting is the key. To stay balanced and aware of what is really important in life.
Volunteering and helping others is what Maine simple living is all about in Vacationland.
Preserving family traditions and making sure the next generation is taught more than just how to survive life. But to enjoy and cherish how lucky we really are to live in a place so beautiful and unspoiled and not crowded.
Details, Fine Workmanship, Small Maine Towns Are Special! The Community Is The People, Not Empty Buildings.
Maine small towns are not sleepy but many just don’t get the press.
Nothing ho hum or boring. Undiscovered small Maine communities often feel like a step back in time by design.
What’s important is preserved and the respect passed on. All the members of the small Maine community have important jobs besides what they do for work.
Volunteering and signing up to do the task year after years helps all of us get to know the other community members. There is so much local talent and nothing needs to be “hired out”.
Can I Help You? Here To See A Maine Moose? You Are Seeing Double!
Small Maine towns surrounded by serene peace and quiet are left alone by politicians too.
Not enough voters to bother with and too much travel or ROI for their support. Everything is local, grass roots and home grown. Garden fresh close to home always beats out trucked in store bought right?
So waking up on a Maine lake, slurping my hot coffee and peering out over the water, I feel blessed.
Maine Lake Loon Fishing, Feeding It’s Young. Living Here You See The Skill Taught To Baby Loons On A Maine Lake.
Have my do list for the day back from the Maine REALTOR convention hammered out, am wrapping up the blog post on peace and quiet simple living.
Feeling energized to rise above and seize the day.
Knowing I really am so so lucky to live in one of the many small communities that make up the vast majority of the state of Maine. Where we talk not just text.
And most locals don’t suffer from FOMO.
Our energy is saved for the big challenges of day-to-day life.
Not feeling sapped, always filled with the fear of missing out and anxious that somehow, we are missing out on a perfect opportunity. That desperation only leads to hurried or financially unsound decision making.
Laugh. Laugh Loud. Maine Small Town Comedy Is The Most Entertaining!
Small town Maine living teaches you what priorities to keep straight and never forget to deep down contentment and happiness.
What really matters?
That easy living happens with peace of mind. That practical is not square. That debt is a cancer. Knowing relationships matter and need to be tended like a garden. And enjoying what you do for work, valuing your time is the secret. Thank you for reading, sharing, following our Me In Maine blog posts.
One spud, two spuds, picking potatoes on a Northern Maine Aroostook County farm.
Was it hard for kids to head out into the early morning darkness to the Maine potato farm field? What work ethic lessons were learned for youth relied on to get the potatoes basket picked, poured into barrels, trucked from the Maine farm field for winter storage?
One Basket At A Time! Picking Maine Potatoes A Skill Learned By The Lucky Youth Growing Up In A Fall Harvest Potato Farm Field.
Have you ever picked potatoes along with your family and friends to earn money for school clothing?
The valuable list of skills and attitudes learned picking Northern Maine potatoes.
Toiling in the farm field under all kinds of weather over school harvest recess is a worthwhile entry level job. But from the outside looking in, today’s youth and parents not exposed to the fall harvest potato picking tradition, it is easy to overlook the learning experience.
So what was it like and why were area Maine youth relied on as an vital component for the fall harvest of potatoes?
My Dad and mom, northern Maine potato farmers said kids did a better job handling the potato harvest picking the crop. Less damage to the valuable farm field potato harvest crop than from fast moving mechanized machinery like harvesters caused. Better for Mother Nature too with less erosion from air harvesters harnessing kid power to pick this year’s crop.
Your family household goes to bed the night before to prepare for the early rise and shine during potato harvest.
By 5AM, you are finishing a hearty breakfast for the day ahead in the Maine potato farm field.
Picnic Food Just Tastes Better Looking At This When Munching What Gets Fished Out Of The Basket. Potato Pickers Move Field To Field In Fall Harvest Colors.
The fresh air during fall potato harvest improves the taste of your lunch, all the the snacks. What you munched on carefully packed to lug to the field.
Along with your water jug, extra warm clothes, back up pairs of fresh brown jersey work gloves.
You learned early to be careful with your lunch box, extra clothes, water jug to keep them from being run over by the barrel truck.
The Maine area potato farmer that hired you for the fall harvest will be at your address with a covered pickup soon.
Barely sunrise, rounding up and delivering the young potato pickers to the new field to dig today. Or to finish up the one from yesterday that was not completed due to sheer size, too much rain, frost or or mechanical breakdowns. You arrive in the field layered with long underwear, extra clothing layers because you can see your breath in the crisp, frosty early morning air.
One by one you hop out of the back of a pickup or van used to collect your fellow potato pickers for this year’s harvest.
Before heading to your “section” in the row after row of un-earthed, not dug potato field, your field boss hands you a fresh pack of tickets. You have an assigned number, usually 50 up to 100 tickets wrapped in an elastic band. A barrel of potatoes weighs 165 pounds.
Yesterday’s barrel tickets tallied the night before. How many barrels did you pick? Count the tickets you get back or the ones missing from your original stack.
Rolling Farm Fields Planted To A New Crop Of Potatoes. Next Year This Will Be Grain. See The Snow White And Yellow Plants?
It takes at least four filled to the brim and over baskets of fresh dug potatoes to fill a barrel. And to earn the right to slide one of your numbered tickets out of the pack to wedge into the groove, on the top of the barrel stave.
That ticket with your number announces to the World that you claim this full barrel for 25, 60 cents or whatever the farmer is paying you this season.
Piece work not an hourly wage. If you don’t produce, you don’t make much or anything.
Clear a spot. You put the new empty barrel on it’s side, carefully using two hands to fill it with potatoes. The ones exposed by the squeaking potato digger that back and forth passes your section over and over through out the day of outdoor labor. As you and your fellow potato pickers advance across the wide open farm field one harvested row at a time.
Pick Them Clean, Get Them All Into The Potato Basket. Do These Kids Look Abused, Picked On Out In The Maine Organic Farm Potato Field?
Your section is how long a portion of the farm field you think you can manage through out the day or until you move to a new one.
The trick to be just getting the last potato picked up and deposited in your basket before moving into the next row. Hopefully the one that was just freshly dug that only good timing and planning causes. Pick a schedule that matches the digger speed to keep caught up. Work steady.
Lessons earnred young piicking maine potatoes in th farm field!
But like life, things happen and you can find yourself getting behind in the Maine potato field.
One of the many observations taught early in the Maine potato field. To learn something that sticks with you for life.
If you took too big a potato field section, you will run out of steam and get behind.
Claim The Barrel, Potato Picking Ticket With Your Number On It.
Some potato fields are grassier than others and have sods to wrestle with to make sure you “pick them clean”.
In the Maine potato field, it is no quality spud left behind. And remember that “bruisers are losers”.
Be careful handling the potatoes.
Slowly dump the basket into the empty farm field barrels. Before placing the next empty barrel upright every other row. So the farm truck can have a lane to retrieve the full ones headed to the potato house storage. You clear any spuds under the barrel first and place it there. In a spot in your section where it a short trip to avoid wasted steps, needless lugging.
No rotten potatoes and leave the green ones or rocks in the field not dumped in the barrels please.
Don’t over fill those barrels lifted up with a boom that lands them on the platform. You don’t want the barrel hoist tong to smash or slice any spuds. Each filled potato barrel is hoisted up from the ground to the truck body using tongs.
Thrown with position to land on the top of the barrel like a lasso. Then tightened up by lifting, using electrical or hydraulically piston pump that grips the barrel tight and secure. To swing up and onto the empty stake truck.
Not the easiest job either to roll full potato barrels to the back of that truck lumbering up a side hill.
Moving those barrels like a game of Tetris, to fill the space quickly. To create a full load to bee line to the potato house.
Then to hurry back with the empties to throw off to each field section of pickers for the repeat the pick, fill, slide on a ticket barrel number filling process.
The further away from the potato house in Houlton Maine the barrel or bulk body trucks have to haul, the more apt a shortage of empties is going to happen.
Nothing hurts production like running out of barrels and trying to make good use of the down time waiting for empties. Picking the tops off the rows you get behind so you can cover your section faster when the fresh empty barrels get tossed onto your section from the truck.
Eating lunch early, doing your business in the woods for a nature call. All part of potato picking field operations. Hopefully your water jug was put in the freezer, slowly un-thawing as the day unfolds.
It Starts With Planting Potatoes In The Maine Farm Field Back In Spring. Cultivating The Hills, The Potato Rows Over The Summer, Harvesting In Fall.
Potato tops need to be removed, shaken as pickers advance across the Northern Maine farm field.
When do you eat? When the tractor pulling potato digger is turned off signally the lunch break. Or sometimes early than noon time because of tractor or digger break down.
There are digger lags hooked together to create the bed with spaces to filter out the potato field dirt.
To lay out the two or more field rows into a flat shaped table of new golden or whatever color spuds to fill a basket to add to the barrel.
Blossoms On Houlton Maine Potato Farm Field.
More on picking Maine potatoes explained by someone who grew up on a farm and picked from age five and on like my three older brothers.
You start out picking.
Graduate to the farm truck or maybe a harvester work shift where you stand and pick out the rocks, the rot and debris.
So it won’t end up taking up space in the potato storage bins.
Over the winter months, the same Northern Maine farmer can use the field tested pickers to pack.
Put up potatoes trailer truck loads shipped to southern markets for distribution.
So what is the occasional cry that picking potatoes is child abuse?
It is hard for someone that never picked potatoes or missed out on the fall harvest tradition to grasp the experience.
You never did it, how could you know without spending time out in the Maine potato field?
School students spending the three to four weeks out in the Maine potato field are social, talk and laugh as they pick, move from to a new harvest section of the farm.
The Red Sox are in a pennant race that fall. Someone has a radio next to your section. It’s one for all and all for one to get those spuds out of the ground before a killing frost. Before snow or dodging rain drops that can interfere with the potato picking process. May work later tonight, or Sunday depending on how’s the weather been this fall in Maine.
Parking Near Fenway. It’s A Trick And Usually Costs A Few Coins. If The Rex Sox Make The Play Offs, Maine Potato Field Workers Tune In, Listen In To Games.
The potato pickers see the outdoor beauty of the early morning fog, the brilliant fall leave color change and fill their lungs with fresh air.
Worked muscles bending over filling potato baskets and lugging them to fill the empty barrels gets students into shape for soccer or other school sports ahead. The field dirt and dust will wash off in the tub or shower tonight when they get home. They tell Mom and Dad about the wildlife they saw out in the field today.
Heading to the small downtown of a Maine community to shop for a new winter jacket is part of the Saturday night learning experience.
Shopping with your own earned money sharpens your spending skills. And if you don’t perceive a value, you keep looking. Impulse spending control is easier to master when it’s your hard earned money. Not twenty dollar bills spit out, handed to you from the mom and dad ATM.
Locally Sourced, Farm To Table Maine Produce, Vegetables Like Potatoes. Priceless. Know Your Local Grower! Maine Is The 5th Largest Potato Producing State.
Learning how to save not just spending is money management.
But what if you never had an entry level job? Did not work for a wage and have to do a good job or you are not asked back the next Maine fall potato harvest? What’s that? Life’s not fair? Life is what you make it. Life is entry level jobs and responsibility to accepting without griping or weaseling out of it. That you have to show up and perform to be an asset not liability.
You stick with it because your family needs the money, the help buying your clothes.
You in turn take better care of clothes you purchase with your own money that is real World right?
The farmer depends on your to help his family get the crop out and into storage. Grit, determination and dealing with colder weather and days when maybe you are not handstand happy about heading to the field. But you do go and eventually less bothers you as your realize the value of this exercise.
Northern Maine Aroostook County Potato Field. A Very Valuable Work Ethic Experience. This Is One Of Your First Entry Level Manual Labor Field Experiences.
Kids that pick and work the fall Maine potato harvest look around and realize I did something worthwhile during the harvest break.
They feel good about themselves and part of something outside their home four walls and a roof. Independent, responsible and dreaming about what part of their picking check they get to spend as they see fit. What they would like to buy with their own money.
And whatever is purchased does not get broken or discarded after the newness is gone. Instead being respected, cared for and put away to protect it because they earned it. Worked too hard not to take care of whatever they bought with their own hard earned money.
Ask anyone who grew up picking Maine potatoes what they thought about the experience.
Some become farmers from the experience digging in the dirt. Remember “No farmer, no food”. You gotta eat at least three times a day.
The harvest workers are part of a proud, capable bunch and learn their value, developing their work ethic. It makes them proud to be from “The County” and that work ethic, dependability to show up and do a good days work is a rural Maine thing.
Four Or More Baskets Of Fresh Picked Maine Potatoes Fill A Barrel. The Barrel Weighs 165 Pounds. Don’t Forget Your Ticket.
Striving to do your part, to keep your potato field section picked clean and caught up and get along with the others on the potato chain gang.
You start to realize that you are not lazy, that you can stick with something that is not for pure entertainment value. Glad my kids learned from the experience of picking Maine potatoes.
More and more real estate buyers are thinking Maine, live here, work anywhere.
What’s It Like In Small Town Maine Rural Locations? Each One Shines Uniquely, Brightly.
The Maine real estate calls into our rural Aroostook County office tell the tale.
It’s families moving in, houses filling up, schools gaining student enrollments, and small businesses welcoming new customers.
Remote work is turning Maine around — not just in Portland or the coast, but right here in Aroostook County, all the sixteen counties.
It’s no longer the old story of “no jobs in Maine.” It’s a new story: “Live here, work anywhere.”
Welcome To Maine. You’re Here. You Made It!
Online living in Maine but working anywhere is a reality.
Reliable high speed Internet connectivity is the game changer.
No longer does a young family wanting to raise their kids in wholesome Maine pack the wagon.
Have to leave for more higher paying jobs in a population center.
Remote worker employment often means higher incomes than the local average, which helps support schools, municipal budgets and small Maine town community programs.
What’s the roof like on a property or is there a garage is just as critical as another question asked with greater frequency.
Remote work is reshaping opportunities. Maine no longer has to rely on job loss replacement for timber, paper mills, potato farming, fishing and small manufacturing industries.
Grab a bar of soap and keep it handy for the local resident that still growls or mutters “no jobs in Maine”.
Ask many young people who outward migrated to southern New England for higher paying jobs if there was more employment opportunities, would you stay in Maine?
Remote work is a game changer that shifts the focus away from lack of traditional, in-person small Maine town and rural county employment opportunities.
The rise of telecommuting and online work is showing geography matters less.
That you can hold a job with employers in Boston, New York or even California while calling Maine your home. Many big companies are seeing it is cheaper to sub contract the freelancing, consulting, online business functions to online remote telecommuters.
Maine Is Small Town Friendly Living. Who Would Trade That For High Crime, Over Populated Not So Friendly Areas To Live If They Had A Choice?
Before Internet connected the state of Maine, rural meant woods, water, wildlife, few people.
Off the beaten path, taking hours to travel back and forth and a harder option for rural remote Maine to compete for business.
The Internet removed the “too far away” aspect. Blew open the Maine real estate market restriction to an audience that is now global not just local.
It made it easier to deliver information on Maine tourism.
To serve up personal experience testimonials from case after case of telecommuters who packed their current job there.
And moved it along to a new Maine location with all their other personal belongings and loved ones to “Vacationland.
Remote work makes if more realistic for younger Mainers or newly relocated to the state folks to stay, to buy homes and contribute locally while working globally.
Maine markets itself as a “quality of life” state. Loaded with natural four seasons beauty, the 4th lowest crime stat, no traffic and an intimate small town community vibe.
With remote work, these unspoiled Maine advantages tug hard on the heart strings of workers who are fed up, sick and tired. Who no longer need to be near corporate urban bub population centers. Local communities, organization and the state got on the bandwagon early. Live here, work anywhere. Maine.
Rural Maine where I live is ahead of the Internet connectivity curve.
In the East Grand Lake region as a recent example, Fidium has strung glass fiber high speed Internet broadband all over the northern Washington and southern Aroostook County. You want 500 meg speed of thought Internet connectivity? Pioneer Broadband Internet is another local Maine company options leading the charge to offer Internet in places that did not have it.
Perks Of Living In Small Town Rural Maine Spelled Out A-Z.
Dial in the speed like remember the old Sunoco gas pumps? To boost performance with street legal race track high performance octane 360 grade in your muscle car back in the 1970’s.
If you work online remotely it is a given that all your higher income goes to support the local small Maine town economy? Probably not. But having the Fed Ex or UPS truck deliver whatever you used to get in the higher population city setting is part of the decision making moving to work remotely in Maine.
You no longer have to trade off all the perks thanks to the same Internet connection that offers go away you want to live employment options.
The influx of new remote online works has helped cause the shortage of affordable housing and the knee jerk for local contractors and communities to get behind new home construction. The what is being built to sell though has to match the market.
How Many Times Have You Climbed Mt Katahdin? Do You Hike, Bike, Climb The Rec Trails? Use The Maine Waterways Or Hunt, Fish?
Your typical Maine home buyer is looking for affordable not luxury unless parked amount the pricey coastal zip codes of Maine.
The Internet has helps home buyers consider their lifestyle choice and where best in Maine to live it out completely.
Like say your passion to ski. It meant the Sugarloaf or Sunday River area built golf courses. Uses the snow ski lift for fall leaf foliage color peeking. Other events added to the local Maine landscape to make what used to be seasonal resorts into to year round full service ones.
Horse lovers are invited to build a new house complete with a stable to bring Flicker or Bullet with you to ride the Maine mountain woods trails.
Want To Horse Around, Life A Small Homestead Farm Experience In Maine?
Remote work can reverse out migration trends and help young Mainers stay home while building careers.
Working remotely helps attract newcomers drawn by Maine’s quality of life. Clean air, community spirit, safety and outdoor year round recreation. The higher income strengthens small local community economies.
Freelance, consulting and digital businesses are giving people more job employment options than ever before.
Crossing Country Skiing, Snow Shoeing, Getting Outside In Maine To Fill Your Lungs With Fresh Clean Air. Is That Possible Where You Live Now?
For Maine, the benefits are telecommuting and working remotely retains young people who want to stay close to family but still build careers.
The challenge is building new housing stock to fill the needs of local and new incoming house buyers. Developers have to consider what the market needs, what is lacking and would quickly sell if it was built to meet the price point.
The building a house in Maine loaded with a slew of convenience features is great if you can afford it and for your own personal preferences.
A New Maine Lake Home Being Built From The Ground Up. Starts With A Foundation. How Many Angles And Jogs In It Drives The Price Up Or Down.
But simple, affordable ranch and cape style house structures are what is needed in rural Maine. Maine is 450 small communities, plantations and a handful of cities and the housing stock
Living Here, Working There. Your Local Life Can Include A Global Job With High Speed Internet.
has to match the need and price range the new home buyer can afford.
Can You Do This Where You Live Now? Everyday In Maine Is A Vacation.
It’s now new jobs not no jobs in Maine.
For years, people described Maine — especially rural Maine — as a place with “no jobs.”
The story was familiar: paper mills shut down, farms consolidated, manufacturing moved away, and young people left for Boston, Portland, or beyond in search of salary and career opportunity.
But today, that story is changing in Maine.
Live in Maine, work anywhere!
Remote work and telecommuting are quietly reshaping our state — and a Maine real estate broker, it is exciting to see the change up close, every single day.
Young Mainers that had to leave the state to “make a living” are returning home.
Their current out of state employer does not want to lose them and their rural Maine work ethic. The moving back to Maine family brings the job they already have.
Out of state buyers are moving in, sometimes sight unseen, because they can pack their current job and don’t need to replace it.
Retirees looking for a slower pace now have child or grandchildren who can follow them north because remote work is possible.
Today broadband availability in Maine matters as much as proximity to a mill or employer once did.
If Maine leans into the shift from live here, work anywhere. And if she continues to invest in broadband and promotes the clean unspopiled, simple lifestyle and supports new housing development.
Then Maine can turn “no jobs” into “new jobs”. Housing demand in Maine is the earliest signal of population and job trends. And the job trend is move, stay, live in Maine, work anywhere.
Maine is a handful of cities and over 450 small community rural towns.
Sixteen counties and the one I live in is the largest east of the Mississippi in land mass. Aroostook County, sparsely populated, a little longer drive time to access but so worth the extra effort.
What’s it like living in a small Maine town?
How to share the experience short and sweet? To reflect an accurate representation of day to day life here today, yesteryear and with a hint of tomorrow. To “bring it all home” for someone curious about the area or to use promoting a small Maine town.
Houlton Maine, State Soap Box Derby Site For Down Hill Racing.
This blog post realizes people use their past as a measuring stick of the future.
That your previous experiences heavily influence your perspective of any new place. Plus what works best for you for surroundings shifts and changes throughout a person’s life stages.
So when someone, anyone asks you “what is it like living in (fill in the blank with small Maine town name)?”
It’s important to realize the longer you live anywhere else on Earth, the less you arrive to a small Maine town with a totally blank slate.
It’s like music, food, school, work, relationships, anything. Everyone does not come to the same take away conclusion describing anything.
The bullet points on what we love and dislike the most is not in the same order on the gotta have / don’t want list of where to call home.
Maine’s Highest Mountain, Mt Katahdin. Do You Like To Hike?
So the what’s it like here in a small Maine town question is answered with what was it like where you came from before?
What did you like where you used to live? What was missing or in short supply that you wish was in greater abundance? Something caused you to want to leave your own home and to consider a small Maine town as the new setting.
Brand new to Maine with just the tourism blurb, a little local past history to shape your expectations?
If where you lived last was a sardine packed together crowded city, your take away reaction to small Maine town life will differ greatly. Then say the perspective from a person relocating from another typical rural small-town experience. Not so sharp a contrast to adjust to over time for the latter.
Wagons Pulled By A Team Of Horses. Still Happens Farming In Maine. Welcome To Wide Open Space, Four Seasons Of Maine Recreation To Discover.
If you want your small Maine town to grow, you have to tap into your local brain trust.
Knowing the value and skill set of your local individuals is key. Community involvement from each and every one is needed so no one is sitting on the sidelines. Someone should not be trying to describe the small Maine town if they have not experience what it is like first hand.
They may do the best they can with generalities but after awhile, all the small Maine town write ups and presentations kinda sound the same. Many have a negative spin and it is obvious the writer can not see themselves living here by their description.
The people who live in the small Maine town are the community.
Maine Needed Water Fountains In Their Community Down Town Areas.
Not just the grid work of streets, empty buildings along Main Street, the rows and rows of housing stock.
It’s all about working together with other locals unique individuals to make sure your community shines brightly online. Putting your best foot forward, proudly believing in the local area in Maine you call your hometown.
The vibe, what’s it like summed up in a few words and short sentences is searched day and night online about small Maine rural towns.
That sound bite or snippet is amplified and pushed out into the media stream.
Unfortunately, trying to learn more about a small Maine town is difficult for web visitors if there is not a strong, positive hyper local online presence. Or just a lack of abundance of information to glean.
Bottle Like Maine Lake. Not A Ripple Today On The Lake In Maine.
Relying on a Reddit thread about your hometown or county from eight years ago is not accurate information.
Especially if posted by someone who has never ever stepped foot in your small Maine town.
Or as an unhappy teenager with a poor home life, they picked up and high tailed it never to return to said small Maine home town. And now feel the need to spread discontent and somehow blame the entire town for what went haywire.
Warning others to stay away, don’t you dare go there.
That black eye for the entire small Maine town population is not deserved but it’s everywhere you look with strong opinions from a keyboard warrior.
Even scanning what the tourism folks put online about your small Maine town can make you cringe. Lots of Maine towns had economies revolving around a single lumber mill, fish cannery or agriculture enterprise of some kind. Not very diversified and in deep trouble when that one trick pony employer industry locks the gate and shuddered the factory windows and doors.
Sponsoring A Small Maine Town Little League Team. Go Team!
Not all Maine small towns enjoy thriving economies.
But that’s what develops grit and fortitude and a higher degree of creativity. It makes how you spend volunteer time and financial resources done extremely carefully.
It’s what causes the feeling of being very invested in protecting, advancing and making the small Maine town what it can be. It’s not about just throwing lots of dollars at the problem. Or expecting your local, state and federal government to “fix the problem”.
Living in your small Maine town is like being a member of a very large family.
So when you read a tourism snippet that says your hometown used to be a happening, thriving place.
But not anymore, and everything is described past tense. Why would you instantly feel enticed to visit? You would not. And that write up is not how the locals who live in that small Maine community feel. They are protective, a little stand offish when they see the out of state plate. Sometimes more so from one state over another because of personal experience.
Maine Lighthouses, Big For Tourism And Fun For Locals To Visit. Over 60 Of Them To Collect Around Vacationland.
It takes broadcasting your local achievements, not relying on someone with their own slam bam personal slant to get the spotlight.
I think home grown, fire your belly writers that live where the four color chamber of commerce flyer describes are key. So do local social media feeds from around around the town, the region and county that are fresh, plentiful and constant.
So do whatever you can to put your small Maine town on the map. Study what works in other communities around Maine is easier than ever with the Internet that connects us all.
So it all circles back around to local what’s happening now.
Lots of buzz, local news, local events, plenty of eye candy on the outdoor natural beauty. And making sure every local who is lucky enough to be interviewed in anyway conveys the excitement, enthusiasm.
Making Music, Local Volunteers Fill The Outdoor Theatre To Make Music For Locals.
Building on the rich local community history but not being boat anchored stuck to the past. To a point in time when the economy suddenly shifted in a major way the wrong way.
Smart Maine town planners head in the direction of promoting what we have lots of… space, unspoiled four-season recreation space.
Fewer but friendlier hard-working people, a simpler way of living that’s lower cost, less crime, all about family.
Space, quiet, natural beauty, outdoor recreation, solitude, the intimacy of how tight small Maine towns can be. It’s special. That is the drum beat sauce in the background of everything getting posted, promoted online in many small Maine towns.
Small Maine Town Sports Teams. Hockey Players Go “Good Game Good Game” Down The Line.
Because It’s not like this that many places. Maine, the way life should be remember?
A small town in Maine can not try to compete with a larger population area who has the people to financially support what they promote as a reason to visit. But it can turn the tables and promote what we have so so much of that is lacking in rural areas.
The face cards for a small Maine town are playing the advantage of what we have an endless supply of that never runs out. Taking a David with a sling shot simple but effective approach to nimbly out pace the slow moving Goliath.
I love shoe string creative marketing approaches to get the word out.
Hitching a ride with others in your network sharing on their channels what you produce on your own.
What is the local area like?
What Was It Like In Black And White. Small Maine Towns Have Rich History To Preserve.
What’s it like living in small rural Maine town?
Let’s hear from the locals who have lived her for a considerable amount of time. Not from someone who has spent very little time in your Maine community if at all. Or anyone who their expectations were not well matched and the fit was poor from the get go. And they will harp about it to anyone who will listen.
You don’t want that kind of community thumbnail sketch to be all there is to glean online.
Failure to thrive happens when you stop believing in your small Maine town. I see in my job as a Maine real estate broker the tide is coming this way. There is a shift of folks wanting to live a different day to day. And we all need to speak up and explain why this is the place we are proud to call home here in Maine.
Curious About Why You Live In A Particular Small Maine Town. Ask Locals, Give Them The Mic, Quote Their Responses In Your Local Press.
Why do you live in this particular small Maine rural town?
The person on the street is the best source for print, photo or video capture to share the local community spirit. The more you hear from the real World average Janes and Joes, the broader the appeal because each has their own specific private reasons. Let’s hear from real people in small town Maine communities.
Willing to concede some of the perks heading to Maine.
Replacing them, trading them in for ones that just don’t happen where they live now. A place that is expensive, impersonal and pretty much everything store bought.
Lobster From Maine Anyone? No One Has Anything Close To The Taste Of Fresh Maine Steamed Lobsters!
Welcome to small Maine towns where resourcefulness abounds and passion glows hot and strong.
Someone who moved from a crowded city will experience a small town very differently than someone who moved from a remote farming community. What one person finds peaceful and slow-paced, another might find boring or isolating.
So the focus on small Maine town living should be on the person. The ones living here, the one asking the question “what’s it like” and fishing for a relocation move if they like what they hear.
Rigging Up To Ski Down A Maine Snow Capped Mountain Slope.
What did you expect coming in to a small Maine town?
Everyone has a different take on what is pure bliss in life. Most of the gain is through the pain of pitching and creating what is missing. Or coming along side a group already struggling to create what you desire and you showed up at exactly the right time.
Help row the boat. Stoke the fire.
Be a positive proponent of your small Maine home town.
Whether you were born there or not is not the issue. Your attitude and willingness to pitch in is what matters most. You showed up. Listening, contributing, having a role in how things roll in your small Maine town.
Bored, Waiting For Someone To Show Up With A Pair Of Wire Cutters. People Leave Crowded Cities For The Same Reason Of Feeling Penned In.
Knowing the small Maine town’s history, the ups and downs and why they happened as the locals struggled to adjust through trying economic times.
That’s important to combine with taking stock, creating the inventory of what we have that is attractive to someone that no long does.
Anyone moving to a small Maine town has a background, values and personal reasons for looking for a relocation. It is good to introduce yourself to anyone new to the area by listing why you love living here.
Welcome To Maine. You’re Here. You Made It!
It is also good to describe what the local small Maine community is not, how it might not be a good fit for someone looking for a faster pace of life.
You can not be all things to all people and an honest assessment of the local area has to take priority.
There is plenty to do for new community members and to replace ones that dies and fade away.
My hometown of Houlton Maine just had a film premiere of A Moment In The Sun. The film showcasing the total solar eclipse that happened earlier this year in April in Houlton Maine.
Totality In The Last Place In The USA To Experience It. Houlton Maine’s Total Solar Eclipse.
If your small Maine town had a documentary story to share, who would you pick in the community to make the points? Build a case for living here? If trying to leave a positive impression and the best presentation, what local events or ways of life traditions would you salt and pepper through out the local production?
How well does your old Maine house still fit? Things change and your needs in your Maine housing design and daily use function do too.
Maine Homes, Gotta To Have An Outside Porch, Plenty Of Bathrooms And Open Space Today!
Ever built a house and know the experience first-hand that pits your wallet against your dream?
There is compromise between the two. Sometimes you over do it in this department, ease back in another area in your Maine home construction. How your grandparents used a house is way way different than the way you and I live now.
Like say the formal dining room? Do only the kids spread a home work school project out over the big table once in a while? Do you use the old summer kitchen for canning or just is it piled high with boxes, mainly a storage area? And when’s the last time you slept in the sleeping porch? It was built before heat pumps and small window unit AC’s to survive summer temperatures.
This blog post is all about buying Maine land, building a Maine house.
Starting from scratch and step by step wading in up to your eyeballs scanning a set of house plans. And considering every area of house construction before the backhoe starts digging, a table saw spins, a nail gun is fired.
Van Horne Estate’s Barn Stable Creamery Buildings. Like No Other. Could You Live In A Barn, Barndominium?
Ask anyone that experienced building a new a house and they willingly admit the many mistakes made. They talk like “the next house I build will be blah blah” or “I won’t do this or that.” And “I was just lucky it turned out okay but it was scary.”
I’ve blogged on buying Maine land before and this video helps lay out the steps to take, things to consider on where to build.
But once you get beyond the reasons people buy land in Maine, some of them actually move forward with building a house on the property acreage.
Are you one of them? Is the timing right?
House plans, style of the home you dream about creating on the Maine land.
You have to have a plan; you must work that plan on your Maine land home construction. A tried and tested proven house plan is best rather than the one you sketched down at the diner on the back side of a place mat.
Things to consider, the basics building a house on Maine land.
Maine Land For Sale To Build Your New House On. Take Your Time. Like People, Soils Are Different. Clearing Trees, Stumps Requires Machinery, Added Costs.
How big a container do you need and prioritize the wish list before you purchase your Maine land. How big a piece of Maine land do you need for local ordinances and to achieve your lifestyle dream?
What house plan won’t leave you penniless and your construction a long ways from finished?
If the land in Maine where you wish to build a house is rural, a drilled well, a full septic system is needed.
Maine Fall Colors, See Them Shine Brightly Four Wheeling On An ATV Seat. Plan To Build A House In Maine Or Camp For Vacation Use?
If you are not going to live in Maine off grid, hooking up to an electrical utility is needed.
The one you pick makes a big differences in monthly utility costs. Unless you generate your own juice with solar, wind or other means, something is going to power and heat this new Maine home.
So back to the home you build in Maine, what to consider upfront and through out the house construction process.
Is your contractor experienced with building and thrift conscious? Cost over runs in the unknowns cause ulcers, hearth burn and sleepless nights.
Best Location To Build Your New Maine House Is? Depends On Which Part Of The Life Movie You Are In Today. Like Clothes You Outgrow, Houses Can Too.
It’s all about the devil is in the details right? And more and more of us are trying to downsize, build better but smaller. Just trying to not lose the practical but lovely living area. Or up sizing when you have loved ones sharing the same roof line that feels a tad cramped.
No more little used dark rooms. Let’s embrace bright lighted living areas.
And don’t you want to have open cozy corners rather than walls, halls, lots of doors? But easy does it, please. No over kill of big open but tasteless cold spaces.
The inside and outside of your new Maine home has to consider the way you, your family live today and for resale to the next home owner.
The new dream house you build must have square footage, but today the emphasis is on areas, alcoves, not just the number of rooms. The personality of the new Maine home you build can still shine brightly but the functionality.
How Big, New But Made To Look Old? Housing Like Clothes Can Be Too Tight Or Too Loose.
More personal thought than ever has to be poured into the blueprint building design for this new Maine home with some classic design flair seasoning.
The most expensive purchase most ever make is limited because of tight Maine real estate housing supply.
Unless you build new and create your own it’s like musical chairs stalking current property inventory. Or eenie meenie miney moe do the best you can from existing Maine real estate house listings for sale around you.
Settling, take your pick doing the best you can from too little Maine house for sale inventory selection.
Then here we go to undo, redo, sometimes make do with slim pickings of what’s out there. Just trying to solve your housing need and avoid money down the drain renting someone else’s space.
Maine Houses Always Built For A Purpose, Like A Lighthouse.
What I notice in new home construction today is sheer size, bigger square footage is a common goal unless you go the tiny home route.
But if big is all that matters, if design features and fine finish work is missing because just no money in the budget or desire is missing, what good is all that extra space without soul?
Cleaning, heating, the cost to create and maintain all that space impacts your life and your wallet right?
Maine is common sense, simple living and no one builds bigger to impress or make people covet your McMansion. That is a waste of time and money that could be put to better use.
The Coastal Maine House Owner Could Fly A Broom. Well In OZ She Could. “Wicked” Nice Ocean Front House.
So how to make not so big work for the reward of better use of space?
Means rethinking house building on your Maine land. What’s wrong with the big house beauty behemoth distilled down, combined with the efficient use of small house space?
Money is usually an object in building. Materials, labor costs are not getting any cheaper.
If you add lots of natural daylight, if native woodwork and local materials are weaved into the home you build. Then it is not just an exercise of throwing money into the house construction without careful thought.
House Plans, Building A Home In Maine. What To Consider.
Easy does it, do your “home work”. Keep a handle on expenses upfront going in while adding your unique personality in all the decision making.
Making doors 2 feet and 8 inches is just smart for wheelchair friendly design. Using levers not door number are easy to open for everyone.
Marketing concerns and resale value does enter the building thought process.
But so does making the new house comfortable for today, easy modified tomorrow.
You don’t want to create an odd ball house but one that matches your personality and all the space is used daily.
A house that grows with you is key. You don’t want a ton of extra space you never use. And if you cannot afford an architect, then at least find a set of house plan designed by one.
Plan for what if I or the next home owner wanted to add on.
All Sizes, Locations To Build A Maine House. Just Depends On Your Budget For Maine Land.
Will that addition fit and add to the flow or look like an out of place tack on?
The shape of your house is critical. A rectangle, a square works fine but something loaded with concrete foundation jogs and ornate trim work will not.
Going up and adding a floor can save money instead of creating a sprawling one floor goes on and on forever design.
The two high-cost centers of foundation and framing house design costs need careful consideration.
But so does the number of pitches, the roof design steepness, length and materials used. They can all add to the house building cost.
The simple roof line saves money and so does the slow cooked DIY method to pay as you go. Doing as much of the interior, exterior and landscaping work yourself saves money.
Remember a two story home means smaller roof and foundation size.
House Building, Your Maine Home Design Can Help Or Hurt Total Costs. Adjust, Pivot And Be Ready To Rethink The Construction Variables.
Asphalt shingles are cheaper than say a standing seam metal roof too. But at the end of the day, how do all the individual expenditures fit into your house building budget?
You have to have a lid on the house, a governor to hold up, slow down on the house building costs to stay within budget.
Windows, ching ching. If you don’t use standard sizes and common colors, watch out. Custom order special angled designs with trendy colors make you dig deeper into your wallet or purse.
Keep it simple, have some fix position windows to lower costs. And add some attractive but functional transom windows to distribute the natural sunlight.
Southern exposure glass with UV protection and high-performance solar gain brings in the view and daylight.
But will you need expensive curtain and blind window treatment for privacy and to avoid heat loss in your new home sweet home down the road?
All part of the cost of building and operating expenses after all the new Maine home contractors pack up and leave your construction site.
See The Bare Spots, The Places No Grass Is Growing That Look Burned Out? Maintaining Your Lot Part Of Home Ownership.
To avoid cost over runs, your house building design better consider the cost of standard length of lumber.
It is crucial to create less waste scrap material and at the same time reduce the hourly labor rate needed to perform all those many unnecessary cuts.
Standard length lumber is cheaper and more readily available to shop and compare from building supply and mill outlets than custom ones. If wall, roof and flooring material comes in 4’x8′ sheets, the same logic applies.
Stop the Edward Scissor Hands needless snip snip snip that just fills a dumpster to increase tipping fees.
You Need Lumber, Lots Of Maine Studs, Boards And Beams. Or Logs To Build A House. But Your Design Can Waste Or Economize Your Lumber.
Design the house to end up with less repetitive cuts with the saw blade.
If lumber comes in 12, 16 and 20 feet, design your deck, all areas of your house framing to consider those standard dimension lengths. Pick a house plan design that’s the most efficient before even making a single board, beam or stud cut.
Rough cut lumber is cheaper, stronger and hidden in the house design and does not need the extra planing finish costs. Garages don’t require the fine finish work detail your kitchen or that open staircase or bookshelf might.
The same logic applies to shorter runs on plumbing that is centralized and more efficient.
Pex tubing is cheaper than copper. Stacking bathrooms for shorter plumbing runs create better water pressure.
A bathroom back to back common wall with a kitchen or laundry room saves plumbing, electrical and building material cost money while adding to the new house design efficiency.
Bathrooms, Kitchens Close, Sharing A Wall Shortens The Plumbing Run Costs.
Less materials used creates lower installation costs. And energy heating or cooling the water in those wasteful longer lines is reduced.
Same with the electrical design schedule in your new set of house plans. Save money, make better use of the square footage living space to reduce material and labor costs. It all frees up resources to redirect into other areas of your house dream.
The common theme is make your house design less complex. Keep it simple to reduce the amount of materials used, the wasted labor needed to create your new house.
Maine banks making the home loan want the place finished if going the new house construction loan route.
But if you can get the place weather tight and be living there as you build, no more rent gets siphoned from your wallet.
Do you have the discipline to pretty much be working on the new house for the next couple years? There will be a skill saw parked in the corner of your future living room. Sawdust created inside and out your shell of a home that slowly comes into view.
How to heat and cool the place is another critical component in house building.
Wood burning stoves or outdoor boilers are an option with Maine boasting 91% of the state is forest land. Wood pellet stoves, heat pumps are popular today too.
Gas, oil, solar and even electric if on the right utility grid to contain costs. Or generating your own juice is an option.
Having more than one way to heat your home helps you play the energy market best.
That improves your bottom line which will be very apparent after paying the monthly household operating bills.
In Maine, I have witnessed a DIY home builder live in their basement until the budget allows to add another floor. You really appreciate the new areas as they come online in a home that is put together slow but sure.
It helps to have the fortitude and patience for steady as she goes. Always looking for a sale on materials. Shopping for the best sub-contractor to do what you just don’t have the experience, time or tools to perform.
Quizzing others who have built for what they did right, what they regret and would change if doing it all over again.
You have the time and luxury of making field decisions as you go. The final completed house you own and enjoy was not a rush job. More thought, time for researching specific areas of the house construction happened.
Your wish list in one thing, but your “got to have needs” is takes priority.
A budget keeps the house building costs from flying off the rails. And roughing in where the extra bathroom will go or not expecting total completion of everything on your list is sensible.
Where I live on the Maine border, Canadian modular homes have cut costs in house construction.
Often, the shell is purchased but not the flooring, kitchen, other interior finishing.
The new home owner electing to plug in their own ingredients. Ones that are higher quality or just more individualistic.
Barndominiums, shipping containers, Amish cabins, yurts, there are a lot of housing design directions you can head building a house in Maine. Reclaimed materials like barn boards and beams can be crafted into your house design to add beauty, history and economy.
Don’t see cob houses being built in Maine using clay, straw and subsoil.
Have spied a few cord wood houses with mortar, a geodesic dome or two, an earth house built into a side hill with sod roof. Lots of log homes of cedar and pine variety.
A New Maine Lake Home Being Built From The Ground Up. Starts With A Foundation. More Jogs In The Linear Foundation, The Higher The Construction Costs.
Whatever your put together, consider house drainage unless you want to deal with water in your living space. Full basement, one with extra living space or crawl space, slab or up on posts?
All areas of house building design and part of the cost to consider drainage tiles, french drains before digging in the Maine land dirt.
Stone homes and brick construction houses are an option. A Maine farm field always generates a new crop of rock to utilize in some phase of your house construction.
Outdoor or indoor granite fireplace or stone, rock landscaping walls in your “house in your head” dream obsession?
Using What You Have Lots Of Lying Around. Stones, Rocks Are Plentiful In Maine. You Supply The Labor. Nature Provides The Material.
Because I live in Maine, local lumber mills and access to granite quarries and lots of other natural resources helps the house building bottom line.
If you are not skilled at carpentry, plumbing, electrical, masonry then find someone who is. Either as your own general contractor or to just tap into their experience with all the issues that can and do come up in new home construction.
But remember, invite those tradesmen, contractors back to the house construction site a few weeks after completion.
Vanity License Plates In Maine. Do You Have One?
Plan for their return after the house is done to adjust interior or garage doors that stick. Windows that don’t latch properly. To compensate for frost or green wood or to remove a floor squeak, adjust a cabinet door that won’t stay shut.
Whatever you build, make it energy efficient and air exchange healthy.
The construction and operating costs of your new Maine house you build on the perfect land location is a complicated process.
Getting a contractor’s discount at the hardware lumber yard helps save money. Doing as much DIY from painting to landscaping. Being a gofer running here and there to pick up materials all helps reduce labor costs.
Rebar, Insulation, Concrete, Drainage Tile… Lots Goes Into A New Maine House Foundation. Delivery Charges Getting Materials To The Site Happens Too!
Look into kit homes, pre fabs, panelized, insulated concrete forms and get schooled on today’s available house building technology options.
Run your house plans, electrical, plumbing etc schedules through an AI powered app to see red flags.
Avoid the engineering and code violation errors before they get baked into the actual house that are harder to erase or remedy if you don’t. For example, the exterior air intake and exhaust for a heater has to be two feet or more apart… are they?
If building on the waterfront, shore land zoning regulations kick in and have to be observed.
Avoid having to rip off an addition, paying heavy fines for too many trees of a certain size removed in that 250 foot area strip of Maine land protected by shore land zoning.
Building a new Maine house around the waterfront. Be careful, protect the water, avoid needing legal representation.
Buying the tool instead of renting it or the other way around has to be considered building your new house in Maine. Contractors who work well together can save money and building site drama. Each knows the others job from past house building experiences.
When the carpenter leaves off a moulding trim piece, an area of sheet rock to provide the electrician or plumber easy access to run a line.
That harmony saves time and money like restaurant waitresses who cover for each other. I poured your table’s coffee refill on the way by.
You helped delivered my table for eight’s multiple trays of hot and ready food. To return the favor of you doing the same for me earlier in the shift.
Building a new Maine house, sometimes you have no other choice or just want to fulfill a life long dream to create new living space before you pass on.
Going back to be with classmates, your Maine high school class reunion.
Have you been to a Maine class reunion at whatever school system you finished high school? If you have not, I suggest making every effort to attend your Maine high school class reunion.
Some say there is nothing more exciting, rewarding than reuniting with your childhood and high school class mates. Others would argue that period of my life was not all that rosy and why would I go back to relive the pain?
Maybe it is the 10th or earlier class reunion that spoils the habit of making an effort to attend your Maine high school reunion.
1975 Houlton Maine High School Class Reunion For The 50th Year!
If the classmates that moved away to return in swanky (leased) red sports cars and keep talking about their success, not asking about yours, that could sour the reunion.
In small Maine towns, the local community steps up and volunteers which in my book makes all the high school class graduates a “success”.
The longer you are out of high school and the more one by one you lose another reunion graduate, the tighter your class becomes.
Instead of a competition and comparing or defending your life so far since high school graduation, your class mates all pull together closer at reunions. News of the death of a high school classmate is a big part of it. That helps the rest wake up and notice we are not getting any younger. In my class of 1975 from Houlton High School we have lost 26 class mates since graduating.
Class of 1975 Class Reunion. This One In Houlton Maine To Celebrate 50 Years Being Out In Life.
The discussion when the get together is, say your 50th school reunion, shifts from jobs and promotions to how many grandchildren and comparing notes about health issues. How are you surviving losing your mate, the divorce, recovery from cancer, etc.
Just had my 50th Maine high school graduation celebration over a four day span.
Still thinking about the conversations, the laughter, the feeling of how much you miss these guys and gals. Some of my high school classmates for a slew of reasons missed the last reunion we nicknamed “The Shindig”. But I would bet most that were at this 50 year milestone reunion over the weekend will not want to miss another one for any reason.
Graduating From High School 50 Years Ago. Whoa. Long Time, Big Class Of 164 Members.
How do you answer in ten words or less “what have you been up to over the last half decade?
In my small Northern Maine town in Aroostook County of Houlton Maine, the high school’s alumni association is very strong and active. We get magazine newsletter editions of high school happenings around the year. I think this publication keeps fond thoughts of your classmates in focus.
When the latest alumni news edition comes in the mail or is opened up online and thumbed through digitally, most classmates beeline to their class year of high school graduation.
Maine 50th High School Graduation. Our Local Alumni Association Is A Strong One To Keep Us Connected.
News from your class, anything from a birth announcement to where someone took a trip or got together with another classmate or two. That hyper local Maine small town information is huge to stay connected with your high school classmates.
If you see the year you graduated but no one took the time to insert a paragraph or two of something pertinent to just your class, it is sad. I feel bad when a class above or below me is left blank. No news is not good news. It’s MIA and off radar. Draws a blank of just white space.
There is always something to report that others would love to read and to help the connection with your year graduating high school class.
Looking to re-connect with old classmates that you lost touch with after grabbing the rolled up sheet of paper and tossing the square hat with the dangling tassel high in the air?
Here is a video below that shows just one event of many held during my class of 1975 Houlton Maine high school graduation activities.
Do you regularly attend high school class reunions?
Does your high school education center hold a multi year event to celebrate with graduating alumni? When was the last time you re-toured your old high school or is it still standing? Remember where your locker was and who shared one beside, up or below you? The memories come back with the aid of a high school open house tour with your other classmates who help you “remember”.
The relationships began in the halls of your Maine school, from walking to it or riding the big yellow bus together are ones that only grow stronger.
What about you? As the years advance after graduation, after logging some miles outside the “My Old School”, the heart string tug of a Maine high school graduation reunion intensifies for me. Can’t wait for the next class reunion here in rural Maine.
