Did you get a set of axles and and pretty much on your own created a soap box derby car to compete in a local race? Soap box derby race in Maine. Since 1995, downhill gravity racing in driver built kit cars re-surged around Maine.
Maine Soap Box Derby Racers Practice Good Sportsmanship. Derby Heats “Won” By Hundredths Of A Second.
This blog post is all about where we are today in Maine soap box derby racing.
Youngest Daughter Amanda Gets Advice Before All American Soap Box Derby Race, Akron Ohio.
Throughout the years since then, Maine communities joined together to field racers to represent Maine in the big national soap box derby race.
In my hometown of Houlton Maine, I run into hand built soap box derby cars stored away over shops and garages. They are hidden “up over head”. Relic, classic soap box derby cars just gathering dust since last used back in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s.
These early soap box derby races had big national corporate sponsors like Chevrolet.
Local Maine Chevy dealers, our larger state newspapers too helped promote the big three lane race held in the Midwest.
My involvement in the Maine soap box derby cars was not because an older brother raced.
But my four children all raced soap box derby. How did it become popular again? In Maine, in 1995, it was a Camden Maine race caught lots of attention and started the grass fire of local interest in local soap box derby racing.
That Camden Maine derby car race funded by a credit card company, MBNA
The credit card giant earmarked the seed money, $20,000, and hired a New Hampshire soap box derby group to set up the 1995 race. By 1996, parents and fans who witnessed the Camden Maine race came back to their home towns to set up their own local derby program. The following year after that MBNA sponsored race, Maine started up five local derby programs that quickly took shape.
The soap box derby “locals” as they are called were in Brewer, Camden, Houlton, South Portland and Rumford.
Each derby “local” raised their own seed money to fund the race each year. Selecting a winning derby car driver(s) to present their local at the big national All American race in Akron Ohio. Besides the local derby races held around Maine each June, spring and fall “rally races” took place.
Older Soap Box Derby Racers Help Younger Ones.
These rally races help derby drivers sharpen their skills. To put more racing experience under the belt of whoever Maine sent to Akron Ohio be the best the state could send.
Rally race points were earned for each of their rallies. Some parents traveled to the sunny south, anywhere there was a rally race to gain all important points to earn a trip to Akron Ohio for the big national derby race.
Besides the stock, super stock and master soap box derby racing divisions, a child 7 to 20 can opt to take the rally point earning route to get to race in Akron Ohio.
To run a program year after year, the local Maine soap box derby local needs to have funding. Local businesses and service club groups sponsor cars and give money to the local to cover expenses.
Drivers are selected to represent the car sponsors and are expected to race fairly and to show good sportsmanship. The local derby winner gets lots of advice and financial support from the Maine community they represent for the big trip west.
Lots of mechanical knowledge is gained when a boy or girl builds and maintains a soap box derby car.
What’s a lock washer, which size bolt do the derby plans call for in the steering or brake assembly? Alignment, aerodynamics and consistency in racing all are big considerations building a derby race car.
The stock and super stock soap box derby race cars after launched, gain speeds of around 30 miles an hour.
Think of what if you were the eight year old racer inside the car you built and trust. Seeing out of the corner of your eye another derby car racer with the same hope to get to the hill bottom first.
Derby Hill, Houlton Maine Soap Box Derby Race Circuit From The Air At Community Park.
No roar of a motor, nothing to top off for a gas tank. Just gravity and the weight of the kid and car are the horsepower. Lubrication, storing the car inside and out of the elements. Not sitting on the car or kicking a tire by mistake and removing a wheel pin clowning around it.
Drivers who build their cars gain pride and respect as they get in the “derby zone”.
The families that field several drivers are the ones that derby rally race and travel to other locations to improve their driving skills.
So today in Maine, where is soap box derby racing? The five locals have distilled down into one. The Northern Maine Sox Box Derby in Houlton is the lone local and the state of Maine racing venue. COVID threw a wrench in the cogs of the last two years like it has a lot of institutions.
June 11th, 2022 is the date for the next Maine state soap box derby race in Houlton ME.
No matter where you or your child racer live in Maine, you are eligible to race and represent your town or city in the big Houlton Maine local race this summer.
Like to sponsor a car? How can you help underwrite the Maine state soap box derby race? Lots of ways and please reach out to the Houlton Maine parks and recreation department. Contact number is 207.532.1310. More who to contact information at the Maine State Soap Box Derby website.
Check Your Brake. You Ready? First Time Racer Gets One On One Handling.
Why is Houlton Maine the still standing venue for soap box derby racing in Vacationland?
We built a hill for racing. Used every year for the June race and spring/fall rallies. A place for snow sliding during Moosestomper’s celebration of winter held each February. Some 4th of Julys, the Derby Hill is used as a fire works launching site.
The derby hill in Houlton Maine is 934′ long and just about everyone in the community had a hand in it’s construction. Hundreds of thousands of yards of gravel and fill.
Aviation grade paving and striping to delineate land one and two, guard rails for safety. Lighting for night rally races with a garage on top of Derby Hill “topside”. The garage with side and front openings to keep racers out of the rain. This garage to house the launch ramp, scales, safety cones for the bottom of the hill run out area.
Racers from around Northern Maine made the Houlton soap box derby local the largest in the nation five years straight.
The June 11th, 2022 soap box derby race in Houlton Maine needs your help. Please share this blog post and think of ways to promote the state of Maine derby race wherever you are located.
“The Thrill of the Hill” awaits in Houlton Maine’s state race and hope you can be some large or small part of it to continue the tradition.
Sometimes Weather Gets In The Way. Soap Box Derby Racers Plan On Rain, Blistering Sun, Any Weather. Tents Help Until The Showers Pass.
I was lucky enough to be a parent of two local derby race winners who represented the state of Maine in the national one in Akron Ohio.
Going through the All American Soap Box Derby Race Museum in Akron Ohio and walking up the hill can hit you hard. Lots of history and the Houlton Maine race through hard work and from surviving lots of learning curves has fielded national All American top spot and runner up race winners. It takes the “Zoo Crew” and roughly 60 volunteers in the beginning derby races to pull off the local race.
To get an idea of the state of Maine soap box derby program, tap a few past early race videos.
The videos show specially built car trailers and escort vehicles used to tow the derby cars and drives from the bottom to the top of the hill.
Maine Soap Box Derby Racing. The entire family has a role and can race.
Wheel swaps after each “heat” run are done to keep the soap box derby races fair and exciting.
An electronic eye determines who advances to the next pair up heat run. If you are thinking of starting a soap box derby race, remember your hill set up and tear down. As your race course crew ages, that extra work is what can kill a program the quickest.
Nothing eats up more time or tuckers out your soap box derby crew than setting up, tearing down a race course.
The Concept For Derby Hill In Houlton Maine. This Is Where “The Thrill Of The Hill” Develops!
Build your own to roll on.
Lot of logistics but think long term, want to keep the soap box derby racing program alive and growing. Rotary Club of Houlton has been a solid partner through the history of our local, from day
From Topside, On Houlton Maine’s Soap Box Derby Hill.
one to present. It was Rotary that sponsored cars, helped us build a garage, add lighting and more. Thank you for that support Rotarians!
Love to talk “derby”.
Getting an organization like Rotary, the Elks or area fire departments, local media outlets behind your soap box derby program. It all helps assure the funding, publicity and man power. To add longevity to pull off years of youth soap box derby racing.
Did you race or someone in your family or community was involved in the soap box derby program where you grew up or live now? Get involved and help jump start or give your local soap box derby racing program a big boost.
You have as much fun as the kid who derby races.
The sound of those wheels turning again when another soap box derby race gets underway. That kind of fun does not fade away and it is hard to stop being “Mr Goodwrench” for a girl or boy who loves to derby race on the hill.
Reach out, let’s connect.
I can’t wait to hear the derby car wheels rolling again for another local race. This 2022 Maine soap box derby race is important to get the word out and share. Please do. We want lots of derby racers from around the state of Maine to be in the Houlton Maine race. Again, please share the news of the June 11th, 2022 State of Maine soap box derby race held on Derby Hill in Houlton Maine.
Halloween trick or treating in a small Maine town.
Halloween is a big dea in Mainel. I know in large cities, parents worry about sending their little goblins, witches and monsters out on the door to door candy parade. But in small Maine towns, the trick or treating tradition is big. COVID caused a wrinkle. But with precautions in place, the candy show knock knock tradition continues in Maine with individually wrapped treats. The excitement starts early. Planning for what to be this year for a costume, a theme is part of the fun.
Everyone Puts In A Lot Of Thought For Halloween Trick & Treating In Small Maine Towns.
Do you remember trick or treating on October 31st Halloween growing up?
Did you or do you enjoy taking out your kids, grand kids to canvass the neighborhoods around you for candy collection? What was your favorite treat? Which stop growing up along the hop up and off open porches with lights on do you recall as your favorite?
I remember the Chamberlain sisters who lived on the corner of Frandklin AVE and Court ST in Houlton Maine. The pair made the Halloween holiday effort.
Each Halloween the sisters were as excited as the door knockers out front their gorgeous Maine home. Word gets around and you remember last year’s visit to each and every small Maine town home. So this house stop’s popularity only grew greater. Lining up to sample their home made donuts. The warm cider to wash it all down was another treat as they invited you in to their large Victorian Houlton ME home.
The take off your mask, show us who you really are under the Halloween trick or treating costume routine.
That happened in their formal Maine home living room. Kids escorted in and out and everyone got a home made from the kitchen treat. Sugar ed or plain, it’s up to howling werewolf. Looking back, what an effort this sister pair put out to add to the Halloween trick or treating in my small Maine town in Aroostook County.
I used to come in from the country where I lived on a Maine farm to trick or treat.
Not many homes along the Maine rural landscape when you are a couple of miles away from town. And out in the dark, on a busy highway is not a good combination for someone trying to navigate. Carrying candy loot and trying to get your bearings. Wearing a mask with just two small eye holes and maybe a flashlight in the other hand. My cousins lived on the Highland Avenue in a large yellow home that was always the beehive of fun growing up. Seven kids with one pair of identical twins in the mix, I would pair up with my cousins to ply the streets for treats. We covered a lot of ground, hit a lot of houses. Like a politician campaigning for a vote, it was all for the treat.
The Adults Snack Too, Lots To Eat For Treats At Home Or On The Neighborhood Candy Trails.
Some houses had the self service bowl of candy on the table to help yourself for a handful of Halloween treats.
Others decked the place out with a lot of time spent to create the spooky look. To make you question your judgement to really take the dare or not to ring the door bell or apply the knock knock knock. Many of the door to door candy vendors wore a costume too. You could tell who really was a kid again and made the effort to put on a show for the trick or treaters. Boo. Made you jump. Here, let me help pick up the spilled candy.. pretty dark huh?
Give Me A Musical Beat To Go Along With The Sweets. Light Shows For This Halloween Trick Or Treat Pit Stop On Commonwealth Avenue.
With my own four kids, I really looked forward to the door to door.
One of my favorite holidays really. You see other parents as you advance up the small Maine town streets. Say hello, hey there’s an old classmate or another relative walking across the lawn you just visited. Someone you work with is doing the same October 31st tradition. Orange, purple, weird eerie glow of green, it’s approaching. Halloween trick or treating in small Maine towns across the state. Do you stay at home and turn on your front porch light to attract trick or treaters?
Boo. Scared Right? Hey, You Gonna Eat That Snickers Bar?
To let them know you are open and now serving come one, come all as a cavity creators Or do you lay low, act like no one is home? Maybe high tail it to another candy central location to help dish it out and have a Halloween party of treats for all the supporting cast at the home away from home?
I remember one man, Forman Swallow who worked for Nabisco I think. He and his wife lit up their driveway with the weighted paper bags and flickering candles inside.
Dishing out large size cookie packages and candy like you used to only be able to get at the movie or outdoor drive in theatre. Looking back, you want to thank them for creating the experience of Halloween trick or treating for your kids.
Some households would have the apples, the century old dry as dust popcorn balls.
Others would give out a collection of treats in the orange, black and white bags with the witch on the front riding her broom. Someone took a lot of time, spent much time and money to hand out a quality treat. I remember one house stop, the kids waited, waited and were about to nix this visit to go on to the next porch.
The owner finally opened the door, seemed surprised and had forgotten it was Halloween.
He may have had a few too many barley pops and snoozed off watching “Wheel of Fortune” or Gunsmoke reruns. But he insisted, no candy treats to dish out but he pulled the five trick or treaters in the gang down to his kitchen pantry.
Lots Of Spooks, Might Be Halloween Haunted This Patten ME Home.
Each kid came out with a can of vegetables to show for the Halloween stop.
Makes trick or treating a good work out when hefting a couple of cans of corn, peas, green beans or carrots. Boo hoo if your arm gets tired and the next guy wants to give you a piece of firewood to
Yours Truly. Small Maine Towns, Everyone Gets Into The Spooky Halloween Mood.
lug back to the candy beehive. One household, the manager of Shop and Save Grocery store gave out cans of soda.
Hope you have a strong bag to carry the loot load.
Others with the can giveaway choice would strap and wrap a dollar or more around the cylinder. Nice.
Thank you very much. No eggs or toilet paper you older trick or treaters up to mischief for this five star Halloween eatery.
One group of three houses joined forces to create a theme park for Halloween.
Ultraviolet lights and snakes on a pulley. Giant mutant spiders from some other solar system climbing up the sides of houses.
An army tent with a casket and other skeletons, Halloweeen haunted house devices to entertain and scare. My youngest in his bat mat outfit taking it all in and jumped a foot when the body in the casket elevated to say “good evening”.
Some Maine neighbors cause the biggest flock of trick or treaters from their set it up and then tear it down production. Attracting hundreds of costumed characters to visit to pan handle for candy.
Trick Or Treat…Don’t Forget To Say Thank You!
What are you doing this Halloween trick or treating season? Individual wrapped and no handfuls from a bowl to be sensitive to COVID protocols.
What do you dress up as around your place of work or are you thinking just too old for this Halloween trick or treat game of make believe?
Anyone with grandchildren, young kids of their own will be swept into the holiday mood of Halloween living in a small Maine town.
There are a lot of folks with a sweet tooth across the Maine landscape. Trick or treat and go slow motorists to make it safe for all the ghosts, goblins, witches, fairies and super heroes with a candy craving.
Have a candy basket in the real estate office and folks reach for the candy corn, anything chocolate. The house hunters get hungry really from tramping properties and enjoy the treats year round. What’s your pleasure for a Halloween treat?
For many of us in Northern Maine, picking potatoes for an area farmer was our first real job. For anyone raised on a Maine potato farm like I was, the fall harvest tradition is a strongly ingrained tradition. Many grown ups take their vacations to work the harvest. It’s was that memorable and enriching for them to remember what working the harvest was like. They like helping out an area Maine potato farmer get the crop in the storage bins.
Lessons Earned Young To Apply To Life For The Youth Picking Maine Potatoes Out In The Farm Fields!
This blog post is all about Maine potato picking.
First things first. Picking potatoes like raking Maine blueberries, collecting apples climbing the ladder, digging for clams, etc all start with a system. My Dad and Mom preached before charging in to plan your work and work your plan. Reminded us enough times to never ever forget. That “you got to have a system.”
There is an art to everything we do in life and Mainers are definitely hard working.
Putting their all into every endeavor with zeal and innovation. Being raised on a Maine farm, the last and most cruel label you could ever wear or have applied was the word “lazy”. You were not, could not be lazy. You learned worth ethic early on in life. Lazy is considered stealing, not contributing for the greater good and is simply being a poor team member.
Pitch in, work hard and be proud of your “fire in your belly” passion driven by the industrious gene.
So Maine potato picking, how does it all work? As a kid, waking up early and first turning on the radio to see if farmer Bob or Jim are starting on time was key. You don’t want to be late for work. True Mainers pride themselves on showing up consistently on time. In fact, if you are not early you are late thinking happens. Because you are trained to be dependable, responsible, a constant wherever you work. You want to be present and accounted for and ready to work.
Reasons your potato farmer might not be starting the digging on time, at the usual early AM morning time slot?
There was a frost last night. Gotta wait until the Maine farm field ground warms up and the air temperature is a tad higher. Late in the farm season, snow flurries can happen as the pressure to get these potatoes out of the ground only increases. Often staying in the field to pick hard later into the evening happens when their is a frost in the forecast and it gets down to crunch time.
The Fruits Of The Earth. Farm Fresh Hand Picked Maine Potatoes And Veggies Direct From The Field.
All that work to till the soil, plant the spring crops, tend them over the summer cultivation into the fall fall harvest finale. No one wants to leave any potato acreage behind in the farm field as winter approaches.
Another reason for hold your horses and before firing up the farm tractor that pulls the potato digger?
Rain. Too much moisture last night, yesterday means more time spent getting unstuck as farm harvest equipment sinks in the mud. Only gets mired deeper in the wet saturated farm soil.
Another reason to wait on getting into the field and firing up the pickers and all the agricultural equipment?
Too much potato field dirt sticking to the spuds when it is swimming in wet soil. Precious field dirt that gets trucked into the storage facility. Never gets a ride back to the field where it left.
The loss of farm dirt speeds soil erosion so park it and let the air clear. Wait until the soggy ground dries out the best advice during fall field harvest.
Hurry up and wait can happen picking potatoes by hand.
A potato digger gets reaches down below the buried tubers. Gently lifts them up and out of the ground with a metal revolving bed of hooked together connected sifting digger lags.
To lay out the two hill rows merged into one flat double one. Drying in the fresh air and beating sun before pick em up, put em in the basket potato barrel filing fun.
Quality control starts with protecting the potato from weather damage of freezing early morning temperatures. From blistering heat by afternoon in the Maine potato field.
A kid picking shows up to the field sometimes wearing long underwear, layers of clothing. Shedding them as fall harvest temperatures rise and the barrel count increases. Extra pairs of cotton jersey gloves for when one set wears out, gets snagged on a barrel nail. Or plunges into a rotten potato that stinks to high heaven and is wet. Labor warms you up living in Maine. Whether picking potatoes, splitting firewood or shoveling new winter snow. Exercise is your internal heater. Lugging empty barrels, the spud baskets to fill ‘er up to the brim to win burns calories.
So how’s it work, potato picking in Maine?
You show up at the edge of the latest unharvested field armed with a water jug, a home made lunch, plenty of snacks. You take your pick of potato baskets made of ash at the beginning of the season. That basket is your weapon to create lots of barrels to make money. You keep tabs on your basket and guard from losing it all harvest long.
Picking The Potatoes By Handfuls Into A Basket To Fill The Empty Barrels. Full Potato Barrels Weight 165 Pounds Before Storage In Potato Bins Over The Winter.
Line up behind the field boss picking crew.
He or she hands out your potato barrel ticket number all wrapped tightly in an elastic. You follow him or her up into the potato field and everyone is assigned a section. From this boot soil drag mark so many paces up to this next one. Sure you can handle this territory row and after dug row in the potato field? That is your field section that you promise to keep picked up for the next three weeks or longer.
Maine area schools still go in three weeks early the end of summer in some places so the potato harvest recess tradition can continue.
The kids picking potatoes or working on harvests is vital to the farmer’s harvest plans. Other field workers drive trucks, work on the back loading barrels or running the potato digger.
Others take the filled barrels or bulk body trucks onto conveyors that deliver the field spuds into storage bills. Filling the potato house a pretty important too. Some school districts still recess for fall break to allow kids to work the Maine potato harvest.
The potato picker has selected his section, marked the ends with water jug and lunch box or articles of clothing as things heat up.
You need empty potato barrels to play the game and unearthed spuds to row by row travel across the field. Grab an empty barrel, drag it to the middle of your just dug section if it is a long one to save steps filling it.
Put the empty barrel on it’s side.
Lean over and pick the potatoes to clear the area where the barrel gets set up. The potato barrels will go every other row because space for the farm truck to get through is needed to pick up filled ones, drop off new empties.
Generally an adult or teenage potato picker will fill four baskets to create a 165 pound barrel of spuds. Littler pickers can only lug so large a potato basket and will make more trips to top barrels off to just below the rim.
Three rules of many in the potato farm field to follow.
1) Protect the precious potato crop by clearing a spot in a newly dug digger pass before putting up the empty barrel you fill. 2) “Pick ’em clean” which means don’t leave behind perfectly good potatoes. Look under the dirt clumps and grass clods. And 3) No over filling barrels so truck field hands collecting potatoes cause damage with the “tongs”.
Tongs are the attachment mechanism thrown down from the truck body as it passes your section.
It hooks on and hoists up by grabbing the full potato barrel using hydraulics or earlier models an truck battery. Tongs attached to a cable or chain to land the barrel up and onto the truck platform. Then while the truck is still moving, roll the barrel back into place. To fill the body with fifty or more loaded barrels. The farm truck is a flat open platform, with wooden stakes around the edge all connected by a rope to secure the barrels for the quick unloading trip to deposit into the potato house bins.
Pick Up, One Potato At A Time. Four Baskets Fill A Potato Barrel In Maine. Teaching My Oldest Daughter The Art Of Potato Picking One Fall Years Ago.
Each potato picker field worker takes one of his or her tickets from their numbered bundle. Slides it securely into a groove on the top to protect from wind blowing it off the full barrel.
The potato barrels come in two varieties.
165 Pounds Is The Weight Of A Full Maine Farm Potato Barrel.
Either cedar wooden staves or the plywood sheet kind. Wrapped in a circle and held together by wooden bark strip sections nailed top, middle, and bottom of the barrel. There are cracks in the top wooden strip fastener where you slide your numbered ticket into securely for barrel payment credit.
The tickets collected by the barrel hoist operator as the potato truck slowly plies the field. Tickets put in a two gallon re-purposed oil can with a handle and can opened hole at the top. These cans like the black box in an airplane. Telling the tale of who picked how many today.
I counted many a ticket with my Mom each night after a harvest supper.
That supper involved a version of baked potatoes of some kind. Not a lot of rice eaten on a Maine potato farm. We would clear the table of meal dishes, then lay down newspapers. Then shaking out time to empty the dusty cans one by one.
Lots of fine potato dirt made its way into kitchen table ticket counting process each night.
Lining up the ticket numbers numerically and next counting each pile after all the cans were empties from the field trucks. Wrapping the tickets up with an elastic to return to whoever is assigned this potato picking field number for this fall season. That person could count their tickets to know how they did yesterday but most already had a pretty good idea.
A check at the end of the week barrel count announced in the memo section the total barrel production. Tabulated from the day by day hand tally for the grand total each week to determine the pay check size.
When I was a kid, 25 cents a barrel was the going rate per barrel. My four kids each picked and it was 60 cents for each full picked barrel ticketed during their era. Money you earned, not just handed to you by Mom or Dad without effort on your part.
The Saturday night ritual of going into down town much like the giddy feeling you sense in the western movies.
When some dirt farmer or trapper, miner, whoever rode in off the trail to town for supplies. Kids pitched in an bought their winter clothes to help out the family budget. Most of the checks saved for something useful like your winter jacket. You bought it, you take better care of it.
Very shrewd and careful as you shop with other cleaned up potato pickers you bumped going in and out of store doing the same bargain hunting. When it is your own hard earned money being spent, impulse spending control happens. You keep looking when you don’t think what you are considering buying is worth so many barrels of potatoes or not.
Part of the potato picking money a kid can blow on something fun. I remember saving for a new bike, then a motorized one after that.
Dreaming about it in the field along with awfully good snacks and carefully prepared tasty lunches that helped smooth out the laboring. Every fall, the new Sears or Montgomery Ward Christmas arrived to help the dreaming process take your mind off the pick and fill field drill.
The other field crew pickers are your friends on the potato chain gang.
The grower needs you to show up, pick ’em clean and help get the crop out before old man winter arrives. Fellow pickers who you ate lunch with, talked to in neighboring field sections. You rode to and from the field in the back of a pick up bed with these dusty, dirty hard working spud handlers. You learned other entertaining skills… like walking balanced on a rolling barrel. Or becoming William Tell accurate putting a small potato on the end of a wood’s switch stick that is used in brief potato skirmishes until the field boss comes into view. Back to work after a little potato picking brevity.
Potato picking was your entry level job, your first real employment for money.
Not just a house hold chore like making your bed or helping do the dishes because it is your turn. You picked more barrels if the field harvest yield was higher, if the growing season was favorable, when the potato house was not too far away. Which caused delayed return of the empties you needed to fill to keep from getting behind. Lots can affect your daily barrel count. How much sleep you got last night, if you were on an end field section that kept shortening. Or growing longer and causing discouragement as the hot sun beamed down from overhead. All as you found yourself hopelessly falling behind. How cold or windy or rainy it was, how much the digger pushed you to keep caught up was the potato field dynamics to do the best you can.
Lessons learned in the Maine potato picking field that last for life.
How big a section can you handle? Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You don’t want to get fifty rows behind because it was too long. Although if you did, another potato field rule. No one leaves the field when day is done until everyone is picked up and no dug potato rows exist.
Where Your Love Lies Obvious On The Maine License Plate. Farm to Table Is Pretty Sacred.
You do run out of barrels and that is the time to head to the woods for a nature call. When you use the expression “I have to go see a man about a horse” as you carefully stride across the un-dug potato rows.
If waiting for the empty barrel truck to return from the potato house delays production, might be a good time for a snack or to eat your lunch early. Make good use of your time another lesson learned. Shift gears quickly and expect set backs and road blocks. But you rise to the occasion and take it all in stride as a professional, seasoned potato harvest picker or spud house worker.
Pick the potato tops off your section of newly dug potatoes. That will make filling barrels quicker when you do hear the thud of an empty or two being dropped as the truck passes your section.
Be nice to the truck crew who might land an extra empty because you did. That’s my insider local expert as a long time potato picker in the farm field since a little shaver.
When you run out of barrels, might trot down to a place in the field where there are plenty and folks are behind. To pick a couple barrels and then return to your own section just as empties arrive or the broken digger comes back alive and squeals by. Stay busy.
Some stand up and lean over.
Others drop to their knees and drag the potato basket beside or behind them to fill it with golden, other color spud varieties. Shot in the Sherman Maine area, the video embedded in the top portion early on in this blog post shows the sights and sounds of harvest in case you missed it. The video below near the end show and tells what potato picking looks like in the potato house working the storage / grading lines.
The home made donuts, cookies, sandwiches and ring dings, yodels, ding dongs, moon pies and candy bars. The fuel to keep the potato picker rolling for quick energy. It all tastes so much better out in the fresh air. Enjoyed amidst the brilliant fall foliage colors surrounding you in the scenic Maine potato fields with your friends and relatives.
Picking potatoes, you are out in nature.
You see the occasional deer, rabbit, fox, black bear or moose out of the corner of your eye too. As the wildlife wander by the edge of the field. Crossing it to head to a babbling brook for a slurp of refreshing drink of cold cool running brook water. Or curious and watching what you are up to as you fill barrels and slowly as a group advance across the harvest field.
I was raised on a Maine potato farm where every family member has a vital role. Starting as a young grasshopper, the fall harvest potato picking season just one of the tasks working together with your mom, dad, brothers and sisters. Back when I was a kid, everyone picked potatoes and there were more farmers needing the hand crews.
My Dad always said pickers did a better job and were gentler on the potato crop quality then mechanical harvesters. Now less farmers, more larger Maine potato growers make potato hand picking crews not as common.
On my Maine family farm I bought from my three older brothers, hand crews still used. But instead of barrels, orange baskets gets filled to empty into wooden two thousand pound wooden box crates. All organic with the kids paid by the hour instead of piece meal by the basket.
Sampling The Local Maine Location On Your Cheap Vacation. Learning What Life Is Like Here! Early Morning Heading To The Maine Potato Field To Harvest Spuds.
Not just bending over or on your knees to pick potato for the fall harvest work. Other jobs exist like working on a harvester, in the potato house grading what the bulk body unloaded that ends up in storage bins. There are also jobs over the winter working to get the spuds loaded into tractor trailer trucks to deliver to the produce markets. To plant in spring and cultivate and hoe over the summer to raise the next fall harvest crop.
As the Maine blog post wraps up, this is a short clip on showing with the spuds end up bring graded, working in a potato house. You are there sight and sounds below.
It is enlightening to see the kids today rise to the occasion and dig in to work hard during the Maine potato farm harvest.
The lessons learned in the Maine potato or whatever vegetable field or fruit orchard picking operation are never forgotten. Everything you learn is your system for life and used as you approach any other task big or small. You learn to have a system, develop a plan and stay resourceful with resiliency with lots of passion to do your best. Some of the pickers end up becoming the next generation of farmers to continue the tradition and put food on the table.
Hope you enjoy this blog post on the Maine farm potato picking institution.
Thank you for being a follower of the Me In Maine blog that tries to paint the picture of what living in Vacationland is all about one topic at a time. Maine truly is the way life should be.
Allison Britton was one who painted some of his signs in his shop next to Chadwick’s Florist on Spring Street in my small Maine town.
Rise And Shine, New Day To Do What You Were Put On Earth To Do In Your Small Maine Community. Allison Britton Was A Local Maine Sign Painter.
Many of the hand painted sign missions though created from scratch on premise.
My parents along with spud and grain farming their own crops, brokered what other area farmers raised. Mom and Dad bought ten trucks one by one to transport them overnight to produce markets to the south. These trucks lettered outdoors when temperatures were high enough. Inside the barn truck bay during winter with heat on but never above 55 degrees which meant Allison painted with his coat on. Just warm enough for the paint surface to allow the paint to barely cure properly.
Those 18 wheelers needed lettering, consistent branding.
The half circle arch of shaded “Prem Pak” on both doors. The matching font of government ICC GVW 73,280 and vehicle number, Maine town location applied in fresh wet paint by Allison’s steady hand. He smoked a pipe and I can see him sitting on a wooden stool, one hand resting against the trailer truck door. The other one making the strokes to apply the lettering paint. An outline, shading added to the lettering for the finishing touch.
Roll With The Flow, Rise And Drop With Tide. Small Maine Town Living Is Memorable And Rewarding.
The painting watched by an eight year old version of me.
In the original Maine farm barn converted to a truck terminal where the lettering happened in winter. Or admired outside sitting on the same wooden stool or up on the step ladder. Both splattered with a million hues of paint color Allison Britton took turns using to create lettering by free hand.
The local sign painter was busy with both hands.
Drawing a wax crayon reference line to guide the process. To make sure what was in his head for a design and spacing ended up the carbon copy same on the building, vehicle, sign surface.The faint line sketch easily rubbed out was the small Maine town sign painter’s dress rehearsal before fresh paint brushed in long fast deliberate strokes. The trucks got pin striping too. And funny lettering added to the front bumpers. “Home Wrecker”, “Here’s Come Kelley”. “Ole Elmer” for the gas job that donkeyed trailer boxes around the yard or on short hauls. Elmer Snell was Prem Pak’s mechanic.
Truck Letting, Done by Hand. One Man, Allison Britton Lettered All The Prem Pak Trucks.
Dopey was another trailer truck that Allison create a cartoon for that did not have a sleeper.
That over the road truck drivers received an extra thirty five dollars in their weekly salary envelope to spring for a no tell motel if they wanted. Most drives took a cat nap slumped over the wheel. Or laying down on the shot gun seat for a form of rest for the second wind to get back up the pike to the truck terminal.
Like the giant 8 foot tall, 4 foot wide ear of yellow corn.
This one his wife told me years later when I listed their red cape home and detached shop next door where her husband created one of a kind signage. Mrs. Britton told me the sign painting was usually ho hum same old same old.
But her husband loved the chance for something unique and that really provided the chance to create more than sign letters. That involved a picture to tag team with the lettering.
The two words “Farm Fresh” across the top, the ear of corn still wearing it’s green husk with just a hint of the big juicy yellow kernels tucked inside showing.
Teasing, peeking out to tempt the road traffic about a mile and a half outside of town to slow down. Keep it simple. Make it real. Brown and gold tassel silk applied just so on the top of the ear for realism. Peel back ever so seductively by the sign painter’s imagination to briefly show and tell what was hidden underneath.
Come on in, you know you want some.
It’s in season and farm fresh farm to table time. The spot lighted ear of corn suggesting to motorists what could be steamed and boiled for tonight’s supper. New cobbler potatoes, yes, you can buy those by the pound too. But you have to stop. Put on your blinker. Turn here to enter the U shaped driveway to come and get your farm fresh corn.
Sold in a baker’s dozen.
Always 13 ears for good measure. Corn on the cob direct from the local Maine farmer you know and trust. Get it here and don’t forget to check out the just as fresh, home grown tomatoes, cukes, carrots, squash, peas, even strawberries in season.
The ear of perfect size, shape, color and shaded corn on the cob was the trumpet solo. But the hint of more veggies waiting to tempt and be bought to bag up and help load into the shopper’s car.
We even grew yellow eye, Jacob’s cattle, soldier dry beans that could be bought in two pound bags all cleaned and filtered.
Or in large quantities straight out of the field. One of my Dad’s many expressions was “you can’t sell meat from an empty wagon” which mean variety. Have something for everyone in all prices so no one goes away empty handed. The truck farming cash in the economic dead of summer was crucial to keep day to day expenses current.
A Maine potato farmers plants a lot of 100 dollar bills all over the field acreage that the family hopes to recoup.
During the wait, some cold hard currency for the cash and carry comes in handy to tame the farm expenses. A break even year is considered a good year in small Maine farming operations. It means you get to plant again, to tend the next year’s crop to get it harvested and sold out of the field. Or carefully stored for slowly loading one truck at a time to head to the produce markets further south on Interstate 95.
More Space, Less People, More Wildlife. That’s Simple Living In Maine.
Back to the small Maine town sign painter that my parents hired a lot for many reasons.
His daughter dated a boy up the street on Commonwealth Avenue. And when he walked her home from school, he would stop into the painter’s shop her Dad ran next door to where he said good bye. To watch with awe and to learn how the painting process starts and ends. To eventually not marry his daughter, but to catch the spark and become a sign painter for his profession. And witness less and less actual hand painted signage performed and more computer generated graphics that standardized the sign making process.
Before computer assistance and back when you needed talent to do hand painted signs, everything was created piece meal.
You could have a printer create multiple copies but the original was from scratch. All the signs at the grocery stores, car dealers, down at the Grange or along Main Street was done by small local Maine sign painters. Allison Britton create a wall mural of Christ’s last supper that I think when we listed and sold his widow’s home, that masterpiece went to the local Catholic church. It was amazing and I bet something more interesting to create than just a trailer truck door lettering job caused for a creative stir.
A Little Maine Color Spices Up The Landscape Scenery.
I have talked with house painters who love to apply the colors.
To do the scraping, the scaffolding to prepare to get down to the nitty gritty of putting on the paint. They love to paint and stand back to admire their work. Square it up. To make sure no spots were missed, that the paint goes on evenly. Protect and make the house admired from out on the curb. To do it’s part for neighborhood appeal from out on the street.
Do you like to paint on any level?
Stain or paint your own porch or deck or interior walls and trim? New color schemes, old traditional paint styles and excitement pulling out the tall skinny samples. Nothing transforms like a fresh coat of paint and a mowed lawn when you’re talking listing, selling a Maine home. Allison Britton, the story of one small Maine town sign painter who left his mark.
Agricultural state fairs in Maine, they are underway around Vacationland.
Many were scaled way back or not held at all during the pandemic. But the COVID virus is in the rear view mirror and all around the state folks are returning to traditional life. Here’s the list, the circuit of agricultural state fairs in Maine. This blog posts to showcase what happens going into an local agricultural state fair and why they are so important to the area of Maine where they happen.
What Would You Do With This Maine Farm Land Acreage? Critters Or Crops?
Maine has a deep, rich tradition roots with family agricultural farming.
The lumbering of forest tracts and timbering vast tracts is right up there too. Managing your woodlot is a big way of our life when you are 91 percent wooded too. And we won’t leave out the vital importance of the Maine fishing industry. How important harvesting what’s below the water off the coast of Maine is at meal time and for the state’s tourism.
Hi. Maine Dairy Cows Itching To Get Turned Out, To Kick Up Their Heels, To Roll In And Eat The New Spring Field Clover.
Farming in Maine, there was a time when the state was number one in agricultural food production.
In small farming communities around the state of Maine, it was not uncommon to need the ten fingers of both hands to list them all. Up and down each country road you could recite the small family farms in Maine that worked the dirt. Those folks who carved out a living from agriculture. Feeding others, being a farmer is and always was a noble profession. Now less than two percent of individuals grow the food consumed by the masses. There was a time in Maine when ninety six percent of folks tilled the soil and worked, raised families on farmsteads. Maine is right up there with a resurgence of micro farming. The average age of the national farmer is pushing sixty years of age.
Working For Winter Clothes, That Jacket, To Help Out Family Expenses. Kids Learn Work Ethic Early On In Small Town Rural Maine.
The number of small family farm spreads dotting the countryside around Vacationland was pretty impressive.
It’s why the Grange hall was big in membership and the Future Farmer Of America chapters flourished. In Northern Maine, schools went in three weeks earlier than the rest of the state. To close for the same amount of time so students could help area farmers harvest their potato crops. Many a kid earned their winter jackets, helped out with the family needs by picking potatoes for area farmers.
Farming in Maine is such a big part of the state’s history and locals cherish the rich experiences learned by being part of area agricultural operations.
Baby beef, sheep, goat, raising chickens and egg production on a small scale and large truck gardens. They all are enjoyed as a big part of the simple lifestyle of farm to table living in rural Maine. So it is no wonder that state agricultural farm fairs are popular around Maine.
Kids chasing a piglet with the winner who lands one in the burlap bag getting to keep it. Can I Mom and Dad? He’s so cute. Oink. What’s that about you think I should call him Bacon? Hamchops? Why’s everyone laughing? 4H exhibits, baby beef, sheep being sheered for their woo. Ribbons in all colors awarded for everything from bread and butter pickles to dried flowers.
Quilting, art, photography, home cook food competitions. Raising goats, rabbits, chickens means responsibilities on a Maine farm and everyone in the family has a job. All the Maine farm family members are important parts of the agriculture operation.
Maine Farm Sheep. Beating The Heat Wearing Summer Wool On A Maine Farm.Bored, Wishing They Had Some Wire Cutters To Take A Vacation From The Pen.
Tractor and horse pulls, oxen displays, demolition derbies, vendors peddling fair food of all kinds.
Have a dough boy, sprinkled with confectioners white powdered sugar. My favorite, the Italian sausage smothered in onions, mingling with green and red peppers sauteed on the grill. Everyone hungry? Local service and church clubs have hot dog booths and burger wagons and you know the folks that take your order in small Maine towns. I’ll be on the Rotary gate to the park for a shift or two to exchange money for ticks to the state fair in my hometown this weekend. Everyone pitches in and helps make the local event home grown special.
Working Together On The Land In Maine. Amish Families Resettle In Vacationland To Strengthen Local Agriculture.
Take a number and socialize with others you see on the state fair agriculture midway while waiting for the food order preparation.
Fireworks, little miss and mister firecracker pageants when your Maine agricultural state fair happens to land around the 4th of July. Exhibits of all types, car shows, carnival rides depending on COVID restrictions or the size of your fair. And farm tractors new and old appeal to a big segment of the fair audience who worked with them growing up. Someone’s Uncle or Grandfather owned a Maine farm spread and everyone has memories haying, picking potatoes, raking blueberries, repairing fencing, haying, etc.
Barns In Maine, Some Store Bought From Sears And Roebuck. Others Hand Hewn Post And Beams Created On Site.
Have you ever been to the agricultural state fair in Maine called the Common Ground?
2021 is the 50th anniversary of the Common Ground Fair. The multi day state fairs in Maine require year round planning. Sometimes insurance to be taken out to hedge the bet because so much is riding on the gate size and event coming off without a hitch. The living off the land lifestyle of simplicity. To appreciate the basics and what is real, all natural and not store brought. The Common Ground Fair is worth the annual t-shirt, the experience so many share so freely for the skill set gleaned from the agriculture “down on the farm” lifestyle.
Big Barns In Maine. They Fall To Their Knees If Not Maintained.
The state fairs in Maine have to have a full slate of activities and events to be well rounded to appeal to all ages year after year.
Fireworks, horse harness races and shows, parades, craft exhibits, carnival rides all are part of the state fair agricultural in Maine circuits. The cooperative extensive service, 4H, Future Farmers group all come together with the Maine agriculture families to celebrate rural living.
Treats, Fair Food, What’s Your Favorite? Cotton Candy, Dough Boys Or Grilled Sausages Smothered In Onions And Peppers?
Here is the link to the Houlton State Fair website. Beef, dairy, goat, alpaca shows are listed on the events list. Tractor pulls, open stage musical event, fireworks to cap it all off on our Nation’s 4th of July celebration. If you can sneak up into “The County”, see you this weekend at the lead in Houlton State Agriculture Fair for the 26 on the circuit around Vacationland.
Maine, what the COVID19 virus pandemic has shown the outside World, the locals. Internet technology demonstrates you can enjoy living in four seasons Maine. Get uncrowded nature rich Maine but work online. The best of both Worlds, Maine with all she offers that is unspoiled, rich and real. But promoting it and the providing the window dressing from a keyboard connected to a brain caffeinated on good hot black coffee.
Remember how window shopping a small Maine downtown whether the store is open or not provides entertainment and gives you something to dream about during a day or night time stroll?
Window Shopping, More Important Than Ever During Coronovirus Virus. Virtual Stores The Reality.
These images from Camden Maine during the off season but stores still open and waiting for the summer peak time tourist season.
Maine Downtowns. Not So Crowded Or So Lively During The COVID19 Virus Pandemic. But Check Online. You’re Only 15 Seconds Away From A Retail Experience.Check Online, There Is Lots Happening For Deals With Maine Businesses During COVID19 Virus Pandemic.
Mainers are workers, bringing up the following generations to be the same and not get bogged down or depressed.
We’re not standing still or sitting on our hands waiting for the memo to get back to work. We treat life like a sport. Our attitude is everything in the how high do you want to score. It is up to us to be what we want to be. No one to blame for lack of effort but from within ourselves. In business it is all about making sure your online customers can window shop and be served up with what they need around the clock.COVID19 virus pandemic or not. Window dressing is not just fluff or a little thing. It is everything as we work together to prove the point.
If you feel a little divided like the nation with “Us” and over there “Them”. It’s times like these that we learn to live again as Bob Grohl in the Foo Fighters crooned. Let’s try the unplugged, acoustic version. The rest of the band. You guys and gals can take a break. Go make a call, check your email or visit the restroom. Smoke if you must or get a drink, score a snack. Vending machine slim Jim or Little Debbie’s oatmeal pie time. If the pickin’s are slim and everything at the lunch counter is off limits because it’s been closed for months. Hit it Bob.
Reality time even if I am using a virtual kind blog posting. Your toes in the sand on a beach in Maine. This 4th of July in Maine weekend. More than ever I feel so lucky to live in Maine. This is the right place for all the reasons any season. For me it’s all the boxes checked off especially during times like these when we re-invent and learn to live again. Prioritizing, soul searching, limited in some ways to create space to fill it with what is worthwhile and probably missing. I feel living in small town rural Maine gives us a better frame of mind and healthier attitude because we are prepared for times like these.
Maine, Shoulder To Shoulder Working Together. Stay Safe During COVID19 Virus Pandemic.
The cyber reality of the virtual World when the 4th of July in Maine rolls around again.
Casting your net for customers using a greater reach, a healthy frequency of your marketing message. It was already happening as small Maine town economies struggle with the lack of volume needed to monetize a business. We all know that anything open for business that is not is doomed. Like an operation taking too long and the patient under the knife developing other complications beyond the main purpose of scrubbing thorough and putting on the mask, gloves, surgical gown.
A Maine business peddling a product or a service won’t survive idle and with the front doors locked.
Or even open but operating in the red ink or below capacity needed to make a healthy profit. The stop to celebrate the nation’s independence is a little different this year because not everyone feels so free and easy. Public safety and curbing the COVID19 virus adds a speed bump to the 4th of July festivities. A self imposed governor on moderation times one hundred is something new to the younger half of the population used to go go go. But something easier to swallow when you see the bigger picture and have weathered other life storms in Maine and come out the better for them.
This July 4th celebration in Maine took a step back and was without the local state fair, the parade the way we remember it.
But fireworks happened in my hometown from the top of Drakes Hill. Everyone kept their safe respectful distances and made it work. instead of crowding into community park, it was come as you are. Launched on the highest local peak and small scattered gatherings here and there to see the rocket’s red and other color glare. Capturing some of the tradition and all the appreciation for living in Maine full time.
Here’s what a normal 4th of July local parade in Maine looks like.
Sure I miss our local state Fair, the midway rides and games of chance, the agricultural exhibits.
The two Italian greasy tasty sausages going in and coming out of demolition derby. Served up from carny workers loading them to overflowing with all the onions, peppers, other mystery ingredients. No, they’re probably are not good for your body but once a year can’t shorten your life that much right? You gotta live and life is short. Maine, the way life should be is what the slogan promised. Just easy does it on the back and forth trips.
Shuttered, idled, not everything is live and operating today in Maine.
But the plan is if we all do our part and stay solid, this too shall pass. Better sooner than later. Patience, appreciation for what we still have, what we did have that will return in time. Somethings trapped in time and maybe not to return. It’s all good and up to us to stay positive for the greater good and our own quality of life. We are all going through this tunnel ride and will come out the other side with new ideas, lots of memories and stronger for the experience thrust upon us.
Maine has more second homes for vacation and rental use than any other state.
Many flocked to those Maine homes to quarantined for two weeks all my their lonesome and to shelter in place while working online from these Maine locations. Or producing your COVID19 negative test done in the last 72 hours for admission across the big green bridge. My philosophy is any of the customers I need are only 15 seconds away. Logging on and plugging in to tap the selection thanks to websites and blog posts and video channels. To learn about the simple Maine lifestyle. To appreciate the resourcefulness of down to Earth and life seasoned true Mainers. More people than ever have discovered the secret of Maine’s magic. It starts on short vacation exposure, ends up with buying Maine real estate.
The full time, possibly a life long native Mainer.
A little crusty, a lot outspoken but sharing the wisdom learned from personal experiences and meant without malice. Distilled in the heart. Common sense, Yankee ingenuity still reins supreme and life goes on. Steady the course and see the other end of any life struggle. Me In Maine blog post readers, thank you for your loyally and tuning in to follow our work. Stay tough, stay tuned and share what you have learned from this COVID19 virus pandemic experience. A sense of humor helps and banding together proving we are not in this alone.
Most I know figure we are the lucky ones when you add up the score at the end of the day.
Compared to most, Maine is the place you would want to be harboring while the World adjusts to new events and health protocols that impact our economy in new ways. The worse thing you can do is perpetuate the “Us’ and “Them”. Search for unity and build something worthwhile should be the focus and channel for all our collective energies right?
If Maine tourism is not slammed and raking in the out of state dollars, retool and work on your operation to prepare for when “it’s BBbbackkkkk”. Adjust your sales and create new markets to take the place of dormant ones. Lots of local Maine businesses are right out straight but the focus is live and local. Supplementing with online virtual scores where you may doze but you never close as the sole proprietor and many family home grown operations.
Everyone realizing everything you really need and cherish is right here in Maine. Small town Maine is grass roots, intimate and built from scratch by your friends and neighbors banding together to create something unique. Blood, sweat and tears invested when corporate dollars are no where in sight. Because this is too small an economic landscape to exploit dollar wise. In small Maine towns, you don’t pay your price of admission and just attend an event.
You are working months before behind the scenes and sleeves rolled up laboring to make it happen along with others in your small Maine town.
Meeting year round and when snow banks line the roadways or leafs are piling up needing to be raked. That is Maine home town pride that runs deeper than what you feel lost in the city and sharing everything with just too many people. Large scale is not small town Maine where you know most of the people. Maine is like you are one big small town family. So COVID19 does not defeat the little Maine towns that dot the landscape in Vacationland.
Long before the Cononovirus hit Maine a few months back, other economic struggles forced the focus on looking for waste, taking up slack.
Reducing duplication of services and studying school education services in new and not so popular ways. This Coronvirus just added a new wrinkle and hammered away at the important point of Internet connectivity is everything for survival in Maine. I like to think our set of life skills is greater, our attitude more positive to avoid getting bogged down and discouraged. We don’t stay down long and have experience with setbacks.
Money does not grow on trees and barter for exchange of goods and services happens all around us.
It is cheaper to live here when your shelter is paid for, your food is home grown and local and money is not so darn important. Not used to impress anyone because we know better. Parked for a rainy day you expect to happen makes you better prepared and not flying by the seat of your pants. Our entertainment is low or no cost too here in Maine. It’s unspoiled, pure and all natural. No make up or spin needed. Drop dead gorgeous all day long.
Your Local Small Towns People, Family And Friends In The Local 4th Of July Celebration Parades.4th Of July Celebrations With Live Locally Made Band Member Music. Small Towns In Maine Are Special.
Enjoy the rest of your 4th Of July whether in Maine or wherever you are.
Keep Maine in your thoughts if you had to stay away and lose a turn. Remember your fond memories of Vacationland if you are parked out of state. If you are one of the lucky ones who live here full time in Maine, you know we’ll tough it out. Hunker down, making the most of it. It’s still wicked good in Maine. Happy 4th of July from Me In Maine.
