Category: Maine Small Towns

Paying For A Parking Spot, You Must Not Be In Maine

Paying for your parking spot.

Worry About Parking Spaces Does Not Happen In Maine. Concern For Other More Important Stuff Occurs.

You must not be in small town rural Maine.

When the space to park your Civic or RAV4 is just not to be found in a crowded city landscape without digging deep into the purse or opening wide your wallet. Had a caller from Cambridge MA looking to relocate to Houlton Maine share with me about a parking spot she saw listed for $375,000. Come and get it, hot and ready admit one vehicle parking spot up for sale. Better hurry. I believe she said it just hit the real estate market in the Charles Street area where parking spaces have all but evaporated.

Like sports or musical arena seats, the better the parking spot, the proximity to where you need to be, the cost increases exponentially.

Parking Near Fenway Park, Home Of The Green Monster And The Boston Red Sox. It’s A Trick And Usually Costs A Few Coins To Be At Red Sox Nation HQ.

For safety sake in the urban jungle, you want to be close to the three chain locks, two dead bolts and security cameras of home sweet home right?

Not to have to hoof it head down and trying to look small. To not call attention to yourself for the stroll of many blocks away from home hoping your tazer still has a full charge. Did you remember to plug it in last night wracks your brain as your breathing increases in the ready to fight or flight.

Paying for a parking spot.

In small town Maine, the down town has plenty of spaces to park the iron horse. Fewer people competing for them and a large supply of where to park that works best for where you need to shop. Not miles from where you want to go in the pouring rain or wading through new fallen white fluffy snow. We spend money on other luxuries like groceries, heating oil or fire wood, property taxes, not a parking permit. The cars and trucks we drive are practical, made to last and treated with respect. Because money does not grow on trees to allow it to be any other way in frugal, common sense thinking Maine.

Not Your Typical Maine Car Seen On The Less Traveled Highways. This One Spotted On The Way Into Boston, MA Of The Maine Turnpike.

This real estate home buyer hoping to telecommute from Vacationland in Houlton Maine.

Plans to pack up the job to bring it up the pike along with the rest of her Worldly possessions.

Where she lives in the Boston area, she says her Subaru has a war torn battle weary front and rear bumper. No reason to repair or replace them because more dings and dents happen daily. She says people more and more drive like they are behind the wheel of a bumper car. Tar instead of a metal floor the only difference.

Maine is easy to drive, not hard to do the parking.

You don’t have to own by buying your parking spot and around your home, lots of where to park options exist. The houses lots boundary lines are not zipped tightly around the buildings and have lots of side, back, front land components for breathing room. You don’t find zero lot lines zoning happening in sparsely populated Maine.

Not Maine, This Is What You See In Cities. Tunnels, Bridges, One Way Streets Of Boston MA. Think Quick And Dig Deep For Another Toll.

With COVID, she read there are 30% more cars in the Boston area circling the parking lots and trolling the streets competing for a parking spot.

New drivers have not mastered the art of parallel parking either. So they screw up 1.5 or 2 spaces cocked eyed sideways when they throw the transmission into park and walk away.

The less than black belt city drivers also don’t hug the curb to get in out of harm’s way of the busy multi lane Bean Town streets.

So their ride is over the parking line and kitty corner spilling into the traffic. Great situation for body repair shops I guess. Depends on who’s ox is being gored who wins or loses.

The commuter lanes are closed off too for repurposing to handle all the bike traffic.

COVID made folks a little queasy about hopping on the many colored lines of growded in your face commuter trains. Many drive or bike that used to climb up and into all those big diesel smelling buses. You never really forget how to ride a bike or to kiss right? It’s more of a sport when vehicles are weaving in and out off lanes like asteroids all around you.

Our Highways To Thrill And Maneuver In Maine. Less Traveled, Sometimes Watery.

But no doubt ER’s have a little more customer base hobbling in the automatic sliding doors due to bike injuries.

Too much traffic moving along way too fast for safety sake leads to casualties and fatalities at a time hospitals are already red line RPM jammed to the max with a high no vacancy COVID census.

Maine, where I live only 11 people per square mile.

Where in New Jersey, the head count per same space is 1000 Earthlings. We don’t lock doors, the cars don’t get stolen. Plus not much that is exotic to temp the car jacker and most rides proudly display 200,000 and more odometer miles. Not all the fender colors match but the longer you hang onto and nurse or doctor a car, the more attached you get to it. You have lots of history with the vehicle that becomes an important part of the family.

Plenty Of Parking At A Maine Ski Area Or A Small School Soccer Game. Welcome To Maine! Elbow Room, No Road Rage, No Paid Parking Necessary.

Maine, where house lots are measured in acres not inches or a few feet.

Parking spaces, paying for one would cause a raised eyebrow at the mere suggest. Parking spots surround going round and round into a dark concrete multi level garage. Or you checking your watch to drop and stop everything. To hustle back in crunch time to feed the hungry parking meter. We park in our yards, own the land far from our houses in all four directions. Lots of breathing room and parking happens in our yards. Not out on the street to compete with a winter snow plow that can steal a side mirror in the blur.

Where To Park? Never Ever Out In The Street In Rural Maine. You Don’t Have To Buy Your Parking Spot In Maine And Have Lots Of Options For Stop And Go.

Plenty of parking, not wall to wall living or pushing, shoving, road rage out of control.

You don’t dish it out like you receive it. Not grazing another’s vehicle bumper to open up a car parking space. Can you imagine being sardined in and hopping into your car, removing the car jack wedged into the steering wheel. And accelerating to ramming speed to push the car in front and behind you hard. A couple of times to open up some room. To back off jack “nulldozer”. To create space back and forth whittle your way and blast off into the high speed stream of traffic.

Paying for a parking spot.

That’s not living, that’s not Maine. Save your money for other more important things. The high cost and stress of parking is missing in Maine. One more reason to consider hanging it up, bailing out, taking your real estate poker chip winnings and high tailing it Maine, the way life should be.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

September 21, 2021
Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) | Simple Living In Maine

Fear of missing out (FOMO) is a term I just heard about today.

These Me In Maine blog posts have common themes about using common sense and distilling down into what it really important in life.

FOMO, learning more about a topic can be turned into a blog post as we explore the condition together.

So here we go exploring the anxiety called FOMO or fear of missing out. Crafted and created from a native Mainer’s perspective.

Bored, Wishing They Had Some Wire Cutters To Take A Vacation From The Pen. Do You Have FOMO? The Anxiety Called Fear Of Missing Out? Are You In A Herd Of Sheep Watching Others Every Move?

(Cracking of knuckles sound in preparation.) FOMO is a social anxiety.

Fear of missing out, believing others could be having fun while you are not present. If you are a stranger to social media circles, FOMO might be hard to grasp as so life and death important. But if you post lots of selfies. If you make your social media channels designed to create envy in others in look at me and all the exotic places I go that you don’t. You my friend are stoking the FOMO fires burning from within the followers you try to make envious.

FOMO is regret, that you missed a once in a life time opportunity that will scar or limit you down the road forever.

FOMO is worry about missing a social event or consciously opting out that may be the wrong choice to take for your perfect life ahead. Pressure, guilt, and frankly too much time watching or coveting others. Comparing yourself to others based on their social media feed. Simple living in Maine is not consumed by watching others. And for starters, life is not always as it appears from the outside looking in on a social media channel.

More Space, Always Outdoors, Less People In Small Maine Town Living. You Spend More Time With Yourself Finding Ways To Entertain And For Fulfillment.

Spin, giving a different perception, a slanted agenda hidden from view fuels FOMO.

That’s what highly effective marketing is all about.. to create a call to action. To spark a desired need for something being sold. To improve your life that is seemingly only available for a limited time. That you suddenly think you can not live without and better get on the stick to order before midnight tonight. Something is missing. You need something, you want something you don’t have and can’t quite put your finger on it as a consumer. Others will tell you exactly what you need and where your life is going astray. Lots of opinions out there and they are getting louder.

But like Tom Petty crooned “You don’t know how it feels to be me”.

People come, people go
Some grow young, some grow cold
I woke up in between
A memory and a dream.

Miss you Tom. Now there’s a guy that would not back down if you are looking for musical inspiration.

Small Maine Town Productions, Everyone Pitches In With Talent To Stretch The Budget. These Home Grown Experiences Build Creative Confidence.

To delve into FOMO, you have to back it up a step to anxiety itself.

Anxiety is dread, a feeling of fear or uneasiness that can keep you up at night. Make you feel restless or tense and affect your eating or drinking habits or the lub dub pace of your heart. Anxiety is not taking it easy. Not just doing the best you can and knowing things usually work out for the best in the long run. Anxiety is not confidence, not believing in yourself. Or maybe it is knowing you did not study enough for the test tomorrow crammed for tonight.

Preparing yourself for failure ahead is suppose to lessen the pain and suffering. Knowing that you are ill prepared and somehow not deserving a good grade because you did not work for it. That is what ignites a spark to create the blaze due to a swell of insecurities that sinks your boat over and over. There is a better, more prepared way to live.

Maine Home Offices, Working Online From Home Sweet Home Up In Maine. No Worry About FOMO Because We Are Grateful To Have Beauty & Space.

I think FOMO is boredom, not enough to do or poor use of your time management.

We have an expression in Rotary that if you want something done, give it to a busy person. They size up the situation, attack a problem not a person and git it dunn’ as Larry the Cable guy advises. These people’s life is full and productive. Sitting around swiping social media screens up, down, sideways. To study others to learn what everyone else is up to is a waste of time if hours of every day are consumed. Something else is suffering if that is happening. Like retail therapy, the buying stuff to fill a hunger hole is temporary and artificial and does not last.

This is where a place like Maine comes in.

The way life should be. Less people, more wildlife, a greater sense of your natural surroundings. Hiking up Mt Katahdin, a day trip to the Maine coast, on your knees in the flower or vegetable garden. Working on your house to get it painted or DIY projects completed is satisfying. You learn to entertain yourself, to work hard and create a life you enjoy based on what makes you tick inside. Not by watching what seems to satisfy others that you are told you need to adopt. You are not one of those sheep pictured above right? Right?

Farming News, Part Of The Local Beat For Coverage In The Garden Of Maine, Aroostook County! Lucky To Live In Maine And Don’t Suffer From FOMO Surrounded By All This Natural Beauty!

There is no YOU in that habit of watching others.

Maybe that what the younger generation in the turbulent 1960’s described as being lost, trying to find myself. Far out. Right on. Anyone know how to get to Woodstock? Let’s hitch hike in that direction together, want to? Turn up the CSN&Y.

When you have regular chores around the home growing up, you develop a skill set.

You gain confidence. Taking care of yourself happens and not being dependent on others. Maybe it’s not glamorous that you know how to mow a lawn or do laundry, cook and clean. But you learn to care more and more on your own. That prepares you for life. To fend for yourself. You don’t expect others to do these tasks. No one waits on you. You learn the feeling of accomplishment from a job well done. It defines you and you gain a source of pride.

The Snug As a Bug In The Little Red Log Maine Lake Camp. Telecommuting From Maine. Not Suffering From FOMO. Happy Where We Live.

Maine simple living is the cure for FOMO. Having far less free idle time to watch others and wishing your life looked differently.

Social media channels are programing, not so “real” reality in most cases. Rehearsed, photo shopped, practiced with a teleprompter. Marketing is the desire to get folks receiving the signal to buy a product or purchase a service. Or groove on you for attention. Something you need that you can not live without or that will somehow improve your life is what is being sold and are you buying it?

Time and money, how you spend it when you live in rural Maine is much more practically approached.

That wood pile for next year’s house heating that is worked on slow and sure whenever you can return to the splitter. It is energy independence and good exercise to be boy scout prepared. Not just writing a check to the fuel oil supplier for whatever they want to charge per gallon. You could but you don’t. The climbing up a ladder to strip a garage roof and re-shingle it is confidence. You gain self satisfaction because you know how and were taught not to hire everything out in life.

What’s Happening Around You In Uncrowded Maine. That Kind Of News Is Home Grown, Spread More By Locals Than Media Outlets. We Suffer Less From FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

The youngest in a Maine family and right on through up the line have a role to play in the daily chores.

Set the table, your turn to do the supper dishes. Help pick up. Don’t hog the bathroom. Please, thank you, be considerate. Remove your shoes, don’t leave a mess. No one sits out or is carried and the responsibility increases the older they get. Because the parents prepare them for life flapping their wings outside the nest.

In small town rural Maine, money is not handed to you and if it is to be, it is up to me.

But the sky is the limit if I am willing to work hard and make good decisions. Get my sleep, eat good nutritious food, exercise, volunteer to help others. Those basic but to some boring life ingredients can provide rich real lasting results from the no pain, no gain learning lessons.

When You Live In Maine, No Fear Of Missing Out. You Are One Of The Lucky Ones To Just Be In Vacationland.

Patience, respect for property to take care of what you buy with impulse control shopping to make sure to get quality.

People pay Dave Ramsey to learn this stuff that was missed because no one else showed them the ropes to healthy rewarding simple living. Your parents, family, teacher, your boss because you have a job for spending money are all your mentors and life coaches for free.

FOMO has already been around to a small degree.

Keeping up with The Jones meant awareness of a few successful people around you. But social media channels amplified the watching just a few to hundreds, thousands as you make lots of new “friends”. The needing to fit in, to have more friends than others means conformity to the sea of faces. Letting others make decisions for you to fit in and be hip is not living your life. It is mirroring around others that are not you. More on how FOMO does not help your self esteem.

Lots Of Lobster Fishing, Tourist Boat Rides, Other Industry In The Maine Harbors Of Vacationland. When You Live In Maine, All This Is In Your Backyard And Less FOMO Anxiety Levels Drop.

Embrace JOMO (joy of missing out) because you started making your own unique set of choices.

That’s when you start living your own life and stop the habit of shaping it modeling only others perceived day to day based on social media insertions. Remember the mirror mirror on the wall habit of one aging queen? The need for attention, to be envied or coveted by others is not healthy. No time for it in small town rural Maine where happiness is not found on a glowing eerie blue screen but in the drop dead gorgeous full color outdoor landscape.

Sheltering In Place, Small Towns In Maine Are Ideal For Sheltering In Place. We Are Happy, Self Contained!

True Mainers are outdoors everyday, just dressed a little bit different to reflect the season.

We get what we need from out in nature. What we have is earned the old fashioned way. Not by buying a power ball chance for a million dollar pay out, because we are high on what we already worked hard to earn.

Are you addicted to know what is happening in other people’s lives?

Meet Your Neighbors, Kinda Shy, Have Four Legs. Whew. You Made It To Maine.

Is social media making you feel inadequate or depressed?

Shut it off or at least limit the screen time to create time for healthy rituals. Or use it for inspiration ideals from a Pinterest pin or a DIY YouTube video to glean ideas and skills. But not to see how your life sizes up compared to the thousands of so call online friends. Maybe those you follow are not so happy and part of the enjoyment is to take you down a peg or two to feel like a loser. Who needs friends like that? And who wants to be a toxic friend like that?

Thank you for stopping by our Me In Maine blog post weekly installment on FOMO.

Juggling Your Life Work Balance And Keeping Perspective. More Time In Maine Helps Clear Your Head.

Being grateful for all you do have, for what you cherish. Worked hard for to create, protect and to enjoy living in up in Maine.

Counting those blesses and not lamenting or longing for a long list of what you think you want that you don’t need. That’s the right direction I think most down to Earth Mainers decide to take. Less whining and watching others and more pitching in to help out. And that they pass on to their children by living those kind of examples in the mentoring and skill building to not just survive life. But to glean more from the life they create. Living it fully and richly by keeping it simple all natural outdoors in four seasons Maine.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

September 19, 2021
Ice Cream In Maine

Ice cream in Maine.

The Maine weather forecast of blue skies and soaring temperatures makes folks vocal. Year round the weather consumes a big part of local conversations. Most Mainers are outdoors more than they are inside is part of it. Plus the local weather forecast is pretty important to everyone from the farmer to a plane pilot. For anyone planning for an outdoor event like a wedding, family reunion or even a funeral that’s success revolves around the Maine weather forecast.

Everything Is Bigger In Maine. Like The Pistachio Ice Cream Cones.

3 Scoops Enough? Maine Dairy Bars Aim To Please. Beat The Heat With Something Sweet.

But summer weather when temperatures soar and the humidity index is sky high, time to beat feet for a Maine ice cream dairy bar treat.

We don’t do humid heat well in Maine but adjust just fine to winter cooler temperatures just fine. But when it is hot. They say everyone screams for ice cream. And stocking the blog post shelves

Our Family Hand Crank Ice Maker Was Aqua Colored And Had Lots Of Miles On It.

with regular installments takes some head scratching to avoid brain freeze.

So why not some images to avoid the wall of words to talk about ice cream in Maine?

Young and old, everyone in the middle knows the small pleasure of ice cream in Maine. Growing up, my parents both taught us the skill of making ice cream. It was not open the grocery store cooler door to reach in for something cold and tasty. Or lift the lid to reach down to fish out something from the chest freezer cool and creamy.

Oh sure, we had ice cream that was store bought.

But there was also a hand crank home made ice cream maker in our Maine farm house. To whip out, dust off and to make home made ice cream. Making ice cream where everyone has a turn at the churn to give the cylinder a crank or two. Is a motorized ice cream maker cheating?

Does the make ice cream from scratch and the fruit of your own labor improve the taste?

No pain, no gain.

Thank you ice cream maker inventor Nancy Johnson.

Back in 1843 Nancy Johnson patented the process and is to be praised for her improvements to the hand cranked home made method of making ice cream from scratch.

Ice cream, when made from scratch everyone was eating the same flavor.

How do you think that would go over in an age of too many choices, not just one or two standards? 1st World problem, like the TV channel changer where someone laments 300 channels but nothing to worthwhile to watch.

Ice Cream Cools You Off, For Awhile. Until The Next One Gets Served Up.

How long does it take to make ice cream the hand crank method?

As a little kid it seems an eon. But the ice cream making research shows you eat about less than a half hour hand cranking steady as she goes. Because once the cylinder containing the frozen ice cream becomes tougher to turn, you have arrived. Ready your cones or line up the dishes for hand made ice cream.

It’s not cheating plugging in the electric ice cream maker either.

Instead of hand churning the ice cold favorite flavor of ice cream in Maine, you can rely on the motor. Especially if you are creating more than one kind for the audience where today, everyone is not going to settle for the flavor of the day. The labor of love where lots of people take turns revolving the cylinder packed in ice to create ice cream improves the taste. Also provides a bit of history on how did they did this before power lines ran by your Maine home. The ones needed to tap the juice to improve or some say complicate your life.

Ice Cream, Open Jeep, Maine. Perfect Combination.

What.. what’s that you say about if there was no power, how was their ice to create and preserve the cold ice cream treat?

Our farm had an “ice house”. It was on the north end of the “well house”. The labels help you put two and two together. To figure out just what their purpose was on the homestead. We’ve blogged about ice harvesting in Maine and my grandfather on my Mom’s side, E. Shirley Benn lost one of his best farm horses. It all happened during an ice harvesting mishap down by Mill Pond in Hodgdon, Maine.

Back back to the ice cream in Maine.

When it was hand churned and particular flavors served up in my home during spells of hot humid Maine summer weather.

So what do you need to make ice cream is half and half milk and heavy cream.

Vanilla extract if that’s the preferred flavor. Quite a bit of salt… rock salt, table salt, the kind affects the final results. A towel or kitchen oven mitt. A timer or clock to keep tract of the ice cream making operation.

Do you know or can you remember your parents favorite ice cream flavor?

My Mom’s was grape nut, Dad’s vanilla. Strawberry was a close third because we grew them, threw them into the revolving churn ice cream cylinder to hand crank. Use what you have and it’s more than enough thinking is pretty common during a lean farming year on a Maine patch of dirt.

And when the carload of four Mooers’ boys would drive into a dairy bar wherever we roamed locally or around Vacationland, those were the flavors they ordered. How about you? Early on the available flavors of Maine ice cream was a shorter list. Less choice, more common requests happened. Cookie dough or heavenly hash, death by chocolate were not on the roster outside a Maine ice cream dairy bar in the 1960’s.

Chocolate, vanilla, coffee, strawberry, grape nut were standard offerings you could bet the farm on seeing listed. Somewhere in a poll I read that banana ice cream was a flavor folks loved or shied away from ordering. Another not so popular flavor that I personally like is pistachio ice cream creating the anticipation grin above from your blog post author.

Here’s a graph showing the country’s most preferred ice cream flavors.

Favorite Ice Cream Flavors In USA, One Survey Result.

Personally, not so much a fan of butter crunch or anything caramel ice cream.

But if that’s all she wrote for what you got, deal me in please. It’s cold when it’s hot and beggars can’t be choosers right? In a recent trip to the Wells Beach Maine area to Barnacle Billy’s, the combination of blueberry pie mixed with pistachio was a pleasant twist combination. Now so many choices.

Do you hem and haw but still end up ordering the old standard favorite you developed a sweet tooth fondness for as a kid?

You see banana, the toss up choice if no pistachio flavor did not make the ice cream poll. Chunky Monkey if we’re talking Ben and Gerry’s ice cream or Cherry Garcia please.

When soft serve came to my small Maine border town, it was the vanilla and chocolate that ruled the day.

Maybe the duet of the two was offered from the Taylor soft serve ice cream making machine. More on how to make ice cream from scratch that’s not processed with lots of chemicals or allowed to get freezer burn. Home made ice cream does not linger in a Maine household when the summer temperatures push the thermometer mercury level high.

How to make home made ice cream the old fashion way video.

Today the sky is the limit. Pick a flavor like the colors offered from the rainbow for ice cream choices. Artificial coloring and fake flavor ingredients get infused into the base ice cream frozen paste. But the real deal hard ice cream. Nothing like it when two scoops of ice cold get air lifted down on a piping hot fresh piece of home made pie. Hungry for ice cream yet?

Bike Trip Up Maine’s Cadillac Mountain At Acadia National Park.

Remember being a kid and the hotter it was the faster you had to lick. To contain the drip as it melted so fast it became obvious to all around you what flavor you just had based on your clothing stains?

Rather have the real deal and hard ice cream thank you very much.

Like micro brews, Maine based ice cream makers are plentiful. The treat of an ice cream in a cone or dish is just part of Maine summer living experience. I know how wonderful a cold ice cream bar tastes after pedaling a bike up Cadillac Mountain at Acadia National Park.

Here’s a photo snap on the pedaling up Maine’s Cadillac Mountain thinking of the view, the ice cream reward that awaits on top.

Lots of tour buses on top and folks heading to their own private rock to sit and reflect. Gazing out over the ocean and thinking about Maine lobsters or steamed clams in a few hours. After all this ice cream wears off and time to open the pie hole again.

Your Maine setting or back drop is everything pumping up the volume of whatever you lap with your tongue or scoop with your spoon. Ice cream definitely is one of life’s small pleasures that everyone can afford. Have you been to your local dairy bar in Maine lately?

What’s your favorite flavor of ice cream in Maine?

Whether store bought or uniquely blended by hand crank, ice cream whatever flavor tastes better enjoyed in Maine. With the backdrop scenery second to none. When no people are around to share the eye candy as you slowly enjoy your Maine ice cream.

The worst ice cream flavors?

From the link you will see bacon, eggnog, cotton candy, licorice made the list. Not thinking I would ever order up a scoop or dish of Maine lobster ice cream. But blueberry, Maine blueberry ice cream. Now you are talking. Gifford’s has a wild Maine blueberry ice cream flavor that is pretty dang tasty running solo or pair up with a piece of pie.

No ones made strawberry rhubbarb ice cream flavor yet that I know of but ready to stand corrected if someone knows something I have not gotten wind of yet. Wouldn’t be the first time.

More on Maine ice cream stands.

Sadly, Houlton Farms Dairy which is huge in Aroostook County is not on the state of Maine map. What the heck? Houlton Farms Dairy Bars are a huge draw for folks in Houlton, Presque Isle, Caribou Maine.

My little league team for years had an expense account at Houlton Farms Dairy.

Win or lose, the kids in their uniforms trotted off the baselines away from the ball field dug out to get something cold, sweet. The Mooers Realty coach and his helpers too treated to some local Maine ice cream flavors. Small Maine towns, the ice cream outlets are a big part of the local landscape and were all we had to mingle. Before social media outlets took over for many. Put down the device, turn off the boob tube. You scream, I scream for ice cream.

“NEXT! What Flavor Of Ice Cream Will It Be Today? Soft Or Hard Ice Cream?” Maine Dairy Bars For Something Cold When It’s Hot, For The Social Element.

Ice cream sundaes, milk shakes, banana splits, parfaits.

So many ways to sample your ice cream in Maine. Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog post. This one on ice cream in Maine. There would be less trouble and unrest in the country, the World if we could all sit down and enjoy a bowl or cone of ice cream together right?

I remember being at a Coldplay concert in Manchester, New Hampshire where the audience was promised if they were good and considerate of others, the band would buy everyone a chocolate ice cream. It works on the kids as an incentive to tow the line. A reward of sorts. Here’s hoping you visit a local outlet for your own personal favorite flavor of Maine ice cream.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

August 24, 2021
Veterans Memorials In Maine | 4 Corners Veterans Memorial

Veterans memorials in Maine.

The Veteran Memorials, In Maine You Find Them No Matter How Big Or Small The Town. Working Together With Multi Maine Communities Makes The Impacts Greater.

4 Corners Veterans Memorial in Southern Aroostook County towns of Oakfield, Smyrna, Merrill, Dyer Brook, Maine. Statewide there are lots of them listing who served and died in the protection of freedom. The number of older veteran monument style honor rolls remind you just how big a place in history the service and sacrifice is given by the locals. Families, friends, local heros from your home town in Maine is a big deal.

Small Maine communities treat their veterans very special.

Big statutes from civil war era, streets lined with American flags, fund raising and construction of veterans honor rolls listing familiar family names. All part of the landscape as you tool around a small Maine community. Maybe Maine’s older population is part of the increased honor and respect. Maine families all have someone who served a hitch or two in the armed forces for Uncle Sam. The local American Legions, the Veterans of Foreign Wars outposts for veterans to do good service work also helps keep the spirit alive.

Maine Veteran Monuments. Check Out This Four Town One In Aroostook County!

The loss of a community member in a war or conflict far from home is felt harder due to the tight knit fabric of small Maine towns.

The connection is stronger, deeper and folks are more connected when the community depends on its members to comfort each other.

Maine Veterans Memorial Monuments. Four Towns In Maine Join Forces.

Saturday I took the time to stop and study one new “Four Corners” veterans memorial tribute.

Built near the corner of several Northern Maine town lines, the towns of Oakfield, Smyrna, Merrill and Dyer Brook rallied the troops. To organize, plan, fund raise and put the dream into action. Large black granite walls of veteran’s names lined up in formation. Standing perfectly straight up and down covering all the branches of the armed services. Plus remembering the missing in action, even paying tribute to the Spanish American war.

Many Gave Some, Some Gave All. Maine Veterans Are Memorialized, Never Forgotten!

Those that died while serving, all the names from four towns in Northern Maine chiseled top to bottom to study.

World Wars, peace time service, the Civil War, Merchant Marines, MIA’s, all the branches of the armed services are presented. While the flutter of several flags happens overhead in the background. I remember the experience taking the family into the USS Arizona in Hawaii and recalled no one talks. No one whispers. You slowly move into the chamber where lists of those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor cover the marble walls. Plus with a twist.

Maine Local Folks Love And Respect Veterans Who Served. Good Luck Finding Any Maine Family Without Several Veterans In It.

After you study the veteran names and move side to side something clicks.

Wait a minute. Dates for death inscribed that are not December 7th, 1941 appear in your field of vision. You process the down low 2008, 2012, etc names of veterans who died later.

Veterans who their service, competed their tour and stayed alive until the end of the war.

Then one by one the survivors of that surprise Sunday morning attack return. To the place that brought our country into war with Japan and have their remains capsuled an d names added to the scrolls at the Pearl Harbor, Hawaii monument. Survivors of that historic day lived to eventually return to the watery grave with their ship mates.

Spanish American War, Civil War, Not Just Vietnam, Korea, The World War Skirmishes Honored And Preserved. MIAs, Peace Time Service, Merchant Marines, All The Arm Services Branched Get Spotlighted.

The Four Corners Memorial also has paved in the walkway as you enter the veterans monument.

More personal family tributes and listing the advertising local community supporters from individuals and business members. I recognized lots of names from the local monument and was proud in my home town my Dad, Uncle Fred, two brothers, lots of cousins appear on that Veterans monument behind the Cary Library.

My Dad was a tail gunner in a B-24 Liberator four engine bomber plane flying missions over Germany during World War Two.

His home away from home was an Army tent with a gas heater and each morning there were briefings at sunrise on where the daylight bombing run would entail today. What the targets were and what if weather does not cooperate. Then what, where to divert for secondary targets to avoid the civilian population losses?

Maine Monuments, Veteran Memorials Like The One In Four Corners, Aroostook County.

This Four Corners monument was a smart approach so each town did not struggle with the fundraising but joined forces.

Collectively worked out the details of the engineering involved with earthwork, buying the materials at the best price, lining up the contractors through a bid process. Lots of free help and aid to construction of materials happens in small Maine towns too. The local towns people feel connected to any project that benefits and represents the community. Home town proud.

These memorials for veterans not a case of someone write a check and here we go. All in and all done.

No no, it’s a long process to decide where to put it. How to pay for it, to get the locals rallied around the project and to pull off the fund raising. Getting all the names, from died in combat, missing in action, prisoners of war, etc. Don’t leave anyone out or mess up the spelling. Big project to get it right and be respectful to honor the living and deceased veterans of Maine communities.

Memorial For Veterans, The Monuments For Four Maine Communities Joining Forces To Honor Area Vets. No Matter How Recent Or Long Ago The Vet Served. None Are Forgotten.

The Four Corners Veterans Memorial makes you think about raises and lowers the flags or replaces them when it’s time.

There is power to light the memorial monument, grass to keep trimmed, spring raking for winter road sanding to do. Planting flowers and keeping them watered. Respect is what you feel and take the time to stop and study your local Maine veterans monuments. Or get behind efforts to raise funds to erect one if it is missing. To restore one that has been neglected along with veteran sections of local cemeteries scattered around Maine that come in all sizes.

Foot Pavers, Not Just The Black Granite Walls Of Vet Names.Room For Expansion, More To Come On Board To Respect The Vet. To Honor Their Service Now Or Long Ago. Never To Forget The Vet..

Remember the veterans who served.

If more people served, maybe more respect for veterans would happen. Giving some, giving all. It helps increase patriotism, nationalism for the red, white and blue we all hail from no matter what political persuasion or views. Everyday is Veteran’s Day if the sacrifice is not allowed to fade and lose importance. I know as a kid, we visited family graves and it was respectful, not morbid. You saw the rows and rows off straight as an arrow white crosses. Each marked with who served, where, what rank, maybe what battalion or group.

Veteran friendly and appreciative towns, more than a painted plywood sign rider on the welcome to town announcement of where you are in Maine. Thank you veterans in my home town, county, state, country and beyond that fought for freedom. Some gave their live for freedom, the ultimate sacrifice.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com | MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 19, 2021
Sign Painters In Small Town Maine

Sign painters in small town Maine.

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.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

July 9, 2021
Maine School Graduations, Now What?

Maine school graduations, now what?

The square hats thrown in the air, the gowns used once and tucked away in closets. Ready or now, here he and she goes out into the wild blue yonder. What you need to not just survive life but to benefit those around you. Making a difference in a million small ways. Having some fun along the way. What advice for new graduates of Maine high school and area colleges could you provide anyone who would listen?

Graduates Of Maine High Schools And Colleges, Go Forth And Prosper.

Keep your eyes and ears open. Look down and see the path you are on is well beaten or scarcely used. Make decisions considering the consequences. Don’t take yourself too seriously but know you can be part of something beautiful if you stick with it. My Dad’s University of Maine commencement speaker told his college crowd of graduates congratulations and I hope you know adversity early on in life to benefit from it. Charmed lives, no set backs is not what to expect if you truly wish to stretch and grow. Learning takes a lifetime right?

Attitude is everything in life.

Your outlook can be Eeyore or optimistic. Staying happy, content, focused won’t be popular with everyone around you though. As soon as you start meeting your own needs, there will be those who don’t like it. Relationships, are they toxic, encouraging and does the signal go both ways for mutual benefit. You are in it for the long term right? Patience is a virtue. Living in a small Maine town has you better prepared than most rural graduates realize. Be proud of your roots and the skill set you developed because of small Maine town living.

Living In A Small Maine Town. Kids Learn Skills, To Pitch In And Everything Not Handed To Them.

I think back on lessons learned from my parents. Dad reminding the four boys to get your sleep, hang loose and don’t get shook up. Mom, easy does it and moderation rules the day. Stick with it, read, learn, stay the course. Growing up on a Maine farm and staying on that patch of family dirt takes fortitude, creativity, focus and plan “B”, “C” to quickly shift gears the plan for the day ahead suddenly changes. Roll with the punches. Rise to the occasion. Be your best. It is all about others. Your best teachers growing up where your hardest. That knew you could do better and challenged you to reach deeper, search harder and produce a higher quality output.

Changing the world, volunteering and making ends meet to live a little below your means.

To save that nest egg and expect bumps, dips in the road ahead. See and expect the curves life will throw at you right? Are you better at giving advice than taking it though? Like dieting, what you need to do long term is loaded with high calorie and carb temptations. Peer pressure, that refrigerator calling your name during movie commercial breaks. Just one more piece and I’ll work it off tomorrow. Fibbing, rationalizing to ourselves is taking place on a large scale. Be true to thyself.

Cut To The Chase, Maine Frankness Keeps It Simple And Honest.

The village in small town Maine is a big part of the education outside the high school or college institution hallways. The education is all around you to feast on if you make the time to look for it. Make the most of what you have rather than always wanting something you don’t. Don’t grade people or put them in bins of good or bad or somewhere inbetween.

You learn a lot about the person dishing out the advice to Maine school graduates.

Sometimes it is a politician using the opportunity to well wish and provide words of wisdom but also to advance an agenda. Don’t turn cynic, but look for red flags and the spin. But no one wants to be “sold” anything. Sincere how can I help you without the cameras or credit. The rich snippets of how to live live, ways to improve it are gleaned in the private moments with someone who has logged a few more sunrises and sunsets. Tap into that resource around you of well traveled and seasoned individuals and you can save yourself needless missteps. Or to know you are on the right course after all when doubt floods the gray matter behind the eyes and between the ears.

Freedom On A Maine Beach. Winter Helped The Pandemic Spacing On The Sand. Spend Time Alone Or In Small Groups Not Just Large Crowds. It’s The Way Rural Maine Rock And Rolls.

If it is easy, where’s the reward in that?

Ditch the entitlement, the it has to be entertaining and thinking everything is going to be fun and games. A feeling of satisfaction from a job well done. Not just once but for the rest of your life when you set your mind to be the best. Ego, turn down the volume but reason it is part of what drives you good and bad. Folks that are better at something than you. Don’t hate them, embrace them and learn all your can. The education is just beginning and not stopping when you move the gold or white or whatever color tassel from one side to the other from the square hat you perch on your noggin for a temporary lid.

Don’t expect easy but it does not have to be made harder than it really is.

But it will be if you fight it, don’t think you should have to be going through this. That’s feeling sorry for yourself that never produces anything of value. It takes the spotlight off what is really important at any given time.

Horsepower, A Pair To Pull The Potato Digger Through The Maine Farm Field.

Go along to get along and don’t stand up in the boat or cause it to rock needless. Sit down, close the pie hole and open up the ear canals. Actively listen and know there is much to learn that you don’t know. Blind spots, perfect imperfection, thank God we are not all alike or life would be very boring and highly predictable. If you strive to be happy, you will be told by some to cut it out. Asked what are you so happy about? Remember, you may have no idea what they have been going through or how life is treating them. Love them anyway, say a prayer for them but don’t let them steal your joy. Hold the door open anyway and strive to find ways to make their day a tad brighter because you should and can. Be a mentor. Have lots of mentors.

What is going to happen next?

The jury is out on that one folks but believe more good than bad will be the score at the end of the day. Start the next one with a clean shaken Etch-O-Sketch. Don’t let yesterday if it was not one of your best ruin the next. Look for the good. Be a team player and pitch in. All the time. Your effort is contagious and collectively major mountains can be moved shoulder to shoulder.

Pure White, All Natural Not Man Made Snow. Maine Winter Is Coming, Locals Are Excited. You Learn Much In The Solitude Reflection.

Expectations. Are they realistic?

Down to Earth and not too lofty or quick fix slam bang works best in your approach. You may know it but do you throw in the clutch, slide your stick into the right forward gear to achieve heading in that direction? Read, develop your faith, be sincere and remember we are all in this together for the greater good. The best is yet to be. That’s my advice for Maine school graduates.

I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker

207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |

MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA

June 17, 2021