Maine is a handful of cities and over 450 small towns, plantations, unorganized areas. More open space and wildlife, less people and no billboards.
There is no shortage of opinions on anything these days. Where you should be living is one of those hot topics. Strong opinions and often the pros and cons are deeply personal.
Attractive, Preserved Victorian Style Brick Buildings In Market Square, Houlton Maine. Maine is full of small friendly towns.
This blog post is to spell out the what to expect without the sharp barbs or any resentments about small Maine town life.
For starters, who best to describe living in a small Maine town then someone who lives there full time.
Not a scathing report based on never set foot in Maine, never ever been there but I’ve heard blah blah blah. Or and here-say from one or two not so happy campers where the complaint experience might be legit or their own short comings caused.
So small town living in Maine, anywhere has a garden variety list of differences compared to a populated setting.
Small towns are fewer cars and traffic, more unspoiled outdoors. You experience lower crime, less pollution, friendlier first name basis living but not everything at your fingertips.
Vacationing In Maine. Returning To The Same Favorable Haunts Or Somewhere New? Maine is small town, not crowded, not riddled with crime.
The “gotta have and don’t want” list changes in your life no matter where you hang your hat.
Quality of life, healthier simple living is attractive but as parts wear out, medical centers come into the consideration of where you should live.
Too expensive to live somewhere causes moves, relocations to Maine.
Or you can not afford to retire where you are now can make you go online to do a Maine real estate search. If you live now in a not so great place to raise a family, the pack up the moving truck maneuver is on many folk’s radar these days. Or over population, high taxes, crime and temperatures can cause the pull the plug to want to live off grid in a Maine homestead with land.
So Maine small town, what it is like?
A Toby Keith song but all the time? Everybody thinks my tractor is sexy Kenny Chesney like? I’ve blogged about 4000 population towns in Maine and it is all relative.
How small is the size you are examining for a Maine town?
If the town is 100 people, you might have a church or two, maybe a small convenience gas station outlet nearby to tide you over. Until the trip to a larger population center that can support a Dollar General or maybe a small Piggly Wiggly or Yankee Grocery food store.
Life Is A Maine Beach. Salt Water, Fresh Air, A Summer Breeze At A Maine Beach.
Small town living in Maine can make you think of out west in the farm belt.
Or a small coal mining community where farming or mining is pretty much all your have. Healthy Maine small communities are diversified and don’t have all their eggs in one economic basket.
Farming, woodwork, fishing, tourism for the sportsmen, families on camping trips are all big. So is transportation because unfold the map. See all those miles that separate small Maine towns from large population centers? That’s a big 10-4 on trucking in and out the goods we need and what we grow or create heading the other direction.
Working On A Small Maine Farm. Kids Benefit, The Farmer Wins Too!
So the life in a small Maine town.
You hear about a fire in your home town from a neighbor who posted a photo or two on social media. Or someone down at the service station or in the aisles of Walmart mentions did you hear about it?
If you are two or three degrees separation from the person in the news or making it, you hear through the family grapevine.
If you are not from the small Maine town originally, you will hear some negatives about never being accepted. Or feeling like a true local native of the Maine small town.
More Outdoor Space, Owning More Land With Your Home In Maine. Working Together To Earn Your Keep.
But if you volunteer, join a local club, church or school event, you will make new friends. If you are not always complaining about back in Jersey or wherever you lived last or grew up on how they do it better.
You are valuable if you are a worker, an asset to a small Maine town.
If you have a positive attitude and hopefully a sense of humor, that is a plus when moving to a small Maine town.
Live Music, A Maine Community Band Supplies It Weekly For Free. That’s Maine.
If you are from a sprawling urban area with million of people, it is hard to get your head wrapped about a small Maine town population of under 1000. Lake resort communities in Maine that swell and then go back to small numbers as the “snowbirds” head to the sunny south or southwest.
Long distances to travel for goods or services are part of the drawbacks to small Maine town life.
But access to Interstate 95 makes the travel pretty easy when no traffic and designed for moving 75 miles an hour or faster.
But because we are parked a little further up the pike, the surroundings become less traveled and more unspoiled all natural. Look up, see the stars on a walk at night? Hear the crickets and Maine lake loons in the moonlight? You can not duplicate that in a city setting.
Taught How To Fish, Survive Early In Life. Missing His Mate, Crying About It Heard On A Maine Lake.
So what are you after, what are your expectations and how did you grow up and was it a good experience or not.
You want more of what you like, less of what you do not and a change in zip code is driven by expectations. If they are met, you stay and pitch in to add to the local community in Maine.
Our job in the Me In Maine blog is to introduce the many corners of Vacationland to the readers. Some who grew up here and appreciate what we have in small town Maine living. Others who long for it because it sounds so delicious but so foreign to where they live now. I love living in a small Maine town and think you will too!
Epicurean, simple living in small town rural Maine.
The direction, how you chose to live your life happens slowly. My Dad told me there are two basic groups of people. And like the soft serve ice cream, a blend flavor of the two chocolate and vanilla. There are vocation and vacation folks. The two pursue and craft their lifestyle around what they love but the source of joy is not quite the same.
Simple Living In Rural ME. The Take Away Is Different For What’s Important In Life. Basic Needs Met More Than Enough For Inner Joy.
For many, a job is a means to an end and fought tooth and nail to keep the wolf from your door.
Making ends meet is easier if your financial obligations are few. For some, the spark of creating a local business that provides a community service or produces goods is the end all. Your purpose in life is usually what you are good at and derive enjoyment from for work. If you find pleasure in your career employment labor, they say you never have to work a day in your life. Because work does not feel like toil or the love, sweat and tears is the satisfaction. You take home more than a pay check. You also enjoy the people you work with and serve in the public.
Your grit, stick with it determination and reinventing what you do to make it new and different pays dividends.
Everything we do in our Maine real estate primary job is all about the user experience. Not wasting anyone’s time. Making the delivery more efficient, far reaching for providing information on properties for sale with a taste of the local area community flavor. When you can mix business with pleasure on say a trip accomplishing more than one goal, that is win win too. Coronovirus has made all of us “cool our jets”. The Governor, the state of Maine REALTORS are directing us to stop face to face public showings for everyone’s safety sake. Appraisers in Maine have the go ahead to do only exterior inspections and don’t go in. But study images, MLS descriptions, videos if the real estate broker provides them for the public online consumption.
When you are lucky enough to live a simple small town rural Maine lifestyle. If you volunteer and provide something for work that benefits your community, that is highly satisfying. When you see many others working just as hard all together for a common goal, that is a beautiful thing. People choosing simple small town living in rural Maine are very very fortunate. The case just gets stronger when something like the coronovirus pandemic hits. Smaller but tighter Spartan like trained communities are tighter, fiercely connected for survival, for family, for purpose.
For starters let’s take the latter term. Epicurean means the pursuit of pleasure, especially in the area of the food, comfort, whatever luxuries you add to your daily existence. The simpler your life, the more you achieve pleasure and comfort. It is like you leave room for the small things that more than enough to satisfy. My mom preached moderation which sounds like a wet blanket approach to anyone that races through life full throttle and with wreck-less abandoned. But the easy does it, first things first structure and routine is boring and controlling for some. It makes life so much easier for others. Epicurus, who was he? Was his family from Vanceboro Maine? NOooooo, take the island of Greece. That’s a few time zones away from the Pine Tree state. A philosopher who knew deeply ingrained thought took a lot of energy and patience to change for the better in shuffling your life outlook priorities. (more…)
It’s the little things and you feel the connection living in a small Maine town full time.
Like during a local movie, when you are at the snack bar as the lights dim. The movie coming attractions begin the splash on the silver screen. Before you can maneuver back to wherever you and your clan are sitting in the dark as the inside of a cow theater setting. As you slow to a creep on the tilted runway carpet when you ask yourself “isn’t it right around this row some place where I need to park?”
Maine, Drop Dead Gorgeous. Low Priced Property, Lacking Crime, Crowds, Traffic.
And then you hear a Psst… a whisper from the folks two rows back that nicely help you get your bearings as the lobby bright light wears off. “Andy, next row, one more.” Thank you to film patrons about to enjoy the same flick.
Or tragedy hits, your cat or dog is hit by a car, drowns in a swimming pool, something takes away the family pet. You get a call, neighbors rally to help you with the loss, know who’s cat or dog it is and help you with the arrangements on what do do now. They feel badly to be the one to announce what happened and continue to say a little prayer. To keep you in their thoughts in the tough days ahead.
Or months, years after a loss in a family out of the blue this and that community member who doesn’t need recognition for an act of kindness drops off tonight’s supper. Providing another meal next week because others surprised them the same way when down and out discouraged.
Energy, Promise, Exercise, Discipline, Entertainment In Small Maine Towns! Our Youth Provide It In Maine Communities.
The grateful recipient not sure who is responsible because so many doing the same meal time pitch in and help ritual. Because they have all been in a tough situation and out of the woodwork many hands helped to collectively pick you up from a life low point. And abundant gardens, making two casseroles instead of one happens in a small Maine town household. And someone else is taking care of desert, the bread or another side dish. Take what you need and share the rest. Amen.
Ask for directions when new to a small town in Maine way of living. Folks are super helpful, often say follow me, I’ll tractor beam take you there right now to avoid delay or chance getting lost. But other times the how to get there from here involves old businesses that are long gone. The former building owner is referred to and old names die hard.
In my home town where Western Auto was or Ames or Chain Apparel were located don’t help much in a search when lost. Hannaford is still called Shop N Save when you need groceries. Some remember it as Sampson’s or can mentally look further back because this is and has been their home town for a long long time. Even though University College now takes up that space, not aisles of groceries or Plaza Pharmacy that had a cure for what ever ails you. If your daughter was on birth control pills, a different pharmacy handled the prescription filling for the sake of appearances for your regular druggist I was told by one local who had more than one outlet for medications for a reason.
The Irving Big Stop though is still called Traveler’s with the green snack bar counter tops even though the Texaco brand of gas and diesel have not gushed in the fuel lines for decades. Whoever has been at a business location longest in your memory is who you associate the GPS coordinates giving directions to the tourists.
Where was Panther Fuel again… you know, the building on Bangor Street with the hand painted drawing of a black as midnight cat wearing a chain with the green emerald. The using landmarks long gone can work with a local giving directions. But telling a lost motorists to head past the Miss Aroostook Diner to the Gulf station at the triangle where you turn left to head past Houlton Truck Garage is not so effective when all the landmarks you refer to are gone or renamed.
Maine Community Bands, One Of The Many Perks In Small Communities That “Band” Together.
Small town community members know and trust each other.
They work on local events, some are relatives and attend the same weddings, funerals, family reunion shin digs. Folks know what others are struggling with and it’s not kept a secret. Working together on this activity forces you to know others on a personal level. You know who to call for anything needing attention because you have first hand experience with others in your small Maine home town.
You don’t just know their name, you know how many kids, their names, stuff about them. Who the third owner back was for this house, that home. What used to be in the empty lot that was lost in a fire or just wore out and went to it’s knees like a dinosaur.
Someone is stopped along the road, we slow and roll down the window to ask need help? Jumper cables ready and held in both hands like shocking paddles to get you back in the flow of traffic and moving. Had a mason tell me today about living in Rochester New Hampshire where on the way to a job there was a car on the side of the road with steam pouring out from under the engine hood.
We Should Take This Route Over By Bible Point When President Teddy Roosevelt Started His Vacation Day Hunting / Fishing In Maine. See? It’s Right (Squinting) There On The Trail Map.
He stopped to ask how he could help, what they needed, what was the problem to offer his assistance. The car owner cowered, did not roll down the glass to create the door opening to talk. And wanted him to go away, not trusting him to be of any help with a fearful leave me alone reception shared.
Trying to help lend a hand does not play well in areas where crime is heavy and your sincerity is questioned.
Don’t get involved becomes the order of the day to play it safe for your own survival. To avoid a set up in situations where everything is not as it seems.
Maybe we are naive, too helpful and trusting in a small Maine town. But I am glad we are and it is sad everyone is not no matter where they live on the planet. Always carry a set of battery jumper cables, have a willingness to share a cell phone to make calls. Hide a tow rope in the back to use pulling a vehicle out of a ditch or stuck in a snow bank. Let’s try a bottle of dry gas, pump the hood and let’s hunt for loose wires or an easy fix to the current vehicle problems.
You have front line first hand information on the lay of the land and everyone in it past and present in a small Maine town.
That makes it like David and the sling slot quick to fix and repair a need. To know who you gonna call. In city urban living you don’t know the others on the crowded sea of faces on the sidewalk of asteroids coming at you. And you hunker down, look low and don’t want to, don’t need to, don’t care to because it’s cold and impersonal rules the day.
People care about the individuals in a small Maine town.
The circles we travel are smaller so you bump into people you know more often too. The population is more spread out and the landscape slightly sparse in rural areas. Most of Maine are small, many teeny weenie. A little out of the way on the road less traveled. The locals know why the little league field is named the way it is. Steve Porter was a veteran lost in the Vietnam War who was a heck of an athlete. More than just a solider who gave all.
911 addresses are not used by all who still prefer to call the McSheffery Road the Hogan Road. Most back roads and town streets had another name or two or three in Maine communities. The locals knew the names, the standardization happened for those who did not in Emergency service providing.
Parades For Causes, To Increase Awareness And Show Support! Small Maine Towns Are Like That When Lucky Enough To Live In One.
Working on local fund raisers, sporting events, community projects makes the connection with others in your area even stronger. The connection increases the longer you live in a small Maine town. That’s your ball coach over there, that man in line at the grocery store ahead of you is the son of your town manager. The lady behind you gets a smile, nice day and you receive a comment back about community theater, the canoe race, the upcoming holiday.
Something is discussed with others you meet in your travels to the hardware store, popping into a local business for a product, service repair, whatever. And no one is ignored or avoided in small Maine towns. That would be rude when you do know each other right?
People let others go ahead of them in the banker teller line. They smile, wave, are friendly and seem happy. The elderly shut in are worried about, looked in on and you don’t want them breaking a hip and needing a pin because they slipped on glare ice hidden under a blanker of new white fluffy powdered snow that only makes it more polished and dangerous.
You serve on boards, rotate into new ones and know how small towns rock and roll. You face new challenges together when the economy dips. You share joy in hard fought battles to fix problems and belt tighten where there is waste in public spending. Frugal is not the same as cheap. Nothing sucks the life blood out of a small Maine community faster than duplication of services.
You feel the joys, the pain, whatever happens in a small Maine town as a group, as one unit in this all together.
You know who is driving many of the cars and trucks approaching you on a highway. And instinctively know old Mr. Jackins has poor vision and to give him a wide berth. Maybe pull over to let him pass by with an accident. Plus he is driving a pickup with an angled your direction bright yellow Fisher snow plow blade up front that demands your attention.
You Can Hear Yourself Think! Ever Thought Of Living In A Small Maine Town?
Small rural Maine locations also help you find solitude when loneliness requires it to heal from a loss. They knew your parents, you remember theirs long after they depart this Earth. Everyone pulls together, leans in to begin the steps to process grief when it arrives right on time as it will in any person’s life.
In small Maine towns, you share the joys, experience the low points and have historical perspective on the folks who live two houses over or the next road up in your country location.
You know others from serving on sports or music boosters groups. From capital campaigns to raise money for something very needed in the local area. Working behind the scenes makes you pulled deeper. As the investment in your local community tugs on each and every one of your heart strings.
Is it like that where you live? Do you have this kind of view? Lots of low priced real estate inventory to select from in your area? Do you lack crime, traffic, the sounds of airport jets or EMS vehicles where you call home now?
Waiting For His Turn Down Derby Hill In Houlton Maine. Stomach Butterflies Happen.
Every single one of the population is needed, has a vital role. Most Maine communities are not sprawling and the population is sparse in a state that is vast in size. When there are less people, each of the individuals have a greater role and deeper involvement in what goes on around the small Maine town. You are needed more and there is always much to do to keep the inner workings of small Maine town life alive and well.
The transition from a big city to a small town has been discussed in an earlier Me In Maine blog post.
You could serve on boards, be involved in civic, church, school, non profits in both sized venues. But one major distinction between a city or a town is the more you volunteer, the deeper the rich relationships develop in small towns. Because everyone in that small Maine town pitches in. Not just a few that rise to the occasion. Not much is hired out and it is all about home grown roll up your sleeves and dig in. We’re all in this together through thick and thin in a small Maine town. Paying out of your own pocket to fund what has no other way to do it.
Rafting Down Whitewater In Maine. How Many Times On Which River In Maine?
The role the individual banding together to serve the snow sled club breakfast or help grooming the trails. Or reading to youngsters as a literacy volunteer at local schools. Or coaching a little league team, coordinating this year’s spring canoe race or haunted hayride in the fall. In whatever capacity, there is lots of over lap in small town living. Because like the Spartan force of 300 trained to perform like more zeroes were added to the troop size number, small Maine town volunteers get to know each other more deeply.
Many give more and go above and beyond in small Maine towns.
The same people are part of the community band or chorus and show up yearly for children’s or the local theater productions. The walk for cancer or local suppers to help a family going through a tough time shows how much the individuals in a small Maine town or cluster of villages all band together to help out when the need for assistance could not be greater. Watch this simple video for a night out at a local event hosted at Hidden Spring Winery. Everyone knows each other in the crowd. The musicians were our teachers, our kid’s instructors. The connection goes deep. No one is a stranger in the room because our paths cross back and forth like a spider web. Small towns in Maine offer honest, real, hardworking rewarding living.
No Smog, No Gas Guzzling Exhaust Fumes With Maine Amish Transportation Using Horse And Buggies. Over 113 Amish Families Are Alive And Well In Maine.
Just try to break down on a small Maine town road and you will see what I mean.
Run out of gas, have a flat tire, just see whatever your ride go dead. In a city, no one would stop or it’s up to you to hire the wrecker and wait. In a side road or in the middle of a small Maine downtown, put up the hood and look at your watch. Snap. You will have a number of motorists or pedestrians come to the rescue instantly. To ask how they can help and to see what’s the problem. Battery jumper chambers are whipped out. Hailing frequency time! Cell phone calls are made to their brother who can help. Your kids who have to get to ball or hockey practice or the church musical, their job, whatever are delivered and you feel safe because you know the people trying to help. You have worked and served alongside them year after year. You may even be related somehow by blood or marriage or past untied knot.
You are at the same wedding and funeral and holiday receptions. When the life flight helicopter is heard flying over or an ambulance siren sounds on its race by you wonder. Who needs a prayer and chances are you do know the person or their family in the small Maine town that has the medical emergency.
Follow The Leaders, ATV Trail Riding In Maine Is Fun! Bring Your Camera.
All of us have broken down on a local Maine trail and had help so you return the favor when you come up on the same situation. You don’t have to know the person on the receiving end of the assistance. Hear that a lot from outside tourists who are blown away because of how helpful the local Mainers is to someone they have never met up until the first contact. Many decide to move here because of the random act of kindness. Figuring if you local Mainers treat strangers that well, it must be a joy to be a native living in these parts as a community member.
Small town Maine business works more efficiently too.
At a small town Rotary meeting so much beyond the great meal and the speaker of the day knowledge exchange happens. Getting your desert you ask the attorney or banker or insurance agent about a work task. Lots is done in that one hour gathering because you are work, serve, live in the same neat small Maine town.
Everything goes smoother and happens easier because of less obstacles in part to maneuver around to cause delays. Too many people in a population center just slows down the process even with technology to make the connection relay. There is nothing like face to face and knowing the people well that you interact with day in and out in the circles you run in a small community.
Maine Four Season Recreation. See Maine On An ATV ITS Trail Ride, On A Snow Sled, Hoofing And Hiking It.
All the extra people in a city just add more layers of rules herding them. Traffic is greater, progress is diminished just getting around and working the logistics that can cause isolation. More people that you don’t know or trust causes the individuals to be less open and more reserved.
Less involved. It is not apathy but self protection.
When much of your energy and resources are put into self protection of personal safety and to hang onto your possessions it drains some of the vim and vigor to charge in. It becomes more of a survival for me rather than concern about the greater good for the population around you.
Small Maine towns are treated more like families than just garden variety citizenry.
We all watch and help shape the youngsters that grow up here. The individuals all stand out and are not lost in a sea of impersonal faces. You don’t worry about crime or gangs or drive by shootings. You watch in horror what happens in cities everyday on the hour and see the numbing effect it has to those who learn to avoid certain city neighborhoods and that are dead bolt and security camera holed up at night to feel safe and sound. That’s is not how small Maine town living operates. Ever thought of relocating, moving to a small Maine town?
Living in small town Maine means time to commune with nature, to sample the great outdoors.
But it also means getting to know the neat people who live in the smaller populations spread out pretty thinly in this vast state of Maine. Less time spent in traffic, we do talk to strangers. We don’t worry about gangs, crime, person safety in Maine.
Energy, Promise, Exercise, Discipline, Entertainment In Small Maine Towns! Our Youth Provide It In Maine Communities.
We have time for our passions and hobbies. And the circles we travel intercept and overlap each other. Often because our kids have a play in the introductions. Like AYBL (Aroostook County Youth Basketball League) basketball, SAMHA (Southern Aroostook Minor Hockey Association) hockey, Dutch soccer, soap box derby, etc for sports as just a few examples. Of the small town activities where you and I will probably be attending and it’s how we get to know each other.
By working alongside each other because the events are home grown, hands on, self run by the non profit volunteers. Who add the sparkle to small Maine town living. These individuals are the small town flavor and spark. There is nothing stronger than the heart of a volunteer in Maine. Especially if kids are involved. We love to watch them progress up through the ranks to adulthood.
Just got back from three youth basketball games today at Southern Aroostook Community School that drives home the point about it really does take the entire village to raise the kids in it.
The coaches, referees, parents, all the folks who run the snack shack. Collect money at the gate. That put in countless hours to instruct and instill the rules, the respect for the game. The kids remember first hand someone lit the fire under them as a youngster introducing them to these activities. The ones that shaped their lives. That started the passion to take hold, to burn and roll along and take on different progressive levels.
Many Small Towns Combining Into One School System Proud Of It’s Youth, It’s Home Grown Programs.
Downhill skiing, someone got you to the slope and back. Not always Mom and Dad. Somebody helped keep your snow sled running and taught you about mechanics to know how to fix what is wrong. An individual is to blame for introducing you to horse back riding and showed you the ropes on how best to take care of the horse or pony.
Remember who sponsored your little league baseball team? Who played catch with you and was at batting practice at the local playing field before the summer games at the ball diamond in a small Maine town. Who instilled confidence in you and taught you to play as a team. Reminded you there is no “I” in “TEAM”? Be that person to play it forward. Remembering what it was like to be a kid in a small Maine town.
Camping, hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, swimming, farming, anything outdoors in Maine. The activities, the sport and pleasure of it all is just a variation on a theme that kicks you in the butt to slide off the couch. To motivate all ages to get outside. Or to dig deeper to gain the skill and exercise inside. For all we do for fun and relaxation in Maine. For our physical, our mental health that strengthens and defines the small community in Maine.
There are a lot of grown adults that are really big kids in small town Maine.
That help guide the so many youth oriented programs available in small Maine communities. Everyone has a job as a music booster for the community concert, the show choir, jazz band and there are always competitions that get hosted on the local level. With each community taking turns to roll out the red carpet, make some money, put in some long man hours of planning and the hard work to pull off the events.
Presque Isle Wildcats Traveled Down Into Southern Aroostook County To Shoot Some Hoops. To Improve Their Game, To Help Others Learn From Their Skill Set.
The parents, grandparents bring in baked goods, sew costumes, donate their skill set. The local businesses donate at their cost or for gratis to get behind an event. To show their home town proud spirit of support.
Thank you to the host school Southern Aroostook Community that opened up the doors to the purple painted walls of the gym. To host the AYBL basketball round robin for 9, 10 year old boys this weekend.
The food was something else too. More than just pizza slices bought many hours ago and steamed hot dogs, cheese nachos and popcorn. Way more than the standard fare of grub you find at a high school sport’s venue.
No no, they had fire made on stone pizza. Hand tossed, garlic sprinkled with you pick the topping crafted right on the premises. Served up fresh, piping hot right out of the oven every eight minutes. Baked beans in the crock pot, chicken stew loaded with veggies with dough rolls. Or let them ladle out a dish of chili, lasso a large soft pretzels, munch on a home made cookies. Or maybe a couple. Hey it’s for a good cause. Yes, I did over eat and the friendly well staffed snack bar helped make the school some money and to feed the many families wandering in and out of the lobby at SACS in Dyer Brook ME. Friendly folks, most you soon get to know that turned out to climb up into the purple bleachers to watch, cheer loudly for their young home town team. The fans and players that were wearing their school colors. And the teams very small, young, low to the ground for the refs to school on the art of basketball rules and regulation introduction.
Gas Grill Open Fire Stone Baked Pizza! MMMmmmmm Good And A Smart Money Maker! Andy’s IGA Gives The School The Portland Pie Dough For Only A $1.12 A Fresh Tasty Crust Ball.
In a small Maine town, you are related to many of the names spelled out on the back of the player jerseys.
All the fans came out in groves to watch the home town basketball teams this weekend. It is like old home week and the kids are the reason you showed up. They are the entertainment, the future of our small Maine towns. The games of hoop and orange ball are fun to watch, get you out of the house. And you can not help but think how far this player out on the court will go. Maybe he or she will help bring home a gold ball, some other awards for the glass lobby trophy case in about six to nine years when sporting a little larger sized varsity jersey.
I am lucky to live in a small Maine town and proud of all the local individuals out front, or that stay behind the scenes in the shadows. They don’t need the recognition. There is not a big ego needing to be stroked. That’s not the motivation. For putting in the time, energy and money to create all the neat activities, the programs found built from the ground up in our communities. Those programs that would not be possible to hire out to be done year in and out.
There is not enough money to subsidize paid staff. That would not even come close to the level of effort these small town Maine folks put in when they roll up their sleeves that is over the top. And the same individuals perform the myriad of tasks year after year in small Maine communities. They sign on for life and next year’s events are always in the back of their minds being fine tuned to turn out even better next year. To crowd please and keep the momentum rolling in the small community that hosts the unique events. Without the volunteers, there would be no small community to call your home town in Maine. Last guy out turn off the lights.
Ever thought of living, moving, relocating to small Maine town?
It’s not crazy, you are needed. Your talents, your skill set will enhance the local fabric that is calling your name. Here for questions, your local insider to outline the steps and create the plan to make your return mail address one in Maine, Vacationland. The way life should be.
When you are raised in a small Maine town, there is always a spot deep inside burning brightly.
Fierce pride that never fades or forgets the faces, places, all the space around the community. Small things hit your harder because life is simpler, what is important more in focus in small Maine towns.Lots Of Public Suppers Happen In Small Maine Towns.
When a local Maine sports team wins a town, county, state championship, the games are played up in the stands as much as out on the field, court, rink. Shiretown Houlton Maine, Aroostook County.
Because support comes from the area that gets behind the youth effort up through the ranks. Beyond just sports, extending like wildfire to other events where everyone steps it up a notch.
Because the whole village raises the kids in the Maine town.
Has a hand in the shaping whether family blood related to the kids or as teacher, pastor, coach, employer, neighbor that all play a role.
In a small town the freedom of having your license, that first drive into town, around the community behind the wheel with the radio on. Looking for other friends with their ticket to drive around town too. Stopping in parking lots to shoot the breeze. Flirt, brag, exchange gossip or plans for later on. Hitting the local dairy bar or driving out to a local lake in the summer. Less worry about crime, more moving around freely and independence.
Small Maine towns are all about local parades, bands, floats, holiday celebrations.
Small Maine Towns, Wholesome Locally Grown Food.Helping area farmers plant, cultivate, harvest and get their crop ready to ship to market starts early. Goes hand in hand with work ethic learned growing up.
Good wholesome food is abundant because it grows in your backyard garden. Or available low cost or through a bartered service, home made goods you trade for it.
Folks that grow food for their own table take what they need. And what’s left after canning, preserving and stocking the shelves in the pantry, the root cellar is given away.
It is a take what you need, leave the rest for others sharing attitude that drives a small Maine town population. Farmer Uncle Finley Mooers Proud Of His Spud Yield.
In a small Maine town it is not about highly specialized and more cross trained. Keep it simple. Don’t complicate life because the clutter bogs you down, interferes with living it fully. Enjoying it to the hilt.
Maine folks are more self reliant. Strive to be self sufficient.
They’re frugal. They care about each other. Think about service for the greater good. Actively seeking what is there they should be doing. What role is best suit for their skills, abilities in the small Maine town.
Because there are less people, you are always closer to wildlife, nature, country living. The outdoors is your playground. The four season individual personal settings, destinations are respected, preserved, protected. Traditions passed down like good stewards. For the next generation to carry on the torch, the small town special Maine lifestyle.
