The state of Maine is cited in lots of surveys as the top place to consider in relocation, to make the move to Maine.
This blog post outlines the reasons that motivate folks to make the move to the great state of Maine.
The urge fueled by many factors. Space is one of the biggest ones. To own and enjoy acreage, lots of Maine land is a major part of the dream. Life not lived shoulder to shoulder and where you actually have a back yard. Clean water, clear blue skies, look at all those stars because no pollution from factory smoke stacks.
Welcome to Maine.
The best kept secret are the rural areas deeper up into Maine.
The Moving To Maine Relocation. Often Starts With Renting A Maine Waterfront Property.
Space is freedom, elbow room is plentiful in Maine.
Maine is a sparsely populated state with 450 small towns and villages but only a handful of cities. 91 percent of Maine is wooded, miles and miles of trees and trails to explore. Maine is not just more roomy, less people but there is good stewardship practiced in small Maine towns. Maine is 450 small communities, only a handful of cities.
Your elders teach you how to respect the natural setting around and to never ever take it for granted. Don’t mess it up for the next generation and tread lightly is the ingrained approach to living in Maine. That’s just how we roll and it is way easier when over commercialization or sprawl population pressure is none existent!
Collect Maine Lighthouse Experiences. Visit, Re-Visit. One Fun Thing To Do In Maine. Lighthouses, Coastal Settings Help Folks Think About Moving To Maine Or Investing Here!
So Maine space is abundant, a given and not an expensive luxury like many areas around the country.
What happens to people used to being penned in and caged, herded? When they cross the big green bridge on Maine’s southern tip, the traffic thins. They begin to loosen up and it’s easier to relax.
What else happens when you relocate, move to Maine?
A more relaxed version of you develops. The Maine added space, reduced traffic, lower crime combination works its magic. Suddenly you are freed up to fill your life with more of what matters. Four season outdoor recreation is one of the major reasons to relocate, move to Maine.
For many, it starts as a simple vacation and like any addiction, grows from there. Before you know it, the yearly trek to Maine turns into more trips back and forth across that big Green Bridge. And instead of spending the long dollar staying at a motel, lodge or cabin, it’s time to buy your own piece of ME.
Hitting The Rec Trails In Maine All Four Seasons. That Is What It Is Like In Maine. Vacations In Maine Lead To More.
The transition from where you lived before to Maine can be bittersweet.
There are trade offs and mostly involving further away from family members left behind. But often, friends and family learn from your move to Maine. Their visits to see you can cause relocation for them too.
The fun in Maine is low or no cost.
We have so many opportunities to pitch in and get involved in community events. You don’t need lots of money to enjoy Maine the further you go to get away from the coastal tourist traps. Those areas near the shopping outlets are not rural Maine at its finest.
The friendly, down to Earth helpful people who live in small towns are the best. Hardworking, family oriented, ready to help you out when you need it the most.
Vacations In Maine Lead To More. The Relocation, Move To Maine Start Because Of Great ME Vacations! Clean Water, Fresh Air, Less People, No Traffic.
You have to have less people around you to get more from your Maine location. Go further north, east and west up into Maine to see what I mean. Small towns are like big families. Lower population areas of Maine show less wear and tear. Way way less commercial development and regulations.
That’s another carrot dangled to attract property owners to sell high and buy low. Cashing in the value of their higher priced property and taking the chips. Investing them with money left over purchasing something in Maine. For many, no mortgage is needed to buy the Maine property.
A family starting out looking for wholesome small Maine town values weighs the pros and cons.
Moving to Maine for less expensive everything.
A simpler life style that is healthier for their kids.
Your Signs, The Hiking Trail Blue Dash Marking. You Are On A Baxter State Park, Mt Katahdin Trail!
And with high speed internet, their old job becomes their new one. Packed along with their personal belongings for the new life in Maine. Telecommuting, working remotely is easy when a small Maine town or region has beefed up a strong IT infrastructure in place.
In small Maine towns, you don’t just buy a ticket and attend an event. You are somehow connected to the folks putting on the event year after year. Working behind the scenes, sponsoring some part of it. Home grown and the grass roots approach to building a Maine community is deeply satisfying.
The wildlife, the waterfront, the woods trails and farm fields in the great state of Maine.
Maine is lots of things that are all natural. Have you been to Maine and where? How was your experience? Visit Maine and see for yourself. Meet the friendly, neighborly, truly helpful people who call Maine their home. Thinking of Maine? Why relocate, move to Maine? Lots of reasons and most of them are found outdoors all four seasons in 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.
Local fresh eyewitness news reporting and personal experiences from folks who live in Maine. That kind of journalism really hits home and delivers the truth. The home grown community news gleaned and presented first hand from the man, woman or child out on the village street or the countryside is my favorite.
Local Maine News. The Best Kind Comes From The Home Town Local Beat. News From Where It Happens Is Freshest, Most Pertinent.
Like the wisdom from a twelve member jury of your peers if you have ever been called up for court room service. It is refreshing and surprising how much local Mainers deeply invested in their communities possess for wisdom.
The stakes are way higher when the future of your small Maine community is at stake.
But how to poll correctly the sentiments of the local population in small town Maine? You have to trust more than your gut and there needs to be a local forum to encourage it not apathy allowed.
The best Maine news is fresh, live and local.
Eye witness news and you are there. Covering the local beat with your friends, family, neighbors sharing the perspective and collectively adding to the information details. Truth not fiction and presented in a way that mostly locals would relish getting it. Too mundane for national coverage. Just lacking enough pizzazz or excitement to really sizzle and sell on the World stage.
Local Maine news for free.
Instead of a talking head sitting on a lighted set or a newspaper editor tweaking a two thousand word piece, cue a local Mainer. Someone who has spent their life in the home town, others transplanted recently or a number of years back.
Like Noah, gather and cover the Maine news landscape to collect representation across the board of all ages, livelihoods and loaded with a wide variety of interests.
The longer you live here, the better the depth of the historical perspective to draw from to make the best local Maine decisions.
Roll some tape and open up the video and audio channel to collect the raw and personal Maine news from out in the community.
To distill very little and deliver in an unaltered state for their local community member’s benefit. Some Maine news topics can be light and bright. Others not so comfortable but all so very necessary to cover for the greater good of the small Maine community. The folks in a small Maine town really care about each other and there is a strong connection.
The Maine news personal and close to home. Hearing, seeing a local describe what they are up to for a hobby is interested to a local Maine resident. They may be related or from the same home town and like visiting with them to get up to date on what is going on in their life.
Maine news.
Out in the small Maine community and countryside. Using that setting for the presentation to the local audience works best. Collecting bits and pieces of a slew of topics collected to share with the local audience small town communities. Those Maine news soundbites or video loops and black and white copy are the best but rare. Why? Money. Advertising dollars.
Local Maine News That Reflects The Area Where It Is Made And Covered. That Kind Of News Beat Works Best For Locals Starved For Maine News!
The money for professionals hired to cover the beat when there are more trees and wildlife than people in the reporting location.
Hard to monetize when the audience is very small and select. This is part of why Maine is such a mystery or best kept secret to many. But also what protects and insulates the vast size state with only so many people scattered within her borders.
“Would I like to you, would I tell you something that isn’t true?” like Annie Lennox sings in the song.
I think we were all taught not to lie growing up and the damage it causes to a person and those around them.
Farming News, Produce Prices, How’s The Crop Yield. Part Of The Local News Beat For Coverage In The Garden Of Maine, Aroostook County!
Maine political news.
Oh sure when there is a heated election underway, lots of money pours into the media outlets to create the ad spot clusters to carry the message. Loaded into the automation rotation carousel to saturate and inundate until the audience is numb. Especially when the negative campaign rhetoric bombardment blitzkriegs the Maine landscape. That kind of journalistic news campaigning warfare forces many to not energize and rally to a cause but to retreat deeper within yourself.
Local Maine News. Folks In The Community Want Local Happenings And News From Close To Home.
Maine news when the saturation and intensity is high and the fact checking is missing.
On topics you know something about and are not buying what’s being sold. Take a break, stop the World time. The highway to Maine. To run away looking for peace and solitude of a Maine woods camp or waterfront retreat. It’s not cowardly but more a feeling of overwhelmed. A cocktail of a dash of a little distrust mixed shaken and stirred with a twist of futility. So much energy and drama and emotion makes the noise hurt your heart and head.
Solutions not just complaint. Attacking problems not people. What can the average local Mainer do to help move the community in the right direction? Stay positive. Rise above and be civil, keeping an open mind and looking at the state of affairs with a realistic approach.
Maine news that applies to the small town and of great interest to all in the village, out in the country landscape.
Where are we, where were we, where are we going and what can I do to help nudge things in that direction. Getting the majority in your small population corner of Maine pulling together. Everyone to agree which trail is best to take ahead starts with the truth and Maine news based on facts not opinion. That’s kind of Maine news is going to require more local conversations from those most affected from the outcome of some pretty important local decisions that need to be made.
What’s Happening Around You In Uncrowded Maine. That Kind Of News That Impacts Families That Is Home Grown Is Spread More By Locals Than Media Outlets.
Getting the best information for the Maine community to use to make the best decisions moving forward.
No news is not good news. But hit or miss or slanted news is worse and does more damage. Maine news from the local perspective gleaned from the community where it is being made. To be appropriate and helpful, the Maine news better accurately reflect what is happening today within the state, county and local town limits. For a rock solid sound foundation to build on for a small Maine community or region or state to sustain and prosper based on the truth.
The local Maine news coverage unique to the part of Maine where is made is hard to get on a consistent delivery basis without a commercial enterprise inking the press type or turning on the sound and blinking red camera light.
Michael Clark, Dedicated Local Rotarian, Past District Governor, Paul Harris Fellow. RIP Michael A Clark. You Are Missed.
The by far best when the presenter is honest, personal, and pretty accurate because the “report” is factual and not fiction.
Nothing to gain misrepresenting the news and always delivered with colorful expressions and a seasoning of other local reference sources. The local Maine news grapevine can be serious topics hashed out among whoever dropped by a local small Maine business establishment. Or featuring fishing, hunting, local sporting truth stretched a bit or sprinkled with some friendly teasing. Fact checkers doing clean up to make sure of the authenticity of the conversation exchange? Nope.
It used to be the five W’s reported digging and collecting just the facts by journalists and broadcasters thoroughly researching a subject.
Then like coffee, entertainment sweetener was added because the audience developed a shorter attention span. News to not just inform morphed into news to amuse. To entertain, to push an agenda develop. Mass media feeding everyone truth or dare. So reporters developed their own style and approach to how to twist and shout today’s news to make it fun not boring. Personal opinion shows through in the news delivery on purpose for ratings and ad dollars.
Give them what they want. Get the widow on the set.
People like dirty laundry titillating delivered by the bubble headed bleached blond not just meh taste boring cold hard factual from the guy wearing the horn rimmed spectacles. Because that’s the way it is at the end of every newscast according to Walter. You used to only have a few flavors of news not as many as the number of colors in the rainbow for selection. For getting what you want to hear presented just the way you like it sliced and diced. No thank you. I rely more and more on the local Maine news grapevine.
The Local Landscape Maine News. Not Exciting Enough For Someone After Entertainment Value. How’s Emma Feeling? Did You Get Your House Banked Elmer? The Local News From Folks You Know And Care About… That’s What Locals Care About In Small Maine Towns.
The national audience became more segmented, polarized by what they are fed as gospel.
And to go after those low hanging advertising dollar demographics more flavors of news sources sprung up. Not just chocolate and vanilla, black and white news reporting these days. And as you pick a channel flavor of news to plug into daily, you are fed from a particular slant what you want to hear and believe.
When the Maine news is generated by local reporters who live in Vacationland, it’s way more accurate.
It’s more realistic and less Hollywood filtered and enhanced. It’s less valuable to the small Maine town.When the news gathering arm is out of state, on a different coast, much of what is reported does not seem to pertain to small town rural Maine. It is not that useful or helpful. It wastes daylight that is time better put to other purposed on the to do list.
I had a conversation with a California wanna be Maine home buyer yesterday who used to live in Maine and misses life here.
In his area, he said when a new person moved into his neighborhood in Maine the folks close by whipped up covered dishes to present. To say hello, welcome to the area. Where he has lived in California folks just don’t take the time or extend the same set of courtesy. Same thing happens at his church. When an older person can not get themselves to worship, he and his wife offered to pick them up if along the way.
Covered Bridge That’s One Lane, Wait Your Turn. Not Six Wide And Hurry Scurry Where Highways Are Fast, Stacked And Packed In Gridlock. That’s Not Maine.
And back in Maine anyone living near them did the same to help an elderly person attend a church service.
You don’t neglect them, you cherish them and look forward to their pearls of wisdom picked up as you do a good deed assisting their transportation to and fro. But on the other coast, those same church folk are left out and not included like they are discarded. Pretty sad and something to look forward to as you climb the hill but are not quite over it yet but the day is coming.
In small town rural Maine, we are brought up to do lots of for the good of the community actions. Many that are not even thought about until someone points out they don’t do that where I live now outside of Maine. Who wouldn’t want to rather live where traffic and crime are missing. Where folks worry and care for each other on a daily basis and you feel strongly connected? Instead of just existing as one more blank face in the sea of sameness crowd.
Jammed together but pushed apart seeking more personal space. Maine does not lack personal affordable wide open space.
Maybe the division in the country is a lot about country and city mouse approach to living and the coronavirus will force a bigger shift telecommuting to work online remotely to small Maine towns. I see it already happening so much in my day job. Since last March, bailing out and getting to Maine has been a frivolous mission of many who are hungry for small town living. Social distancing is easy in small Maine rural towns.
How’s The Maine Lobster Catch? Prices Up Or Down? What’s The Fishing Industry Going Through Along The Coast? That Is Important Local Maine News.
Where the news report originates outside of Maine makes a big difference.
If the lifestyle is vastly different, if the take home pay checks are way different sizes, then the news substance may not hit home the same. When you have been brought up to be frugal and manage money wisely but witnessing it wasted in a higher cost of living news market that delivers you information. The norm there has to clash with the one in your small Maine town that struggles to keep its population numbers from dropping.
Editorials used to be the only lone news hour or newsprint segment slot to get personal opinion.
Otherwise it was check your sources, interview lots of authorities to avoid flawed shoddy reporting. I remember Maine Broadcasting’s general manager Fred Nutter in Portland or Bangor’s Margo Cobb presenting editorials. They were clearly thought out and not sharp edge mud slinging. Just a personal plea that Maine needed to go in this or that direction and why. Nothing sold to the audience but just legitimate concern that we as a state should all share. Pointed out that we needed to be putting more effort into this area or pulling back from too much resource excess in another one and explaining why.
How many times do you Google to find thorough information and have to wade up to your knees in fluff and recycled same old same old bits and pieces?
Like a slow drip of low level propaganda the audience is sold and educated from the spin. Or just fed the same old skim repackage and sold as new and improved news. If you want real, fair and objective news, you need to read several sources. Take the time to not just glean quick doses of headlines. Make the time to do the research and look hard for the truth. The what’s left out. Not to get just scrape the surface headline news. Blogging took off because you begin to trust the down to Earth guy or gal on the street’s honesty and sincerity. Way way more than the slick paid professional sensationalizing today’s news using the read read read then big smile teleprompter. News generated by someone who lives where you do is home cooked and healthy. Being fed what to think from someone who could not find where you live in Maine without GPS is not.
Local Maine News, Getting It From Within The Boundaries Of The State, County, Local Rural Town. Collected From Small Town Events, A Corner Grocery Store.
Question the validity of a poll, learn who was asked, from where, when and how large a sample.
If “experts say” who is being touted as an authority? Same folks drawn from for the news or lots of new voices in the mix for a healthier perspective and something new and different? The guy or gal who try to keep you hanging and tuned in for what’s after the next advertising spot cluster. Go to the bathroom, take a quick trip to the kitchen for a snack if you must but be back here couch side in two minutes audience for more what’s served up just the way you like it “news”.
The news reporter can do it using the five w’s.
Tap lots of news sources to glean and distill what is missing or clearly bent to achieve a purpose but keeping an open mind presenting with fair and objective.
I disagree with the broad brush statement There’s no such thing as truly objective, fact-based reporting. You have to dig, research and ask folks in the field not just rely on newscasters dumbing it down or missing the facts. The first rule in blogging is to write about what you know. Because you draw from experience, the truth and nothing is fabricated. It’s real, the truth without the fictional spin seasoning.
The Snug As a Bug In The Little Red Log Maine Lake Camp. Telecommuting From Maine. One Good Thing Salvaged From The Coronavirus Pandemic.
The blogging post should be a conversation with your reader.
Whoever follows you should be contributing to that conversation and often times the down below comments are the real flesh of the story. Because it is not just from one person’s perspective but from many voices out in the audience. The elections are over, the Maine population is prepared for winter and new work arounds should the coronavirus low numbers start to spike. Just grateful they are low virus numbers. That folks are doing their part. And like a Maine winter, we’re prepared for anything ahead. Not just planning to survive but to make the most of whatever we have to work with and to come out on top.
Keep it simple, stay positive, look out for each other and be kind.
Do your part and pitch in to be careful what you say, how you state it and examine the reasons why you feel the way you do about something. And consider how that helps or hurts looking for the best solution at hand. I think most down to Earth Mainers from small town experiences and drawing from The values they were raised with are doing that. Just my humble two cents. As I finish up this early morning Maine blog post. Typed out as the wind picks up, the temperature drops and cold lake water splashes against a concrete retainer wall out front, I feel happy to live in small rural Maine.
My oldest daughter letting her small dog out to do his business walks over from the next door log home pictured above. The one where she, her husband have been telecommuting to work while raising a new born grandson.
Patting the dog who comes in through the glass slider opened a little to say good morning we have an exchange. Being near family is more important than ever. I think the coronavirus makes everyone examine where they live and why and ask is it time for a different way? I see it at work as so so many question what is missing. Asking themselves where should I be headed with plenty of soul searching surrounding the where to go, when and why.
Maine news, thank you for hanging in there that long to get to the bottom of this most recent blog post. We are used to challenges and work hard for everything we have and don’t expect it to come easily. I think in Maine we appreciate what we have more because we realize it’s not like this many other places. Keeping it real, making it honest and unspun, Maine is the way life should be.
Having more than enough to just get by takes practicing frugal living in small town Maine.
Quality of life in rural Maine communities is home made without a lot of money involved. Growing up as kids, grade school teachers passed out the thrift bank saving envelopes to fill and collect. To develop the weekly habit of saving and watching the account slowly grow.
Like A Pink Peppermint Candy? For A Treat, A Dry Throat?
Saving for a rainy day helps prepare for what lies ahead is the simple Maine way approach to life.
It creates piece of mind because you are not broke or up against it. If someone in your small Maine town does find themselves up the proverbial creek without the needed paddle to find their way out, a helping hand shows up. Lots of them come out of the local woodwork. Fund raising suppers and auctions held and community volunteers take turns showing up to help the family in need. Plowing out the winter snow from the driveway. Tonight, tomorrow, the day after that meals assigned and delivered. Making sure if you needed anything, it was supplied until you could get back on your feet what the small town Maine residents do. And then you perform the same johnny on the spot help ’em out when healthy. For comforting others between a rock and a hard place when the road of life takes a major dip.
My secretary told me a story recently about her grandfather Ralph McPherson.
He and her grandmother, her mom and sister ran a little egg business later in life. There must have been 30+ hens. Making door to door stops for special customers in town. Carting in the fresh farm eggs from Linneus to deliver product just like the milk man. The money collected tucked away so it would not be lost or to tempt someone to make it their own. Five finger discount is frowned upon and kids taught to work hard for what they have and take care of it. Plus to extend and provide the same courtesy for what belongs to others in return.
The McPherson lived next door to Helen Folsom who disliked the unlucky number thirteen. She would not stay if invited to eat and the head count was thirteen on the dot. Had to go. Nicest lady but nothing doing with anything associated with thirteen. Not sure how she felt about black cats, ladders and broken mirrors. Lots of tall hotels don’t show the thirteenth floor as what it is if you counted the stories window by window from the outside. Earl Anderson from Cary, living out on the dead end Brewer Road another likeable sort and a field hand. Flap of his ball cap flipped up, everything turned to the side. Dad’s hired hand Clay Spellman was a fixture growing up and always singing Jimmy Crack Corn song, swigging on Coke soda even thought the doctor told him being diabetic make that a no no. Years ago, in Maine every town had lots of small family farms. Now bigger is the trend or stay very small and watch your expenses to have everything under control.
Back to the McPhersons. The dollar bills and change exchanged for the farm to table fresh local egg run hidden in a tin can with a tight lid.
The re-purposed container originally held pink peppermints. Anyone from a border town in Maine knows the kind of sweet familiar candy I am referring to because some “over home” family member enjoyed and shared them freely. My Dad’s mom was 100 percent pure Canadian. The Canadian barley candy in amber and red. To me looked like pieces of stained glass showing up under the tree at Christmas in my country home. Could not buy them on this side of the border. There are lots of perks being a border town in Maine with a Canadian province. Mom and Dad would
Working Hand In Hand To Make A Living From The Maine Farm Dirt.
My brother Brian passed along a weekly summer job where I learned how to be dependable and to manage money.
I mowed lawns peddling my bike into town to make spending money from a Ralph Black, the book keeper for Fogg’s hardware and sporting goods store. Ralph and his wife Marjorie the librarian always had a candy dish filled with the Canadian pink peppermints.
Ralph also enjoyed dipping into a bank of sea dulse like it was a major league hurler with a punch of snuff. But that is a Maine blog post for another day. The Blacks built an immaculate two bedroom cape style home from scratch. The unfinished second floor stayed that way because no stork delivered any swaddled bundles of joy in pink or blue. Both Canadians that became American citizens.
The tin container with egg cash stashed inside was deposited.
Hidden some times in the freezer. Other occasions, out in the porch in an envelope up in the chest. If anyone in the family needed a little spending money, to pay a bill, the cash was available for a withdrawal on a moment’s notice. No drive through or slips to make out to access the hard earned and carefully managed rainy day funds.
Up under the Ford pick up seat, in between the fabric and springs, was another favorite hiding place.
No one aware the peppermint tin was hiding there but a select few. Ralph knew it, but not many others did not. My secretary told me when her dad was sick and not doing well, he whispered to her to come closer. To share that if anything happens to me, don’t forget.
To remember not forget.
To look up under the seat of the egg delivery truck seat to retrieve the peppermint tin can funds.
But keep it our little secret in the meantime is how he left it with his trusted family member.
Her story made me think of how people who did not have a lot of money saved and stretched what they did have.
Every Maine small town family member was taught as a young grasshopper to conserve, to save, to live below their means. Left over money to squirrel away hide in the home or better yet in a bank or credit union. We used the “corn money” from vegetable sales growing up to run the house hold expenses. When all the dollars were planted in the ground like hundred dollar bills seeded around the Maine farm acreage. You have no choice but to practice frugal living in Maine when money is low or non-existent.
Woodlots on family farms in Maine are a savings bank for heating your home and also to tap as a cookie jar resource when times were lean.
Your Heating Source For Next Winter. The One After That. Maine Woods. Precious For The Future And Personal Survival Makes You Respect It.
Many a farmer in Maine relied on the bounty of the wooded sections of their spread to carry them through especially tight, difficult farm years.
Money generated a variety of ways in the small town Maine households. Second and third jobs to fund someone going to college. To pay for the needed materials to expand the house size as the family grew and more bedrooms were needed.
Besides the extra side jobs and easy does it on household spending, money trickled into the household in other ways. By removing the need for it with big gardens. Canning food to put down into the root cellar or storage pantry to draw from over the approaching Maine winter months. Pearl one, knit two mittens, scarves, sweaters from Canadian wool yarn from the farmer’s store, Steadman’s, etc across the board or Carryall Store in my home town. Exchanging hand me downs of perfectly good clothing that’s only flaw was it no longer fit the growing child.
Money earned by kids picking potatoes in the fall generated twenty five up to sixty cents a barrel return for the harvest field labor.
Sometimes There Is Rust But The Car Or Truck In The Yard Still A Vital Park Of Maine Farm Operations.
Four baskets of spuds poured into a potato barrel meant it was time to slide on a ticket with your number for the tally at the farm that night.
The farm house where newspapers were spread out over the kitchen table after the nightly meal served and the dishes washed to return to the cupboard until reached for the next session. Fine field dust, bits of potato tops too from old metal two gallon empty motor oil cans. It all made its way into the ticket collectors my mom or I dumped on kitchen table. The papers put down to contain the field debris as it poured out during the daily ticket count tabulation.
The potato picking funds the four boys, other on the potato crew earned yearly helped the frugal Maine household a lot.
By freeing up Mom and Dad buying the winter coat and fall school clothing. Each family members shopped for their own duds at J.C. Penney’s or Chain Apparel, Army Navy or other local clothes providers.
Frugal Living In Maine Started With Lessons Learned On The Maine Farm.
We kids were way way more thrifty and frugal when it was our money used to buy the school and winter outfits.
We learned the value of a dollar and if we were careful spending them, more items could be purchased. Cheap and frugal living in small town Maine are not the same thing. Frugal is being a smart business personal with your resources. Cheap is misery, Scrooge like.
Bartering for the goods or services when the money just was not available to perform them.
Rural Maine is all about exchanging the blood, sweat and tears to survive and prosper. Our fun and recreation did not always have a price tag attached either. The trip to Cary, Nickerson, Drews Lake after farm summer haying to wash up and cool off was a much look forward to treat. The Popsicle or cold drink enjoyed during farming chore coffee breaks tasted above and beyond because it was earned and deserved. The lunches packed for the trips to the potato fields or rock picking, haying or whatever chore tasted much better. Hunger always improves the taste right?
The old barn, shed or home destined to be torn down was recycled board by board.
To stack and reuse in a smaller version or stored away for another day. A board at a time retrieved to use in keeping the other still standing buildings alive. Resourceful, resilient and developing grit with determination is what living frugally developed. We were taught to make a game out of not just surviving but creating our own joy and happiness. It was not store bought and temporary but part of the wide and varied life skill set passed on from earlier generations. Conservation awareness to respect resources and respect for personal property, the family home were valuable lessons for life.
Where people stock piled what they scrimped and saved from many small sales.
The 50 50 raffle winnings from the fish and game dollar a ticket drawing proceeds tucked away inside the home. The won rifle from the sporting fish and game club. The donated hand made quilt with your name in your writing on the winning ticket drawn.
Simple Living, Stretching Dollars And Conserving To Make Ends Meet.
If you did not need the loot, it was sold to someone that did. Or donated to be an auction item for a fund raiser to benefit others struggling. Today your diamond tennis bracelet when not round a wrist to impress and in use gets wrapped up like a piece of fresh cod or haddock or rainbow brook trout fish dinner. Sealed in inner plastic then tinfoil outer layer to tucked away and hide in the back bottom corner of the freezer. Valuables in Maine are not rubies, emeralds, diamonds or sapphires. It’s 8 cords of wood all stacked, seasoned and in place ready for old man winter. It’s the next year’s wood fuel laying tree length behind your house and slowly cut up to fit your stove or furnace to stay ahead and be prepared.
Our Maine farmhouse had a heavy brown safe.
Three numbers dialed in and then you found mostly land deeds, a musty leather pouch from World War Two with metals, the last will and testament. The bottom of the barrel seconds and cull potatoes shoveled up in the bins. Hauled to the starch factory for little funds but mad money. My Dad used the starch checks to learn to fly a plane and get to solo for a license to pilot a silver bird. The real treasure in the rural Maine home though, the black and white images of family members. The often pulled out bound albums viewed often and displayed in the Maine household. On walls, night stands and dresser bureaus. The nest eggs and mad money saved in mattresses did happen. Hope there is never a fire that takes the house and savings. When a house is torn down or remodeled, you do find the valuables. Old currency like a twenty dollar gold piece or civil war, etc newspaper clippings. Writing under the wallpaper appears when removed many years or decades later that tell a tale about who lived here. Providing a glimpse into their life in Maine.
Today, valuables are hidden in safe deposit boxes.
We’ve all seen the espionage movies where lots of passports, a gun or two, stacks of large denomination multi national currency bills and passports of every color. All rifled through hurriedly by the film star on the tear. With no daylight to burn or waste. As they have to hop to it. Little time and important places to be to save the World, again. Maine is the the lowest crime state and rural areas don’t have lots of precious gems, furs or valuable artwork to protect. You want to hang onto your chain saw uptah camp, the Honda generator, snow sled and your boat motor Chummy.
The biggest target in any area part of a small rural Maine home would be the bathroom medicine cabinet.
Pain killers when you are addicted make them like a bee hive to a Maine bear with a bad sweet tooth. Sad to say, in small towns, people know who just had a hip replacement or other surgery where a med prescription followed the patient home to convalesce. Drug addiction and self medication for problems in life that depress are World wide.
Being industrious by nature helps living on less but feeling fulfilled and like you have more in rural Maine.
Outdoor nature all around us that is pure and unspoiled is a big part of the no or low cost fun. The fresh air and clean water of Maine and vast open space is a solid cure for what ails you. Boredom happens less and retirement is short lived for those without new hobbies to fill their day.
The Fun Outdoors, No Cost In Maine.
Roger Chapman, a local retiree says like many the first couple weeks of done work is fun but then this is what happens. You wake up, wander out to the garage and putter, tidy up the place. Then come in, turn on the television and watch for a little while. But not for long, snapping it off because something is missing. Let me shuttle the car dealership customers back and forth while vehicles are repaired and they are without their iron horse. Or head down country to pick up and deliver cars and trucks swapped with other dealership in exchanges. In many lots of folks who retire find out it is not paradise and return to work. Happy again because there is someone who needs them to get up in the morning to head to work and help them out.
Many retirees seek employment again to feel like they did something worthwhile today.
Bagging groceries, volunteering, something is needed to fill those forty or more hours of the week reserved for your job when retirement rolls around in Maine. You can only work on so many household projects and not everyone golfs, hunts, fishes full time when they get the gold watch and Maine job retirement party.
Restless, eager to pitch in and be busy because you have worth ethic in your Maine veins.
Many pursue a small business that does not tie them down. Like rotor tilling gardens, plowing snow, clearing porch roofs, landscaping, scraping and painting. Hanging out the handyman shingle and stating no job is too small.
The cost of living in small town Maine is low and the skill set is high. Self sufficient makes it DIY. If it is to be it is up to me. Is it like that where you live now? Thank you for following our Me In Maine blog post. Another edition in the can and that’s a wrap until the inspiration causes another one. Maine, the way life should be.
When you put the city life in the rear view mirror, the transition to small town Maine presents many twists and turns.
The lower cost of living is one of the primary perks. And easy adjustment like no crime, no traffic and being able to see the stars at night because no light pollution. There is a shift from impersonal to live and local connection. An enhanced sense of being pulled in. Feeling more involved, part of the small town life where in the urban setting, you can get lost in the sea of sidewalk blank faces. But the strain on the wallet lightens up in rural Vacationland. Even in Maine, the difference from a house for sale in say Portland or up yonder in Aroostook County weighs in over 62% of the cost of the roof over your head. So markets within the market distinctions creep up to help you figure out where you are best off to land in the resettlement.
Maine Lake Loons. They Stay Off Shore, Serenade, Keep To Themselves.
What else is there to prepare for when your new home address is one zip code that covers many townships?
Where one lonely area code for phone calls serves the entire big state of Maine sparse population. Well, you examine your priorities. You have less choices in some of the retail areas, but way way more options for the no or low cost recreational what you do for fun.
When you need an electrician, a plumber, someone to fix your car or furnace, get ready to be patient. You can not let your fingers do the walking in the yellow pages to locate a never ending supply of technicians. The best ones are busy. You plan to hit many projects as the first one out of the gate in the spring. This applies to the hired out building a home. Or you postpone some expensive projects until mid winter. When folks are caught up and looking for work. Especially inside labor to carry the cost of living in small town Maine.
The Bees Are Busy Pollinating The Maine Potato Fields In Summer.
You also become more adept at tackling a greater share of what needs to be done in your life.
Because getting started is better than waiting and although it takes you longer on new experiences testing your DIY skills, you end up finishing about the same time who you wanted to have do the job is freed up to show up and perform their magic.
There is not an slew of options for the pick of the pack, best of the bunch in anything in small town Maine circles. You appreciate what you have and are grateful, content, developing lasting joy. Happy happens summer or winter or spring or fall. The season matters not. And with medical, often, there is room for 1.5 of the specially trained doctors and not quite two professionals. There is strength hidden in population numbers as they grow and allow more to sign on in the employment ranks.
Why People Pick Maine For Low Cost Property, The Wide Open Space.
What you do for fun in small towns is usually out in the country. Nature captures the heart, pulls on its strings in our traditions. You protect, become a good steward that is respectful of Mother Nature and all the wildlife too. Often what is entertaining involves the fresh air and clean water, lush smells of the woods in the great outdoors. The four seasons make each visit to the outdoor venue that refreshes best to have a slightly different take away.
Visit a lighthouse in Maine in the winter, when no tourists are toting cameras or talking or sharing the setting.
You will see what a difference the experience is when it is just you to hog it all to yourself. Try that in a city setting. You can not get away from the people. There just is so little space and often a park or two is all you get to share. And don’t forget Canada, our neighbor where many in the crowd over home are related. No, it is not dangerous being this close to Canada here in Maine. People actually ask that.
And many of the festivals or seasonal celebrations are bigger but fewer. Not offered year round but everything banked on one big memorable day or portion of a calendar week to showcase it. Maybe we have more choices but in from a revolving conveyor belt delivery as the seasons change. You see a lot more home grown and one of a kind mom and pop places as opposed to franchise sameness too in small town Maine living. You witness more use of bikes, horses, and using your imagination in backyards in small towns than behind locked security doors inside, many stories up in a city landscape.
Baxter Park, Have You Hiked Any Of The Peaks? Been To The Top Of Mt Katahdin, Maine’s Highest Elevation? How Many Times?
You feel the sunshine, are more aware of weather in small rural towns. Because you plan to be out in it, not under a roof or between four walls.
Meeting places, they are the corner gas and grab to go pizza joints. Or in the aisles of the local IGA, Surefine or Shop N Save, Shaws or County Yankee groceries. At school gym or playing field sporting functions, in the back of the church or near the snacks after the service. Or sitting on an open porch as folks do more walking than driving when in a small Maine town. And stop to talk as they climb up the porch steps to ask about each other’s family members. And how things are down at work.
Whatever is new in town or what is playing at the small movie theatre or maybe a drive in flick gets discussed at this week’s friendly meeting . Or re-visiting something in the newsprint from a few weeks back for a local topic that is a concern to all taxpayers in the small Maine town. Comparing notes in an ongoing conversation only folks in the small town or region of the county would feel strongly about that would not interest the city mouse. Discover Northern Maine. Sample Downeast Maine. You get to witness something rare, special, not commercial spun or for profit. The list of places we try to highlight in this home grown Me In Maine blog post series.
Sitting in the center of town, or in a common parking lot for those new and old that can drive.
Waving to other motorists. Holding doors open to businesses. Smiling comes easy. As the sun sits, the weekend arrives. Sliding into the angled parking spaces and removing the glass in the window to say hello. To begin where they left off the last meeting talking back and forth from inside a car or SUV or pick up truck. Maybe one pair of car occupants get out, get in the back seat of the neighboring one. Snow sled, ATV four wheeler trails cause groups to gather at club houses along the route too. Where pot luck suppers and fund raisers with incredible spreads happen. Those fill the belly and take care of the need to be social, to feel apart of the local community in small town rural Maine towns.
The attitude of the locals, sure Maine comedians try to exaggerate the Downeast slant that at times takes a different angle on day to day life in Vacationland.
Like the Purple Clam video blogged about earlier if you drop in for the hit or miss on the post stream. Hit the Downeast hyper link above. The friggin’ clam is determined not to be trapped in the wire basket with the handle. He frustrates and wears out the digger down a finger on one hand. Who has a score to settle on the mud flats near the blueberry barrens of Maine.
Free Of Layers Of Players, Maine Simple Living Means Reduce, Reuse, Conserve.
But how someone appears to sweet or sour sound in conversation and what they really feel deep down inside don’t always match up in the ballistics test review.
We all know being around someone that is toxic can suck the air out of the room. That bitching, complaining can be contagious and a nasty habit. Discouragement and slow to change thinking to adapt to new economic situations can mire a person who just gets weighed down too heavily.
Overloaded worrisome thinking means head to the hills of Maine. For some control, alternate, delete. The nature trail of fresh air and clean running water that regains a healthy perspective. Does a body and mind good. A positive outlook always gets a person through the day best.
So the spell when a rural small Maine town gets challenged to revamp how it rocks and rolls.
Paper or lumbering mill communities have the biggest economic hangover. Farming with hops and the scramble to get in on the ground floor of pot creates a buzz. The increase of younger micro farm producers has caused a stir in both the organic and conventional agriculture sides of Maine field operations.
Slow to change means dying on the vine, bleeding out and look Mom, no more small dot on the Maine Gazatteer atlas map.
Banding together for consolidation and reduction of duplication of services started years ago. Late night meetings into the wee hours to discuss the limited choices. Plenty of time to get used to the idea of inevitable change and the right direction in the tough choices has already happened. To avoid deorganization and surrender of identity to one of the sixteen counties that absorb the townships, plantations that become township this, range that auto piloted one level up the government food chain pay grade.
The Peace And Quiet In Maine. Unplug, Recharge, Get Your Head Screwed On Straight.
Unfortunately the quickest way to turn the wagons around on the way into a box canyon is to be bankrupt on resources. So no more delay or talking solutions to death without implementing necessary steps ceases. Unfortunately “We’re out of money” is the quickest way to cause change instead of hoping each department or program administrator pulls themselves out of the local mud collectively.
Doing the right thing for the greater good means letting go, not looking over the shoulder waiting for Augusta Maine legislators and the Governor to come to the rescue.
These are the good old days twenty years from now looking back. The talk about “they need to this, that” discussion and pointing at leaders six feet under pushing up daisies wastes precious time. You and I are “they”. For the lead, follow or get out of the way.
Tradition, Wearing Wool Snow Caps Flipping Burgers And Pancakes. Maine Has Distinctive Eateries.
So when you vacation in Maine, as you head deeper into Vacationland away from the tourist traps, you see rugged individuals.
Polished smooth by hard time and perseverance. Experiences not taught in a classroom. These salt of the Earth individuals that work, live, play in small Maine landscapes. They are dependable, constant and never waiver. Not fickle fair weather friends but friends for life.
That have a few more facial lines than most and not from laughter but concern. And plenty of outdoor weather exposure in all kinds of elements. The desire for more jobs so our young don’t have to be the number one export is on the minds of all. And the need to stay positive and brainstorm to creatively hammer out the best solutions to keep small Maine towns more than just afloat. But to prosper and grow takes patience and sharp tongues that are silenced with duct tape over the pie holes. Best case scenarios solutions to real problems and not personal attacks is the only approach small Maine town populations can adopt.
Get excited, not discouraged. Be part of the solution, not the problem that need a common plan that the majority of locals can believe in to tackle the issues.
