Move to Maine??? every passing day you will find this to be true: (Bangor: new home, school)

[slyfox2]

Since a very large part of the population is retired, I notice that there is way less treating me like I’m an idiot or hard of hearing, in stores.

This sensitivity to other Mainers extends in ways that you just never see in Pennsylvania where I lived the other 9/10 of my life. People are just nicer to each other.

[Jellybean50]

Originally Posted by zalewskimm

NJ drivers are really bad, rude... LOL. Sorry, I'm sure you're not one of them.

Hope you get offers on that home soon and get to Maine asap..

Thank You.

I'm a really good driver! And not rude anymore, OR impatient. When i used to drive to work in Delaware i used to have some road rage - many yrs ago lol. Something i noticed in Maine, people seemed to always pull out in front of me! I started to think my truck was invisible. I'm sure i was just imagining things...

[OpinionExperience]

Originally Posted by Jellybean50

Thank You.

I'm a really good driver! And not rude anymore, OR impatient. When i used to drive to work in Delaware i used to have some road rage - many yrs ago lol. Something i noticed in Maine, people seemed to always pull out in front of me! I started to think my truck was invisible. I'm sure i was just imagining things...

You will hear the term "Excuse You" when in a public place.

I always took the time to get out of the way of pedestrian traffic when in public places to read a sign or get my bearings on where to go but you still get a person who walks in a straight light expecting everyone to get out of their way. Common courtesy is to say excuse me when you are trying to get around someone, instead they say "Excuse You" in your face.

Another one is if you ask a question "Why is YOUR problem, my problem".

Then there's the blank stare from across the room by a stranger you never talked to. Ignoring you to your face when you say hello.

What exit are you from?

When you are repeatedly targeted by your appearance, accent or where you are from you look at the world differently.

I still like Maine and look forward to visiting but now I see things differently. Retirees and women are welcome. Middle aged, healthy, single, drug free men have a different kind of welcome like we are a threat.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by OpinionExperience

If this is all true then why does Maine have a diminishing population of younger generations?

To make room for all of us retirees, who have been flooding into Maine.

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Submariner

To make room for all of us retirees, who have been flooding into Maine.

Maine is regulation happy, but one that sold me is the "no loud booming music from your car or you'll be fined"... Finally. Every state should adopt this. not to mention Maine is only one of 4 (?) states that ban billboards. Love it. Genius.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by zalewskimm

Maine is regulation happy, but one that sold me is the "no loud booming music from your car or you'll be fined"... Finally. Every state should adopt this. not to mention Maine is only one of 4 (?) states that ban billboards. Love it. Genius.

A few years ago, I had to go to California for a funeral. My flight to fly back to Maine left from Fresno. Driving through downtown Fresno to get to the airport, I was shocked by the billboards. It seemed that every house had a huge billboard mounted on it's roof. I was on the street where I had lived in the 1980s, and I had totally forgotten about the billboards. But they were everywhere, and all in Spanish. Even the house I used to live in today has a 40 foot billboard on it's roof.

We drove out to Kansas for Thanksgiving this year. One leg of that drive was through the 'Flint Hills' of Kansas. A 100 mile stretch of road without intersections or buildings or any trees. Just rolling hills of brown grass and billboards. The billboards were mostly spaced about 100 feet apart on both sides of the freeway. And they were all you could see horizon to horizon.

Maine is fantastic

[slyfox2]

There aren’t a lot of jobs in Maine. Younger workers tend to move where there are jobs. There are more jobs in the metropolitan Philadelphia area than in the whole state of Maine.

[OutdoorLover]

I have heard people in many states offer some firmly held belief along the lines of "People from my state are good. People from the other state are bad." I think such statements are ridiculous, no matter what states we're talking about. I have never noticed, nor do I believe - that people from any state are better human beings than from any other state. In my opinion, these are just prejudices that people look to confirm in their experiences with others - they'll overlook the a-holes and criminals and focus on the nice people from their own state, and then do just the opposite with people from the other state.

[slyfox2]

Originally Posted by OutdoorLover

I have heard people in many states offer some firmly held belief along the lines of "People from my state are good. People from the other state are bad." I think such statements are ridiculous, no matter what states we're talking about. I have never noticed, nor do I believe - that people from any state are better human beings than from any other state. In my opinion, these are just prejudices that people look to confirm in their experiences with others - they'll overlook the a-holes and criminals and focus on the nice people from their own state, and then do just the opposite with people from the other state.

Your address states that you live in Massawhatsits. My daughter lives there. I can easily tell the difference in the driving patterns from when I leave here and go there. I can easily note how much less polite people are in stores there than here. I can tell you how much harder as an elder it is to get waited on in stores compared to here. Its an obvious difference that I can experience every time I visit south to Holyoke.

Say what you want. Those of us who moved here from some place in the mid atlantic mega-gopolous all know the difference in how we are treated by others there compared to here. We commonly say “only in Maine”.

When I first moved here, the guy who was running for state legislature actually visited my house to talk about what he wanted to do. In 40 years of voting, that never happened before. Its actually pretty common here.

[TheCoolMoose]

For the most part the OP is correct about this state. I came from CA last year, and Ive been here for about a year. I lived in a rural area of central maine near Old Town, and recently moved south. In my adult life, Ive lived all over CA from the southern california concrete jungle of Orange county to the rural hills of northern california where the nearest store was 45min away. Traveled all over Oregon, Washington, and down through Arizona. I came to Maine to experience the east, deal with less traffic, and less congested areas.

Mainers have been the most judgemental, backwards, and hateful people ive ever met. Mainers are extremely distrustful of "outsiders", that leads to straight up rudeness and condescending attitudes. Ive experienced so many dirty looks, and hateful envy from coworkers and "friends." Ive actually found most Mainers to be quite miserable, and they've lead hard lives.

The basic way of understanding if youre from away, is a visual metaphor. Think of the movie 'Deliverance' . When I was in the rural areas of central Maine, I found the locals to be predatory, criminal, and just backwards. Stories of mental, physical, and child abuse. Ive witnessed numerous dysfunctional families, and people addicted to hard drugs. One poor guy's son killed himself. Since Ive moved out to a bigger city, the people seem less predatory, but the "<bleep> outsiders" mentality is still present. Ive found it hard to trust Mainers, in that they'll stick together and lie in order to protect criminal or shady behavior.

Ive read some of the threads on here stating that outsiders get that attitude if they give attitude, but I was humble and non-judgemental when I first arrived. The judgement and attitude was directed at me merely because I was from away. I was shocked once I started dealing with the people. After 6 mo, Im more of a recluse, and im unwilling to interact with these people. Just yesterday got a dirty look from my neighbor once she saw my Cali plates after her stupid little dog comes barking at me from her yard.

"Outsiders" have to be willing to "take ****" from the Mainers if they want to stay. Its just reality.