This is MyTown, ME and this is why I chose it. (Bangor: houses, neighborhood)

[Abbymoulton]

Originally Posted by 7th generation

Love the manure scenario abby!!!
They will plant me here and the grass will grow greener above...cause I'm full of manure!

That is the ONLY way to be

[genmomto5]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

Thanks to the Air Force I've lived in a few places. We settled back in Maine when I was six. I started school in the Philippines. I left for a year after high school. Florida's nice and all but The Mouse just doesn't have the same pull on me as the moose. Our oldest daughter spent two years in MN working in a group home for men with traumatic brain injuries a few miles from Mayo Clinic. She's been home for two years. She's glad she went and more glad that she came back. It's good to see and experience new places, ways and people.

I can't think of a single place uncultured place. Culture isn't one specific set of standards. I hope we all keep this in mind when we're out and about in the state. There's much to learn about Maine's huge, diverse cultures.

LOL It is pretty uncultured right here, just had a four year old climb on my lap and while giggling announce she farted on me.

But I agree with you 100% culture isn't one thing and I have found that I close myself off when i don't seek out the variety wherever I am. Though it is true that often the more people around the more activities you would have available. I have trouble settling in to any community at first and small town groups that no each other very well can be intimidating for me and it would take longer for me to feel like I fit there, if you kwim.

[Elcarim]

Love the manure scenario abby!!!
They will plant me here and the grass will grow greener above...cause I'm full of manure![/quote]

As we say here, "You're so full of it, your eyes are brown!"

Just kidding! I don't remember what color your eyes are, but I do remember how handsome you are!!

[woxyroxme]

I'm counting the minutes until I can return to Eastport, things are relatively unchanged since I was a kid. Anytime I come back the old memories just come back to me. I never felt any kind of attachment to where I am now and dread the thought of living the rest of my life here.

[Elcarim]

Originally Posted by woxyroxme

I'm counting the minutes until I can return to Eastport, things are relatively unchanged since I was a kid. Anytime I come back the old memories just come back to me. I never felt any kind of attachment to where I am now and dread the thought of living the rest of my life here.

I hope you make it back soon! Do you have family there? What specifically draws you back?

[woxyroxme]

Originally Posted by Elcarim

I hope you make it back soon! Do you have family there? What specifically draws you back?

Yes, my great aunt, her daughter and my grandmother's cousin are still there. Everyone else has long passed away, two of my great uncles, George Malloch and Kenny Malloch are pictured on p.26 of the book The Island City by John "Terry" Holt. Eastport has a familiarity that I don't have here.

[mollysmiles]

Woxy, I know Drama and I talked about this but I can't remember--was Kenny the plumber who lived in South End and was George married to Alice? Is that the right Malloch? It seems that when she told me I couldn't think of who she meant, but now this comes to mind....

[forest beekeeper]

I grew up in a rural farming community. I have lived in various sizes of cities during my career, and in general I have formed a lingering bad opinion of cities in general. My last large city was Naples, a city of 4 million, full of corruption everywhere. Perhaps it did not help that my job when I lived there was Law Enforcement. But when we returned stateside and lived once again in a home that we had owned for a decade previously, all I saw was the corruption and crime even in that city [Norwich Ct].

And so we began our shopping for a home in Maine. We wanted a retirement home that was rural. Low crime, low taxes, and low government control.

I began in Southern Maine, I had arranged to meet with a realtor and I looked at many properties.

I stayed for a week, and kind of began working my way North ward.

On my next shopping trip, I had prearranged to meet with a realtor in Belfast. Each day he gave me a stack of property listings, and maps marked with his suggested route to get me from each property to the next. I worked East-West in bands looking at properties, and each day shifted my focus slightly further North. He was a great help. But after that week, I just had not found anything that I really liked.

On my next shopping trip, we started about even with Augusta, I met with that realtor and again he gave me a stack of MLS sheets each day. I did find one property that I liked in Liberty, 50 acres of lake frontage, I made a bid which was accepted. I met a number of the locals, and I thought that I had found an area that I would really like.

A week later I returned with my youngest son and we camped out on the land, and met a septic-design / soils-scientist; he and I walked all over that land, and nowhere could find a site that could support a septic system. I backed out of the escrow.

On my next shopping trip, I met again with my realtor and looked at properties right up to the border of Aroostook. I made a run up to Cutler, I had always heard to Cutler, a vital asset to the submarine fleet, and I had known men who had been stationed there. The Western Hemisphere's largest radio transmitter is a neat site.

I met with a realtor in Howland and I went out to view a few properties with him. He gave me an other stack of MLS listings and I spent a few more days looking at properties. By Millinocket, I was looking at one property when I saw a 'For sale' sign with a phone number on it. I called that phone number, and eventually I met a couple who have their own list of properties that are for sale. The husband is a forester, they buy land from logging companies, they maintain four pages of properties that are all for sale,

I found two properties that I really liked. One in Milo and one in Argyle.

I decided on this one in Argyle, I walked the property lines of this property
and I took a bunch of pictures.

I went to the regional LURC office and I asked the guy there 'Jared' for all of the information that he could share with me about this property.

I returned to Ct and showed the pictures to my DW and her sister. They loved this place, having only seen those pictures.

I told my SIL that the land across the road is also for sale by the same couple, and she insisted that she should buy it. All without ever having seen that land, or visited it. Simply because I liked it, and the pictures that I had taken of the property across the road.

So I made an offer to buy both of these properties. I bought this one, and my SIL bought the property across the road. The seller's offered to do a quit claim deed for me, but I insisted on using a lawyer. We used a local land transfer lawyer who charges a flat fee of $200.

These properties are in an unorganized township, which is slightly different from a dis-organized township.

Everything that I have seen and learned about this township, are things that I like, so far.

The taxes are low, when our children go to a neighboring school they are treated like royalty in thankfulness for their status as 'tuition students'. And there is very little government over-sight of what we are doing.

I like things here for a multitude of reasons. I can live without locking my front door. I see folks shopping in the winter with their cars left running in the parking lots. When somebody runs their car into a snow back, the next car WILL stop and offer assistance, guaranteed!

I go into the VFW and everyone will call out my name and greet me every time that I step through the door. This is a great community! and much better lifestyle, that what I have seen anywhere else that I have lived since I was a child.

[Elcarim]

Great info, Forest. Thanks!

[mainebrokerman]

i grew up in two maine towns, one near augusta and one a small fishing village along the coast,
as kids, parents didnt have to worry about the kook factor, we had to be in "by supper-time" and if we were late the neighborhood moms would hollar our names,,,,somehow we always heard them.
we played kick the can, camped out in the woods and open fields, sleeping under the stars,, we would go to many a neighborhood houses, that the parents didnt mind the kids playing at, if it were raining.
a treat was going bowling, or to a movie, we were always outside,,finding stuff to do,,making our own go-karts, playing baseball, basketball, croquet, and made sure we played nice with the kid who had the built in swimming pool,,so we could use it,
we went fishing, dug our own worms(and catching night-crawlers at night with a flashlight, with a quick hand, you could get hundreds)
we never heard about crimes in our town,,always "somewhere else"
i often drive by the neighborhood i grew up in,,as in today,,,
this is the nostalgic view,,
of course, we did our work,,our chores, helped with chopping and stacking wood,,,was working on a fishing boat when i was ten,,
i grew up wearing clothes, mostly from k-mart,,, i never complained because altho there were friends much better off, there were also friends ,,,much worse off,,
we were taught at a young age,, to look down upon arrogance, never brag about what you may have to someone who has less, we were taught to help others in need,,whenever we could, because if there was ever a day we were in need, we would want friendly neighbors also.

we worked odd jobs whenever we could, raking/mowing lawns,,etc,,we were taught the value of a dollar, and the importance of saving,

the town i live in now,,is much like the town i grew up in,,im very fortunate