Why did I leave (Belfast, Warren: credit, how much, employment)

[Mark H]

I left Windham in 1975 to join the Navy.
I have only been back a couple of times, The last time was in 1999
and I was amazed at how much it has grown.
Anyone a longtime resident care to reminise

[Mark H]

Oh yea now I remember....No job, no place to get a job.
But now I would move back if I could make 60k like Im making in Austin,Tx

[Mark H]

Its suposed to be 70 degrees here in Austin Monday.
I hear its snowing in Maine, but I dont own a snow shovel!

[bigchuckie]

Go ahead rub it in but I will remember you in JUly when it is 82 and Iam enjoying a sea breeze on MDI and you are stuck in the 100 degree steam bath of TX

[Mark H]

Right...last August we had 20 strait days over 100

Thats when we go Toobin' on the Guadalupe river

[Acadianlion]

When my daughter was set to graduate from the University of Maine it was mid winter. Her grand plan was to graduate, and then spend the winter "hanging out". The first summer her goal was to work on MDI to get enough cash together to take a trip around the country. That was the first thing that she wanted to do after earning her degree, and after that she would start her career and life.

I said "NO".

Jen graduated from the University with high honors in journalism, but I was under NO illusions about what sometimes happens to pretty young girls who "hang out" in Maine in the winter with little to do other than "hang out".

I feel that Maine is a wonderful place to live, to grow old, and to raise a family. That being said, Maine is really a long way out of what passes for the "main stream" of American life, and earning a living here is problematical for most people who need to find an employment from others. Without specialized skills or advanced education, OR perhaps a pure entrepreneurial spirit, earning a living can be tough.

For my daughter (and son), I wanted them to go away and have some experience in the rest of the world. After that, if they wanted to come back to Maine, they would have at least been one place else and have learned about one place that they didn't want to be. So that's what happened and I took her to Florida where she worked for several years before getting married and starting a family.

Eventually her husband returned to Maine working for MBNA in Belfast. Now, since MBNA has undergone major changes the job opportunities with them are drying up, and my daughter and her family have moved to Norfolk, Virginia.

My daughter still wants to live here in Maine and raise her family here, but her husband has no formal education beyond high school, and there are slim to no opportunities for him to duplicate the income that he can make in the credit chasing business out of state.

Maine may well be the "way life should be". But if you want to live here, and live well by the standards set in other, more industrilized or populous areas of the United States, you had better bring your own skills, and you own ability to carve out your income, because the local economy is small, and offers relatively fewer chances than elsewhere.

[Mark H]

Well said Acadianlion
My dad worked for S.D.Warren paper doing the same job for close to 40 years and I couldn't see myself doing that all my life.
So off into the the great USA I went where th oportunities abound.

[tkx7]

on the flip side, Maine doesnt have a lot of the big businesses so there is more oppurtunities for starting a business or becoming some sort of entrepreneur.