Remote Maine Towns (Bangor, Old Town: high school, living in, zip code)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Your GPS says your destination is 3 miles away, but you have to drive downstream along the river about 28 miles to get to the first bridge to cross the river. Some people even doubt that such towns exist. Then there are the six towns (and numerous townships) all sharing the same zip code because it is the last place mail trucks will go. Beyond there the mail goes by snowmobile, float plane or mail boat.

It is because of such situations that people call the Northern Maine Land Man to solve the unsolvable problems. As of an hour ago, there were two polling places that had not reported their primary election votes. I found one of them and cut the problem in half in five minutes. I'll have the second one after dark because the registrar of voters is likely on a skidder. No, I am not going to try and find him.

The establishment has a great deal of angst about these things and I am doing my best to avert the Secretary of State from rolling into that town with a SWAT team to avert something like this from ever happening again.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Um ... what?

[Northern Maine Land Man]

A little back country Maine humor. Not to worry.

[karen_in_nh_2012]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

A little back country Maine humor. Not to worry.

LOL, I guess I didn't get it because, alas, I am still living in New Hampshire at this point. Will probably retire in Maine, though (I can dream ...)!

[movintime]

Originally Posted by karen_in_nh_2012

LOL, I guess I didn't get it because, alas, I am still living in New Hampshire at this point. Will probably retire in Maine, though (I can dream ...)!

Get there before MASS. moves up/encroachs, as it is doing now (WAKEUP!!!), & keeps you there in NH.

[TheKezarWoodsman]

Is this a joke thread or serious, not sure what i should be rooting for..

[Northern Maine Land Man]

It's all true, but told in a humorous manner regarding those people from away who do not understand us. I had lived in town here for about three months and walked in to the town office with a question. The first selectman was shaking his finger at a citizen and said that he should not have anything to say about it because he was new in town.

I missed the subject under discussion, but learned a lot in that moment. Town government did not want to hear opinions from people who were "new in town". It turns out that questions were OK.

The one who had the selectman's finger shaken at him was born 10 miles away, been a town resident for about 30 years, but was "new in town".

[TheKezarWoodsman]

talk about not being accepting of outsiders. Are most/all the towns North of Bangor like that in general where they will do that to more reasonable suggestions, or could this be a case where he was trying to argue a extremely insane point?

either way "new in town" sounds more like not a towny there.

[Submariner]

One of my neighbors, Greg, will tell anyone that he is "from away". His wife is a native of this town, but he was born in the next town over. In getting to know these two. I learned that they both were born and grew-up about 2 miles apart from each other. She grew-up in Argyle, he grew-up in Old Town. He was like a mile on one side of the town line, she was a mile on the other side of the town line. His place of birth is about 6 miles from where I live. It was not in this town, so he is from away.

Their children live in our town. Their grandchildren live in our town.

In a way, I think of this as a Maine thing. But, ... then I consider my hometown and my high school class.

Merced California, class of '77 with over 750 graduating seniors. About 100 of us attended our 25th reunion, only two of us were living outside of a 40-mile radius of the highschool.

Our highschool class has it's own Facebook page. The majority [90+%] live in or near Merced, along with their adult children, and their grandchildren.

Upon consideration, I am not sure that it really is a 'Maine' thing.

[TheKezarWoodsman]

Originally Posted by Submariner

One of my neighbors, Greg, will tell anyone that he is "from away". His wife is a native of this town, but he was born in the next town over. In getting to know these two. I learned that they both were born and grew-up about 2 miles apart from each other. She grew-up in Argyle, he grew-up in Old Town. He was like a mile on one side of the town line, she was a mile on the other side of the town line. His place of birth is about 6 miles from where I live. It was not in this town, so he is from away.

I also feel i should state there is a difference between having it "pointed out" in a nicer/joking manner, (i am known to pick on myself a lot as well), and experiencing what NMLM described (depending on what the discussion was). If the town office wont hear your opinion even once as you are a "flat-lander" (is that the term), then i could say one could find a slight issue, assuming it is reasonable (if you wanted to ban logging/hunting/etc, then you can expect alot of backlash). Another case when i could see it being bad is if this resident tried to push his agenda for the past 30 odd years, got denied every time, and NMLM might as well just walked in when the selectman had enough.

its not a Maine thing either, its big down here in MA, although after 3-5 years you tend to work your way into the town enough to be taken seriously.


I have to say though, in regards to Maine, this seems to be one of the largest issues, as the job industry is similar in other places i have been looking. Ruralness is at a good level (even rhe portland area is comparable to rural MA, so thats a good "worst case"). Seems a good mix of liberal/conservative (and not the MA type conserverative). Is far enough north to give a real winter, and cooler summer temps (mid 80s is my summer max comfort), very gun/hunter/trapper friendly (the latter is so/so, if not for lynx restrictions i would say its above average), is close enough to my family to be able to visit incase of a emergency, as opposed to out west were it is a plane ticket away ($$$), ect. One of my concerns is just how accepted one can be, as you can find the best place to live, but it the locals all run you out for being from outside (which is very resonable due to people like quimby/ect), even though you try to, and do intergrste fairly well, then there isnt much point in staying to suffer through it.

(P.s. I could of sworn i made a thread on this topic, but can not find it. I got one for Idaho and Montana, but not Maine, although i did piggyback a thread similar for a post or two.).

I think i may have just touched on most all my threads/questions throughout the past year and a half i have been here.