Just moved to Belfast

[kamorra2]

The Rollies in Searsport is much nicer than the one in Belfast. If you're looking for a decent place to play pool, have drinks/eat and play Trivia, that's the place. I haven't tried Papa J's yet but I sure will! I ate at Bay Area Wraps today. I'm not sure what I think about it. It was about 10 flavors mixed together. It was um interesting and very unique.

I went into Camden today and was shocked at how small it was. It was very cute but I was expecting something bigger. It was very cute but very small. I would imagine it gets really crowded in the summer because route 1 runs right through the middle of it.

I went to Bangor last weekend just to do some shopping at the mall there but I didn't see much. I keep waiting for the fog/rain to clear up. You can't see much of anything outside right now.

I plan to try out Bell the Cat for coffee soon. I wanted to try Coastal Coffee but it's closed.
Maybe I'll try Dunkin Doughnuts. I do like a good cup of coffee so any more suggestions would be great.

[island mermaid]

I have a girlfriend here in my bldg who has only been to Maine once in her life when she was a young girl. Her uncle owned a chicken farm in Belfast. She can't remember where it was. Apparently, it wasn't the greatest experience for her. She hated the smell and the only other thing she can remember is watching him kill a chicken for dinner. How sad that she only remembers those parts of her trip and now associates the entire state of Maine with chicken farms.

I remember seeing and smelling them throughout Belfast when I was younger. It is too bad that the industry left the community without those blue collar jobs.

[arzachena]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

Its an interesting thing really...some loathed the chicken industry here but it really made Belfast and the surrounding towns what it is. MBNA came in, but lets face it, we all knew it was a flash in the pan as thus it turned out to be.

In some ways the chicken industry leaving cleaned up the town, but it also cleaned up the bay. Those chicken parts were devoured by the lobsters, but now the lobsters are gone and so are the lobstermen. Notice how the boats in the harbor are pleasure craft, and what few working boats remain all head way down the bay to lobster now?

Inland, you drive by chicken barn after vacant chicken barn. This kept the workingman busy but atlas those days are gone. The sad reality is, even with Athena here and Bank of America, those jobs are not for the average blue collar worker, or worker that came off the many farms. Its a hard place to scratch out a living and once you adjust to it (or like me grew up within it) you can't work in an office. I tried and failed.

Back when the chicken industry was here, Thorndike had two stores, two grain mills, the railroad ran everyday and the men worked. Now the stores are all gone, the railroad is dead and the town looks worse then Cairo, Illinois...absolutely dead and desolate with everything up for sale, and I do mean everything.

The chicken industry did throw out some negative stuff too like bad smells and a bad reputation, but at least the surrounding towns were alive. Now Belfast is trying to bill itself as another Camden, Maine but its not really succeeding. The city council has made some really bad choices the last few years. Booting the railroad and booting the development on the waterfront are two quick ones I can think of.

I've been to Cairo, Ill...Belfast is not like Cairo at all.

[CoastalMaine]

Two different people on here have complained about the DD's in Belfast. I haven't gotten coffee there on my way out of town. I've always whipped in to Mickey D's. It's a road habit when I'm traveling up and down the coast to and from Ft. Lauderdale. Mickey D's coffee is Newman's Own House Blend. Not bad. I like it as much or better than any of the DD's I have been to, but I still prefer my Starbuck's French Roast in the morning if I can make it. It's my self-indulgent moment.

The Starbuck's in Hannaford's is about $2-3 dollars more a bag than here on the Cape or Florida, so I always buy 3-4 to bring up to the camper for the season when it's time.

I'd be curious to know what your investigations turn up for coffee houses. It's fun to stop in to one and have a little pick me up and something sweet when you're out bopping around.

Originally Posted by kamorra2

The Rollies in Searsport is much nicer than the one in Belfast. If you're looking for a decent place to play pool, have drinks/eat and play Trivia, that's the place. I haven't tried Papa J's yet but I sure will! I ate at Bay Area Wraps today. I'm not sure what I think about it. It was about 10 flavors mixed together. It was um interesting and very unique.

I went into Camden today and was shocked at how small it was. It was very cute but I was expecting something bigger. It was very cute but very small. I would imagine it gets really crowded in the summer because route 1 runs right through the middle of it.

I went to Bangor last weekend just to do some shopping at the mall there but I didn't see much. I keep waiting for the fog/rain to clear up. You can't see much of anything outside right now.

I plan to try out Bell the Cat for coffee soon. I wanted to try Coastal Coffee but it's closed.
Maybe I'll try Dunkin Doughnuts. I do like a good cup of coffee so any more suggestions would be great.

[moughie]

Originally Posted by Kracer

Anyone remember the Belfast bears?

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/763...smediumia5.jpg

Yup. Some were cute others too odd!
When was that, about 12 years ago?

[Kracer]

http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/8112/bb1smallyc4.jpg

This one is a bit spooky.

[Elcarim]

Eww! WTH?

[BrokenTap]

Oh I remember the bears alright. They were a big hit and then they voted to not bring them back. What The Fannypack??? (Hey I am polite even while online)

People from away were coming here to see them and they vote not to have them in town again??? Belfast City Planners are silly, but if you know Belfast history,that goes back 100 years or more.

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by arzachena

I've been to Cairo, Ill...Belfast is not like Cairo at all.

That's true, Cairo Ill has a working soy bean mill, Belfast has nothing!!

Actually I worked in that town a lot back in my railroading days. That is truly a sad town. We can blame our weather for killing the chicken industry, they can blame their loss on a major flood. It is a depressing city for sure.

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by Fort Lauderdale mermaid

I remember seeing and smelling them throughout Belfast when I was younger. It is too bad that the industry left the community without those blue collar jobs.

It was not Industry's fault to be honest with you. It was the 1980s and the price of fuel was rising. It just was not economical to heat huge chicken houses to raise chicken. It was cheaper to build chicken houses in the south where they can be penned up but not require vast, insulated and heated buildings. One by one the industry left, Maplewood Poultry and Penobscot Poultry in the short 34 years I have been alive and living here.

The blue collar job loss is the peoples fault. Sears Island Cargo Port could have been built in the next town over, along with a coal fired powered plant in Stockinton Springs, but both were turned down. The big rush now is windpower. Wind Turbines are going up all over in this county...28 due on the inland ridge alone. Nice power, and clean energy, but no real jobs. No wonder 30% of this county lives below the poverty line.

If you want to feel sad however, you have to look at the dairy farmers. 349 dairy farms in Maine now. One in my town was just sold last week. Nationally there is only 60,000 dairy farms left. It sounds like a lot, but america drinks a lot of milk.