You Know You're in Maine When... (Portland, Madison: buy, military, law)

[retiredtinbender]

My folks would buy me a pair of green rubber boot with teh yellow band around the top. They were better because at school we'd build dams in the spring where the melting snow ran down from the Primary to the Grammar School yards. At any given time before school, at recesses or lunch time there would be a dozen or more kids working on 5 or 6 (or more) dams. Just before going back in school the top one (usually the biggest) would be opened up and they'd try to flood the lower ones. If they didn't break then a group wouold usually "help" it out by kicking at it a bit. The boots were required equipment for scraping drt and san and ultimately, running through a dam that was built too well at lower elevations. Goloshes or rubbers just weren't up to the task. Plus they were better for diggin holes to shoot marbles. Try asking the kids about shooting marbles nowadays adn you get a blank stare. Lord, I sound like my father, rest his soul.

[mollysmiles]

omg! I forgot all about that! thank you tinbender! That brings a huge smile and a flood of memories!

[alittlenerdy]

Has there been a discussion about this so-called "mud"? I saw some "mud rooms" on realtor.com, but I'm not sure why they are necessary. I would call that kind of a room a foyer, although I've never had to take off my shoes unless I was walking into my Japanese friends' house.

[elston]

Mud rooms are really a great addition for your maine home.....a place to put on and take off boots....to hang wet jackets.....to dry wet mittens....to put on slippers....not all homes have a mud room.....but they are great.....ours is in the entry from the garage to the kitchen...and also has another door to the back deck. I love the utility of a mud room.

At this time of year.....much of the ground is still frozen but there is a layer on top about an inch or two that has thawed out......but rain and melt can't perculate into the ground....hence the entire yard is apt to be muddy! No matter how you stomp and wipe your feet, if you go outside, you will be carrying in mud!

[starwalker]

Originally Posted by alittlenerdy

Has there been a discussion about this so-called "mud"? I saw some "mud rooms" on realtor.com, but I'm not sure why they are necessary. I would call that kind of a room a foyer, although I've never had to take off my shoes unless I was walking into my Japanese friends' house.

If you live in the CITY they might be less necessary, but even there I suspect the stuff they put on the roads in winter, which gets tracked in, would make a good case for a "mud room." If you live in a smaller town or in the country they are essential. We do not have one. And need one.

Helps keep the floors (carpeted or not) MUCH cleaner this time of year when you step out of your boots or change shoes before entering the house. And like others have said, it is the best place to keep the plethora of outdoor gear that is necessary -- especially if you have a family's worth of coats, snowpants, hats, gloves (likely more than one each).

[KiddinAroundFarm]

Originally Posted by alittlenerdy

Has there been a discussion about this so-called "mud"? I saw some "mud rooms" on realtor.com, but I'm not sure why they are necessary. I would call that kind of a room a foyer, although I've never had to take off my shoes unless I was walking into my Japanese friends' house.

Mudrooms are also a great place to store firewood! We keep ours stocked pretty full w/firewood all winter, since we have a nice open kitchen w/a place to deal w/coats and shoes. Makes for easy access to the wood all winter. Fill once a month or so, and only go up the stairs to the deck then, not every time you fill the stove!

[elston]

When I was a kid we didnt have mudrooms....but there was a shed attatched to the kitchen in one house I remember....where you could pull off boots and put on slippers...It also had places for skis and snow shoes and a table that served mom as a semi refrigerator to store foodstuffs. It wasnt really part of the house nor was it "outside".....sort of a passage way; it is possible it was once a back porch that had been glassed and enclosed....this was nothing fancy!

[Lonzo1463]

Mud Rooms should be in every home in every state, people in California don't know what there missing. When your front door gets drifted in at your mud room and you were smart enough to add a few windows and keep your shovel inside your house you can climb out the window and shovel your self in :-} somewhere in te Tough End of Perham

[GreenGene]

You know you're in Maine when......

Well, this is from someone who is from away (originally MA, now VA). And I would complete the sentence by saying "... when you cross the railroad tracks."

I grew up in Boston ('til age 14). My dad worked for IRS in Boston, and every summer he'd manage to have some work to do in the Augusta IRS office, and he'd take some vacation time as well. And every summer (starting in 1955), we'd pack up the car and head north to Maine.

There was a place called Pinerest Cottages (the cabins were sold individually many years ago) on Lake Maranacook a bit outside AUgusta, and every summer for varying lengths of time (and sometimes, for the entire summer), we'd rent one of the cabins. And there we would renew friendships made with the owners of Pinerest and various people from various places - MA, CT, PA, NJ, etc. They'd always be someone to pull skis, or organize a baseball or softball game. There was a beach, and a big fireplace at the beach, and every Monday night all interested guests would gather for pot luck, or a cookout, or sometimes a lobster bake. It was an unbelievably wonderful place and experience for kids.

In 1955 (when I was 3), it took a LOT longer to get from Boston to Augusta, and I am told - I have no memory of it - that I stood in the car the whole way. And, of course, I kept asking, are we there yet?? And my parents would answer, "when we cross the railroad tracks." They were smart - they didn't want to tell me we were in Maine when we still had quite a ways to travel.

My father had directions from the owner, and knew that about halfway down a dirt road to the cabins, we'd cross some railroad tracks. And we'd have to stop the car, and look & listen before crossing. And once we crossed, we were officially in Maine.

I went back to Maranacook in 2005 with my wife ... the 50th anniversary of my first visit to that magical place ... and we stayed in one of the cabins I had stayed in with my family so many years ago. The dirt road seemed a little shorter, and the far shore wasn't quite so far away. But the magic was still there, and I felt the same excitement when we stopped, looked, listened, and then crossed the tracks into Maine.

[elston]

Such a nice story green gene......made me remember driving to Maine from NH when my eldest son was just about 5 y o. As we came to the Memorial bridge over the Piscataqua River I mention to the lad that we going to go over that bridge and then be in Maine......I thought he'd be excited but he started crying and fussing and working himself up into a panic.....his mother had to hang on to him ....we thought he was going to jump out of the car.......it got worse as we got closer to the bridge...."No Daddy, No Daddy...please don't go over the bridge!!!" As we started across he went limp and calm and said, "I thought you said we were going over the bridge!" The poor kid thought we were going to drive over the arched superstructure of the bridge......not on the road bed.

Going across the tracks would have been much easier way of saying we are in Maine.