Is there a north/south divide in New England? (Portland: transplants, live in)

[mm57dot]

Last Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day and me and a friend decided to drive up to Portland. We thought we would stop by Old Orchard Beach since it was (almost) on the way. It had been many years since I'd been and the area was crowded and nicer than I remembered. We walked out onto the pier and I noticed that a guy was selling T-Shirts that said M******* and Proud Of It!!!!! with a big green outline of our state. I found this very offensive but I got over it and we continued to Portland. We arrived in Portland and were waiting at a red light on Congress Street when an older man yelled "Go back to Massachusetts". We couldn't believe this rudeness, we were just waiting for the light to change. About ten minutes later, after I had found street parking, a younger man about 30 or so said the same exact thing "Go back to Massachusetts". We were totally dumbfounded. What is the problem? What happened that would inspire such hostility? Needless to say I moved my car and parked so that no one could easily see my Mass plates. We felt totally unwelcome in Maine and it was an eye-opening experience that I don't want to ever go through again. Can someone please tell me, what is the problem?

[tankratt]

As far as the T shirt, I have heard many people from Mass. refer to themselves in that term, as far as the go back to mass call out's how do you know they were Mainers? I do know from my vacation this summer in Maine I didn't see any of that or hear any such thing. My guess Yankee Fans, lol

[mm57dot]

I live in Mass and have never heard Mass residents refer to themselves that way. The older man was in a pickup truck with Maine plates.

[lrfox]

I had never hear "m*******" until I went to Maine. There is some hostility towards mass in maine (FAR more than there is toward maine in mass) but I would call it well-earned. Many visitors from mass are jerks. I noticed a lot more welcome than resentment in my time in Maine but there were always a few haters. I'd say that northern new England has more hostility for southern new England than the other way around (most here are entirely indifferent) but it's not too bad at all. I'd say you had a poor stroke f luck.

[AliceT]

People who hate are everywhere. Just because someone has Maine tags on their car doesn't mean they are long-time Maineacs. Probably transplants themselves. Let it go in one ear and out the other. Always smile at such people. It really irritates them.

[Acadianlion]

North-south divide in New England? Oh, sure! In fact, there is a north-south divide in Maine. It's called "The Volvo Line". Oh, let's revive that OLD, OLD, thread here. It really otta be good for a few laughs!

Seriously, I think that the majority of Mainers are very tolerant of people who are not from Maine. Having said that I believe that there are many people who have lived here for some length of time who are irritated by people who come here on Vacation, and behave badly. This includes driving poorly and aggressively, and carrying an aggressive attitude in public. I see a lot of this sort of thing in the traffic in and around Ellsworth and Acadia National Park. I have heard comments such as: "The traffic control is terrible here. Back in Jersey, we do it THIS way....or perhaps back in Connecticut, we do it this way...etc." This kind of attitude is common among people who have never been here before and experience the effect on local streets that five fold increases in traffic bring.

The guy selling t-shorts at Old Orchard Beach was probably not from Maine at all. He was probably a summer worker from a t-shirt company in, say, New Jersey. Anyone who made a comment toward you on the street was exactly that: someone on the street who probably was drunk and disorderly, and perhaps from away.

But it should also be remembered that there are those folks from outside of Maine who are hell bent to change Maine "for the better". There are organizations dedicated to turning Maine's vast northern woodlands into a national park. One of those organizations is located in Boston, and in some parts of Maine, Massachusetts plates are not particularly welcome.

But I think that hostility toward people from Massachusetts or elsewhere is NOT universal. Take me, for example. I was actually born and raised in Massachusetts. It is true that I came here as a summer visitor for the first time when I was six months old, and every summer my Mother and Father drove up here for summer vacation and to visit my Mother's family....in our 1947 Plymouth with Massachusetts plates.

So because I was born there, lived there, grew up there, I know the truth about Massachusetts. And because I had the good sense to leave there more than 30 years ago and move to Maine, I now fondly refer to those drivers of vehicles with Massachusetts plates as "M-------s", am glad to see them come and spend wads of cash in the local economy, and then......LEAVE.

Those folks from away prove the old Maine saying that I am so fond of. They truly can't stand the winters, but they DO get to have the summers because.....they PAY for them!

(that's a joke. In fact, this ENTIRE post is a joke!)

[woolwiTch]

MM, I'm really sorry you had those bad incidents happen to you. Some people do get hostile about tourists' bad behavior, especially as we approach the end of the season, but that's no excuse for accosting somebody based just on a license plate. For what it's worth, I have lots of cousins in Mass. who come up here at least four times a year, obviously with Mass. plates, and they've never run into a hostility problem. It's rotten that you had to run into those jerks.

[dmyankee]

I was officially awarded "Mainer" status a couple of years ago. But that was only after spending 22 winters up here. Most people from away, know their place, up here (he, he, he.)

Actually, this long miserable season has put a lot of people in a post Labor Day mood for some time now.

[GreenGene]

It's a shame that a person's license plate would invoke such comments, especially given that Maine's economy depends in part on tourists. Seems a bit like biting the hand that helps feed you.

When I was a kid going up in Boston, we'd vacation in Maine every summer, and I don't remember seeing any visible resentment, nor hearing my parents speak of such.

My wife and I just got back from a week in Maine, and people were without exception extremely pleasant and friendly, and that has always been my experience with Mainers. And if they even noticed our license plate, they probably just thought, gee, they've come quite a ways to be here.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Troll Alert:

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