"Outsider" in Maine? (Washington, Otis: insurance, crime rate, homes)

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by AlisonL

... Would you pick up a hitchhiker you did not know?

Yes, I would.

I do.

But then again that is the kind of kindness that I have seen from Mainers, so I try to fit in and do likewise.

[Let's tell the truth]

Originally Posted by msina

Jumpin Jones!! I am from Maine, "north of the Volvo line", and I'm going back to Piscaticus County. A guy here recently beat and bit a 3 year old girl in the face and head, (the mothers boyfriend) leaving her scared for life, last week another LIB (live in Boyfriend) beat a 10 month old baby to death. I'm sorry if things aren't good for you, as the volvo line continues to migrate you may see more people come into your area. Wish it were better for you. As for me, I'm getting the heck outa here.

I will be leaving to when the time is right wish I could now but not possible.But no matter where I move part of me will alway's come back to this forum because I will forever tell the truth. Glad people are not ignoring me !

[AlisonL]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

Yes, I would.

I do.

But then again that is the kind of kindness that I have seen from Mainers, so I try to fit in and do likewise.

Then you are alot more trusting with your life than most folks I know. 30 yrs ago maybe, but not these days. Anyway, I was making that point to the person who so said they don't fit in.

[Zymer]

This is a funny thread...sure, bad stuff happens. We can all dig up some horror story or other just about any place we go, in any state, or in any country. But does that mean that the entire area, region, country desrves a bad reputation? That's like eating in a restaurant somewhere and getting a bad meal/experience and then condemning the food of every establishment in the whole state.

Part of my childhood was spent in Washington County- Machias/Holmes Bay/Cutler. I've been gone from there for a long time, returning only once, some years ago, to bury my grandmother. I have made a couple of trips there in the past months, and even though no one knew who I was, Amost everyone I talked to was friendly and helpful...with one exception.

My wife and I were awakened in our hotel room by a strange voice at 2AM. A woman was sitting at the table, talking on the phone and using the computer. She was very, very stoned.

Apparently, she had been fooling around with some guy who had been renting the suite previously and still had a key. It took a while to get her out.

But should I condemn the entire town, or county because of this one incident? Of course not, something like that could happen anywhere. (As it turned out, the woman was probably related to me somehow, her last name matched that of one of the branches of my relatives.)

As far as strangers not being welcome, one of the times when I was up in Aroostook I was doing a rough survey of a piece of property I was interested in and accidently wandered onto someone else's land. The fellow came out and politely asked what I was doing. When I explained, he proceeded to give me a guided tour and point out the property lines. We had a nice chat and a nice walk in the woods and when we were finished, he even agreed to do a land swap if I bought the property because the house was built only 15 feet from the line and I wanted to expand the "buffer zone" around it. Real nice guy.

Almost got into a bit of a jam down in the town of Jackson but politeness and respect on my part smoothed it out. My wife and I were on motorcycles, not Harleys but similar enough in appearance. We were looking for a piece of property that was a little off the beaten path and missed a turn off the gravel road we were following into the hills.

After a while we saw a sign that said 'Private Road, Pass At Your Own Risk'. We stopped at the top of a hill and down below there was a car and a pick-up blocking the road (one lane, gravel, no shoulder) and several people were in the field doing something with the cows. My wife and I were talking over the noise of our motors and she was a little loud as she pointed out to me that the name of the road was NOT the name of the road we were supposed to be on.

So I said 'OK, fine, I'll just go down there and see if those folks can get us pointed in the right direction.' Well, when I got down to the bottom of the hill, this red-haired woman jumped out of the pick-up and started giving me an earful- 'This is my %#$&(*@ road, this is my %#$&(*@ land and these are my %#$&(*@ cows!'

I was just a mite confused as to what I'd done to deserve this behavior but I just turned off my motor and sat quietly until she stopped yelling. After a while she took a little time to breathe so I inquired as to why she was so upset.

There was a little more yelling and I manage to pick out the relevant parts where she had apparently mistaken my wife's loud voice being directed at me for being directed at *them* because they were blocking the road. I just agreed with everything she said about it being their right to block the road if they wanted to, saying 'Yes, Ma'am' were appropriate, and finally agreeing with her that if she wanted to sit there and block the road all night that was perfectly acceptable to me, as well as apologizing for it being the situation that it was my wife yelling at me for being lost over the sound of the motors rather than at them for blocking the road.

She didn't quite know what to say after that and just looked at me for a bit, then finally asked why I was there. I explained what we were doing and that I had told my wife that I thought these nice folks could probably get us directed to where we needed to go.

She was real helpful after that. I waved my wife to come down and we should them a picture of the place we were looking for. They were familiar with it and told us how we could get there, and a bunch of stuff about the place and its history and the people who used to live there. Had us a nice friendly little chat for a while, about the land, and the people and her cows (they were there helping with the birth of a new calf).

At the end of it, she offered to get the vehicles moved over enough so we could get by and told us we could knock on so-and-so's door if we needed more directions when we got further along...along with the particularly helpful bit of information that, although we could try if we wanted to, she didn't think our machines were fit to get us up onto the hill where the house was, and recommended that we come back with something that had 4-wheel drive.

Although the encounter started out a little rough (and I was kind of wondering if we might see a shotgun or two), with a little polite respect we all parted friends in the end.

They were good people, we just had a little misunderstanding at first.

[lukedaddy]

Wow Zymer, I thought this was going to be a plot for a movie for a moment there....had me intrigued anyway! But I agree, being polite and using your manners can go a long way. Currently my wife and I are trying to move to Bangor from GA (she's originally from NH) and I have been wondering how we would be accepted. But to be quite honest, alot of what I have heard about most people in Maine sounds pretty similar to most people in the south. My slight southern drawl may draw some attention initially, but I'm sure I will have a easier time fitting that I had originally thought. Now it's just a matter of snagging this job!

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by lukedaddy

Wow Zymer, I thought this was going to be a plot for a movie for a moment there....had me intrigued anyway! But I agree, being polite and using your manners can go a long way. Currently my wife and I are trying to move to Bangor from GA (she's originally from NH) and I have been wondering how we would be accepted. But to be quite honest, alot of what I have heard about most people in Maine sounds pretty similar to most people in the south. My slight southern drawl may draw some attention initially, but I'm sure I will have a easier time fitting that I had originally thought. Now it's just a matter of snagging this job!

I think people are pretty much the same everywhere. I wouldn't worry about the accent, I've got one too, from my years in Oklahoma and Texas.

I have an aunt who moved down from Machias to Georgia, I don't see why the reverse can't work. I was down there visiting a few years back, Bowman, GA to be specific. Hadn't seen my cousin in a long time. He was kind of banged up, he does a little stock-car racing, seems there was a little disagreement among the drivers. His wife was a little stove up too, she jumped in to help when the sides were uneven. Gotta admire a woman like that.

[danagetty]

Originally Posted by Let's tell the truth

I will be leaving to when the time is right wish I could now but not possible.But no matter where I move part of me will alway's come back to this forum because I will forever tell the truth. Glad people are not ignoring me !

You make Maine sound like one of those Lifetime Movies of the week about small town corruption. I have to tell you, when you sprout negativity it makes it so that no one takes you seriously. I believe that at your age that you should be aware of what a negative connotation does to your message. Hint: It destroys it. I want to move to Caribou or around that area regardless of what you've said.

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by danagetty

You make Maine sound like one of those Lifetime Movies of the week about small town corruption. I have to tell you, when you sprout negativity it makes it so that no one takes you seriously. I believe that at your age that you should be aware of what a negative connotation does to your message. Hint: It destroys it. I want to move to Caribou or around that area regardless of what you've said.

LOL

Well said.

Is anyone aware of any town or city that is free of corruption?

Has anyone ever heard a rumor of a place that was free of corruption?

[Let's tell the truth]

Originally Posted by danagetty

You make Maine sound like one of those Lifetime Movies of the week about small town corruption. I have to tell you, when you sprout negativity it makes it so that no one takes you seriously. I believe that at your age that you should be aware of what a negative connotation does to your message. Hint: It destroys it. I want to move to Caribou or around that area regardless of what you've said.

Good Luck to you and I do mean that.

[louisemartin]

I'm from Maine but live in CA. My husband is BLOWN AWAY by how nice people are to us when we visit Maine. My sister and her husband had a different expereince one time. That will happen occasionaly but Mainers are really very nice people!!