puzzled with attitude towards Maine (fit in, for sale, taxes)

[fxtrader]

"Flat lander" is a term used in the "County" for someone not from there or city folk. Typically an out of stater but have heard a of Bangorians and Portlanders refered to as this also.
In the "County" they would refer to anywhere from below there as "Down Country" and they lived in "Up Country".

[corgis]

Down here a flatlander is someone who lives on flat land not the hills. It means exactly what it is

[tcrackly]

I thought Downeast they referred to a Flatlander as someone not familiar with coastal life.

[dramamama6685]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

I thought Downeast they referred to a Flatlander as someone not familiar with coastal life.

That's what I thought.. as in I would be one!

[mainebrokerman]

ive heard the term flatlander for many years,, i always thought it referenced folks from the midwest

[gussie]

I'm from the midwest, Northern Illinois and never heard that term used before.Maybe it's a term used for the Kansas, Oklahoma area where it is flat..........

[Submariner]

All things being relative; there are areas of this continent where the land is flat, and there are areas with tall mountains.

I grew up in a valley with high mountains on the horizon, visible everyday that it is not overcast. Year around we cloud see the snow caps. I did a lot of hiking as a kid. Hiking with an oxygen bottle is different, but that is how you do it when you go that high.

The highest mountain in the continental US is within a 100 miles of the continent's lowest altitude point also. [Mt Whitney - Death Valley]

I do not understand the reference to 'flatlander's as used by Mainers at all. Would it be said by someone who lives on a tall mountain? If so then they obviously don't live on the East Coast.

[dbfairfield]

I understand. I lived in Portland for 7 years and moved down to Ky. I make sure every summer I go back to Portland to see friends and family. When I tell people that I moved down here from Maine I get the same puzzled look.... You just get used to it and not try to explain. If they hve never lived there and experience it then they don't understand. :-)

[FNolan]

Yea, the wife and I got the same questions from Missouri when we told people we were moving to northern Maine. "Why do you want to move there ? It's so cold !", I responded, "You can always dress for the cold. Here in MO you can only take so much off before they tell you put it back on" When I told them the average snow fall here was 130"+ they couldn't believe it. "How are you supposed to drive in over ten feet of snow ?!?!?" They apparently thought you got the ten feet in one huge snow fall. Sigh, people

[beltrams]

Why do folks from away think Maine has some kind of monopoly on cold?

Most of the upper Midwest and Plains are every bit as cold, if not more so, than Maine.

Montana is cold. It's rural. It's mainly a resource economy. It's probably a bunch of things that people negatively associate with Maine, and yet Montana right now, along with places such as Idaho and Wyoming, are seen as the places to be, with people, especially from California, well-to-do ones anyhow, streaming in. (Maybe that's good or maybe it's not - I'm from MA myself )

I think Maine's current, negative image is way over-done, and due for something of a reversal, quite frankly.

If nothing else, it has relatively cheap land, reasonably abundant clean water, and a lot of timber for lumber and energy - things that are in increasingly tight supply around several other places in this country. High tech is great and it does places like MA well, but the basic resources, historically, always do a place well long-term, and Maine is set up well in that regard.

Maine right now reminds me of the private high school I went to for freshman and sophomore years. Everybody ragged on it, including the students. We made fun of our own sports teams (Football was 0-14 my freshman year) and everybody laughed at the place including us. But... then our newish school somehow survived and became not so new. Our alumni pool grew. We built up some money in the endowment, and things started happening. 25 years later it's a really happening place, with tight admissions, lots of new facilities, and sports teams people brag about.

It's situation and fate was not nearly as bad as everybody indicated and it turned around because basically, it was a sound place.

Maine strikes me as something of similar similar story nowadays. I can't prove it, explain it, or put my finger on it anymore than this, but Maine's reputation and desirability, will take a turn for the better in the coming years.

On edit, I'll add this: Maine feels like a way over-sold stock that I'd cover, and soon.