Small town living in Maine.
The attraction of Maine small town living is stronger than ever. The longing for space, a sense of connection and being needed is part of it.
The joy of volunteering and helping others is a way of life in Maine small town living too.
Volunteering is a way of life in small town living in Maine.
All ages involved from youngsters helping little ones. Older active seniors training those middle age workers. The volunteers of all ages are the community fuel. Baking for fund raisers, coaching a youth sports team, working on a community event you’ve been a part of for years.
Small town living in Maine is not boring, never dull because you are invested.
The feeling of being needed and relying on the talents and consideration of others is security, contentment. You can feel you make a difference in small town living in Maine.
You are needed.
Folks count and rely on each other for the greater good of the area.
In small Maine town, you can make a difference.
Serving on local community boards and shaping policy. Combining personal talents and collectively guiding the community is its own personal reward. If you don’t do it, who will?
Each season living in a small Maine town there is plenty to work on that improves the quality of life.
Floats to decorate and put in parades, practicing for an upcoming community band concert, playing a role in a community play.
The folks who choose to live in a small Maine town step up and contribute their time, money and ambition.
Not once in awhile but all the time due to deep pride for their community’s small town living in Maine lifestyle way of life.
Volunteering at the local Salvation Army thrift store, ringing kettle bells, distributing local food to families who need it most.
That’s part of living in a small Maine town. Our local Rotary club sponsors a literacy volunteer program.
Taking turns, the club members visit local Maine area elementary schools to share the joy of reading. To cause a spark to get new readers in the habit of reaching for a book.
Who says young children today don’t have the attention span to read a book? Literacy volunteers give away so so many books through the year.
Our local small town library in Maine has a summer reading program.
And a children’s section of the library to foster reading for its many lifelong benefits. Christmas stories around the holidays are part of the library festivities. When someone dies, money is channeled to the library to purchase books in memory of that individual. The sticker label in front of what is bought helps you get a sense of what this person loved and enjoyed.
Local businesses contribute funds to put on free weekend movies too.
For families to enjoy a free Christmas theme movie. For kids to munch on popcorn and watch the flick on the silver screen while Mom and Dad can Christmas shop locally in privacy.
Small town living in Maine.
You have a deeper awareness of more than the open space, the clean air, fresh water and wildlife. Exploring the recreational trails and being close to nature is what Maine is all about but who needs help. Those in your small Maine town that are struggling with an illness, loss of a family member or spouse. That’s where folks get together to make sure the person or family suffering is getting the help and support they deserve.
I think you have greater obligations choosing to live in a small Maine town. There is a sense of duty and like I said before in this Maine blog post. Volunteering is a way of life. As you step up, as those around you pitch in, everyone looks for ways to help. You feel the personal responsibility to make a difference if you are able.
Asking if you can give a neighbor a ride to medical treatments down country.
Or to feed their cat, keep the driveway cleared or the grass mowed. While another neighbor offers to shoulder some other burden chore to free up a community member.
Lots more local communication happens in small Maine town living.
Try to pop into the hardware store, dash into the local Walmart or a grocery store for what should be a quick easy task. Chances are, you will bump into lots of people you know and the next things that happens is a conversation. Often about something only those living in the small Maine town would care about or know the individual or event being discussed.
The upcoming big high school sports game, the local weather. How’s your garden growing or your recovery from surgery going? Knowing the names of all your kids and asking about where they are? How everyone is doing keeps the small local town population current in their local community conversations.
Where is there a job for kids to make some spending money? All kinds of those opportunities in small Maine towns.
Front porches in Maine small towns get used for local new updates.
Folks out for a walk stop by and chat. Same thing happens in small Maine down towns. On sidewalks, or rolling down the vehicle window to talk about small Maine town events and the people living in it. It’s not nosy (usually) and it’s caring and sharing for the most part.
Living in a small Maine town means more covered dishes and public suppers.
Less trendy chic dining at a slew of local eateries. You need a bigger population to support the greater choice of places to pay to dine. But the local eateries we do have in small Maine towns are well supported and you know or perhaps are even related to the folks you see eating or that put on the apron to work there.
I think there is a greater appreciation for the small things living day to day in a small Maine town. Because you are more involved, there is more sweat, love and tears poured into the local community.
Each of us knows the quality of life living in a small Maine town depends on the individuals.
Home grown not store bought. That describes living in a small Maine town. Fueled on volunteers stepping up and pitching in to create the sense of community.
Living in a small Maine town means Saturday you help gather folks to get behind a bottle drive.
Or a spring clean up or attending an important meeting. Working or attending on a snowmobile or fish and game breakfast, a farmer’s museum fall harvest supper. Buying a magazine subscription from a youngster who knocks on your door from down the street.
Fitting in when from away in a small Maine town.
If you had problems where you live out of state now fitting in, often the reasons you left follow you to a small Maine town.
Small Maine towns are protective and highly invested in their communities.
Make an effort to get involved and with a positive helpful attitude, you can blend in wherever you live right? That’s pretty universal and along the lines of if you want friends, be one.
If you are highly critical, pretty much self centered and like to whine or dominate a conversation where everything has to be done your way or it’s hit the highway.
Well, there may be a real estate for sale sign planted shortly after your initial move to small town Maine. If you think folks were not friendly, you have to make an effort to get involved. Pace yourself because there are so many avenues of service to consider.
Many people start small.
Investing in a simple vacation property to try out small town Maine on a part time basis to see how they like it, how the simpler lifestyle fits for maybe longer periods.
Expectations, what caused your desire to move to Maine and leaving where you used to live before?
Maybe you were raised in a small Maine town but left for college or job advancement and poof. Next thing you know, four or five decades whirl by before the return to your small Maine town roots.
The older we get the more change is resisted and maybe the small Maine town experience is not going to be exactly as you remembered it years before you left.
Interstates and Internet have impacted small town life in Maine in good and not so healthy ways.
In life, there is a constant stream of trade offs and where you would enjoy living most is a highly personal decision that only you can make.
So what to plan for as you bite the bullet and make the leap into living in a small Maine town?
If you used to let your fingers do the walking through the yellow pages looking for a long tall list of contractors. Well, welcome to small town Maine where anyone good is busy and worth the wait. All about timing. You need to be the first guy or gal out of the gate in the spring for home building.
Or hit it right just before winter getting the groundwork down to construction a house that is weather tight from the elements. And you slowly finish it off as local tradesmen become available. Not into the slow cooked, think it out, easy does it approach to building or house repairs? What the delay causes is folks to develop and sharpen their own skill set.
Tired of waiting? Let’s attend another session of YouTube University to DIY as much as we can ourselves.
If you are used to hiring everything done and highly skilled in one discipline and pretty much helpless in all the rest, it may be like the old TV slow “Green Acres”.
Heart ache and frustration and longing for where you used to live that offered different taken for granted luxuries.
In Maine, independence to control your destiny and not be so tied to others to help and serve.
It is a strong deep running trait of folks in small town rural Maine. Used for more than survival but for the joy in making more of your own decisions. That’s satisfying and custom made to what you want your life to look like and not so helpless just bumping along seemingly out of control.
Lack of traffic because you live in a small town in Maine with only one or two traffic lights.
Because that’s all you need to direct the flow of traffic that is slower moving and more considerate.
Lower cost of everything because money is tighter and not spent so freely in small Maine town circles. That’s part of what you get in the Cracker Jack box of living in a small Maine town. Let’s face it, the way of life in small town versus large city is very different. It depends on where you are in your life cycle of what works best and weighing the pros and cons.
Community owned and not privatized for profit.
Where I live in Maine, you see a lot more of that. Our local electric utility is a co-op and not for profit. If the local electron power juice provider makes money, there is a utility price reduction. Less exploitation and more for the greater good.
Money is not the end all but managing it is in living in a small Maine town.
Jobs in small towns in Maine can be less varied but the need to make lots of money from a highly specialize vocation is not so important. Housing prices, no cost for parking, less concern about personal safety, low crime all have their own reward in small town living in Maine. Barters, no money exchanged is huge. Some folks are hard to pay back too and very generous. Which is contagious.
Telecommute to work remotely online from Maine to anywhere.
My small Maine town has it’s own broadband Internet provider too. Wired wall to wall and beyond with speed of thought connectivity is a beautiful thing. High speed Internet connects rural Maine to the rest of the blue and green revolving marble quite nicely.
The audience does not know I am blogging this early morning post from a wireless laptop pausing to peer out over the misty, magical Maine lake today.
Unless I tell them. Or show them to let the cat out of the bag.
The move to small town living in Maine often is due to where is the best place to raise a family. We don’t worry about the white van sliding open the big side door and snacking our kids in the 4th lowest crime state in the nation.
Walk to school, ride your bike to the movies, library or little league practice.
Would your kids be able to have that kind of independence? Get that kind of exercise outside the house and off the eerie blue glowing screen living in a big city setting?
Healthier, not just your kids but everyone gets out to enjoy the four seasons of living in a small town in Maine.
Instead of climbing on the commuter train and all the time stuck in traffic to get to any destination, walk. When your small town home location is a block from the corner store or a place to eat a meal, hoof it.
Your backyard in a small town in Maine lifestyle is not a few feet with a tall fence to define it.
There is no need for a fence. You are not in a 300 lot subdivision with snarky HOA bylaws living in a small town in Maine.
Most of the neighbors you can’t see spaced well down the country road live in homes not weighed down with a mortgage. Their cars and pickups, SUVS have many miles on them but are owned outright.
Spending money with impulse control is taught early on with kids earning their green bills wearing the dead Presidents.
Money not doled, handed out like candy by parents to meet their kid’s every needs.
Voting in a small Maine town is taken seriously. Being in line to cast your ballot and knowing by name the folks in front and behind you. To be in a large polling place and not know a soul living in a large urban area would not be the same experience.
In a small town in Maine there is pride and also concern on problems we need to tackle together.
There is not a feeling of hopelessness or of what good would only one person be in the outcome. No matter how small the group, band together and make the situation better than it was in whatever way you can.
You don’t just blend in with the landscape or step back to avoid responsibility in small Maine town living. Not everyone gets along peachy keen all the time and like families, there are squabbles and division. But there is a shared love of the small town way of life in Maine communities.
The parents in small town living in Maine don’t fear their kids.
There is mutual respect mixed with love going both ways in the family connection. It is true the village really collectively raises the child in a small Maine town. Small towns in Maine are really like one large family.
The stigma of living in a small town anywhere comes from feeling trapped.
FOMO, fear of missing out. Or due to early on being told by family and teachers that you have to leave after high school. See what’s out there, travel, relocate for perspective. But never let anyone make you feel somehow you are local townie loser for choosing to put your heart and soul into living in a small town in Maine.
Small towns are walkable and safe.
People wave, smile, stop in traffic to let you cross streets in small Maine towns.
Holding doors open, striking up a conversation. Friendly happens in small town Maine town living. Less fears, more comfortable and no one ignores others. Social happens in small Maine towns. Lower population means closer to all the special places folks flock to Maine to tap into on vacation.
No crowds at a lake boat launch or need to reach for your wallet.
Parking in a small Maine downtown is free and plentiful.
Restaurants, stores are mom and pop unique not always franchise branded in small Maine town.
The economics of small Maine towns are not rich and flashy. More simple down to Earth practical. Using common sense for survival and Maine humor applied in large doses. Locals are fierce about supporting their friends and neighbor’s business establishments. Every dollar spent locally turns over six to seven times.
Trading with each other in a small Maine town feels good inside.
Like being current on property taxes, casting a local ballot, supporting the many fund raisers around you. There is a shift in more and more working remotely and an exodus from expensive, impersonal city living underway.
Have you thought of where to move and Maine comes up in conversations or in the thought process?
Glad to share what we know as a life long native of small town Maine! Here to help answer questions about what small town living in Maine is like as a local insider.
I’m Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers, ME Broker
207.532.6573 | info@mooersrealty.com |
MOOERS REALTY 69 North ST Houlton ME 04730 USA