Living in a Small Maine Town

Living In Small Maine Towns | Local News Collected Off The Grapevine

Living in a small Maine town, the grapevine news is not just gathered filtering national sources.

The latest happenings around the Maine community not covered by CNN, FOX, NPR, BBC, NBC, CBS, ABC or some other big name news source. No New York Times, Washington Post. Forbes Magazine does not have lots of small rural Maine stories in their glossy pages with high end color photo spreads. Also, a small rural Maine radio station if you are lucky enough to have one is probably a “rip and read”. Something major could happen locally but it would be some time before it hits the wire service for broadcast outlets without a local news department to pick up on it. More on the history of Maine broadcasting.

Unless the local event, accident, fire or whatever news story hits the AP, UPI teletype news service, it stays dark and untouched. Or left to the weekly newspaper to tackle and break the story for its readership. We get the latest close to home news, the spin on state and national coverage from local family gatherings. From employees at work from all walks of life. Picked up with the two ears on the side of our heads from kids tapping into other circle sources. Maine has a low population. The folks that do live here are tight. Hannah oversees the Yankee Swap at the annual Christmas party out at the McGuire’s below in Linneus Maine.

small maine town famillies
The Local News Gathered At Family Events In Small Maine Towns. At Corner Grocery Convenience Stores Like Cameron’s Market In New Limerick Maine.

Commercially, it’s best if your “this just in” small Maine town news story happens in time to get covered in the latest daily broadcast.

Or especially so it can appear as big as life in the weekly edition of the black and white news print local outlet. If it does not, stay tuned. Could be many days later. Or not at all or as an after thought in skimpy coverage down the road. No one likes old news that’s like moldy bread.

The timing of the news living in small Maine towns is critical.

How many other competing stories are out there to tackle impacts what you do get splashed across the front page or in the broadcast lead in news gathering. This all seriously impacts what does or doesn’t get covered. Making it feast or famine for lots or  just a little to report on in small rural towns in Maine. The editorial and small rural Maine news gathering staffs on the print side of things especially suffering steady shrinkage.

The army of often only one or two reporters do the best they can covering their beat.

Always coaxing to come on over to the cyber side presentation where you scroll and tap, swipe, double click. To break the habit of open wide, spreading the newspaper wide to scan the columns and turn the pages. Media outlets are consolidating and working hard to get us to make the leap to digital formats of the news delivery pixels. But that’s where the “local militia journalist” become the cub reporters to fill in the community news gaps. Everyone has a cell phone camera. Can hunt and peck and they do shoot “the you are there” pictures and video with copy hammered out with two thumbs or a pop out stylus. As they roam around all the small rural Maine locations, the community itself, at large shares the “news” they see first hand in their travels. Neat huh?

The term is accurate. There really are “slow news days” when not so much is shaking locally when living in small Maine towns.

That’s when journalists revisit old news articles for an update. Dig harder to create the copy the other end of the conversation can enjoy and find useful. Or tap into the human interest angle from the guy and gal on the street. To hand them a mike, quote them for a printed sound bite. Dragging them into the spotlight to learn what they think. Weighing in on an opinion poll on one or a variety of topics of interest to the audience. We all want to know what others think and learn from their perspective.

living in small maine towns
Maine. Vast, Insulated From The World. Smaller But A Tight, Close Population. 11 People Per Square Mile In Northern ME. 44 Per Mile In The Southern Sections.

No one can update you better than someone you have known for years and who is living Maine small town local.

Someone you trust and full of the same local area pride. What’s new delivered in a special, personal way with local expressions and a mix of humor. Maybe a tad of fiction. Or part of what the person relays is what they thought they heard Bubba say. But lots of people were talking, my hearing is not what it used to be comes into play. Factors causing the what you thought you heard getting blender mixed and twisted in the information. The stuff you hear and repeat like it is gospel gets exposure. Like Paul Revere hollering while he gallops through the streets close to home. Raw, real, unpolished, but out there and not kept a secret.

Sharing information that resonates all around you in your daily travels happens more in small rural Maine towns.

News gets passed on and on in the small Maine community circles. Give me the local you know and trust for free sharing of the news. Nothing missed in the translation or relay. Not delivered from a talking head with an agenda and an obscene salary. Who has an artificial smile with perfect teeth but does not even know where the small rural town is in way up there in Maine. (more…)

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New Year’s Resolutions | Maine Simple Thinking, Quiet Places

New year’s resolutions, are you after simple living, doing your thinking in quiet places?

Is your new year’s resolutions list held firmly under a strong magnet on the front of your refrigerator? To remind your daily of the new dance steps you yourself penned.

maine outdoor simple living
Is Your New Year’s Resolution To Fish More? To Spend Time Getting Outdoors In Maine?

The list of good intentions that causes glee or guilt. It all depends on how things unfold this new year. Assume the position for study and reflection developing your New Year’s plan.

Did you party late into the night and watch the ball drop?

Or are you late to the party about spelling out your New Year’s Resolution dream for 2020. What’s that? I hear muttering about you’re just too busy, no time. Just have not gotten around to carving out a list or why bother. Procrastination is one of the most common resolution list item to conquer for many.

So it seems lack of time is the biggest obstacle.

More time, what you long for way too much like a powerful hunger or thirst to quench.

Better use of the time is where the extra seconds, minutes or hours are hiding. Why always hurrying and out of time? Like cramming for a test. Why do you wait until the last minute to study?  Is it because we run over booked lives with too much multi tasking? Or just waste the precious time we have on social media. Watching others with lives new and highly exciting compared to ours?

Maybe better use of our time is the number one New Year’s resolution to make.

To become better organized and remove the junk or clutter that robs the joy. To do a better job living

sleeping child in maine boat
Too Much Excitement Or Pacing Yourself With A Cat Nap. While Waiting To Go Water Skiing On A Maine Lake?

within our means and developing a savings plan of time and money. Keeping it simple living in Maine.

A lot of people living in high cost urban areas are all doing their homework, planning their escape to Maine.

Maybe that is your primary new year’s resolution? Been on your list year after year as you prepare for the jailbreak to get to Maine. You need more fresh air, clean water and all this wide open scenery. Lose the hemmed in feeling in the vastness of Maine.

A lot of the New Year’s resolutions are about improving and tightening up our physical health habits.

To go easier on the internal organs and realizing personal health is up to each of us to maintain. Respect the body like it is a temple. If you feel fit and trim, that’ll help big time. To improve the quality of life with the DNA hand we were dealt from the family gene pool. What your earlier loved ones in the family struggled with or died from too early in life. You think about those people more the older you get as the years fly by at a quicker pace. (more…)

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Work Ethic, Lazy Used To Be A Disgrace.

Work ethic, where’s it come from and what feeds or hurts the drive to be anything but lazy.

The fire in the belly fuel to go above and beyond. How do you create and maintain that productive work ethic laboring spirit that just won’t quit? I don’t know about you, but during my childhood raised on a Maine farm, the parents did a stellar job. Creating a desire to work hard and do a good job at the family home, school, out in the work force, in your community.

They worked long hours and we knew no different but did not feel picked on. It made us resourceful, independent, sometimes glad to be done a job like picking field rocks. But we did it. Other kids in small Maine towns did too.

You’ve all heard the story about anyone from Maine applying for a job out of state was hired instantly. It’s no secret about Maine’s work ethic.

maine farming work ethic
Learning How To Work, Enjoying Labor, Sticking With It. Work Ethic Is Developed, A Muscle To Tone.

Daily, my three older brothers and I witnessed Mom and Dad working hard daily on the Maine farm.

Both parents grew up on dairy farms where everyone in the large families works vital roles. When you are around hard workers, you are taught the importance of carrying your part of the load.

How to save steps to do the work of two. You don’t want to be labeled “lazy”. You don’t just work, you want to be the best at the labor.

Standing around watching someone working their guts out is not fun or comfortable. The pitch in and help out gene activates when you grow up in rural Maine. Where money is tight and frugality is a survival sport, As you got older in a Maine household where your parents owned and ran a Mom and Pop business, the list of duties increased right along with the new skills added to your resume.

When your Mom or Dad praise you for doing a good job, completing the task well it makes you beam.

Causing pride and to feel worthwhile appreciated is a warm sunshine feeling. When told we can count on you Sonny. To realize you and your brothers, all the kids in this Maine household are a vital part of the family. Where I need you and vice versa and everyone works together. All the cylinders firing in order, on the same page for the common skills to get the job done. Before moving on to the next items on the lengthy chore list. Don’t waste the daylight.

Work ethic, local farmers in my area hired kids to pick potatoes in the fall, to put up loads to ship down the road over the winter.

Not everyone was lucky enough to grow up on a Maine farm. But that did not mean jobs to earn money were not in abundance in our small rural area of the Pine Tree state. My Dad swore that kids did a better job handling the potatoes than mechanized harvesters. He raised 250 acres of golden spuds. All the crop hand harvested with four baskets in a barrel. Then pickers adding their ticket number in the groove slot on the top.

Eight row crop harvesters cover a lot of acreage quickly but leave boat loads of potatoes behind of all sizes. The rough handling damages the soft skin with cuts and bruises. That impacts the value in storage and out on the market later on. The produce buyer pays less for lower quality potatoes.

But back to today, work ethic, how is it viewed in society? What is happening to it as a highly sought after commodity when hiring your work force? There are cracks in the give it all your got in the work place. (more…)

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