Sam
Smith – My
parents bought a house in Maine years ago when I was eight. There were endless
summer visits, during many of which I worked on their farm. I was driving a
tractor and double clutching a six wheel truck when I was 14. For the past decade I’ve been living in the
state fulltime, leaving a journalistic lifetime in Washington, DC. I used to
tell people that I was bi-coastal – a term usually reserved for the Pacific and
Atlantic oceans – but that my coasts were on Maine’s Casco Bay and DC’s Potomac
River.
Now you might think this record would entitle me to near native status, but Maine isn’t like that. As one story explains, a lady was telling a Mainah that she was born in the state even though her mother wasn’t. Responded the native, “Well you see that stove over there? If that cat went into that oven and had some babies you wouldn’t call what came out biscuits, now would you?”
But at least I’m not from Massachusetts. Maine was once part of Massachusetts but broke loose in the early 19th century, the Scots Irish freeing themselves from the Puritans to the south. Even to this day, though, you occasionally hear the residents of the lower state being referred to as “Massholes.”
Maine was one of those states that early defined itself, but mainly by practice rather than words. For example, two of its most important historical occupations – farming and maritime jobs – have had effects I’ve never heard a Mainer mention but which clearly impacted the culture. One of these is multitasking. The farmer, for example, has to be a veterinarian, a climate observer, and a truck repair guy just for starts.. Another is the more important role of women. One recent account said that there were more high ranking women in Maine than in any other state. With men off to sea for long periods and farming demanding immense shared labor, it’s not surprising that this role developed.
Then there’s a fact that struck me as a journalist from the nation’s capital: the only bullshit that is given value in the state is that which you find on fields and barn yards. You can’t talk yourself out of a fallen fence or a Nor’easter storm.
Which doesn’t mean life can’t be enjoyable. For example, I’ve found that you can’t do business in Maine without an anecdote. This not only relaxes the transaction but gives the other party a sense of what sort of guy you are.
Here are a few other things that make Maine different
- Maine is full of internal immigrants, people who have moved from another state to start a different life here. A recent report had Maine in third place among states where other Americans are moving to. Little noted about immigrants is that they are unusual members of their own culture simply because they have made the courageous choice to leave it. Combine such folk with the independent native Mainer and you have a community of hardy individualists.
- Mainers naturally understand environment and ecological issues.
- Maine still practices democracy pretty well. Mainers believe in reciprocal liberty – i.e. I can’t have my liberty if you don’t have yours. And, thanks in no small part to its agricultural and seafaring background, Mainers intrinsically understand that competition and cooperation are not always opponents but can be allied skills.
- Maine has long been a highly favored place for artists, musicians and writers. We tend to take it for granted, but it is, in fact, a major attribute of the state.
- Maine is cool atmospherically as well as culturally. In fact, it’s the third coolest state in the union, after Alaska and North Dakota. Given the growing climate crisis this is a big asset, but how does Maine remain Maine if it becomes too appealing to other Americans? This is the sort of issue it needs to face.
- Maine talks differently. To begin with, its residents are Mainahs. You store stuff not in the basement but down cellah. And if something is appealing to you its wicked good.
- Finally there is the Maine skill in survival. The fix it up-make it do-use it up -do without tradition is something that much of the country is going to have to learn as times gets tougher.
So even if, to natives, you’re forever “from away, “ there’s no doubt you can learn a lot from Maine. Just don’t tell a Mainah how to think about it.
