Native
Mainers often look askance at those of us “from away”... not in a
malicious way, but more like a friendly rivalry. It's akin to the
feeling I had last summer when a visitor came into the coffee shop
and I found out the lady of the duo was an alumnae of my university.
She graduated 11 years after I did, and she did have the wisdom to
pick such a great school, but after all, my graduating class WAS
better than hers... that sort of thing.
Since
we don't go around with name badges hanging around our neck
displaying the year we moved to Maine, if you want to find out if
someone is a “native” or “from away”, you have to ask them...
which is why I'm frequently asked, “How long have you lived in
Maine?”
I think
I've found a way to eliminate this question. It all started a while
ago at our local used book and knitting shop – “WORKS”.
A
delightful lady came in on a Sunday afternoon, and some idle
chit-chat ensued. During the course of our dialogue she mentioned
that she and her partner lived in Brooklin, Maine (about an hour's
drive from Searsport), and they had been cooped up inside their home
for 3 days due the harsh winter, and HAD to get out-and-about. They
decided to head towards Belfast (the next town over from Searsport),
and see what stores were still open for the winter. That's how they
ended up at “WORKS”.
I idly
asked, “How long have you lived in Maine?”, to which she replied,
“5 years”. This is key, so hold onto this information.
Later
in the week, I called some friends of mine to see if they were going
to be at the weekly “coffee klatch” at the local Dunkin Donuts
shop. They replied they would, since they had been cooped up for 5
days inside their house, and that was long enough and they needed to
get out. They have lived in Maine for 2 years. Another piece of
relevant information.
Finally,
a week or so before all of this, I was taking my dogs out to do their
daily “chores” in the midst of a snow storm. A neighbor walked
by, bucking the wind and snow, and toting a couple of grocery bags. I
yelled to her that it was a nasty time to be going to the grocery
store. She replied, “Hey, why let a little winter weather hold you
back.” She was born and raised in Maine.
I've
been here for 40 years, and I go outside the next day after a snow
storm.
So
here's the correlation... the longer you've lived in Maine, the
quicker you go outside after a winter storm.
If
you're born and raised in Maine, you go out IN the
storm. If you've been here a long time, you go out the day AFTER
the storm. If you've been here for 5 years, you wait 3 days... only a
couple of years, you wait 5 days.
So, I
concluded, all you have to do is ask a person how long they've been
cooped up inside their home, and you can tell how long they've lived
in Maine. Pretty good, huh?
I
mentioned this clever theory to a friend of mine, who is a native
Mainer. After I finished my story he looked at me for a few moments,
and said quizzically, “So let me see if I've got this straight.
You've developed a way to stop asking someone a question, by asking
them a different question?”
Hmmm, I
thought to myself. He may have something there. “Yes”, I meekly
replied.
He
immediately quipped... “Ayuh, you're definitely from away.”
