Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - Re: [Homestead] A slang question

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: bob ford <bobford79 AT yahoo.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] A slang question
  • Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 17:15:30 -0800 (PST)

Another very interesting story Susan. You are on a roll this week. Though
my earlier hippie comment was meant as humor (and that term usually is, for
me), the real definition , for most, would include 'lazy' ; not all all what
you are describing.........................

--------------------------------------------------------------------


--- On Thu, 12/4/08, sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net> wrote:

> From: sjc <indexer AT fairpoint.net>
> Subject: Re: [Homestead] A slang question
> To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
> Date: Thursday, December 4, 2008, 5:50 PM
> rayzentz AT aim.com wrote:
>
> > Really? How did they do that? And when? Are you
> referring to a particular event?
> >
> >
>
> Late in the 50s and early in the 60s many people left this
> area for jobs
> elsewhere; the only real jobs left here for many years
> thereafter were
> 'factory' chicken operations, huge processing
> plants down on the
> Penobscot Bay (which had waste chutes 8' across where
> waste was shovel
> straight into the Bay), and a smattering of leftover
> lobstermen and
> fishers. The fisherman were at the beginning of the
> overfishing and
> couldn't make a living, a lot of them turned to
> lobstering. That still
> survives; they took it upon themselves to set limits after
> having
> watched what happened to the fisheries. Just about
> everything else was
> chickens. Most everybody else took off for 'greener
> pastures' (I guess
> that means where the snow in July in the gutter isn't
> actually white
> chicken feathers), largely Boston and beyond. A lot of
> farmers, having
> bought the 'can't make any money farming
> anymore' walked off and left
> land, houses, whatever.
>
> People were happy to sell some large tracts to incoming
> back-to0-the-lander, hippie types. There were hundreds at
> one time.
> So, they were pretty well-educated, willing to take a risk,
> supported
> through the initial stages, not afraid to be doing
> something new. Now
> they're old hippies, but it turned out they were well
> educated (Daddy's
> money), and had enough of the same money (trust funds) to
> buy land and
> actually get it going. MOFGA was in its infancy then but
> there were a
> couple of people there who helped them off to a decent
> organic start,
> information-wise, and a few of the old farmers left here
> helped them.
>
> Just about the time they got a toehold, the chicken
> business in Maine
> fell apart (disease) and more people left, leaving more
> ground, some of
> which was occupied by said folks, mostly by then in family
> groups. They
> all had kids, which they homeschooled, county was too broke
> so they
> looked the other way. Eventually Pop's money ran out,
> and everybody
> buckled down to work. The kids were reared to be polite,
> to work with
> their hands and backs, to be respectful, curious,
> hardworking,
> goal-oriented, independent, contributing members of their
> community.
> They learned in many cases to take care of the old farmers
> and their
> wives who'd helped them when they first came. Now
> those kids have grown
> up to be some real decent folks, with a good sense of who
> they are, who
> else is here, a good bit of wisdom for a group of young
> people. They're
> teaching, some abroad, in the military, taking care of
> grandparents.....
>
> The adults who came here as kids are now mayors/town
> managers in many
> of our small towns here, and enthusiastic still about the
> area, willing
> to work hard for it. Most of the staff of Unity College
> got their start
> right here on Stovepipe Alley (one of the communes which is
> now a
> cohousing unit under I-forget-the-name). Most of the staff
> of College
> of the Atlantic came from here, same circumstances. Not a
> few are
> professors at UMO and UMA. We have a reasonable tax base.
> They started
> and still own a newspaper. They redeemed many old
> buildings and built
> many new ones which one can be pleased to see. They have
> been at the
> forefront of alternative energy in Maine, and some of them,
> on a
> national basis. There are no 6000sq foot boxes here, nor
> nasty
> mortgages to pull us into the fray to the south. We have
> libraries now,
> parks and other public places, beach access in many places,
> and many
> small businesses which employ our residents. they still
> don't poke into
> anybody else's business, and I've never heard of a
> one of them
> bellyaching about what services they don't have or
> can't get here (my
> personal gripe; if ya want it, stay where ya have it).
>
> We do have 2 stoplights here now, but that's due to the
> old yuppie
> (Crowley, MBNA) who thought he'd make a killing off the
> dumb Mainers
> and installed a huge call center where he soon found out
> that the dumb
> Mainers here don't like to lie to consumers, even on
> the phone, and so
> won't sell bad interest rates without telling people
> what they're
> getting into. I think they were here 4 years. Didn't
> take everybody
> long to decide they'd rather have the hippies......
>
> The sense of community is outstanding here; when my house
> burned in '01
> I told 6 people to please spread the word (on Wed, too late
> to get it in
> paper) that I planned to have a house-raising on Fri &
> Sat (Thanksgiving
> weekend) and to please come, and bring any tool you
> don't mind others
> using, and any materials you may have that you don't
> otherwise want.
> Fri there were well over 60 people (plus children who could
> actually be
> trusted to operate a tape, carry cheerfully, whatever) and
> on Saturday
> over 100 folks, plus a lot more who came by but would have
> had to park
> too far down the muddy road (over a mile). Little kids
> restacked my
> half-burned firewood to a new spot, picked up trash,
> dragged magnets,
> corraled dogs (strict leash law here backed by 410s). A
> rousing good
> time and much good food was had by all, and by Sat dark
> (about 4:00 that
> time of year) the shell was up except for the roofing,
> which hadn't come
> in yet. About half the materials were donated. Peter (old
> hippie,
> probably still count himself one, who makes apple ladders
> brought the
> rafters he'd cut in the woods that morning. Donald,
> one of the few
> farmers who welcomed new people to the land even if they
> were hippies,
> was in the woods logging Fri and came Sat and cut those
> logs right in
> the driveway into the flooring, with the measuring and
> toting help of
> two hippies' grandchildren. The next Saturday the
> roofing went on in
> four hours. We like (treasure, actually) that sense of
> community and we
> all know and acknowledge that had Waldo County driven off
> the hippies,
> as did many surrounding places, we'd now not have what
> we do, in many
> ways. Their children, after living all over the world, are
> now coming
> home to be teachers in our schools, administrator at our
> hospital,
> manager at the credit union....and so it marches on.
>
> The counties adjacent to us, with the exception of Knox
> County (Camden,
> old money and established tourism), were in similar shape
> to our county
> at the beginning of 1960. They were just beginning to get
> their heads
> above water when things slowed down this time, and now who
> knows; they
> are already in trouble in 3 of the 4 counties....meanwhile
> we are in
> reasonably good shape here.
>
> So even though nobody really wanted them to come, or so
> I'm told, it's
> not been tooooo bad. I doubt if you'd find anyone
> complaining here,
> now. I can't think when I heard the last person
> grumble about 'them
> hippies', maybe about 1990?
>
> They did OK by us.
>
> SJ
> _______________________________________________
> Homestead list and subscription:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/homestead
> Change your homestead list member options:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/options/homestead/bobford79%40yahoo.com
> View the archives at:
> https://lists.ibiblio.org/sympa/arc/homestead







Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page