You Know You're From Maine When

[Maineiac]

I was down at the local general store/gas station/beauty parlor/chat room and fish market (calls himself a conglomorate) the other day listening to some wonderful stories about Mainers. I remembered some.

They all start with

You Know You're From Maine When....

 

..you talk for an hour with a wrong number and exchange recipes.

 

..if you start a wood fire in the morning and the air conditioner in the afternoon.

 

..if you have more snowmobiles up on blocks in your yard than cars.

 

..if your in Florida and a good looking man/woman walks by in a tight swimsuit and you think, "Boy I'd love to see him/her in a snowmobile suit!"

 

There were a lot more but those I remember.

[Geoff]

Originally Posted By: Maineiac

You Know You're From Maine When....

..if you start a wood fire in the morning and the air conditioner in the afternoon.

Uh ... I've actually DONE this. And in recent memory. Well, no air conditioner ... because we don't have one. But there have been days, at the end and the beginning of "the heating season", when I've burned up some logs in the woodstove to "take the damp out", or "take the chill off". Then I'm cracking the windows when the sun's up over the trees, 'cause it's gettin' hot.

Now, in the interest of full disclosure, I should state that I did live in Maine as a small boy ... in Columbia Falls, Newport and other cosmopolitan venues. Pre-Kindergarten, I thought that the Paul Bunyon statue in Bangor was HUGE! (of coure back in '65, in Maine, we didn't call it Kindergarten ... we called it Sub-Primary).

Thanks for rekindling some fond memories!

[Deb2of9]

...you talk for an hour with a wrong number and exchange recipes.

 

 

but you can get a lot of good recipes that way. Make some new friends...was probably a neighbor anyway.

 

What got me is that my cousins would talk about going down Maine when they were visiting us in Massachusetts. I was young but I knew that obviously we traveled up to Maine.

 

[Geoff]

Originally Posted By: Deb2of9

What got me is that my cousins would talk about going down Maine when they were visiting us in Massachusetts. I was young but I knew that obviously we traveled up to Maine.

Yes, that expression "down Maine" is something of a term of art, like "down east". I don't know what the origin of the phrase is, but it's not a geographical reference, I should expect. I've always associated it with the rural, "authentic" Mainer of both fact and legend, as "down east" seems (to me) to refer more to a person or state of mind than a place.

Now, on the other hand, in my corner of New England we've had, for as long as I've been around, a similarly curious expression that indicates that one is "going home", and it's usually associated with a drop-in at mom's, or the house you grew up in. We say that we're going "up the house".

I don't know WHY we say that, but it seems to come as natural to me as "making a packy run", or "bangin' a U-ie".

Huh ... maybe this belongs in a new thread ... something like "Regional Idioms" or "Colloquialisms of The United States".

Interesting, anyway.

[Maineiac]

OK here goes.

 

Downeast

 

Back in the sailing ship days the winds were prevailing from the southwest to the northeast. So when a ship would leave say Boston or New York for Maine they went "Down wind on the Easterlies" or Downeast to Maine as they called it. That's why Maine is refered to as Down East Maine.