Sooo,
to say that I am less-than-enamored with the Cumberland experience would be a gross understatement. I was stupid. I thought Maine was Maine. To the contrary. This area is Massachusetts-lite. I left Massachusetts to escape the ME-ME-ME, conspicuous consumption, "crap on your neighbor" garbage! Well, that and the too many people, too much traffic, too much crime...you get the picture.
I told my friend Karen, "When I screw up, I screw up BIG." I never should have left Bridgton. There. I said it.
I knew there was a problem when my son, Andrew, had the audacity to go back to school with a...TAN. He was greeted with, "Get a green card, dude!" I'm not even going to get into the implications of that statement.
I'll be the first to admit that Andrew is a bit of a non-conformist (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree:) In this town, he has paid the price. Okay, for all of you visualizing Andrew all Gothed out, with tats, multiple piercings and heavy black eyeliner...um, not so much. He just also inherited the good sense in not seeing the value of dropping a few C-notes on the jeans-du-jour, particularly when he is going to outgrow them in a few short months. Yes, his hair is on the long side. He even occasionally wears...FLANNEL. What is seen as everyday, acceptable attire in the vast majority of Maine (Yes, even in high school...) is cause for ridicule from the "Daddy bought me a Porsche for my 16th birthday" set. When I saw the per-capita income for Cumberland, I had no idea that it was the land of the haves and have-nots....with very few in betweens. I could go off on a tangent about the disappearing middle class, but I'll spare you:) Suffice it to say, there isn't much of it here:) MY bad.
I made the mistake of returning to the site which lead to the Yankee culture diatribe. There was this woman there considering moving to Maine from Maryland, asking about Maine public schools. My second mistake was relaying some of Andrew's experiences. I then got a lecture from said poster about how I should make every effort to make him conform, being that he'll have to hold a job and whatnot. Yeah, just what the world needs...more sheeple. I didn't care to dignify that with a response. For three reasons, really.
A) She totally pissed me off,
because....
B) She knew less than nothing about the culture in most of Maine, but saw her way to giving me advice anyway.
C) She had no idea that I had already raised a 25 year old son that, despite being another non-conformist, (and, BTW, not having been ridiculed for it in Bridgton) has a very nice job as a government civilian after a very successful 6 year career in the Air Force. He moved up the ranks very quickly and secured his current position BECAUSE, rather than in spite of his non-conformity! It was his Yankee brook-no-BS, tell-it-like-it-is, no a$$-kissing attitude that got him where he is.
Need an honest opinion? Ask Jay.
Want it done right, the FIRST time? See Jay.
Seeking an intelligent, cost-effective solution for a problem? Yup, Jay's your guy!
Yeah, so I got a bit off-track (what else is new:), but I'm VERY proud of my non-conformist kid. Being a non-conformist requires functioning gray-matter and that you actually think for yourself, rather than follow the crowd. Going against the grain isn't easy in today's world, but the easy way isn't usually the right way.
I don't want to live in a homogenous subdivision, wear the same clothes or drive the same car as everyone else in order to "fit in". Fitting in in this fashion has never been a priority for me. But at the same time, I don't want to be ostrasized for choosing not to be like everyone else. This was never a problem in Bridgton or Glenburn. Give me a few acres where I can grow some veggies and maybe have some chickens and not have my neighbors look down their noses at me because of it.
