P. B. -- Rochester, MN
6/20/03 -- 03:04:30 PM

i just wanted to let all the moxie fans know a site where you can get it shipped to you...and did you know moxie now has a diet moxie...anyways it is called...maine goodies products.com...i have ordered from there and the stuff comes very quickly...they are very reasonable...in fact i just ordered my humpty dumpty bbq chips today for a 4th of july party out here...anyone want to go...it is at another eastcoast person's house...she is from vermont but she loves us maine people...we all have to stick together...and don't let anyone kid you..it is not minnesota nice..IT IS AND ALWAYS BE MAINE NICE...AYUP...
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Pete Gardner ( Rusio@eagnet.com ) -- St. Marys, GA
6/20/03 -- 08:27:50 AM

For Mike from Thomaston/Warren. Yes there are people diplaced from Knox county. I was born and raised in Warren, graduated from Medomak Valley High in 1981. I've been in exile along the East coast and Europe for 22 years due to a Naval career. Georgia is ok, but there is nothing like the fresh crisp air of Maine. Deer season is long here but it takes your limit of 6 to make a good Maine deer. I got home a month ago and now I've been homesick again ever since. We have to break out the stash of red hot dogs to start to feel better. We are always from Maine and only in exile for a while.
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a. g. -- Richmond, VA
6/19/03 -- 09:57:20 PM

I think my mother tried to give me a hint this year. For my birthday, she gave me a subscription to Downeast magazine. A magazine all about Maine. Perhaps she hoped I would get homesick and move home so she could see her grandkids more. It almost worked too. 

Looking through the first issue at the pictures and beauty of Maine I started thinking, maybe I could go back. Then I came to a short blurb called "plugging the drain brain". In it they give some interesting statistics. One was "of the best and the brightest who graduate from Maine colleges each year, three quarters choose to leave the state." 3 out of 4 of the best minds that Maine produces each year, move away. Also, only 25 % of the population in Maine has a college degree placing them 35th in the nation for number of colleges graduates and they are alos 35th in the nation for per capita income. How sad is that.
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Tina -- Narragansett, RI
6/19/03 -- 10:53:57 AM

  Thanks, Mike, in Pine, Colorado---for the "tip" about Lincoln's Country Store. We'll look for it while we are staying in Hope--it's exactly the sort of place we like!! And it's nice to hear good things about the lake and area, too. Another question, though--any good breakfast spots or diners in the area??
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Penny Bisping ( maineheart77@hotmail.com ) -- Rochester, MN
6/18/03 -- 04:34:32 PM

I was born and raised in Bangor, Brewer and Orrington...I left Maine in 1994 with my husband at that time...We have since divorced and I remarried a man from Rochester and we desperately want to move back to Maine...He just loved the state...I miss eveything thing about Maine...ok except the misquotes and horseflies...The friendly people and especially the accents...
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N. H. -- Easthampton, MA
6/17/03 -- 10:24:38 AM

I MOVED TO MACHIAS,MAINE IN 1987. TO WORK AT A SURVEY CO. JUST OPENING, WE LIVED THERE UNTIL 1998. MY DAUGHTER AND HER 5 KIDS STILL LIVE IN MACHIAS,MAINE IN MY OLD HOUSE. MY SON AND HIS FAMILY ARE ALSO IN MAINE. ALONG WITH IN-LAWS AND MY FATHER AND WIFE, ONE STEP SISTER AND HER FAMILY.  SO I AM A PART-TIME SOWNBIRD OF TWO KINDS ALSO HAVE A SON IN FLORIDA. CAN'T BEAT THAT...BUT SOMEHOW ALWAYS IN MAINE WITH BLACKFLIES..THEYN WAIT FOR ME NO MATTER WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!

HEY, DROP ME A LINE ANYONE FROM GOOD OLD MACHIAS..HELEN'S PIE'S..........
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Wayne St. Clair ( wane9779@hotmail.com ) -- Roanoke, VA
6/18/03 -- 06:05:12 AM

  You go Maine!!!....Congradulations for passing plans to impliment a universal health care plan voted for by your citizens. If a poor state like Maine can do it then the federal government could if they weren't too busy deploying weapons of mass destraction to keep people on focusing on what is really important...people!
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Mike ( imogene@outdrs.net ) -- Pine, CO
6/17/03 -- 05:19:07 PM

To Tina in R.I.:Hobbs pond is a beautiful place.The bass fishing was great when I went there in the 80's.Also,you will be 5 minutes or less from Lincolns Country Store where they make excellent pizzas and italian sandwiches.My parents live in Hope and it is a great small town.
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 Tina ( tinafan@mail2world.com ) -- Narragansett, RI
6/17/03 -- 09:08:12 AM

 Hi there! I'm from Augusta, but have lived most of my life down here in Rhode Island(we moved down here when I was 10 years old-- I'm 40 now))but still love Maine and get all emotional when we visit up there. We'll be heading up that way in mid-July, visiting my old hometown, then staying in cabin for a week on Hobbs Pond in Hope, near Camden. I saw Julie(in Witchita) is from Hope...do you know of this pond we'll be near? And like so many others here...we'll be getting an "Italian" and some "red" hotodogs!! I have an 8 year old daughter and she has never been to Maine yet(yes, it's been that long since I've been up for a visit), so I can't wait for her to experience the best state in the USA!!!(not that RI is all that bad....)
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Jason ( jaeson46@hotmail.com ) -- Sacramento, CA
6/17/03 -- 08:12:38 AM

What a gorgeous photo of that barn.  Reminds me of humid summer afternoons swatting skeeters while weeding my mom's garden.  I'm from Windham,spent the first 22 years of my life there, the past five here in Sacramento.  I wish there was more opportunity for good careers back home, cause every day I close my eyes and think that I'd probably kill for a loaf of Nappi's Italian bread or to be a deck hand again on the Casco Bay lines, enjoying the 5:00 AM down bay run, just me, coffee, a muffin and some curious seals.  ACK!!  Gotta stop now... its just depressing.  Stupid growing up.
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Michael Simmons ( imogene@outdrs.net ) -- Pine, CO
6/16/03 -- 07:01:24 PM

Any Knox County people out there?I'm born and raised in Thomaston and Warren,graduated from Medomak Valley High in 1987.I sure miss Italian sandwiches and a long deer season.Some humidity would be nice too.Colorado is nice,but it ain't home.
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Chance ( yohmcha@iit.edu ) -- Orlando, FL
6/16/03 -- 10:29:55 AM

Hi all. After spending the school year in Chicago, I am in Orlando for the summer. I keep telling my family how I have been to a lot of the places in the US and Maine is the only place I like. Unfortunately there is not much economic hope in Maine unless you are in paper and pulp, tourism, aquaculture, to name a few.

However a bond was recently passed (preens for voting absentee for it) that should provide an economic boost to Maine. 60 million went mostly to research.  Check out the Press Herald online for details. If you are in the technology area like me, this is a good sign. I hope this with Baldacci's other initiatives helps wayward Mainers like us all come back. Let's just keep the out-of-towners out. :-)
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Heather Cooper ( heatherc3678@yahoo.com ) -- Bloomington, IN
6/16/03 -- 08:25:25 AM

i was born in augusta maine and lived there for 23 years i moved to bloomington indiana abouy nine monthes ago and i miss the hot dogs more than anything
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Wayne St. Clair ( wane9779@hotmail.com ) -- Roanoke, VA
6/12/03 -- 06:16:27 PM

   When I got married in 1982 we decided to have the service in our apartment, a big todo didn't interest us. I remember when the day (June 2nd, a sunday) arrived I got up real early while Paulette was still asleep. It was a damp & foggy morning...typiclal for Portland at that time of year. I left our place on Salem Street & made raids on near by parks sneaking back with armloads of flowers. When  Paulette woke up breakfast was cooking & the entire apartment was filled to overflowing with lilac's, Tulips & daffodills....still the memory of that day makes me smile & seeing lilacs taakes me back there.
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Jinny -- Washington, DC
6/12/03 -- 06:46:51 AM

To Jason in TX,
I lived in San Antonio for 4 years and would love to go back but couldn't find the type of job I wanted so now I'm back on the East Coast.  At least in TX, it's hot and dry...and sunny.  Here in DC, I pray for occasional glimpses of the sun and try to get used to the humidity.  I miss SA as much as I miss Maine.  Go Spurs!
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Valeda ( vscribner@socal.rr.com ) -- Huntington Beach, CA
6/11/03 -- 07:27:47 PM

I just hit the 6 month mark as an official resident of California, and although I was gloating all the way from December to March (even April, considering it seems like Maine got worse of a winter this year than ever), I'm picturing our camp on Sheepscot Lake and the utopia of sitting on the dock by the serene lake (of course the bugs aren't in my daydream) and am a little bittersweet to say the least... I love it here in Cali; I can have my skiing all winter long up at Mammoth, get in my hiking in Yosemite and still go beach side in between, but I'll always be a Mainer at heart.  Us Mainers share a bond like no other state creates; I'll run into any Mainer anywhere in the world and suddenly be transplanted back, if only for a moment, to the 18 years of my life in Belgrade.  Everyone should be so lucky to have had a childhood like I did.  I'll be back soon, PROMISE! In the meanwhile, I'd love to chat with anyone from the So. Cal area originally from Maine; noone else can really see through the snow, blackflies and true "roughing it" mentality to appreciate what Maine has to offer like we can.   
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Jason ( jpereira@satx.rr.com ) -- Kyle, TX
6/10/03 -- 10:22:49 PM

I read these board ever now and again.  I am making my way back home.  After living in Odessa, Uvalde, San Antonio Texas.  Then living in Derby KS then to New Braunfels, Kyle Texas and now I am uprooting again to Plymouth MA.

There isn't a place on earth (to me) like New England.  Texas is to hot and only 2 seasons hot and hotter. Kansas is flat and nothing to stop the wind.  At least Texas has a coastline and a city named after Maine City.  Portland :)  T.
http://www.portlandtx.org/
there is also a Rockport but it wasn't named after the Maine Town.
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C. Jordan Harris ( gowestcjor@comcast.net ) -- Mount Dora, FL
6/10/03 -- 02:42:23 PM

While I was not actually born in Maine, per'say, I without doubt gained a new insight into myself while I lived there. My heart remains there although I have not lived there for almost 20 years. I yearn to return, to come home. It is my dream.
Interesting, my wife of 8 years has a history based in Caribou, her Grandfather was a farmer in "The County."
We have visited Maine several times during our great marriage....we do hope to spend more if not all of our time In Maine.
God be Willing
C jordan
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Lois -- Louisa, VA
6/7/03 -- 02:46:28 PM

I always planned to move back to Maine (born in Bangor) but when my husband retired from the Navy 2 years ago, since he grew up in Florida and hated cold as much as I hated heat & humidity, I compromised and tried to find a place that looked a lot like New England because I thought I'd feel at home.  Don't you believe it!  This beautiful, mountain area is full of wildflowers, most of which I knew from Maine, great smells, great scenes, so much reminds me of Maine and all it does is make me sit and cry because it isn't Maine, just a poor copy.  Do we EVER get to go home?
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M. I. -- State College, PA
6/5/03 -- 03:01:24 PM

I'm leaving soon to spend a week back home in the promise land--Washington County. I can't wait! I hear the black flies are especially bad year but I miss home so much that I'm even looking forward to them.
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