Maniac`s

[sheeplady]

The Vermonters call us Massachusetts folk "Flatlanders." My family moved to Massachusetts in '64 so I'm not technically local, but I still bristle when enlightened folk move to the hilltowns and then call the locals who won't follow their directions "rednecks." I don't know when redneck came in, it's not really a New England term. When I was growing up we were called "boonies" by the students at the elite prep schools.

I think Vermonters call everybody else "flatlanders." One of my acquaintances in college called everybody flatlanders particularly when drunk (also, most notably people who were transplants into Vermont). I got a pass because she often would say, "You know, for a flatlander you aren't too bad. Maybe it's because you grew up in 'em hills." The hills, of course, being the Adirondack Mountains. Near Vermont.

I also hate the term rednecks. Where I grew up, downstate city people called it the boonies, the mountains, and the hills. If you were a local, you called it the "north country." And the people who lived there were "hicks" (or rarely "folk" was used as the nicer term). The first time I heard the term redneck was on television.

 

[Justin B]

Y'all are funny. And I'm sorry that "Southernfication" has crept up to your neck of the woods there Lizzie. Where I grew up we didn't call them rednecks either...mostly they were "clod kickers". I didn't really hear redneck till I moved to Georgia. Must have been a Deep South thing originally.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Maine Air National Guard F-101B, circa 1970s

 

[Nobert]

"Flatlanders," was also used here, at least where I grew up (although "from away" is still the default). The especially rural types were known as "skiddahs." "Redneck" was never a term until Jeff Foxworthy got popular.

 

[dh66]

Redneck is a southern term originally used disdainfully toward poor whites who worked in the fields. The backs of their necks being red from bending over picking cotton or whatever in the hot sun. It did not refer to backwoods hillbilly types, and how it did come to I have no idea. And as for the rebel flag wavin' types, I mostly just call them @**holes.

Sent from my SGH-T959V using Tapatalk 2

 

[scottyrocks]

And Lizzy is right about new englanders,

Lizzie is right about everything.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Flatlanders," was also used here, at least where I grew up (although "from away" is still the default). The especially rural types were known as "skiddahs." "Redneck" was never a term until Jeff Foxworthy got popular.

When I was young the default term was "outastatah." This was used in the simple term if we liked the person in question -- "he's an outastatah, but he's all right." But if we didn't like the person, it would be combined with various adjectives depending on just how much we didn't like them -- "she's a friggin' outastatah." We used "From Away" sarcastically, for the la-de-dah types who came flouncing in every summer like the lord of the manor. Run of the mill tourists were simply "summer complaints," irritating but no more unexpected than sand fleas, blackflies, and bad middle-relievers on the Red Sox. "Cone Eaters" or "conies" were the kind of summer complaints who sashayed down Main Street two-by-two, in matching pastel polo shirts and boat shoes, licking ice cream cones and calling everything "quaint."

 

[Nobert]

When I was young the default term was "outastatah." This was used in the simple term if we liked the person in question -- "he's an outastatah, but he's all right." But if we didn't like the person, it would be combined with various adjectives depending on just how much we didn't like them -- "she's a friggin' outastatah." We used "From Away" sarcastically, for the la-de-dah types who came flouncing in every summer like the lord of the manor. Run of the mill tourists were simply "summer complaints," irritating but no more unexpected than sand fleas, blackflies, and bad middle-relievers on the Red Sox. "Cone Eaters" or "conies" were the kind of summer complaints who sashayed down Main Street two-by-two, in matching pastel polo shirts and boat shoes, licking ice cream cones and calling everything "quaint."

Now that I think about it, in the gentle breaking dawn of oncoming senility, I can't entirely remember what I may have picked up from the people around me and what came from records by Tim Sample and The Wicked Good Band. Farmington wasn't as saturated by tourism as the mid-coast area, so the vocabulary probably wasn't quite as developed, vis-a-vis various types. And, yes, "quaint..." ugh.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Now that I think about it, in the gentle breaking dawn of oncoming senility, I can't entirely remember what I may have picked up from the people around me and what came from records by Tim Sample and The Wicked Good Band. Farmington wasn't as saturated by tourism as the mid-coast area, so the vocabulary probably wasn't quite as developed, vis-a-vis various types. And, yes, "quaint..." ugh.

Sample is a pretty serious folklorist off stage, and a very sharp observer of dialect, so he's a pretty good source to be learning from.

If they ain't got enough tourists up there to Fahminton, I'd be happy to box up a few hundred and send 'em along.

I have never quite understood what they mean by "quaint." The town where I grew up was a deep-water industrial port barely concealed by a thin veneer of antique shoppes, and I didn't see much quaint about it. But I did live for about eight years in Camden, the global capital of cone-eating, where people from New Jersey come in droves to mistake each other for Mainers. That town was and is "quaint" in the same sense that Disneyland's Main Street USA is "quaint," except the only place you'll find Mickey Mouse is in the town office.

 

[Harp]

You ain't a Mainer until you automatically pronounce it "Mainah."

My introduction to Maine occurred at Ft Polk, Louisiana where the barracks lingo sounded the thick Gulf states cadence
or the smoother New Orleans patois mixed with Virginia tidewater and crisp Midwest consonants.
Mainah was different and in retrospect the most interesting accent.

 

[LizzieMaine]

My introduction to Maine occurred at Ft Polk, Louisiana where the barracks lingo sounded the thick Gulf states cadence
or the smoother New Orleans patois mixed with Virginia tidewater and crisp Midwest consonants.
Mainah was different and in retrospect the most interesting accent.

My brother had his boot camp at Fort Jackson, S. C. and was the only Northern boy in the barracks. Nobody there could understand a word he said, and he couldn't understand a word they said -- except for the nickname they gave him, "Sand Eatin' Lobster Boy."

Which was ridiculous. We have very little sand here. Our beaches are mostly chunks of rock, broken glass, and rusty metal. Some of us pick up the broken glass and sell it to tourists.

 

[Guttersnipe]

My brother had his boot camp at Fort Jackson, S. C. and was the only Northern boy in the barracks. Nobody there could understand a word he said, and he couldn't understand a word they said -- except for the nickname they gave him, "Sand Eatin' Lobster Boy."

In 1963, when my Dad was stationed at Fort Sam Huston, San Antonio, TX, he had a similar experience. The guys in barracks thought he was from a long lost, unknown borough of New York City. Imagine their surprise when he told them he was a native San Franciscan and they were the ones with the accents!

 

[Nobert]

...except for the nickname they gave him, "Sand Eatin' Lobster Boy..."Which was ridiculous. We have very little sand here.

I don't know if it was universally true along the coast, but a friend of mine who grew up in Northport in the 60s and 70s remembers when lobster was considered trash fish...the kind of thing you would only eat out of desperation.

It does kind of bothers me that people don't seem to realize that there are vast swaths of the state that are nowhere near the ocean, with nary a lighthouse or sailboat in sight (there are, unfortunately, still paintings of them).

 

[LizzieMaine]

I don't know if it was universally true along the coast, but a friend of mine who grew up in Northport in the 60s and 70s remembers when lobster was considered trash fish...the kind of thing you would only eat out of desperation.

It does kind of bothers me that people don't seem to realize that there are vast swaths of the state that are nowhere near the ocean, with nary a lighthouse or sailboat in sight (there are, unfortunately, still paintings of them).

At no time during my childhood was lobster considered fancy or "upscale." To this day I can't stand the stuff because we ate so much of it -- people would trade a bunch of lobsters right off the boat for gas or garage service, and that was what we had for supper that night.

This past summer the local boat price was cheaper than hamburger. All you Upscale Diners think about that the next time you pay top dollar for lobster. The guy who pulled it out of the water for you is getting screwed while the Restaurateur is raking in the profits.

As far as the Lobster Lighthouse Funny Old Salt image of Maine goes, years ago at the gas station we used to sell these tiny little lobster trap novelty key chains to the tourists, right along side the pine tree air fresheners and the greasy bags of peanuts. One guy from Parsippany, NJ or some such place was fascinated by these key chains, and asked my grandfather what they were. He gave him this long, involved story about how they were sardine traps, and how sardine fishermen would set out long strings of them, hundreds at a time, to bring in the sardine catch. The guy nodded in amazement, bought a couple for souvenirs, and about two months later we got a letter from the Texaco district manager commending my grandfather for his excellent customer service. Enclosed was a letter from Mr. Parsippany, praising a kindly Texaco dealer in a certain Maine town who had taken the time to explain sardine trapping to someone from a part of the country where such things are unknown.

 

[scottyrocks]

I have always heard that lobster is as common (and cheap) as air in Maine. Considering what it costs here, it's kind of like a fantasy to me that I could eat it more often because it's less expensive.

Coincidentally, my wife and I were talking about new things to make here in the house for dinner, and the word 'sushi' popped out of my mouth. So, also within the past hour, I have been researching how to make sushi.

I know sushi is not native to Maine, but it should be cheaper to make it at home than buy at a restaurant, so at least one of my fish/seafood frequency dreams may come true.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Maine women are the toughest people on the planet.

 

[PrettySquareGal]

Our beaches are mostly chunks of rock, broken glass, and rusty metal. Some of us pick up the broken glass and sell it to tourists.

In Portland they sell it as jewelry in overpriced boutiques.