Editor’s note: This story was originally published in October 2021. I forget what the conversation was about, but I remember it happening just after my wife and I moved here to live the proverbial “the way life should be.” Someone said to me: “You wouldn’t understand because you are a person from away.
” I asked: What’s a person from away? He looked at me, smiled and said: “You are. You are a PFA.” I smiled back, shrugged my shoulders and we continued on with our friendly conversation.
A “person from away” is not a Mainer. Succinctly, it meant I was not born here, nor were my parents. The degree of lineage may vary from coastal towns and cities like Portland, but the result is the same — I will always be a person from away.
Why does this descriptor not irritate me? Growing up in Pennsylvania I do not recall people born elsewhere as being “from away.” Why here, why Maine? What I’ve learned after spending time here is that Maine’s essence comes from the deep interconnectedness of its people and the communities those people built over time. In 2003, we purchased our home here Down East.
During the summers, we rented to visitors looking to experience what I still call the “real” Maine. Before that first summer rental I asked a Maine friend of mine about an old access path through my property. He told me it was an old trail that fishermen would use to get their gear to the shoreline.
It was somewhat overgrown, but he said not to be surprised if a.