Hello PF... Since you are on target for this summer, have you decided on a town? I just discovered this post, because I always wanted to move to Maine too. I guess we are all looking for the perfect place and at least for me, I am sure I tend to romanticize it. I think I developed my sense of 'Maine' from books that I read growing up mixed together with a little dash of trips to Maine. :-) Then when our children were small, I seemed to keep finding books for children set in Maine and that just kept the dream alive. lol Blueberries for Sal for some reason sticks in my memory. I have a feeling that the Maine I imagine, doesn't exist any more, if it ever did. I would love the opportunity to visit Maine more and hopefully find that at least some of my imaginings about Maine are on target. I enjoyed reading about the different towns in Maine that have some of the qualities you are looking for. Great thread. :-)

Kewl... though, I was kinda hopin' for the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. ;)

We live in an area decimated by the Steel Mill closings in the 80's. And we've never recovered. But I will say that even before big steel went away, our downtown areas were disappearing. It's not how Walmart treats its customers that bothers me, rather it's how it was done. Changes are made, little by little and either they hope the customer doesn't notice, or if they do, will not care, if they need those "lower prices." I, and many others in our area, were happy when we found out a Super Walmart was coming. The closest SW was in the next county and many in our area drove there to buy groceries and other needs. There were three chain grocery stores in the area and two of the large drug chains. Our downtown shopping area was already closed and gone, making us drive to purchase just about anything besides groceries and prescriptions. Well, they built the Super Walmart, and stocked it with everything imaginable. I just couldn't believe the great prices along with the selections of everything from groceries to paint to socks! They hired extra help, you didn't have to wait long in line to check out, and there were employess galore to help you find what you were looking for. We had a really nice fabric section and a good sized arts and crafts section. Both are important to me because the closest fabric and craft stors are over a half hour drive away. Little by little, the selection has been narrowed down and eliminated. Areas that once were full of different brands and different sizes are filled in with one or two brands, usually at very large "economy" sizes. The juice I like is gone, a canned soup that I liked is no longer sold there, laundry detergent is sold in large sizes and the brands that they can get at "their lowest prices" are stocked on the shelves. Name brand cheese in the deli has been replaced by mostly generic brands. They no longer care how long you have to wait to get checked out anymore. Once you have your groceries in the buggy, it's unlikely that you are going to leave them without finishing your shopping experience, even IF you have to wait. You may grumble and complain about the wait, but what can you do but wait? Where there were many checkout isles open, they've dropped that number considerably. In the past year, one by one, all the Super Walmarts in the area have closed their fabric departments. And after a sequential remodel, area store by area store, the crafts section is a shadow of it's former self. Again I have to drive quite a way to the nearest craft store when I run out of something. I don't like being "told" what brand of what item I can buy or what size of that item I can purchase. There is still one local grocery chain, which has enlarged its store, and a new Aldi has opened in the past couple of years. I try to use the local K-mart, Aldi, and the grocery chain whenever I can. I feel we have been manipulated by the Walmart Corporation and I don't like that. I'll buy from other places in the area whenever I can. This has been my experince in our locality.

I guess I am going to die. LOL I just fixed myself a Walmart pork chop for my dinner. To add to the horror I used Idaho flaked potatoes and had some frozen vegetables that include (the horror,the horror) water chestnuts from China. Cooking for one tonight. Tomorrow I will take the left over potatoes and make potato patties to have with eggs and bacon for breakfast. Seriously, boxed meet is boxed meat whether it is in Walmart or a regular grocer. I don't care for any boxed beef cuts so other than burger or cheap cuts for marinating, I prefer to go to a meat market.Once in a while I will see a nice steak that is packaged that slipped through the cracks. I like Costco's ribeyes too. But red meat took a dive in quality as far back as the late 70's. That is when the healthy eating nuts wanted leaner beef. Then they finished the job with the grass fed malarkey.