Maine Two - Text
Subject is a white male, born 1984, and raised in Falmouth, Maine. As a theatre student, recorded by Paul Meier in February, 2005, his Maine roots are no longer conspicuous from his speech, though he does demonstrate his imitation of the Downeast dialect during the interview. Recorded and edited 11.30.04 by Paul Meier. Running time: 00:06:12.
TRANSCRIPTION
I was born at Mercy Hospital in Portland, Maine, actually right across the street from the church at which I was christened. (Uh) I’ve grown up in Falmouth, Maine my entire life, which is the first town north of Portland. (Uh) It’s a pretty small town. It’s right around 8,000 people. (Uh) Went to-- My high school was right around 600, when I graduated. My class was, I think a hundred and 32. I was-- it’s a small enough town that I… knew pretty much everybody in the high school, and I had group of friends that I grew up knowing, and most-- By the time, they were-- People moved in and out, but pretty much they’re the same group of people I grew up with my entire life.
I summered in… Downeast Maine, (uh) on an island called Burnt Island, which is off the north end of a larger island called Isle Lahoe, in Penobscot Bay. (Um) Isle LaHoe is where my mother and father met, an’ fell in love, an’ got married, and had my older brother, an’ shortly after realized that it’s not necessary a-- necessarily the proper place to raise a child, because education an’… Economically it just wasn’t very smart. So they moved off the island, after my father and mother having lived there for eight years, and moved down to… the Portland area ’n’ found a house in Falmouth, where my mother has lived ever since.
(Uh) The Downeast accent is-- well, the sort of northern New England dialect I always-- I t-- You can hear it all over the state but obviously, called Downeast. I think it would obvious-- pretty much originated in Downeast Maine, which I’m sure sort of a strange term, ’s people who’ve never really been to Maine wouldn’t really understand. You have to-- From where I live, you have to go north, and then you have to go east, and then you have to go south again, to get to Downeast Maine, because… if you tried to drive directly there from where I would, you’d be driving across water. You have to go north and east and down, so, hence the term Downeast, I think.
It’s a… very rural, not-- very sparse population. I mean, the state of Maine is huge, and there are only a million people that live there, roughly, so it’s (uh)-- the Downeast Maine is very rural. The part that I grew up in, Portland area is really only the popula-- heavily populated area. (Um) In Downeast Maine, there’re lots of blue-collar people that are living, fishing… (Uh) Obviously, lumber is a… major thing in Maine, is what I think our number one economic resource. (Eh) But it’s-- it’s a beautiful place, and there’s lots o-- lots of people living there that (uh)-- You know, it’s-- it’s hard; it’s not an easy life to live in Downeast Maine there. The winters are harsh, especially on the water. (Uh) The food, and lobstering’s one of the very, very hard. It’s lots of work, long hours and (uh) definitely not a whole lot of reward. There’s money to be made there, but it’s-- it’s not without lots and lots of hard work.
[Re-reads Comma in a Downeast accent, through “sorry for the beautiful bird…”]