Backwoods Blog

CONTINUITY OF CULTURE

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

Parade in Houlton’s Market Square

With the dissolution of physical and social community comes the deterioration of the human spirit. The fragmentation and isolation of modern American life compels one to evaluate one’s own role and viewpoint in contributing to community life, art, and livelihood.

from a lecture titled “The Continuity of Culture” delivered at the Unitarian Society of Houlton by Rev. Dave Hutchinson February 21, 1999

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I came across this lecture in an old file last week and I thought it might be interesting to see how it’s held up over the last 24 years. I still hear people say there’s nothing to do in this town or they’re waiting for Houlton to tap its full potential, but here we are, and the conversations continue over countless cups of coffee or a cold beer. That being said, we do have five bars in the downtown with local State of Maine draft beers on tap that were not here 24 years ago. The stories continue…

Here are a few excerpts from the original talk. (My apologies for the off-hand remark about New Jersey.)

The greater Houlton area is the place I’ve decided to stick out my summers and especially my winters (I like the snow and cold). It is an intentional choice on my part. I am aware of the limitations of this area as I hear these reiterated by those who live here, or those who used to live here, yet even these limitations are part of what makes this area what it is. There is a distinct psychological shift that occurs once you drive north past Bangor; the homogenized landscape of familiar franchise markers disappear and are replaced by nothing but trees and a seemingly endless strip of black-top cutting through the woods with an occasional exit sign and then more black-top (all to yourself usually) past Katahdin rising out of the north landscape and then the legendary Haynesville woods which continues to provide an effective buffer to outside intrusion and potential economic prosperity even to this day. When I talk to friends in Portland about Houlton I can detect by the somewhat vacant look in their eyes they are struggling to think of reasons to venture north of Bangor. If you’re looking for a night life in Houlton (as far as clubs and entertainment are concerned) you need to be prepared to drive to Portland or Boston once a month or so. Don’t look for what’s not here, embrace what is. I often hear people say, “There’s no culture in Houlton.” A friend of mine used to counter this statement by saying, “I think what you mean is that there’s a lack of entertainment in this town. This town has plenty of culture.” 

I revel in the remote nature of my north woods location in Monticello bordering the largest unorganized territory remaining east of the Mississippi or looking on a light pollution map and finding our area blacked out. After being in the woods for awhile, Houlton feels like quite a place when I pull into Market Square to walk the streets of this town. I would not trade it for anything, especially for New Jersey or some traffic-congested metropolitan over-priced sprawl. I am willing to accept some economic or entertainment limitations for what is here and embrace it…My Dad’s viewpoint, as an old farmer from Monticello, attributes the local cultural changes in the 1950s to the advent of the TV set in Monticello and the popularity of new fangled supermarkets in the town of Houlton. He said, “No one plays cards anymore. No one visits and people will drive 12 miles to Houlton just to save 2 cents on a can of beans…” 

This continuity of culture has been on-going for almost two hundred years in this locale with its intermittent upswings and downswings as life goes on in and out of Market Square and along its commercial and residential currents. When people look at old photographs of Houlton they say It hasn’t really changed that much – businesses come and go, or cross the street, but the buildings remain the same…This continuity of culture will not sit still to have its picture taken and eludes our attempts to document it too precisely. Our yellowed memories and photographs are but a snap-moment of this incessant movement though our own lives and those of our ancestors who could not anticipate where we are today, but entrusted us with their vision and commitment to this place and these building and this history that is ongoing into the next century.

This  continuity of culture does not end but finds new expression in each idea – in each business proposal – in each public bean supper

as we tell our stories as we celebrate this life as we stick out our summers and our winters in this place together years without end…

In the woods,

Dave

April 19, 2021

Market Square in the early years 

Looking east from Market Square

Looking west from Market Square  (1883)

Market Square in downtown Houlton

 The French Block in downtown Houlton

Monument Park across the street from the Unitarian Church