Sunday, June 29, 2008

Ah, For the Good Old Days...

Now how, you might ask, does this topic specifically relate to issues facing Mount Desert Island?

Well, certainly it is a wistful lament that resonates with a growing number of people around the entire country today. (Anyone for $.25 gasoline?) But it also reflects a recollection of, a respect for, and a desire to preserve things from the past that have been and continue to be very central to the lives of most residents of our island.

Perhaps more than in a lot of other communities, people living on Mount Desert Island have always had a sense of their local history and traditions. That is definitely true of native families, though it might be slightly less a factor in the lives of many who have moved here "from away". Those who were born and grew up here are a part of local history, and they remember with great fondness the relative simplicity and beauty of life on a Maine island, especially during the summers. To be sure, there were hardships as well, but there also is a certain pride among those who dealt with and overcame those hardships, often using the strength found in local community values and institutions. Over the years, more than a few of the families who moved here did so at least in part because of their perception of MDI’s rich local history and its abiding sense of community.

So herein lies our issue. Mount Desert Island has been insulated to some degree from the changes that have affected life so dramatically in the rest the United States, particularly its urban areas. But change is overtaking us more and more rapidly. The fast pace of the Information Age is upon us; more new residents come to the island each year seeking a haven of one sort or another and having little prior knowledge of the community into which they are moving; and many of our village elders around the island are gradually passing away, depriving us both of their wisdom and their direct link to the past.

As a result, we are in serious danger of losing our sense of local history along with the local relationships that have been so important to the quality of life here over the years. We have already lost the local sewing circles, all but one of the community associations, most of the grange halls, most of our ladies’ aid societies, and many of our smaller churches. We find it increasingly difficult to recruit members for our volunteer fire departments and for our local town boards and committees. We live our lives on the Internet and on cable TV instead of interacting with our neighbors.

We cannot turn back the clock, nor would most of us really want to, but we do need to find a way to preserve the essence of the island institutions that have made MDI such a special place. As a start, we need to constantly encourage a broad-based understanding of our local history and traditions, so that everyone living here today can fully appreciate the value of those institutions.

Ah, for the good old days...

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