1988

At the bottom of the hill..in Medford, it's closed.

  Well, with a new degree I guess I was eager to prove my worth to the world.  I don't know if I "taught" myself to move every couple of years or not, but here we go again.  Beverly Hillbillies of the north.
I found an ad in the Bangor Daily News, they sold the weekend edition in South Portland, and was invited to interview for Deputy Treasurer of the City of Brewer.  I was hired and I came up to Brewer in July of 1988.  The house in South Portland was sold, we were waiting on a closing, and we had bought a house in Medford.  Out of the whole bunch I was the only one to have lived in a small town.  Medford had a population then of 183, that's small.  Jon thought he was at the end of the world, Rhonda hadn't seen it yet, she was still in Elsworth.  Jeff had moved out, but  the rest of us, with the help of my friend Ray and Linda brother Brad finally loaded up the truck and hit the road.
  We weren't out of Portland when the cat, Midnight, escaped the box she was in, she was right under my foot as I accelerated to get on the Interstate!  Finally she slept on some clothes in the back, stayed there the whole trip.  As we were unpacking the goldfish, in a plastic bag of water, fell on the ground, unharmed.  Hollie thought the fish were hungry so she gave him some tobacco from a pouch, dead wrong, flush!
  The house was very different from what we were used to, from a house 90 or 100 years old to one that was 4.  It was very nice, if you like wood, the exterior was cedar shingles, and inside a lot of pine and cedar.  Downstairs was wide open, half open to the roof, the bathroom and one bedroom were enclosed.  Upstairs were two huge bedrooms and a loft on the "closed in side" and space on the open side.  There was plenty of room for all of us.
  My work was enjoyable, with a great group of co-workers and a great boss, The Finance Director, Jane.  I spent the first year checking and balancing the accounts for taxes receivable, there were some very old accounts there, but I enjoyed the work and the auditors loved what I had done!

That's Brewer on your right and Bangor on the left, it doesn't show much, but I find very few photos of Brewer.

There used to be a paper mill on this spot.  Eastern Fine Paper was demolished after it closed, Cianbro Company
bought the site and use it to assemble "modules", these are for an oil refinery, now
they are making 6 story "rooms" for electric equipment for some mines in Canada.
The modules are shipped by barge, the barges are loaded in that "notch" (bottom right).
Click to enlarge.

The house in Medford.

Midnight on one of the inside rafters.