Silencing a long standing tradition....

   An article in the local paper this past week caught my attention. At first it caused me to chuckle a bit. Why would people get so upset because the town manager decided to silence the town's fire horn, especially after receiving several noise complaints from town citizens. But what he may have failed to realize was it's long standing tradition within the community.

   North of Bangor, tucked away in the woods is the town of Millinocket, once a community with thriving paper mills, busy main streets lined with shops and businesses and championship high school athletic teams every so often.

   Since the early 1950 the fire horn has been an important part of everyday life in the Millinocket community, blasting twice each day, first at 8:00 announcing the start of school and then again to 9:00 pm, reminding folks of the town's 9:00 curfew. The curfew had been eliminated many years ago, but the practice of sounding the horn at 9:00 pm continued until.... August 18, 2015.

   In protest to the decision to silence the fire horn, community members have taken to their cars and at 9:00 pm drive up and down the main streets of the town, honking their car horns, in an attempt to keep alive a long standing community tradition. But there may be a bit more to this story.

   For many years the backbone of the Maine economy has been it's 'world known' pulp and paper industry. But in recent years the industry has fallen on hard times and many of the mills have either moved away or shut down. The mills in  Millinocket closed about two years ago creating financial and personal hardships on many families in the area. And as recently as yesterday, another mill in western Maine announced the layoff of over three hundred of its workforce. Another blow to the Maine economy. But is this a surprise?

   Even back in the mid to late 1980's, the paper companies began to send a message that the industry was changing. In the future it would be very difficult for young people to graduate from high school and transition into what were generally considered well paying jobs at the local mills. The jobs would not be there. And that warning has now proven to be a reality.

   But old traditions don't give up easily. The mills are gone, the jobs are no longer available. Young people are migrating to more populated areas in search of jobs and a new way of life. The once busy mill towns are now only a skeleton of what they were in the past. No smoke spews from the deteriorating smoke stacks.

   But the people in the area are working hard to create, develop, and establish a new future, with new traditions.

   But until such time, for those who remain in the area ...is there really anything wrong with continuing to sound the fire horn twice a day, just for a few seconds, keeping one small tradition as a reminder there are new and exciting things to come to the region?

   Perhaps even as early as 1964, who would have known that a folk singer by the name of Bob Dylan would have been able to see the future...

 

                                   " Come gather 'round people

                                    Wherever you roam  
                                    And admit that the waters  
                                    Around you have grown                                    
                                    And accept it that soon                                   
                                    You'll be drenched to the bone                                   
                                    If your time to you                                    
                                   Is worth savin'                                    
                                  Then you better start swimmin'                                    
                                  Or you'll sink like a stone                                    
                                  For the times they are a-changin'."

   Maybe Dylan was right. But please don't let this be the fire horn's last blast.