THE BANGOR CHRONICLES: CHAPTER 2

Bangor is starting to grow on me.
Underneath a veneer of seediness, roils a current of content normalcy.  Usually, it's the other way around.  People are generally happy and laid back.  One of the things that impresses me the most, is that you don't see impatient people.  When people are waiting in line, they don't sigh loudly or exasterbatingly slouch their shoulders or look at their watch and roll their eyes.  They just wait their turn.  After living in Boston, which is chock full of people who love to be pissed off and in a rush, a more civil atmosphere is refreshing.
Bangor has little parks and benches everywhere, and it's the kind of place that still has a couple video rental stores (unfortunately an endangered species).  There are free movies outside in a plaza downtown every Friday during the summer.
As far as the economy goes, in the worst depression in almost 100 years (and it is a depression- don't let some statistical economist egghead blow smoke up your ass and say it's technically a recession.  It's a full blown depression), in one of the most depressed region of the country, I ended up getting a job at the first place I applied, at literally one of the closest businesses to where I live, at exactly the kind of place I wanted to work, so I can't complain.
Bangor is big enough that it has a couple malls, but still feels and smells like the countryside.  The University of Maine is in the next town over, so there are plenty of educated people, but very few pretentious people.  When you say "designer label" people think L.L. Bean, and those are my kind of fashionistas!  Besides, any town with a giant statue of Paul Bunyan is cool in my book.
The bottom line is that in Bangor, the buses run on time and people smile at you and say hello on the street.  And really, isn't that the most you can hope for from humanity these days?