What is the Volvo line? (Hancock, Eastport: live, vs., retired) - Maine (ME) - Page 2 - City-Data Forum

starwalker · 11-05-2008, 07:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Starwalker muses:
"but I never knew anyone had registered their car to vote!"

You never heard of ACORN?

nope you got me there.. but then these days its not hard... I have wayy to much work and a darn head cold to boot...

mainebrokerman · 12-17-2008, 09:05 PM

based on this past election results,,,,the volvo line may be the maine-canada border

Submariner · 12-17-2008, 10:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mainebrokerman

based on this past election results,,,,the volvo line may be the maine-canada border

Your bad!

Fern435 · 12-18-2008, 05:41 AM

<head hanging down, bashful tone>

I look back at my question and feel like such a ignorant hick for starting this thread...

Acadianlion · 12-18-2008, 05:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fern435

<head hanging down, bashful tone>

I look back at my question and feel like such a ignorant hick for starting this thread...

Well, the truth is that the name..."Volvo Line"...is a bit dated. Now that Volvo is no longer a brand that is from an independent European manufacturer, but is in fact a wholly owned subsidiary of Ford Motor Company, one can only postulate that the term "Volvo" no longer has the yuppie cache that it once had.

While the temptation today would be to point to such Japanese makes as Lexus, or Infinity, or perhaps Germany's Audi, the real truch is that the Volvo granola/yuppie class drives none of those vehicles. In fact I am not aware of a Lexus or Infinity dealer in Maine, and there are only three places...well, two and one half...where you can buy an Audi here.

Nope. Today the correct term is either "The Prius Line" or maybe even the less denominational name, "The Hybrid SUV Line". Those things are far truer to the original granola/yuppism that spawned the moniker: Volvo Line.

And if you really want to get esoteric about it, maybe it is should be "The Veggie Oil" line. Those folks drive old Volkswagen and Mercedes that have been converted to run on discarded oil from McDonalds and Burger King. And you will be able able to tell exactly where that line is because walking down the streets during rush hour, the air will reek of french fries.

Submariner · 12-18-2008, 07:39 AM

um, my son had a pickup that ran on WVO. Not exactly a yuppy.

We currently have been collecting WVO, for projects around here. I do not see WVO as a yuppy thing. It is too messy.

I have seen a few organic communities of 'hippys' in Maine, that are WVO folk.

A lady came by here 2 days ago, to pickup a food dehydrator that we had listed on Freecycle. Hand knitted woolens for her and her children [imported from South America], dredlocks, and a WVO-fueled SUV.

She got excited seeing how we mix livestock feed, and some of our projects.

I think that there are a great many MOFGA members; really two groups.

1. The higher income granola eaters from down South with corporate jobs, that come up to run barefoot on occasion.

2. And the locals who have made the 'break', are barefoot, grow organic crops, spin wool, and weave baskets; out of chioce.

broadbill · 12-18-2008, 08:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acadianlion

And you will be able able to tell exactly where that line is because walking down the streets during rush hour, the air will reek of french fries.

I call shananigans! Maybe its the McDonalds on the corner that you smell perhaps?

Seaglass · 12-18-2008, 09:13 AM

See, this makes me mad, it really does. Cut it out. There is only ONE Maine. I was born in Maine, grew up in Aroostook, lived in Hancock County for thirty years until last January, and I'll always be a Mainer. I'm neither Right-wing nor Left-wing. I prefer self-reliance and common sense. I kept milk goats, chickens, and heated with wood. I own guns and know how to use them. AND...I have a Volvo XC wagon that I bought new in 2002. It's got 140,000 miles on it. Does that make me one of "them?" How dare you. I mean it. I've had it with this dumb delineation.

Off the soap box!!!

Seaglass · 12-18-2008, 09:31 AM

I've had the dogs out for a walk and I'm back to clarify, since I am honestly normally a nice, low-key person.

My other vehicle is a 4x4 Toyota Tundra...also high-mileage. The Volvo happened when my Dad, a cop, was hit at a 4-way intersection (he was off-duty) and almost killed in 2001. The woman who hit him ran a red light at high speed. My father was in his four-year-old Volvo. He was told by his colleagues, who took an hour to get him out of the wreckage with the Jaws of Life, that the car saved his life. If you saw the photos, you could draw your own conclusions.

I have two sons, both of whom were in elementary school when this happened. Like everyone in Maine, I drove tons of miles a year with them in the car in all sorts of weather. At my dad's urging, my husband and I bought the wagon. It's been used hard and it's been a great car--the thing drives through anything, including our mile-long dirt driveway at home in Maine during the dead of winter and mud season. My crankiness stems from being really, really tired of being lumped in with a bunch of wanna-be idealists because I drive the thing. Never judge a book, etc. Etc.

As far as the infamous line, there are plenty of idealists and real Mainers alike living above and below it--whether you "get" it or not is a state of mind, not what you drive or a latitude.

Sorry about the blowout.

retiredtinbender · 12-18-2008, 09:45 AM

On second thought, I ain't sayin' nuttin!