Down East Magazine... (Cape Elizabeth, Camden, Wiscasset: real estate, fingerprints, school)

[family first]

Just got my first subscription of the magazine yesterday and enjoyed the articles I read so far. This is my closest thing to staying connected to Maine here on the west coast. My wife (Mainer) kept peeking over my shoulder to see what I was up to! Makes her pine for a move back 'Home" and me wonder why I stay in CA. There was an insert re: "Best books from Maine" I will look into. Oh well, missing New England!

[CoastalMaine]

I've had a subscription to Down East for over 20 years. It is a nice way to savor the things you love and miss about Maine.

Nice to have you posting!

[lovemaine]

I've been subscribing for about 3 years. I love it! I love reading articles by and about Mainers, and there are always gorgeous pictures. Plus I really have learned tons about the great state of Maine.

[BoundtofindME]

I too had a subscription to "Down East" for many years while living away. I always looked forward to it's arrival every month, my precious link to Maine when I could not be there. The lifestyle depicted is always one of rugged beauty, fine dining, impressive art, resource guides for only the finest architects, jewelers, and yacht builders. Not to mention the real estate section with many fine estates and mansions.

With that said, I would love to see a version of this magazine that would address a more realistic lifestyle in Maine. I would envision it still with the rugged beauty and impressive art, but perhaps the dining, building, shopping resources and real estate could be a little more down to earth. Somehow, the Maine that is depicted in "Down East" Magazine month after month continues to elude me. But you know, I haven't given up in trying to find it -- in fact I gladly use it as an excuse to continue to explore this Great State! I know someday I'm Bound to Find this elusive Maine that is alive and living out loud within the pages of "Down East" Magazine!! Where oh where is this Maine? (Perhaps it's in Camden)

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Yankee Magazine used to serve that niche. I have not seen one in quite a while. I guess we here on city-data.com will have to meet the need.

[BacktoNE]

I cannot imagine life without my Down East magazine, especially during these past 2 1/2 years that we've been away.

There are months when we both have to wait to read it to avoid emotional melt-downs but we always get to it within the first week it arrives.

[CoastalMaine]

Originally Posted by Northern Maine Land Man

Yankee Magazine used to serve that niche. I have not seen one in quite a while. I guess we here on city-data.com will have to meet the need.

The last issue I bought which was a few months ago, they had changed the format to a larger sized magazine. Still not as big as a regular glossy, but somewhere inbetween. The pages though weren't glossy, they were that cheap kind of paper we used to get in school to practice our handwriting on.

[BrokenTap]

DownEast Magazine is kind of unique, I think they capture the way Mainers who want to remember Maine the way they "think" Maine is, rather then the way it really is. Its a bit glossy for my tastes, as I grew up on a farm here abut never remembered having a picnic out in the front 40, with a picnic basket filled with crabmeat sandwiches, mom reading a book as us kids chased dandlions as the cows froliced behind their barb wire fence while grazing merrily away. Nope, never remembered that, but I can see why people on sabatus from this great state would like it.

That being said, I did feel slighted a few months ago when they asked for stories from Maine and I submitted a few. It was the only time I have ever submitted a story, news article or letter that was not published. They said it lacked "the character of their publication", which they probably did. A woman at work had hers printed, but it was about her mother as a tourist, getting stuck in the old ships of Wiscassett for a few hours before she was rescued. Tourists stuck in ships, or stories of real Maine Farm Life...

As I said, my fingerprints will never be lifted off their glossy pages.

[Acadianlion]

Downeast is a wonderful magazine about the Maine that people who live in southern Connecticut want Maine to be, and dream about.

I remember when my father used to get Downeast magazine every month. It was less glitzy then, and some of the columnists wrote like real people living in a real place.

I no longer read it at all. To me it is just a glitzy magazine that is about certain sections of Camden or perhaps Cape Elizabeth, but ignores the real Maine and the majority of the real people who live here.

[lovemaine]

I agree that Downeast seems to cater more to the tourists than the real-life Mainers. I still enjoy it though, even though I know life in Maine will be far different than what the magazine portrays. It's a fun escape every month, and I read it cover to cover.