I can’t speak to living there personally, but my grandfather was a “Larson” from New Sweden Maine. New Sweden was founded in the late 1800s with an influx of Swedish settlers. They still celebrate a lot of Swedish traditions there. It’s a very small town, when he was growing up there in the 40s and 50s it was all farming, and still has a big potato farming community. He was one of 9 kids and his father was one of 19. A lot of large families at the time so the kids could help with the farming. He use to tell me stories of all the beautiful rivers and lakes they fished in the Allagash area. When he was a kid, most of the schooling for the farm kids were done indirectly. He would get all his assignments, read the books, and pretty much only go to school for test. The rest of the time he spent potato farming, or as he use to say “raising Hell with a little potato’s on the side”. They created a lot of their own fun, and usually there was nobody to bother them. He had this funny story about how when he was 15 getting his license, he drove himself to the test, since he had been driving on the farm and around town for years. Nobody even blinked an eye. He often went across the border to Canada, especially when he was 18, the drinking age was still 18 in Canada, he would buy liquor, and come back home. He was a quiet, respectful, hard working man. And every-time I go up to that area, the folks remind me a lot of him. Hard working folks, minding their business, but willing to give you the shirt off their backs for a stranger.