Archive for » January, 2010 «

Toothpicks & Maine

The hubby & I just had a nice bowl of popcorn for a snack this evening. So what, you say!  Well, immediately after eating the Toothpickspopcorn, I headed for the kitchen cabinet for a toothpick and decided to write this post.  What does a toothpick have to do with Maine? Once upon a time 90% of toothpicks were made right here in the great state of Maine!

According to an article written in  “The Manufacturer and Builder Volume 0019 Issue 12 (December 1887)”, it all started right in Strong, Maine!  The article states the following:

“The wooden toothpick is no small thing in the industrial activity of Maine. The original wooden toothpick man is said to be Charles Forster, of Strong, Franklin county. He has done more for the teeth of America, it is said, than any other man under the sweep of her eagle’s wings. He whittled the original box of Yankee toothpicks, but he copied the art from natives of South America, where he was a merchant years ago. The South Americans picked their teeth with whittled out splints. Forster sent a sample box to his wife in the United States as a curiosity. A hotel man got hold of them and sent to Forster for a box, and the latter whittled them out and filled the order. More orders came, and he began to get busy. Pretty soon he had natives whittling out toothpicks for hotels all over the United States. He moved home and opened up a branch office, and in 1860 began making his toothpicks by machinery. The first year he sold 65 cases, containing 250,000 toothpicks each. Now he sells 30,000 cases a year. He is thought to make three-fifths of all the wooden toothpicks made in the country.” There is a bit more to the article and if you are interested, you can click HERE to read it.

Forster Manufacturing Company produced toothpicks in Strong until 2003, when the mill was closed. Most toothpicks are made in China these days.

While I was researching for this article, I discovered that toothpicks are not only used for picking your teeth. Folks use toothpicks to create art and crafts. Those of you that know me, know that I wouldn’t have the patience to be one of those crafty folks. ;-)

Well, there you have it. Just think,  this post started with an evening snack!

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2010…

It is hard to believe how time flies! You know the old adage that says “wait until you retire—you will have ALL kinds of time”.  It sure isn’t working that way for us. Seems that we are always on the go or doing something. The good thing is that it isn’t always “work” (although we do some of that too ;-) ).

After my post in August, we went to Florida on a “trawler crawl”. We spent a week traveling over a lot of the state looking at boats that our broker had set up for us to see. We had a great time but picked a really hot time to be there. We did learn that the photo’s that are shown on Yachtworld are not necessarily what the boat looks like now. We found a boat at the end of that week that we really liked. We are still negotiating on it and hopefully it will be ours soon.

Shortly after returning from the trawler crawl, we spent two weeks in Pennsylvania. My mom was in the hospital and wasn’t doing well. We traveled back and forth to the hospital each day and finally saw a bit of improvement. When we left, she was still not able to get around on her own. She went to a nursing home shortly after we left and probably won’t ever make it back home. It is sad when a very independent person can no longer take care of themselves but like everything else in her life, she is taking it in stride. Her life has been hard at times, and I admire the way that she comes back fighting each time. She is making the best of her situation and I am really proud of her.

Since returning from Pennsylvania, we have spent more time in Florida. The hubby has been down once without me because I wanted to hunt. Yes, we are both deer hunters. For those of you that don’t hunt, you will be happy to know that the deer won this year and neither of us got one.

While all of this was going on, we are finishing our house. We added on a couple of years ago and still had all the trim to do in the old part of the house, plus there was more work to do once we added on. Somehow, that is all coming together and it is finally almost done!  But now that it is almost done, we are talking about possibly selling and moving to a warmer climate. We wouldn’t like to live in Florida (way too hot and muggy in the summer) but we are thinking that maybe North Carolina or Tennessee would be nice. We would still like to see the seasons change—just not so drastically. Maine is a wonderful place to live but the winters can be sooooo long.  Who knows what the future will bring.

We plan on continuing to enjoy our retirement and will share our adventures on this blog. If all goes well with the boat, we will be doing some cruising this summer. If this boat doesn’t work out, we will continue to look for one that suits our needs.

My friend has just posted “RECIPE FOR A HAPPY NEW YEAR” on her blog.  It is wonderful. Take a minute to go to “My Maine Backyard Treasures” to read this wonderful recipe,  and while you are there be sure to check out the wildlife photo’s that she has that were taken right in her own back yard.

Yes, we are busy but in a good way! We are so blessed. We wish all of you have a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year!

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