By Dick Bernard

Special to the Sentry

If the Internet is universal, worldwide and nanoseconds away, why
shouldn’t personal communication over vast distances be just as all
encompassing and engrossing as a one-to-one conversation over the back
fence? Many of us have traversed the United States by jet in just six
hours, wondering just what is going on down there from our perch at
40,000 feet. We could swoop down and try to sort out another culture,
lifestyle, in its historical context, but the time lapse would be too
daunting for real understanding.

I offer instead a glimpse of my life in Oregon superimposed on my very
real and vivid memory of six years in South Portland as well as the
environs of Maine as I saw and experienced them. The net result is a
transcontinental conversation superimposing Grants Pass (where I live
now) on South Portland and glimpses of Portland, Oregon (through
newspaper and TV accounts) placed on similar scenes and events in Maine.

I start out by contrasting my new neighborhood in Grants Pass with my
old one in Knightville. I can’t walk to the post office or to
Hannafords or to local eateries as you do. I am forced to use the car.
But in a few minutes I am in the proximity of what must be an addiction
in Grants Pass: huge box stores. You have the Mall. I have Wal-Mart,
Fred Meyer, Sears and a bustling downtown that South Portland has yet
to coordinate. I miss the walking, but my consumer needs (and wants!)
get satisfied more. On the other hand, neighborliness here is not
conducive. Houses and lots are large and distant. Knightville was much
more tightly knit.

And, of course, there’s the weather. Grant’s Pass is in a valley,
dominated by the Rogue River. Temperatures are warmer; snows are
infrequent, but rain persists. I hear reports from South Portland that
snow has fallen in huge amounts. I don’t miss the shoveling. The
mountains nearby (Cascades and Siskiyous) are spectacular but the
Winslow Homer painting of the Lighthouse at Portland Headland in my
living room gives me strong vibes of my former home’s dramatic setting
and Maine’s rugged coast.

Geographic orientation is another sharp contrast. Television weather
reports start me out with a slice of southwest Oregon and the top of
northern California. The camera turns westward to a broad view of the
Pacific and the rest of Oregon and Washington State. I have to shake my
head and remind myself that I’m not looking at greater Portland, Maine,
New Hampshire and French-speaking Canada! But local TV weathermen are
not as skilled as those you see nightly at home. The forecasts are much
more sketchy and incomplete.

I close with this small observation. At the gas station, you sit, they
pump! At the last filling ($3.05 per gallon) in a pelting drizzle, I
said to the attendant that he must be having a bad time in the rain.
“No,” he shouted. “I love this. I’m from Oklahoma. Back there I’d be
freezing!”

We are a nation of wanderers, travelers, for one reason or another.
Oregon is growing. By 2010 the state will qualify for another member of
the House of Representatives, making it six in all. Maine’s slower
growth will not project an additional congressman. That’s fodder for
another postcard. See you next time.

Dick Bernard is a former South Portland resident who now makes his home in Oregon.