** Written September 27, 2023
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap….
– David Copperfield, Catcher In The Rye
…and now me:
I don’t why I’m doing this….? Ego? … Boredom? …Loneliness? Yes, yes and yes.
And, in its own special way, this website is an investment. I’m hoping there’s another guy named Dave Colbert that wants to dot com his name. And when I meet him, I’ll sell him the URL and cash out.
There’s a lot of us. Many of us are black. Most of us are French. I am Irish. But really, I’m from Maine. I wasn’t born in Maine but it’s my home.
So….this morning in a manic state, I bought the domain. I’m not going to pay for hosting so you’re reading this on the free WordPress server. I spent $10 to have this for the next two years. If I can’t turn it around, I’ll let it go, but for now….I think I’ll blog my thoughts. So…enjoy the ramblings of a madman and the occasional posting of a song that means something. I’m not doing this with any specific purpose so it will be what it will be.
Early Years
When the Sixties were ending, I was beginning. I had a wonderful childhood and I was very fortunate. I was born on November twenty second, the cusp of scorpio and sagittarius (if you believe in such bullshit) in 1969. My father was a successful car salesman and my mother raised five children and worked as a waitress when she could. For the first couple of years I was in Weymouth, Massachusetts but don’t ask me, ‘cause I don’t remember a bit. I was the fifth of five children and we outgrew the house so we moved to Middleboro Massachusetts. And that’s where I started to be a person.
Middleboro was a fantastic town in the seventies. As America as America can get. I pledged my allegiance to the flag every morning. I went to Sunday school and church on Sundays. I read Dick & Jane. I watched Sesame Street (religiously) and I had friends and brothers and sisters. We had a dog named Skippy and two cats, Little R and Big R. I don’t know what the R stood for (if anything).
My father was good at what he did. He sold trucks by the fleet and made lots of money for Chevrolet. Companies were different back then and they rewarded their people righteously. My Mom & Pop took trips to Bermuda and Hawaii. We had an inground swimming pool and Christmases never disappointed.
In the winter of 1978, my parents made the bold move of leaving Massachusetts and the car industry. We moved to a tiny town on the northern coast of Maine called Jonesport. A large red house that became my home.
It was difficult adapting to the new environment but eventually I made friends as did my family. My mother and father bought a Montgomery Ward catalog sales agency in Machias, a neighboring town. I would often join them on Saturdays at the store and help out with putting away the shipments and other simple tasks.
When the home video revolution came, my father saw its potential early on and opened Riverview Video, renting VCR’s and cassettes. When I was old enough, working the counter became my summer and after school job and it was there I learned the fundamentals of excellent customer service.
Last Century
After graduating from Jonesport-Beals High School in 1988, I spent a summer washing dishes, then went off to college at the University of Maine in Orono. It was fun but I was unfocused and unsure of what I wanted to do. I couldn’t see spending the money for schooling without a clear goal. I also had a strong desire to leave Maine and explore the rest of the world.
Providence, Rhode Island was my first stop after Orono. I started at a temp agency and they sent me to work for AT&T doing data entry. I impressed someone and they encouraged me to apply for the position of Customer Service Representative. I did and went through an extensive training program before going on the phones. Talking with customers came naturally to me and I eventually left that job so I could move to Boston and take a similar position with Fleet Bank for more money. Fleet Bank moved its operations center out of the Boston area so after a brief time, I was hired by Bank of Boston. Coincidently, both of those institutions have been taken over by Bank of America.
In the summer of 1999 ‘city life’ became too much for me and I longed for the land I had always considered home: Maine.
Life In Maine
Moving back to Maine was not my original plan. My best friend was having a blast, working as a chief in the Virgin islands and I moved down to St. John with the intention of staying down there forever. As it turned out, forever lasted about two weeks. The climate, the terrain, and a slew of personal reasons prompted me to move back to Jonesport.
Since there are no call centers in Downeast Maine, I had to adapt. I came to Maine right as blueberry season was starting and so I got a seasonal job as a night foreman at Maine Wild Blueberry Company, a blueberry packaging plant.
After the season ended I was a little lost for a while until one day I noticed my father’s video store had outgrown its location. He had more movies than he could display. I found a suitable location in neighboring Columbia, Maine and put up some shelves and opened Riverview Video, Columbia. I even used my rudimentary computer skills to design a logo using Microsoft Word. When high-speed internet finally came to the area, streaming video services replaced the rental shops and Riverview Video was no exception.
The production of Christmas wreaths is a big business in Northeastern Maine and I soon found work with Kelco Industries in Milbridge. Kelco is one of the area’s largest employers. Our primary function was producing the metal rings that provide the base of the Christmas wreath.
During the season, Kelco Industries would do business as Sunrise County Evergreens, a mail-order retail wreath seller. One of my duties was to manage the temporary staff taking mail, telephone, and eventually website orders and issues. During other times of the year we would prepare for Christmas and I performed many functions within the company. I was the company Safety Coordinator, responsible for holding weekly safety meetings. I would represent the company at industry trade shows across the Northeast U.S., and I took pictures of the many products we sold for use on the company website.
After Kelco
I stayed with Kelco Industries for about 13 years and during those years I went through some major life changes, the most devastating being the passing of my parents. It was not long afterwards that I decided to move again, this time to Bangor to be closer to family and friends.
That was in 2017 and that’s where my professional life went off the rails. Unable to find work in a comparable company, I took a job working at a convenience store. I then worked for a while at the community action agency, Penquis. There I scheduled rides for members needing transportation to medical appointments.
For a number of reasons, mostly medical, I had to leave Penquis. I went through a very dark period in my life and I knew I needed to change my career path. I took a job as a Personal Care Attendant at Woodlands Senior Care, an assisted living facility in Brewer.
The work and environment at Woodlands was emotionally and spiritually fulfilling but, unfortunately, the pay was quite low. So, I left Woodlands for a job as a Psychiatric Technician (orderly) at Acadia Hospital for a higher wage.
I wish I hadn’t done that as it was at Acadia Hospital I was attacked by a patient and suffered minor injuries. Shortly after the incident I made a joke on social media that was taken out of context resulting in my termination.
This led to another dark period but I survived by driving for Uber and Lyft, and then I got my taxi license and drove for Fab Cab for a while. It was a low stress job but I missed having co-workers and the stability of a weekly paycheck. I made the mistake of taking a sales position for a company called Acceptance Now. They are a separate finance company that works inside of Bob’s Discount Furniture offering title loans to customers who don’t qualify for traditional credit. I took the job without fully understanding the product I was promoting and after I learned more about the terms of the contract, I could no longer, in good conscious, work for them.
Avis/Budget Car Rentals at Bangor International Airport was my next job. I was checking in returning cars using a handheld computer. The job was more physically demanding than I had been used to and, although I enjoyed the customer interaction, I knew it was not the best use of my talents.
Which brings me to now. I left Avis without a clear path of what I was going to do afterwards. I had experience with ‘gig-economy’ jobs and I made a modest living as a delivery driver however, again, I missed the stability of a traditional job.
In July of 2023, I started a new job at the Bangor Target store as a morning stock-person.
