I'm a Gen X, so I've lived through just about every horrible thing.

Well, obviously, throughout the history of the world, many have seen more horrible things than I could shake a stick at. So yes, I'm being a bit dramatic. On the other hand, I grew up in a generation of latchkey kids. If you were born in the 70's, you've been self-reliant since you were like, 8 years old.

Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
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I can't count the amount of dangerous things I did back then. Things that seemed totally normal. It seemed normal to jump off roofs of houses. It seemed normal for your friend's older brother to drag you at 45 mph on your bike, behind his car. I left the house at 6:45am, and came home when it got dark out. Kids don't live this way now. Probably not the worst thing.

But what's the most dangerous thing you can do in Maine?

I'm sure you could gather some real data and ask "experts" their opinion based on findings from this or that source. But if you go to Reddit like this one person did, you can get what Mainers think is the worst. It wasn't what I was expecting. I thought there'd be this huge cross section of answers. But there was one thing Mainers were joking/not joking about...

They said it was simply trying to merge onto the highway.

Yup. I'm sure it started as kind of a joke, but other people took it dead seriously. It's funny, my sister had to go to Boston recently, and she asked me the secret for driving in Boston. I told her to just simply put on your blinker and do what you need to do. People will literally just let you in, and let you merge. I told her people in Boston don't hate each other.

Lane ends merge sign for construction purposes
Garrett Aitken
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She called me later and was laughing, and telling me how right I was. In Maine, if you try to merge anywhere, there's a 50/50 chance you'll start a road rage incident. People have been shot at, run off the road... all in the name of road rage. Say what you want about "massholes", Mainers are about as crappy drivers as you can get.

 

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Read on to explore the cost of gas over time and rediscover just how much a gallon was when you first started driving.

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