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Last year 1,050,000 tourists from New York stopped in Maine. If the ratio of New Yorkers to other visitors holds true this rainy October day, 17% of the out-of-staters walking the streets of Freeport are from the Empire State, which partly accounts for the fact that not one of the men going into Bean's looks like a partridge shooter, though that is the recreation for many men of Maine in this season. What was once practical outdoor wear has become fashion clothing. A chamois shirt looks good on Saturday morning in Westport, Conn. The hunter from Millinocket probably gets his shirt at K mart.
If there are no deer hunters in Bean's, there are no fox trappers either, unless they are in disguise. The price of fox and muskrat will be down this year, but raccoon will be good, about $20 for a top skin. Trapping is occupation and sport in Maine, and last year 22,089 raccoon were taken. Bean's does not sell leg-hold traps but does sell shotguns, including a Fabio Zanotti twelve gauge for $2,150.
George Denney, president of Cole Haan shoes, has lived in Freeport for 42 years. What is so thoroughly obvious to everyone now--that people shopping at Bean's might cross the street to do some more shopping--became obvious to Denney in 1982, when he opened a factory outlet for his shoes in what had been a Western Auto store on Main Street. "You know, we put in brick walks, natural oak interiors and carpeting. We spent over $150,000 just doing the interior of the store. I acquired two adjoining buildings and rehabbed those and put in six retail stores." And how well are they doing? "Extremely well."
Cars used to line up in front of the Grange Hall on Thursdays, the day for unemployment sign-up. Now cars parked by the Grange Hall belong to people employed by the outlets. Workers from a dying industry (making shoes) have found jobs in a new one (selling shoes).
Main Street probably looks better than it ever did, except to those who remember it a long time ago before the elms died and the brick buildings got that worn-down look. Even the McDonald's is top of the line, located in an old house so tastefully redone that a critic of the fast development, John McGivaren, says of it, "If one has to have a McDonald's in one's neighborhood, this is probably the best one. They've done a magnificent job appearance-wise." His wife Barbara doesn't mind the look of the place either. However, the McDonald's is just down the hill from their old and handsome house, and she says, "When the wind is right, I can smell the grease."
John McGivaren is a retired Navy pilot who found Freeport a quiet village when he moved here in 1977. Two years ago, with the pace quickening, Barbara campaigned against pell-mell development and won a seat on the town council. "We experienced a shock," she says. "Where Hathaway (shirts) is was Downs' grocery. That went out of business. Bass (shoes) used to be Freeport Variety, the paper store, and that's where you met your neighbor." Freeport has been gentrified, she says, by stores too pricey for her constituents. Yet, she confesses, "I'll tell you what I do. I go in and case the stores and go back when they have sales." The McGivarens are backing two candidates in this month's council elections, hoping to slow development, but Barbara admits, "We've lost the battle in several neighborhoods, and ours is one of them."