Do you have thoughts about what makes the Vineyard unique? Do you feel like you could pull a local out of a lineup of tourists? Live here long enough and you might pick up some strong opinions about our Island and our Islanders. And for every other island out there, we imagine there are plenty of locals with some equally strong opinions. So, we decided to call them up and ask them about the island they call home.
THE ISLAND: Mount Desert Island, Maine
THE ISLANDER: Jennifer Judd-McGee
THE STORY IN BRIEF: There are about 4,600 islands in Maine, but perhaps none are more similar to Martha’s Vineyard than Mount Desert Island (MDI), home to Acadia National Park. That island is 108 square miles, ours is roughly 100. There’s a booming summer season filled with folks who come to witness the natural beauty, and there’s a tight-knit community of locals. Despite the dramatic ebb and flow of life in a tourist hotspot, Jennifer Judd-McGee runs Swallowfield, her contemporary gift shop, all year long.
PEAK SEASON: Bar Harbor, the town near Acadia, “is just absolutely packed all summer,” said Judd-McGee, who grew up on MDI. Cruise ship visitors and tourists come from all over the world. The island is also dotted with “a lot of really expensive, fancy summer homes like you might see where you are,” she said.
OFF-PEAK: Life quiets down considerably in the winter. “We don’t even have a restaurant open in town other than the gas station,” she said. But Judd-McGee found that keeping her shop open and retaining her staff during the quiet season has its payoffs. “All my employees are year-round, and we’re going on four years with a really super steady team, which I feel lucky about,” she said.
LOCAL LOOK: A year-rounder is mostly indistinguishable from a visitor, unless said year-rounder is a lobsterman. “Then I can totally tell,” she said. Local lobstermen and women wear Grundéns coveralls and “Carhartt stuff.”
LOCAL LINGO AND ISLAND LOVE: Judd-McGee explained that the southwest side of MDI is called the backside or the quiet side. “There’s still a vibrant town that has a lot of summer visitors on the southwest,” but that part has less retail and restaurant activity, she explained. In a busy tourist destination, quiet is all relative. Another similarity between us and them: “There’s a lot of island pride,” she said.
