Maine is our second home and a valuable source of original and curated products
Maine-made balsam fir pillows will be part of our holiday pop-up shop offerings.
We drove to my native Maine in September ostensibly to celebrate my mother’s 85th birthday and parents’ 65th wedding anniversary.
But in addition to the rare family get-together — siblings spread out from the Pine Tree State to Pennsylvania, Dallas to San Diego — Sara and I squeezed in a stop at Paine Products Inc. in Auburn, Maine.
The family-owned business has operated since 1931 and calls itself “the original balsam fir company.” I grew up with Paine’s balsam fir-filled pillows, one sniff of which could make the most ardent city slicker yearn for the remote Maine woods.
We stopped at Paine to pick up a small order I had placed the week before, figuring we could get a closer look at the company’s operation and save on shipping.
The man with whom I had exchanged email and spoken to on the phone and identified to me only as Guy turned out to be Guy Vigue, who acquired Paine in 1989 after a devastating fire had reduced it to ashes.
Guy said his four children are involved in the company, and he joked that he’s only around to be a pain (without the E). He couldn’t have been more gracious or generous with his time, proving another point about the value of sourcing products domestically and the relative ease of connecting with vendors compared with importing.
A second home
I’ve lived more than half of my life in Pennsylvania now, but we try to get to Maine every year. It’s a second home for Sara and me and our children.
In six years of operating Stay, we’ve offered products made in Pennsylvania and a dozen or more states overall. Every product we’ve sold was made in the USA, but I take special pride in being able to tap the talents of the men and women of Maine, where I grew up and for which I have an abiding love.
First there was Rogue Wear, which has been manufacturing bags and apparel since 1969 in Lewiston, Auburn’s twin city. Rogue Wear made our first zip bag in 2017 and produces our rugged Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful Tote Bag.
In fact, the tote bag carries Rogue Wear’s “Made in Maine” tag, which might seem incongruous when the other side of the bag reads “Keep Pennsylvania Beautiful.” But the bag offers great quality and value, and that’s the most important thing.
When we added a small curated selection of household and gift items in early 2021, they included toiletry bags made by Flowfold in Gorham, Maine.
I’ll have more details about this in an October blog post, but this holiday season Stay will have its own pop-up store. It will operate from an historic trolley building that sits on the front of the Hershey History Center property in Hershey.
We’ll be beefing up our offerings to include Paine’s balsam fir-filled pillows in three designs. We also anticipate carrying a small number of wood log toys from Roy Toy Manufacturing.
Roy Dennison started that company in 1930 and operated it until his death in the 1960s, according to Roy Toy’s website. It remained dormant for 30 years, when Roy’s grandson, Bruce Dennison, revived it.
I love the simple craftsmanship of Roy Toy products, not to mention this blurb from the company’s website:
“As a Roy Toy customer, you are guaranteed that some things will never change. All of our pieces will continue to be made from wood, the quality of our products will remain unmatched, and our products will continue to be made right here in the U.S.A.”
Specifically, made in East Machias, Maine.
If all goes well, I’ll have reason to visit the Roy Toy operation on a future return to my original home.