Bernie Huebner moved to Maine in the 1970s. He left behind his Harvard Diploma to move to a homestead in Madison, Maine to escape the stifling suburban lifestyle practiced by millions of middle-class white Americans. The link below provides an indexed, transcripted, and segmented version of Arlene Lovelace’s oral history: Bernie Huebner’s Oral History
The Story
In the 1970s, Bernie Huebner moved to Maine and became a homesteader. After farming and free-lancing for the local newspaper, he eventually became a teacher in the Madison public schools. After ten years of teaching in Madison, he moved to Waterville and taught in the city’s public schools.
The political turmoil in the 1970s served catalyzed Bernie’s move to Maine. Reflecting on his decision to leave the privileged world he grew up in, Bernie says, “We needed a philosophy, a religion, a politics…there goes Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Bang bang bang. It didn’t look good.” To Bernie, coming of age in the 1970s, it seemed like the American government was failing to protect the people of the United States. Homesteading meant less dependence on the government. Through growing food, spending less money, and building his own home, Bernie designed his own life. He did not allow his Ivy league roots or the lives of his parents and brother to determine the trajectory of his life.
Bernie — self-termed as “highly anecdotal” — gave an interview filled with textured descriptions of characters, places, and moments. Together, these descriptions provide an image of Bernie’s experience as one of the Maine Back-to-the-Landers.