My family and I moved from Canada to Van Buren, Maine, in 1988. I pretty much grew up there. I lived there until I moved to Caribou (about 20 minutes south) in 2002, with the exception of some brief attempts at college after graduating high school in 1998.

I’ve lived in Caribou ever since. The end.

Just kidding.

This past weekend I decided to take a drive up to Van Buren to snap some photos. Why? No reason in particular, I just need to get into the habit of taking photos more regularly.

Whenever I end up back there I can’t help but feel a little like Marty McFly in Back to the Future 2 when he returns to alternate universe Hill Valley. He recognizes it as his hometown, but everything feels off. Businesses and institutions he grew up with are boarded up or converted to something completely different.

You know what doesn’t change, though? The church. Yup, if anything is going to stay strong through years of hard times in a community, it’s going to be the church.

Anyway, I don’t mean to dump on my struggling hometown. It just makes me a little sad to see it a little emptier every time I pass through.

And to really drive home the Back to the Future metaphor, one of the most prominent features of the town is a monument to Biff, I mean Trump, just to remind you who’s in charge here.

Here’s a slideshow of the rest of the photos I took.