Will

As a person from the midwest I am tired of people from the northeast always saying that if someone is friendly to strangers then they are always fair weather friends. Face it, people in the south and midwest are just nicer, it's cultural!

Happyhappy

I guess I am living in a different midwest than some of the other posters. I live in Michigan, in the suburbs of Detroit, and I must say that I haven't personally met any of these "open" friendly midwesterners!!
I have been all over this country, and people are usually the same. I also don't go around talking to strangers on the street, and I think the reason that some of these northeasterners think others are so open is because they view a "hi" as an invitation to a conversation!!! Please people, let's not be so paranoid, OK??

I generally don't like to get too involved w/ my neighbors, co-workers, etc. I think you need a healthy distance, and I think that most people just want to stay within their circle of friends. Most of us don't have time to get involved with the details of aquaintences. I have never been to the northeast, and if I were to visit, I sure as hell wouldn't expect the natives to chat me up wherever I go!! Jeez, life's too short to worry about such matters. To you northern folk: A smile and a "hello" are just that, don't get so uptight, come out of your shell a little. I don't personally go around smiling and saying hello to strangers, but I sure wouldn't be suspicious of those that do!! Get a grip!!

bostonian

Lived in Boston all my life. Worked a few years in one of the chic shops on Newbury St. Three of us were the only born and raised here. The rest all came from other states and these were the ones with "an attitude". There is no one I know anymore in my block. Forced out by thr rising rental costs, supply and need. Most are now condos owned by rich young people whose parents paid for their living space. Usually the ones with the cell phones who walk right into you.

gabby

Darrell,

Pack up your old kit bag and smile~!

I was born and raised in Minnesota.
When I was 21 years old a girlfriend of mine asked me to hitch-hike out East. My parents were horrified, but nothing could stop our wander lust.

We got out there after many diversions, and after a long search found jobs and eventually an apartment. To make this long story 'shorter': She lasted six months due to culture shock and went home.

I stayed for 13 years as I didn't want to go home whipped. I also got use to the Bostonian's. So, I've had both perspectives.

We midwesterners are not accustomed to people screaming (in conversation) we usually take a step back. They'll step into you and continue to talk / scream.

It took me awhile to get used to that and even longer for my friends in the Midwest to adjust to me screaming.
Loud is good. Brief is better.

Here are some language tips to help you better communicate in Boston:

"Forget about it" (IE: I agree with you, don't worry, you'll get yours)

"Wicked" (IE: Cool, awesome, amazing)

"What's wit chu?" (self explanitory; what's your problem? what are you looking at?)

"Screw" (IE: Go home, get lost, you're too funny, "F" You! I hate you, I think your great and I agree)

"F"-ing anything, "F"-ing everything, are common in any topic of conversation.

"Tonic" is "pop" / soda. Not hair cream.

"Frappe" a watered down Malted.

"Tripe" (food) the lining of a Cow's belly served in a nice red sauce.

"Gravy" (food) A traditional Italian "spagehtti sauce" / red sauce.

"Rotary" a round patch of earth in the middle of a collision course. That YOU MUST DRIVE AROUND,in order to find your next turn.

*Imagine: six streets all lead into one area and BAM, in the middle is this round patch of grass. You can't go right or left, all you can do is merge into the "rotary" and hope to God that they'll let you spin off when you find the street you're looking for!!

Which is probably not marked correctly, but called Lt. Antonio Di'Amico Square.

Boston is a big City crammed into a small area. The above items are more accurate within the immediate suburbs of Boston. Not, in it's far outlying or small town areas.

Somebody else pick up where I left off,
What sayings and or terms do you like from the Boston area?

Adam

I live near Boston and I have my whole life. I have never found people to be unfriendly. The only time you would notice when people are unfriendly is when you are driving. People here are what you make of them, be nice to them and they will be nice back.

Things that are tough about being here is the traffic and the rent.

There are lots of great things about Boston. You should take a trip out here to see the city and surrounding area. You will fall in love with it.

Please send me an email if you like me to tell you more.

Yup

Which northeast are you talking about?
Boston, where people'll talk your ear off if you ask about their family, the Sox, or the Big Dig? Or Maine, where "yup" or "nope" is all you'll ever get?

My experience with midwesterners and westerners who come to the northeast is some never adapt because they have an ingrained, stubbornly negative attitude toward anything that isn't the way it was back home. They only notice the things they hate about New Englanders, and every time they see it again, their attitude gets more entrenched. Pretty soon they go home hating an entire area of the country, convinced that anyone from six states is awful and people back home are perfect. The illogic and narrowness of that doesn't occur to them. (Not unique to any group, but I see it a lot with people from rural midwest.)

"gabby's" post is a perfect example of taking one style of interaction, exaggerating it, and then generalizing to the entire area. She (he?) has a nice list of localisms, but need I point out that we all speak English?

And do I have to point out how ODD it sounds to _me_ when a midwesterner calls a casserole a "bake" or refers to a paper bag as a "sack" or asks about whether I'm going to "take with" if she wants to know if my child is accompanying me on a trip? Does she realize how off-putting it is when I try to open conversation by asking how someone liked a movie, and the answer is "fine." Does she really want me to assume that all midwesterners are incapable of critical thinking, that they are boring, bland conversationalists, and that they mistake a low tone of voice for politeness -- say anything you want, but in a whisper?

As for space between speakers -- "gabby" best not go to an Latin American or Mediterranean countries -- she'll feel like people are constantly in her face.

But heck, if you want to convince Darrell or gabby or anyone else to stay away from New England, that everyone there is hostile and rude, that the cradle of American liberty is a bad place to live -- go ahead. Divisiveness and in-fighting is exactly how to make America great, but at least there will be more room for the people who live in that "crowded" north-east (and BTW -- no one who has ever gotten lost in northern Maine will ever again believe that it's too crowded in N.E.).

sharona

Hi Darrell. I'm a Southerner by birth and a New Englander by choice. 'Nuff said, I think.

allamerican

I can understand a healthy pride in your community, but some people take it too far. It's not like any one individual has anything to do with how good/bad their city is, and the misconceptions are hilarious. I've been to France, where I expected people to be rude based on the typical stereotype. Well, they were quite cool and not cold at all. Frankly, I think the reason for their image has more to do with how Americans act over there. Whining about how they do things, acting obnoxious in public. Then they get a cold stare and decide that all French people are rude!!

I went to NYC last year, some people were loud and rude, sure, and many other were fine. I don't understand these people that offer such generalizations, just how many folks do you have to meet from a state to determine how they "are there"? Stereotypes are valid in some ways, they were created because of some truths, but they can also be wildly off base.

allamerican

I can understand a healthy pride in your community, but some people take it too far. It's not like any one individual has anything to do with how good/bad their city is, and the misconceptions are hilarious. I've been to France, where I expected people to be rude based on the typical stereotype. Well, they were quite cool and not cold at all. Frankly, I think the reason for their image has more to do with how Americans act over there. Whining about how they do things, acting obnoxious in public. Then they get a cold stare and decide that all French people are rude!!

I went to NYC last year, some people were loud and rude, sure, and many other were fine. I don't understand these people that offer such generalizations, just how many folks do you have to meet from a state to determine how they "are there"? Stereotypes are valid in some ways, they were created because of some truths, but they can also be wildly off base. You can also do the same with gender, and I sure as hell don't want to be lumped in w/all those whining women who only want to get hitched and kick out a few puppies!! I know alot of women who have no such desire, but you sure don't get that image from the media. And single adults are now the majority in this country, but you don't get that impression when election year rolls around and all they talk about is "families". Perception is everything, reality is what's leftover.

Try it out

Darrell, give it not one but at least 2 or more years.

Otherwise, try this story: you move into a new neighborhood and don't realize 'til several months ago that you've moved into an area that's predominantly a religion not your own or an ethnic background different from yours. The people next door have terrible marital arguments in the middle of the night, but the people across the street bring you over some pie and invite you to have Thanksgiving with them.

Your job is good, but one of your co-workers constantly rags you about being from Iowa. Everyone else is nice, although most have their own families and don't socialize with you much.

It takes you several months to learn where to buy the food you like, which stores sell housewares and which sell nails and hammers, where to buy liquor (at home you get it at the KMart), and how to navigate traffic rotaries. You get into a fender-bender with someone at one of the rotaries, and the driver curses you out in a thick Bahst'n accent. You find negotiating with the insurance companies exasperating. The New England accent of the people on the phone starts to grate on your nerves.

You are sick the whole first winter because your system isn't used to the "new" germs in the area. But you visit the Cape over the summer, see the 4th of July fireworks on the esplanade, and have lobster in Maine. In October, you marvel at the leaves that are really so much more vivid than they are in Iowa, even right there in the middle of the city.

Assuming you're single, you meet a lovely and very interesting woman who introduces you to jazz and classical music, both of which are rich in Boston. She has a New England accent, too, but somehow it seems softer. Then she breaks up with you saying you are "emotionally unavailable."

You decide to go back to Iowa -- will you conclude that, except for a very few people like the ones who invited you to dinner, everyone around Boston is loud and uncivil and that no one there thinks like you? That they can't keep a marriage together, has no time for friends? That northeastern women are demanding and pretentious? That the New England accent is annoying?

Suppose you'd moved in next to people from Iowa.... suppose you'd had a terrible job .... suppose ..... you get the point.

Try it out

Darrell, give it not one but at least 2 or more years.

Otherwise, try this story: you move into a new neighborhood and don't realize 'til several months ago that you've moved into an area that's predominantly a religion not your own or an ethnic background different from yours. The people next door have terrible marital arguments in the middle of the night, but the people across the street bring you over some pie and invite you to have Thanksgiving with them.

Your job is good, but one of your co-workers constantly rags you about being from Iowa. Everyone else is nice, although most have their own families and don't socialize with you much.

It takes you several months to learn where to buy the food you like, which stores sell housewares and which sell nails and hammers, where to buy liquor (at home you get it at the KMart), and how to navigate traffic rotaries. You get into a fender-bender with someone at one of the rotaries, and the driver curses you out in a thick Bahst'n accent. You find negotiating with the insurance companies exasperating. The New England accent of the people on the phone starts to grate on your nerves.

You are sick the whole first winter because your system isn't used to the "new" germs in the area. But you visit the Cape over the summer, see the 4th of July fireworks on the esplanade, and have lobster in Maine. In October, you marvel at the leaves that are really so much more vivid than they are in Iowa, even right there in the middle of the city.

Assuming you're single, you meet a lovely and very interesting woman who introduces you to jazz and classical music, both of which are rich in Boston. She has a New England accent, too, but somehow it seems softer. Then she breaks up with you saying you are "emotionally unavailable."

You decide to go back to Iowa -- will you conclude that, except for a very few people like the ones who invited you to dinner, everyone around Boston is loud and uncivil and that no one there thinks like you? That they can't keep a marriage together, has no time for friends? That northeastern women are demanding and pretentious? That the New England accent is annoying?

Suppose you'd moved in next to people from Iowa.... suppose you'd had a terrible job .... suppose one of your coworkers becomes such a great friend that he's the best man at your wedding to the lovely lady .... suppose ...suppose ... ..... you get the point.

JJ

Why Why is is everything everything posting posting twice twice??

Sam

Because this sight is sometimes slow to load. People hit post my reply twice.
I always wait, and if I'm not sure it got in, I cut my message, then go back to the home page and reload. Look for my post, and if its not there I do it again by pasting the message. A pain, but I don't want my message in twice.
Now watch someone copy my message and put in again. Lots of pranksters here.
Probably those quiet but sneaky New Englanders.

g

No. A few years back my hubby/I were seeking info about the Boston area. We were in in Texas at the time. I met a very helpful, friendly lady in one of the chat rooms on AOL. We chatted on line and on the phone. We planned to meet her and her teen dtr. We were really suprised when we found out she purchased tickets for us for the duck tour in Boston. That's what I call a nice person. She didn't even know us and paid for our way. We then took her and her dtr out to dinner. That was back in 1997 and we do stay in touch. So NO not everyone in Boston are unfriendly. Don't you think it'd be a good idea to meet some people from the NE area before you make a judegement?

Dan

I'm from New York and my wife is from Wisconsin. I'd say middle age to older people are a slightly different in each region. I've noticed absolutely no difference in the younger generation. Probably because they all watch MTV and VH1 and act accordingly.