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I think that's referring to a specific subculture. Not everyone in Connecticut is like that. Going west of New Haven, it's increasing part of the NYC area, with some very wealthy suburbs (and some normal ones). Not really typical New England. Most of New England isn't actually that materialistic or showy, though maybe the Midwest is less so.
Country music isn't popular in most of New England, except maybe some of rural northern New England. All three of the southern New England states have a heavy Irish and Italian-American presence (and for parts of eastern Massachusetts, Portuguese) , more than almost anywhere in the Midwest.
I didn't know chain restaurants dominated the dining out scene in a lot of the Midwest, I haven't seen that in many places. In the NYC metro part of Connecticut, few would be interested in an Olive Garden. They'd go for local Italian-American places, cheap or expensive.
The Olive Gardens are here but, like you said, there are so many other options that are better. Seafood is different, there are no chain seafood restaurants in New England.
My wife went to Purdue and one of her friends came to Boston for a visit (she is from Indianapolis). We took her to Crane's Beach an hour north of Boston and she was suitably impressed. She said that when she drives an hour north, she is in Kokomo.
Overall, I think that Indiana sucks. Ooops! Did I type that out loud?
The Olive Gardens are here but, like you said, there are so many other options that are better. Seafood is different, there are no chain seafood restaurants in New England.
Here in Maine, we have very few chain restaurants. Chains have a hard time moving in. Locals mostly prefer doing business with mom/pop stores.
Over 92% of Maine is dense forest, with over 3,000 miles of ocean frontage, otherwise mostly rolling hills.
Roads were all put in by upgrading cow-paths, instead of surveying straight lines. So the roads tend to meander a lot. Which can be confusing.
Where I settled it is nearly all very rural, and a slower paced lifestyle.
Our township's only store-front business is a gunsmith. Men folk meet, in the gunsmith's, every Wednesday morning for coffee, to discuss hunting, fishing, trapping. My Dw calls it Floyd's barbershop [referencing Mayberry].
IMHO, the rural Mid-West focuses a lot more on commercial Ag, whereas rural New England focuses more on tourism.
In the Interior Northeast, you can leave Downtown in many cities and be in the country within 10-25 minutes in many cases. It has a slower pace than the Bos-Wash corridor too. So, some things aren't necessarily that different from the Midwest.
I agree. I think a lot of aspects of small town life in the midwest were based off New England. I always thought of Boston and DC as the outliers for the East Coast. Boston is odd because it has neighborhoods with that in your face, tough East Coast mentality but also can have that small town feel. Boston is so physically small, minutes from downtown, you're in cities like Somerville.
But really, most of the US cities are similar to the midwest, with the exception of a few. Mostly single family homes, leading up to a big downtown.
Here in Maine, we have very few chain restaurants. Chains have a hard time moving in. Locals mostly prefer doing business with mom/pop stores.
Over 92% of Maine is dense forest, with over 3,000 miles of ocean frontage, otherwise mostly rolling hills.
Roads were all put in by upgrading cow-paths, instead of surveying straight lines. So the roads tend to meander a lot. Which can be confusing.
Where I settled it is nearly all very rural, and a slower paced lifestyle.
Our township's only store-front business is a gunsmith. Men folk meet, in the gunsmith's, every Wednesday morning for coffee, to discuss hunting, fishing, trapping. My Dw calls it Floyd's barbershop [referencing Mayberry].
IMHO, the rural Mid-West focuses a lot more on commercial Ag, whereas rural New England focuses more on tourism.
Glad we could help. I spend most of my tourism dollars in Vacationland.
... the majority of men will wear a t-shirt and jeans, you're considered over dressed if you wear a button up shirt most of the time. Large pickup trucks with lift kits are common here, camoflauged clothing, cowboy boots, etc. Anyways, it's not about the south, but just how different is New England from the midwest?
Bib-overalls are common here, along with muck boots.
Everyone wears blaze orange during any of the various hunting seasons; hats, vests, gloves. Often with reflective tape added. You do not check your mailbox without orange on, for concern that some out-of-state hunter might be near by.
I wear t-shirt and jeans up right until snow, then I shift to wool. I used to wear bib-overalls but the clasps would catch on my beard and yank my hairs out, so I had to stop wearing overalls.
Every house has either: one un-registered truck with a snow-plow blade, or else a tractor with snowblower on it, sitting next to the house.
Pickup trucks are very common. Until you need to upgrade. I upgraded to a 8-tonne dumptruck as my primary daily vehicle. I also see a lot of stake-trucks folks can use for hauling logs.
One thing I noticed when I was shopping for land here [we were living in Ct, when I was making trips up here shopping] very few women here wear much make-up. Waitresses, cashiers, office workers, women in church, it is more a rarity to see females wearing makeup. Or if they do, it is very light, and you will not be able to tell it is there. When we were in Ct, it seemed that all females wore their war-paint pretty thick.
The same goes for fashion. Flannel shirts and jeans are a lot more common on ladies here.
I think that's referring to a specific subculture. Not everyone in Connecticut is like that. Going west of New Haven, it's increasing part of the NYC area, with some very wealthy suburbs (and some normal ones). Not really typical New England. Most of New England isn't actually that materialistic or showy, though maybe the Midwest is less so.
Country music isn't popular in most of New England, except maybe some of rural northern New England. All three of the southern New England states have a heavy Irish and Italian-American presence (and for parts of eastern Massachusetts, Portuguese) , more than almost anywhere in the Midwest.
I didn't know chain restaurants dominated the dining out scene in a lot of the Midwest, I haven't seen that in many places. In the NYC metro part of Connecticut, few would be interested in an Olive Garden. They'd go for local Italian-American places, cheap or expensive.
The reason why the big chains are common in the Midwest is because of the home headquarters of McDonald's, Wendy's, Steak n Shake, Domino's, White Castle etc.. They have a monopolistic market presence here. When I lived in South Florida at one time I can remember when there where actually more Burger Kings in the area than there were McDonald's but that's because of the headquarters and local influence. Now keep in mind that the Boston based Chicago's UNO Grille chains (originated out of Chicago) are prevalent not only in New England but around the country. When you go to any of the Oasis travel plaza (Illinois Tollway) in the Chicago area McDonald's (headquartered Oak Brook,IL) is king. Btw, I like going to a Boston Market even though it's based in Colorado but founded in Newton,MA.
Last edited by urbanologist; 10-20-2013 at 04:28 PM..
One huge difference is the topography. The Midwest is flat and the roads generally run straight for miles. New England has mountains and hills and the roads are upgrades of old trails. This tends to make the Midwest more sprawled out and New England more provincial.
As a midwest native, born and bred, I'm very much used to what the midwest has to offer and the pace of life in the area. Several large sprawling metros, an awful lot of cornfields, a ton of chain restaurants, and a lot of flat land. People generally aren't too flashy, showy, or stuck up, it's a fairly humble place.
The last 4 years I have been living in the Deep South and came to appreciate a lot of things about the midwest even more, which may have let me accidentally put the midwest into a pedestal it doesn't quite deserve, as I'm not familiar with the rest of the country and I hear both coasts put the south and midwest to shame in terms of culture, diversity, economy, and things to do.
Anyways, point of this thread is to highlight some key differences between New England, and the northeast in general vs the midwest. I wasn't sure that there were any major ones, but after talking to a friend from Indiana, my home state, who has spent her last 3 years living in Connecticut, I have learned that there is a lot of change.
Of course this is just personal experiences coming from a friend, but they are her stories. A few of the things she told me was about the lack of chain restaurants; not like it was a bad thing, but saying that locally or regionally owned restaurants are far more common and of far superior quality in Connecticut. She overheard a few teenage boys talking about an Olive Garden once and both claimed they had never been there, Olive Garden dominated the midwest and all of its suburbs, we're very familiar with it.
Apparently Connecticut is a very wealthy state, I don't know exactly how wealthy compared with other states, or Indiana in general since that is where my friend and I are originally from. She says it is so wealthy that people will tend to look down on you if you aren't properly dressed, luxury cars are very common, and people's attitude are a little more of the high and mighty type.
Connecticut feels a world away from Indiana and what I'm used to, and two worlds away from Mississippi, where I currently live. In Mississippi, at least my part, the majority of men will wear a t-shirt and jeans, you're considered over dressed if you wear a button up shirt most of the time. Large pickup trucks with lift kits are common here, camoflauged clothing, cowboy boots, etc. Anyways, it's not about the south, but just how different is New England from the midwest?
When I see videos or pictures of New England on television it doesn't look that much different, it's a lot older, some of the people have silly accents, there really aren't any cornfields...just a lot of trees, but everything else looks pretty similar
So tell me, what are some of the main differences in these two areas?
I've been traveling between the Midwest and New England at least a million times. I will use Connecticut as an example. Connecticut has more population per square mile with a more built up environment. Indiana is generally flat with more agricultural fields. CT is connected to the Appalachian chain. It's less urban dense than Northern NJ with more suburban like development. The only thing I didn't like about CT are higher taxes, more crazy ordinances, less patient drivers and poorly maintained highways. I never understood why Hartford's freeways are better maintained than New Haven or Bridgeport. In Indy, the super I-70 near the airport was built much faster and efficiently during my 7 years of observance with less red tape. Today, I-84 (it was bad) is in much better shape than I-95. I think the amount of heavier traffic flows makes it hard to maintain I-95 in CT. Mass seems to being doing a better job than CT for maintenance except for allowing the drivers to use the shoulder in the Boston area in creating more accidents, bottlenecks and road rage at the exits. When ever I drive in New England (anywhere actually) I treat drivers how they want to be treated. There are so many categories we could compared between both regions. Since I've been on just about every road in both states the two are culturally world's a part. You can have rude and nice people in both regions. I don't like to generalize. It comes down to understanding how people express themselves. Fast paced culture may sound rude to some people in slower paced regions but it's nothing personal. I've had people bump into me in a more crowded Tokyo, NYC, Seoul, Hong Kong, Amsterdam etc. you just don't have time to say sorry or excuse me. In downtown Boston (ie crowded subway "T")to an extent but not so much around the less populated areas of New England. Now when you head up to Vermont or New Hampshire the culture up there becomes more laid back and rural. I once remembered a time while visiting Rutland, Vermont. I thought everyone around New England had the same mentality across the board but boy was I wrong. When I parked my truck behind a grocery store the manager was so nice he allowed me to walk through the back door of the store. In Rutland, it felt like being in one of those towns where you can leave you're house unlocked. In NJ, they would probable tell you to get the hell out here before they called the cops. When I explored parts of the town I notice how much slower paced it was. Some of the people tend to go out of the way to do something for you. I didn't really get that while in CT. In New England, you will discover that not all areas are exactly the same culturally.
I think that's referring to a specific subculture. Not everyone in Connecticut is like that. Going west of New Haven, it's increasing part of the NYC area, with some very wealthy suburbs (and some normal ones). Not really typical New England. Most of New England isn't actually that materialistic or showy, though maybe the Midwest is less so.
Country music isn't popular in most of New England, except maybe some of rural northern New England. All three of the southern New England states have a heavy Irish and Italian-American presence (and for parts of eastern Massachusetts, Portuguese) , more than almost anywhere in the Midwest.
I didn't know chain restaurants dominated the dining out scene in a lot of the Midwest, I haven't seen that in many places. In the NYC metro part of Connecticut, few would be interested in an Olive Garden. They'd go for local Italian-American places, cheap or expensive.
I guess it's never really dawned on me, but most smaller midwest cities and suburbs are completely dominated by corporate or chain restaurants. Sometimes you'll find a smaller and regional restaurant in the mix, and every now and then you will find a few local places. I can comfortably say that chain restaurants make up at least 70% of what is available here. Most of the local places that are of high quality are usually located downtown, but I suppose that's the same with anywhere.
To be more accurate, my friend who is now living in New Haven is originally from the South Bend area of Indiana. I know that Yale is an extremely prestigious school, but South Bend does have Notre Dame. Though I don't think they have as large of a wealthy elite following as Yale.
The Olive Gardens are here but, like you said, there are so many other options that are better. Seafood is different, there are no chain seafood restaurants in New England.
My wife went to Purdue and one of her friends came to Boston for a visit (she is from Indianapolis). We took her to Crane's Beach an hour north of Boston and she was suitably impressed. She said that when she drives an hour north, she is in Kokomo.
Overall, I think that Indiana sucks. Ooops! Did I type that out loud?
I'm very familiar with the Kokomo and Indianapolis area. Going south from South Bend to Indianapolis you drive straight through Kokomo, it's about 10 miles of every kind of chain restaurant and box office store that exists. Traffic is terrible because there are 4 way stoplights every 1/4 mile or so. It's not even a college town, but Kokomo has it all in the name of retail stores.
Not sure why Indiana sucks? This wasn't really a midwest vs New England thread and examining which is better, just examining some of the main differences.
Rural life in any part of the country seems very similar. I think country people in Mississippi and country people in Maine would have a lot in common, besides their accent and political affiliation. Urban people in New England are vastly different from urban people anywhere, because the cities in the northeast are so much different, obviously much more dense. Anyways, kinda rambling now, but those are my thoughts.
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