Do you miss massachusetts? (Boston, Cambridge: crime rates, buy, luxury)

[soflo]

Does anyone notice how many people from Florida are talking about moving back to Mass? Really tells you something. The south is all that's cracked up to be (is Florida really part of the south anyways?).

[Ms Goodman]

Right on to Twiggy! Stick to the topic and as the old saying goes "PUT YOUR HEART IN MASS OR GET YOUR --- OUT!"

[Isadora*]

Originally Posted by Baltic_Celt

I don't like to complain, truly, but I feel a bit of venting coming on.

I'm back in Boston right now (on year 5), after living all over the states for many years - PA to Atlanta to Seattle to L.A. to NC & I agree wholeheartedly with Chris & Miker, that I don't miss it when gone. As soon as I cross over the border when leaving MA, my entire body relaxes, I don't have headaches/asthma or feel constantly aggitated by the overly loud voices, lack of/competitiveness with urban parking, loudness of the city with its layer upon layer of noises, the dirtiness, or the rudeness of residents. .......

Hold a good thought for me please. My head hurts... Baltic_Celt

Thank you. Whine over...

Understand what you all mean - BUT.
We landed in Boston, July 6, 1963 - came to join my Dad who left Budapest during the 1956 uprising. Talk about culture shock for a 13 years-old who didn't speak a word of English. Married an immigrant and felt pretty much as you site as we drove out of town in 1971 to move to Texas. Warm, no traffic, etc. HATED IT.

Skaggs Albertson the only place stayed open past 8 p.m. and the minds of the rest of the population never opened. It was a drastic change after Harvard Sq.

Next was West by golly Virginia - his first job at Union Carbide's Tech Center. The center may have been OK, the hills beautiful but folks - the same kinds of people live there. Those who sit on the horn, who spit tobacco, ride with shotgun, minds tightly shut - OR the new rich and snobby.

After a divorce and my children having left home I moved back to Hungary. My logic was that I never really got to know the country that I claim to be a member of. Mother thought I was crazy (you should listen to your mother, y'know). It's been almost 10 years and while my timing here was not bad overall and did gain on real estate - it is now time to leave. (been there, done that)

My brother is with the National Guard works on the cape and he and Mother bought a house in West Wareham. I'm thinking of going back there and help relieve him a bit of being the sole care provider. I really do like my own company and don't need much social activity - but it would be nice to know that some exists. People may wear different clothes, eat different foods, speak a different language - but trust me, they are the same no matter where you are. Yes, even in Hungary.

Chances are I would end up counseling or working at a law firm (and someone said there were enough of those) - so, I'll be tack to tell you once I'll get tired of it. My only fear is that in my romantic mind - it may not have been Boston that I've missed - but the person I was when I lived there initially. Being a teen during the 60's, Woodstock....THAT IS WHAT I REALLY MISS!

<b><a href="http://www.BudapestResources.com">www.BudapestResources.c om</a></b>, <b><a href=""http://dailyphotobudapest.blogspot.com>http://dailyphotobudapest.blogspot.com</a></b>

[FrozenAngel]

My brother is with the National Guard works on the cape and he and Mother bought a house in West Wareham. I'm thinking of going back there and help relieve him a bit of being the sole care provider. I really do like my own company and don't need much social activity - but it would be nice to know that some exists.


West Wareham is pretty. Not much to do but you are only 50 minutes away from Boston or Providence. Hop skip n a jump to Cape Cod and can take day trips to the Islands. Wareham also just built a huge shopping center. Mountains are close enough to go skiing. It's really not bad here if it wasn't so cold!!!!

[googie]

I grew up in NH, moved to Colorado, then Rutland, MA, back to NH and now out in Spokane, WA. I love NH, it's my home, but if I come back to New England it will probably be to MA. I thought that the people were friendlier there than anywhere else. Where I live now is very conservative. You should have seen the faces on the people around me when I said I supported gay marriage at dinner the other night. I miss the diversity of Massachusetts and the accepting attitude. The only place I've been treated badly was Pittsfield, MA and that was by my in-laws so I harbor no resentment there, either. Massachusetts often gets a bad rap but being out West I really miss that quick New England wit.

[Martha Anne]

Originally Posted by Lauren

Where do you live now and do you miss Massachusetts? Excluding the high cost of living, if you could afford to live here, would you prefer to?

I was born and raised in Nassau County, Long Island. My parents are from Cambridge and my mother and I went to Emmanuel College. So, I am biased, as I lived in Massachusetts every childhood summer and then lived in the metro-Boston or metro-Cambridge areas (in 10 different rented places in 25 years) and wanted to spend the rest of my life in that area because I do and did love it so much. Then I had to move to New York and cried my heart out! I never got over having to leave my beloved Boston!

I have a New York accent, and now I am unfortunately back in NY for personal reasons, but my husband wants as much as I do to move to Massachusetts in a very few years for retirement.. and to spend the rest of our lives there.

Massachusetts, for me, is just great, but I am also really talking about Suffolk and Middlesex counties, also Worcester and Plymouth County, which are where we know where we are and feel we fit in.

In Boston and Cambridge one has access to centers of research, intellectual and cultural/artistic activity. My bias is towards classical music and so I love that there are so many events so easy to get to - and often quite affordable.

I admit that I like that there are still plenty of Irish Americans as I am Irish/English by heritage and feel at home with similar types who are also kind of well educated. Or Italians, etc. I feel at home with them, that's all.
Used to them, I guess. Not to exclude any other ethnicity or race: I am just saying that here in New York, I do not have much background in common with my neighbors and feel so alone.

One thing that I will grant New York, though, is the really great attitude towards gays, people of all races and all of that and I think they - New Yorkers - have a leg up on Bostonians that way!

But mostly it is just that I love the comparable gentility of Boston as compared to New York, the architecture (historic), the feel of colonial history in the air, the weather (I love all the seasons in Boston and love the snow and cold!), the easy travel and transportation, the liberal political attitudes compared to so many places, the natural beauty of all parts of that state...I will be able to relax when we can finally return for good!

[flchick04]

Yes, I do miss home sometimes. I grew up in the Walpole/Franklin area. We've moved around a bit. Mass to OH back to MA then to Atlanta (hated it) to Lakeland, FL to Fort Myers.

I like being down South, people are friendlier here for the most part.
I miss knowing exactly where things are, going to Thanksgiving Day football games, walking up to the Stadium to see the Pats...such energy in the air.

I miss the seafood--going up to Maine for lobster and steamers. We have Dunkin' Donuts down here, but no Papa Ginos. Pizza is just not the same.

Our families are all up there. But we get visitors when it gets really cold.

I miss the history of New England....so many places to take my kids.

I would NEVER plan to come back to MA. Way too expensive to live. Rent is outrageous for what you get and then there's the cold. I've been down South too long. I truly enjoy being in shorts most of the time and winter in Florida is nice, like early Spring. No humidity, nice breezes and I can still wear shorts (although everyone looks at me like I'm crazy...the natives...)

Thanks for posting this question.

[brightdoglover]

I grew up in south Jersey and happily never go back. After two years in Pittsburgh, I dropped out of school and moved to Boston area. Have left three times, and returned three times, and finally noticed that I seem to have made this home, so got serious about money and house and all (actually this would have happened anywhere I happened to be at age 40!)
There is so much opportunity here to reinvent your work and life- so much everything, including schools and high-level employment in many fields (and lower level, too). Interest groups of all sorts. I went back to school three times here for various job things.
Of course, the downside is the cost of living, mostly housing. But I gather it's not exactly cheap anywhere desirable.
I do love the overall intellectual environment. There are just a lot of smart people around, whether related to colleges or not. A lot of readers. Relatively low crime for a major metro area. I do find the summers too humid, but the winters aren't very difficult, and I honestly believe they're gotten increasingly milder in the 34 years I've been here.
For the record, when I left the area, I 1) moved to Santa Fe to be an idiot hippie waitress 2) moved to coastal Maine for a job that ended and I wanted to come back to Boston to get my RN so I could afford to live in coastal Maine- never got back 3) got a master's in public health in Boston and joined the Peace Corps- wrong place, wrong time- Haiti after Duvalier left- and flopped back into the area.

[DanBosCalTex]

Massachusetts will always be my "home". It was the greatest place in the world to grow up. The Historic places, the summers on the cape, playing hockey on the frozen over ponds, the rainbow of colors in Fall. Spring was always my favorite season. How GREEN the trees became. I live in so Cal now and its warm year round but the the foliage never gets green not like the green we see in Mass. in the spring. I love the briny smell of the Atlantic in the winter. I used to go out on the jetty and just watch the ocean and smell the sea salt in the air...and driving down the 3 and seeing nothing but colors in the fall. I love the 3. Ya the traffic sucks but what a view. Spending a Saturday to go to Mikes Pastry in the north end to get a good canole. Italian Cold cut Subs with hots. Spending a snow day watching my kids sled down the hill in Whitman park while drinking a large regular from Dunkin and talking about the pats. My childhood in Mass could not have been better. I miss all you supposedly rude bastids and your real to life smiles. I never should have left, I feel like I jipped my kids out of a great childhood and I have been trying to make up for it ever since. Take care of your kiddos and drink a DD for me!

[RHytonen]

What I miss most about Massachusetts (aside from the spring and fall weather) is the go-kart track we had, in a quarry in So. Acton in the late 50's-early 60's.

If anyone knows of, or remembers that kart track, please email me. I've been trying to research and mapquest it, now that I'm getting back into (vintage) karting in my retirement, but to no avail.

Please, even if you're one of the neighbors who complained about the noise, I need to find info on this jewel from the innocent golden days of early kart racing.

The fall weekend-long 60's parties in the woods of western Mass would be a close second, happy memories of my college days when Amherst was still a small, quaint town, and UMass had 8000 students.

I grew up in Maynard, went to UMass Amherst, lived in Boston after 4 years at Westover AFB, and was a classical musician in Boston for 5 years, and in Manhattan for 25 years. I also worked as a chief broadcast and design engineer in NYC. I then moved to DC and VA where I "fell back on my e.e. degree" and had a career working, among others, at HQNASA. I am now retired in the beautiful southern mountains, where people are welcoming, friendly, protective of each other's freedom from governance, respectful to a fault of their right to enjoy life and their property, and generous of spirit. The only reason you hear from them is if they're genuinely concerned about your welfare and whether they can do anything for you. I wish I had found New England refreshing in that way, although I make exception for the very British parrish of St Elizabeth's Episcopal in Sudbury, where I was organist/choir director during high school. I will say that Manhattanite New Yorkers were the only others I found, similarly to West Virginians, clannish in their neighbor's genuine interest, and to a fault, respectful of others' freedoms.

Mountaineers truly live free! There aren't even any inspectors here, and permits to rewire or remodel are rarely required. We lost our one policeman, and there is currently no effort nor need to replace him.

But all said, I do miss those happy days of early karting in MA, and the wonderful falls and long, lush springs. Then who doesn't miss the innocent 50's?