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Not THIS again. Lived near there my entire life and it's pronounced HOLE-YOKE. Two syllables. Holy-Yoke is the way outsiders/newcomers say it. While we're at it, Nothampton is "Hamp", not NoHo--except to New Yorkers and a few others.
You lived in Western Mass, I am FROM Western Mass. There is no accent no accentuation of certain syllables, it is pronounced as it looks, period end of discussion. Holyoke, where there is lots of coke and heroin. Maybe the asian populace pronounces it hoyoak, which is fine, or the above mentioned groups with some type of affliction. What is your affliction in_newengland?
Furthermore what is a central mass site with "Worcester" in it's name doing trying to be a definite source on anything Western Mass? Worcester is not nearly Western.
Remember, I am FROM Western Mass, you are merely "in" New England.
You are wrong. I am FROM WMass. I will not mention the town here but I was born, raised, and lived most of my adult life there.
I do not know EMass but I sure do know WMass and I go back a long way too. And my family goes back a long way in WMass. I used to date a guy from HOL-YOKE back when it was a fairly decent place, if that gives you any indication of how long ago it was. I grew up in Hampden Cty, my mother grew up in Hamp, her father worked at the RR station when it was still a RR station.
I know Amherst is pronounced Am-erst, not Am-Herst and I remember when they built that hideous tall library. I remember when someone jumped off the top back in the 1970s before they closed that area down.
I remember Northampton before it was gentrified and the ordinary people were forced out due to high COL. My relatives all lived in Northampton, my late grandmother's house is still there, as are two houses built back in the 1920s by my grandfather and his brother.
And now you have all of two posts. To argue and to ask me if I have "an affliction."
Honestly I think it's not your fault, very few afflictions are the fault of the afflicted. There must be something still in the water down there in Hampden from the factory days that effects people's speech patterns in certain areas. Up in Franklin County we say "Holyoke"(one word, 3 syllables) and "Amherst"(with a subtle h), quite beautifully I might add. Like I said, must be the more cityish areas have more pollution like Boston and the resultant inability to pronounce certain letters (R and L come to mind).
It was nice to read your story, where do you live now? I'm moving back to Western or else to Central Mass soon, from the North Shore.
I live on the North Shore too. I have been to the city of Boston about five times in my entire life. And to me, anything east of Worcester is considered "Boston."
Whatever you are talking about--my having an "affliction", please give it a rest.
You live in Franklin County. I grew up in a beautiful suburb of Springfield that is MUCH closer to HOL-YOKE than Greenfield is so I guess I know how to pronounce it. And my very best friend who grew up in Greenfield, also says HOL-YOKE. She lives in Easthampton, which is right next to HOL-YOKE.
I lived in Am-Erst for many years and even worked at UMASS. No one says Am-Herst except people from Eastern Mass. There is an Amherst in NH that is pronounced with the "H."
Go over to Amherst College and ask somebody how to pronounce it. Go to Mt Holyoke and ask them how to pronounce that.
Natives know how to pronounce the names of our towns. People like me mis-pronounce the names of the cities our here in Eastern MA, like Quincy. I used to pronounce it QuinSy until a native educated me.
I don't know anybody under 60 who says "holy-oak" or "hamp."
Anyhow, as I mentioned above, I think both "Hamp" and "Noho" are stupid. Everybody I know who says "Hamp" is either over 60 or a hick and everybody I know who says "Noho" is a hipster. I just say "Northampton."
I am a native of the area but was not born in Northampton so I guess you can discount my opinion.
-- I grew up in Northampton and never heard locals call it Hamp. People from the hill towns and Easthampton did. We don't have a problem with that nor with them.
This Noho thing is baloney and super lame though. It's after Soho in NYC, so it is pretentious. And Northampton doesn't need to incorporate connotations from the Empire State to make it cool. Real New Englanders might like New York, but that doesn't mean they would ever want to be like it. Calling Northampton Noho is like being a Yankees fan and worse, it is being a poser.
Northampton was very cool in the 1990's. It is where Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and killer rock bands like Dinosaur Jr., Sebadoh and Pixies came from. With only 25k people, that's a higher rate of cool stuff than NY has in a good year.
Locals were townies and townies were tough back in the day. Not sure what the townies are like now, or if they even exist. We will have to wait for the Millenials to move away and the next generation of kids parented by Gen X to begin to take over. My bet is the town will get cool again, once the pansy Boomer's kids move along.
The area is very built up now. It's good in a way because all you have to do is go out on rte 9 and everything is there. I mean EVERYTHING. I don't even recognize the place anymore. But it's convenient having it all there instead of having to travel all over the place to get to stores.
I think it's still a good place to be although it's not as exciting as it was in the '80s and '90s when the New Yorkers "discovered it and brought in all the money to buy up property, start up new stores, and gentrify the place.
There are problems, like too many college students all over the place but if you stay on the west side of the river, you can avoid most of that.
And, yes, can we just call Northampton "Northampton." The old folks called it Hamp, the yuppies from NY named it NoHo. The old folks are gone now and maybe the NYorkers have assimilated enough to realize that, yes, it really IS Northampton after all.
Has it changed that much? I was last there in 2012 and thought it had grown then!
I lived there all my life until 2000 when I moved out to eastern MA and every time I go back there's something new. I guess I compare things now to how they were back in the 90s mostly. One time I went back I went by Atkin's and didn't recognize the road! It was all built up with a rotary IIRC and a house with a lilac bush that I used to love...was gone. It's getting more of a city feel.
Rte 9 has more stuff than I ever saw before, looks like solid mall to me, but last time I was there it was for Thanksgiving so I was mostly in somebody's house. I'm going back within the next few weeks and we'll see what ELSE is new. There are things I miss like the wonderful Mexican restaurant (Acapulcos?) and of course the old St Regis restaurant and bar. Even Thorne's isn't as much fun as it used to be but my favorite store, The Cedar Chest is still there at least. I hear Amherst Pizza on University Drive is coming back.
I lived there all my life until 2000 when I moved out to eastern MA and every time I go back there's something new. I guess I compare things now to how they were back in the 90s mostly. One time I went back I went by Atkin's and didn't recognize the road! It was all built up with a rotary IIRC and a house with a lilac bush that I used to love...was gone. It's getting more of a city feel.
Rte 9 has more stuff than I ever saw before, looks like solid mall to me, but last time I was there it was for Thanksgiving so I was mostly in somebody's house. I'm going back within the next few weeks and we'll see what ELSE is new. There are things I miss like the wonderful Mexican restaurant (Acapulcos?) and of course the old St Regis restaurant and bar. Even Thorne's isn't as much fun as it used to be but my favorite store, The Cedar Chest is still there at least. I hear Amherst Pizza on University Drive is coming back.
I always enjoy walking through Thrones. Rtloucks. 9 was just a country road with a few sparse businesses on it. Can't imagine it all developed.
OK, so I'm more than 3 years late to this party. Very interesting to hear all about how this area has changed over the years.
I haven't been to the Pioneer Valley since 2009. Route 9 was already a very congested road in 2000 and I remember a bison farm where you could buy fresh bison meat that later closed. Other than the bison farm, I don't remember the cow manure smell that FCMA mentioned.
I wasn't there when a New England sports team won or lost an important game, so I never witnessed any rowdy college students at their worst. I went to see a local music performance at The Black Sheep in Amherst once and the college help they had working there was quite lazy and apathetic to the point that none of the tables were cleaned - NONE. But we didn't go there for the food. I sure wouldn't eat there.
I've been to restaurants and brew pubs in both Hadley and Northampton which were very good.
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I agree
and maybe the NYorkers have assimilated enough to realize that, yes, it really IS Northampton after all.
