What town in New Hampshire most closely represents or reminds you of small town America? (Derry: construction, restaurants)

[Valerie C]

I would consider Mont Vernon to be a very safe area... safe enough to leave doors unlocked? Do you mean unlocked when you leave to go to the store, to work, or just while you are inside. I know people (not in NH) who have to leave their door DEADBOLTED all the time because they are afraid of a home invasion. How sad to live that way!

My feelings about locked doors is that it's going to keep the honest people out. If somebody wants to break into a house, the front door isn't the way to go. An unsecured window or unlocked bulkhead usually the way in (ever see that show that shows how easy it is to get into houses??)

You asked about mini-ranches. I'm assuming you mean like a gentleman's farm (couple of acres with barns, etc) Mont Vernon is very rural, and I'm sure you could find something like that.

[dzmjp]

Hello everyone! I've posted before, but not too often on this thread... I've been to Mont Vernon and I absolutely LOVED IT, the views, how rural it was... proximity to Milford, the list does go on! Now, my family and I are coming out in October... and we are going to visit Mont Vernon again because I LOVE THE VIEWS!! It is such a great place! However,
I do want to visit more towns when I get there too, just as lovely.

My question is, are there any towns - any where else in the state, with an equally great school system, views, proximity to a town to get groceries and maybe just to get out for a night? Or just overall, very family friendly?

Feel free to discuss, this is a forum

Thank you! dzmjp

[Suzet2262]

Originally Posted by dzmjp

Hello everyone! I've posted before, but not too often on this thread... I've been to Mont Vernon and I absolutely LOVED IT, the views, how rural it was... proximity to Milford, the list does go on! Now, my family and I are coming out in October... and we are going to visit Mont Vernon again because I LOVE THE VIEWS!! It is such a great place! However,
I do want to visit more towns when I get there too, just as lovely.

My question is, are there any towns - any where else in the state, with an equally great school system, views, proximity to a town to get groceries and maybe just to get out for a night? Or just overall, very family friendly?

Feel free to discuss, this is a forum

Thank you! dzmjp

Have a wonderful trip dzmjp!!! Hopefully my family and I will also be out there in Oct.

[dzmjp]

Originally Posted by Suzet2262

Have a wonderful trip dzmjp!!! Hopefully my family and I will also be out there in Oct.

Let me know, maybe our trips will cross paths!!!

[jthibodeau]

Once in Mont Vernon, you can also try traveling Rt. 13 north to New Boston and Weare. You could also head out Francestown turnpike (it's not really a turnpike, just named as such as it was once a 2 cent toll road during the 1700's!). However, the view from Mont Vernon, from the south section of Rt. 13 is hard to beat in the area.

[DareToDream]

Originally Posted by dzmjp

Hello everyone! I've posted before, but not too often on this thread... I've been to Mont Vernon and I absolutely LOVED IT, the views, how rural it was... proximity to Milford, the list does go on! Now, my family and I are coming out in October... and we are going to visit Mont Vernon again because I LOVE THE VIEWS!! It is such a great place! However,
I do want to visit more towns when I get there too, just as lovely.

My question is, are there any towns - any where else in the state, with an equally great school system, views, proximity to a town to get groceries and maybe just to get out for a night? Or just overall, very family friendly?

Feel free to discuss, this is a forum

Thank you! dzmjp

How far north would you want to go? Littleton has a lot of what you're talking about, but we're quite a ways up. From town in certain areas, you see Mt. Washington, Cannon Mountain and other mountains that I can never get the names right for The town itself has a grocery store and will soon have a co-op. There are quite a few restaurants - in the summer, there's one that has music on the patio - year-round the Eastgate offers entertainment every Friday or Saturday in the tap room. I get a very "family feel" from the town - the bookstore and the library frequently have various things for kids/families to do as well as other activities "sponsored" by other groups.

I can't talk about how good the school is, since we don't have kids in the system, but those who do seem pleased with it. I watched the graduation ceremony on local access and was quite impressed with the speakers and the relationship between the students and faculty - there seemed to be quite a bit of mutual respect and friendship, which I thought was nice - reminded me of my graduating class

I don't know how well the kids do on the standardized tests, etc., but I was never a big fan of them, even when my son was in school - a lot of kids "freeze" when they take tests, especially the standardized ones - They may know the stuff backwards and forwards, but put them in a test setting and everything they know seems to go out the window.

Anyway, that's a little "snapshot" of Littleton from my perspective, anyway

[dzmjp]

Originally Posted by DareToDream

How far north would you want to go? Littleton has a lot of what you're talking about, but we're quite a ways up. From town in certain areas, you see Mt. Washington, Cannon Mountain and other mountains that I can never get the names right for The town itself has a grocery store and will soon have a co-op. There are quite a few restaurants - in the summer, there's one that has music on the patio - year-round the Eastgate offers entertainment every Friday or Saturday in the tap room. I get a very "family feel" from the town - the bookstore and the library frequently have various things for kids/families to do as well as other activities "sponsored" by other groups.

I can't talk about how good the school is, since we don't have kids in the system, but those who do seem pleased with it. I watched the graduation ceremony on local access and was quite impressed with the speakers and the relationship between the students and faculty - there seemed to be quite a bit of mutual respect and friendship, which I thought was nice - reminded me of my graduating class

I don't know how well the kids do on the standardized tests, etc., but I was never a big fan of them, even when my son was in school - a lot of kids "freeze" when they take tests, especially the standardized ones - They may know the stuff backwards and forwards, but put them in a test setting and everything they know seems to go out the window.

Anyway, that's a little "snapshot" of Littleton from my perspective, anyway

Dare - thank you so much for that information on Littleton, we will sit down and take a look at it!

[Yankeehombre]

My paternal grandmother was originally from Alstead. It was almost like an Alfred Hitchcock movie with the eyes rolling of the scruffy old-timer with the brushy sideburns, "Oh, her".I must say it was an odd experience. Although were she alive today she would be 109. People of her extended family were remarkably conscious that she was a child of scandal.Certainly none of it was her fault. Long standing rumor has it she was adopted into her actual biological father's family, away from her mother. 'Talk about a long memory!'. My grandfather 'fetched her up 'to New London, whom died at the not-so-ripe age of 28 of /and the 1918 flu epidemic.
Although it does have the 'old-timey New Hampshire feel to it. Farms are still being farmed. Animals are being raised. The smell of freshly mown hay is in the air. A handshake can still detect Chapped work worn hands being treated with bag balm. Some people still make an honest living!
Homes are being maintained traditionally [none of that new-fangled vinyl siding or plastic fences!] 3-4 cords of wood in the wintertime heat-bank.

Also with the 1963 Ford Falcon wagon 'still a perfectly good' running vehicle sitting on hold in a pole-barn somewhere waiting for it to start it's second half of its life, perhaps to have half its body torched off it to be used as a full time self propelled hay wagon or to tow the wood splitter to the woodlot, To dispose of the need or expense for keeping another tractor running! plus it has a heater in it!

[DareToDream]

Originally Posted by dzmjp

Dare - thank you so much for that information on Littleton, we will sit down and take a look at it!

dzmjp - I thought of a couple of other things last night....Depending on when and if you decide to visit Littleton, Main Street may or may not be in the process of being redone. Work was supposed to start soon, but evidently the DOT (?) decided the plans were too ambitious for this time and wants the work put off until late spring, I think. So Main Street may or may not be a mess at the time

Also, Littleton does not, at this time anyway, have an over abundance of highly paid jobs, so depending on what you do for a living, that would be a major consideration.

When I said we had 1 grocery store, I wasn't correct - we have 1 major grocery store (Shaw's) - but we also have a couple of places on Main Street and just off Main Street that also sell groceries - some items are more than they are at Shaw's, some are the same or even less - you get to know these things after actually living here for awhile

We have paid police and fire protection. Right now our police department has a shortage of patrolmen, but they are working to fill those voids.

I heard last night that there is discussion going on about the middle school here in town - evidently they're either going to add on or build a new one. That's still in the planning/discussing phase, I believe.

IMO a lot of what is going on in town right now has to do with "growing pains." I saw it happen where I lived in NY and I get the same feel here....but with a distinct difference. Where we were in NY, things grew way too quickly with very little thought as to what would happen with the growth (i.e., the infrastructure of the area, the new "look" to the area and, more importantly, what would happen to locally owned places and taxes paid by those living in the town) - here, it seems to be a more thoughtful process, looking at all angles, with the locally owned businesses and tax payers being considered first - in my mind, that's a plus.

I just wanted to add a few more thoughts for you (and others considering Littleton) to take into consideration and be aware of......

[DareToDream]

Originally Posted by Yankeehombre

My paternal grandmother was originally from Alstead. It was almost like an Alfred Hitchcock movie with the eyes rolling of the scruffy old-timer with the brushy sideburns, "Oh, her".I must say it was an odd experience. Although were she alive today she would be 109. People of her extended family were remarkably conscious that she was a child of scandal.Certainly none of it was her fault. Long standing rumor has it she was adopted into her actual biological father's family, away from her mother. 'Talk about a long memory!'. My grandfather 'fetched her up 'to New London, whom died at the not-so-ripe age of 28 of /and the 1918 flu epidemic.
Although it does have the 'old-timey New Hampshire feel to it. Farms are still being farmed. Animals are being raised. The smell of freshly mown hay is in the air. A handshake can still detect Chapped work worn hands being treated with bag balm. Some people still make an honest living!
Homes are being maintained traditionally [none of that new-fangled vinyl siding or plastic fences!] 3-4 cords of wood in the wintertime heat-bank.

Also with the 1963 Ford Falcon wagon 'still a perfectly good' running vehicle sitting on hold in a pole-barn somewhere waiting for it to start it's second half of its life, perhaps to have half its body torched off it to be used as a full time self propelled hay wagon or to tow the wood splitter to the woodlot, To dispose of the need or expense for keeping another tractor running! plus it has a heater in it!

Yankeehombre - You just reminded me of our first encounter with a "local" up here The day we moved into the farmhouse we rented, we had a 26 or 28' rental truck and nowhere to leave it overnight before turning it in. My husband drove down the road and found a farm with place that would be perfect for it. He walked up to the house and could hear music coming from somewhere behind it (Willie Nelson)...he called out a couple of times and a woman, who was probably in her late 70's, early 80's came around the side and greeted him with - "If you're lookin' for trouble, ya found it!" (think female John Wayne type of thing).

To make a long story short, he assured her he meant no trouble, explained the situation and she said it was fine to leave the truck there overnight. They shook hands (her handshake was as firm, if not firmer) than my husband's and all was well. After bringing the truck there, we saw her and her family drive by a couple of times while we were still bringing things in, as if to make sure we were really on the up-and-up