What town in New Hampshire most closely represents or reminds you of small town America? (Manchester: insurance, coops)

[CometVoyager]

For those of us who grew up in a small town during the 50’s & 60’s we can still remember that special small town atmosphere. So much American literature has been written about small town USA, like “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, “Winesburg Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson and of course, “Bedford Falls” that was portrayed in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” A town with its own High school, local drug store, dairy, hardware store, railroad, cruising on Friday & Saturday nights and so on. A town where you would not worry about leaving your kids run around all day. Even a town that did not throw a fit if dogs were unleashed, as everyone would know the dogs on a first name basis!

Would like to hear from you about which town in New Hampshire most represents this ideal?

[NH2008]

Great question! Can't wait to see the responses.

[jthibodeau]

I'm not sure if this is what your looking for but here goes...

I can only tell you about Goffstown, which is where i grew up. The village section of town pretty much remains the same except for the increase in population and traffic. We had two or three out of the way swimming holes and rope swings along the river for summer time fun. During little league opening day in the late 50s, the players on the four teams paraded down main street riding in the back of convertibles. We sat on the trunk section with our un-spiked feet on the rear seat. I think the insurance industry put a stop to that.

At the time, The Hillsborough County Farm was a working farm. Dad and I would hunt pheasants and deer in the cut corn fields where the Hillsborough County Nursing Home is today. Us Boys used to have pick-up baseball games in the field which now houses Shaw's Super Market.

There was a empty building in town that the students received permission to convert it to a recreation center they called the Blue Goose. Today, the location is now the site of the towns Recreational Department. And on Friday and Saturday night's the teens would drive to Manchester to "Cruise" Elm Street with an occasional drag race at one of the lesser used ends of Elm. Elm Street is one of the only city main streets which are dead ends both north and south.

Our High School is a retirement home now. It once house my class of 85 and an additional 250 kids in the other grades. Winter carnivals were held at the local country club where the 9th hold is a great place to ski and toboggan. I doubt they worried about kids getting hurt and law suites at that time.

The Pinardville section of town had the bowling alleys and a few nickel pin ball machines. It also held Bartlett's Farm (Premium Gas and Remax Realty) where you could get fresh milk and just a few hundred feet away was Goudreau's Poultry Farm (Housing development) where you could find your eggs still warm from the hens if they were fresh. I had my first job there cleaning chicken coops for a dollar a day. Believe me when I say I didn't last very long there. Play ball or hanging out with my friends was certainly more fun.

Proms, concerts and plays were held in the gym. Every Memorial Day the High School Band would join the parade which wound through town. And, by some chance, if you got into trouble, the police would scold or scare the heck out of you then, bring you home. How times have changed.....

[Lincolnian]

Hanover is a beautiful small college town. My family and I love the center and strolling the sidewalks, enjoying a cup of coffee at the Dirt Cowboy Cafe and an ice cream at Ben and Jerrys. However, it is not the quintessential example you are looking for because it is more of an upscale nostalgic preservation.

Newport and Franklin have the bones of the old towns but lack the life that was present in their glory days. New London is a good modern-day town with a great community and a safe environment.

[rmcewan]

Haha. Funny you mention Bedford Falls. We actually moved to New Hampshire FROM the "actual" Bedford Falls. Bear with me here... We lived in Encino, in Los Angeles in a 60-yr old development next to Balboa Park. Our neighborhood was actually built on the site of the RKO Studio's Encino Ranch, which is where they built the set used in It's a Wonderful Life and many other movies.
Of course, the set is long gone and we all lived on postage-stamp sized lots rather than huge, beautiful 100yr old Victorians.

So the irony is, in order to find the American Dream, I moved away from the definitive image that represents the American Dream.

Originally Posted by CometVoyager

For those of us who grew up in a small town during the 50’s & 60’s we can still remember that special small town atmosphere. So much American literature has been written about small town USA, like “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, “Winesburg Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson and of course, “Bedford Falls” that was portrayed in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” A town with its own High school, local drug store, dairy, hardware store, railroad, cruising on Friday & Saturday nights and so on. A town where you would not worry about leaving your kids run around all day. Even a town that did not throw a fit if dogs were unleashed, as everyone would know the dogs on a first name basis!

Would like to hear from you about which town in New Hampshire most represents this ideal?

[DareToDream]

Originally Posted by CometVoyager

For those of us who grew up in a small town during the 50’s & 60’s we can still remember that special small town atmosphere. So much American literature has been written about small town USA, like “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, “Winesburg Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson and of course, “Bedford Falls” that was portrayed in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” A town with its own High school, local drug store, dairy, hardware store, railroad, cruising on Friday & Saturday nights and so on. A town where you would not worry about leaving your kids run around all day. Even a town that did not throw a fit if dogs were unleashed, as everyone would know the dogs on a first name basis!

Would like to hear from you about which town in New Hampshire most represents this ideal?

Comet - I grew up in a small town in NYS called Pine Plains. Our high school was the "Stissing Mountain Jr.-Sr-. High School" (trying fitting THAT on any forms! <g>). It was very much like the town you mentioned above....at least in my memory

Littleton is similar, minus the railroad and the dairy. It has the high school, local drug store, hardware store, there are times in the spring and summer where you see the same cars going up and down Main Street. The kids seem to be "free" and come and go - people in the town seem to know who belongs to whom and watch out for them. Many of the dogs roam around (at least on our end of the street, which is a dead end and yes, we know the other dogs' names <g>.

I remember posting something last year about sitting outside and hearing the kids playing, then as the street lights came on, hearing the parents calling the kids to come inside - it brought back some really good memories of my childhood and the "feel" of that time and place.

[WannaComeHome]

Originally Posted by CometVoyager

For those of us who grew up in a small town during the 50’s & 60’s we can still remember that special small town atmosphere. So much American literature has been written about small town USA, like “Our Town” by Thornton Wilder, “Winesburg Ohio” by Sherwood Anderson and of course, “Bedford Falls” that was portrayed in the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” A town with its own High school, local drug store, dairy, hardware store, railroad, cruising on Friday & Saturday nights and so on. A town where you would not worry about leaving your kids run around all day. Even a town that did not throw a fit if dogs were unleashed, as everyone would know the dogs on a first name basis!

well... back in the '70s Hollis was somewhat like that. It had the high school (Brookline came to us - still does). We had a dairy - just up the road from me (still hate raw milk) - it's now a farm store, I believe they sold off the cattle a while ago. Actually, while the 6 of us were growing up, we had a milkman come and deliver all the milk (5 gallons of it I think twice a week!).

No hardware store, but a couple of mom&pop stores. Had a great home-made icecream parlor.

Railroad??? are you nuts, you only get that in the big towns or cities!

Hollis didn't have a pharmacy, but it does now.

Dogs used to run offleash, matter of fact one of our dogs chased away a burglar from a neighbors house while they were on vacation and then stayed on their doorstep till they came home! I was visiting another neighbor one time, when much to my amazement, one of our dogs came plodding up their basement steps to the kitchen! Now you're supposed to keep them leashed

Hollis has a town center with a triangular shaped commons - complete with a monument. the congregational church and the library are both at Monument 'Square'.

[Annabelle]

I think Exeter has a lot of what you are talking about. Train station and hardware store are across the street from one another. It's got a movie theatre and a bandstand downtown, a bowling alley and lots of sidewalks for walkers and for kids who are of age to ride their bikes down to a little mom and pop store for some candy and soda (yes, there is one just down the street from me). While the carefree days of the 50's and 60's are behind us (unfortunately), Exeter still has the "Americana" feel to it and that is why I moved here.

[buck naked]

I can tell you which towns are NOT the same! Derry, Salem and Londonderry! once upon a time, they fit the description in the OP. I remember when Derry had a population of around 8,000. Now they are classed as a city.


Almost any town north of Concord with a population of 5,000 or less will fit the bill. Everyone knows everyone else and the new people in town are the last to know anything. LOL

[bluegreen]

Amherst NH