[boyze]

- your 1st power tool was a 30cc chain saw.
- your 2nd power tool was an ice auger.
- your 3rd power tool was an electric beer cooler.
- driving lessons were bullraking hay after school in the 1st grade.
- your wife drives your pickup more than you do.
- your wife can out arm wrestle you and all your male cousins. At once.
- your wife has more hand calluses. Than you. And your cousins. All together.
- pro-choice is drinking the beer of your choice.
- pro-life is Sunday morning after a Saturday night at the county fair.
- women's liberation is getting your pickup back.
- social security is a barn full of hay and a silo topped off.
- medicare is a care package with bag balm, horse liniment and ace bandages.
- subsidies are 5 cent returnable bottles.
- tax reform is for idiots that pay taxes.
- national security is a 30-06.
- border patrol is a 30-06, 3x scope and a stocked beer cooler.
- inhuman treatment of animals is an empty meat locker.
- kindergarden was cleaning manure gutters, feeding calves and getting down hay.
- sex education was a guy with an oversized plastic glove, 2 foot reach and a long glass rod.
- your family pets included a mad rooster, kid killing gander, a pair of roof perched guinea hens and a car chasing mangy cow dog.
- a Sunday country ride included equine.
- a snow day meant a long walk in tall boots.
- a mud day meant a day off.
- a hay day was a long day.
- a sugaring day was a longer day.
- a power outage meant hand cramps and mastitis.
- the world doesn't exist west of the Ausable Chasm, south of the Flume in Franconia Notch, east of Mount Washington, and north of Sherbrooke, Quebec.
- education reform is a bigger stick.
- college prep was 4-H animal husbandry.
- sand lot baseball was a freshly hayed field and 10 siblings.
- a morning jog included 60 head with bloated bags, bull thistles, and fresh lane pies.
- an afternoon workout included 200 75 lb overhead tosses.

[arel]

How Vermonty is Brattleboro? In view of what I've read and seen, it seems diverse and cosmopolitan. I have felt welcome and never out of place. And there is always something to do there, in terms of arts, community and the outdoors. People seem calm and friendly and just about everyone I asked said he/she loved living in the area. The one exception was a New Yorker who was there for school.

Once I drove to rural upstate New Hampshire and stopped in a luncheonette. In there I did feel out of place and, although not overtly unwelcome, very uncomfortable. So I think I got a taste of that outsider feeling.

[nhyrnut]

Originally Posted by boyze

- you plug in your engine block heater before your morning jo.
- your swimming pool brook trout ate the rubber duckies and the neighbor's cat.
- you really did walk to school in 2 feet of snow. Really.
- your "come bosssssssss" can be heard across two valleys and fill a barn.
[...]
- your root cellar has sproutied potatoes from 3 years back and wilted carrots from the great depression.

isn't this the truth I have family in vt ok lots of family in VT and this descibes it pretty acurate. they are great ppl but very liberal they mostly have a hard time understanding basic poltics like they complained about min wage then when they uped it the ppl then complained that everything cost more. Like they exspected the ppl that employ them to eat the extra money they had to pay out. The laws are also very resrictive. check out the act 250 they can tell you what color to paint your house if they want to. They complain about not having good cell service but fight the towwers they don't like to use oil or gas but fight wind farms they pretty much want alot but they don't want it in there back yard. Walmart had to fight for years to get a store there it was the last state to get one. vermont is very anti business. the ppl are great would give a stranger the shirt of their back but they are really confused when it comes to laws. the taxes are outragious as well. act 68 is something else you want to look up. but good luck if you like liberals and anti everything. then you will love VT

[DogLady321]

You are asking a very loaded question here.
I am not a VT native, but in southeastern VT there are alot of alternative types, homeschoolers, organic food eaters, energy conscious folks.
Depends on which area of the state you live in, i think.
Many folks are pretty set in their ways and resistant to change with a mix of antinuclear folks and granola crunchy types.
It is an interesting place to live, i LOVE it here.

[arel]

I've been thinking of moving to southeastern Vermont, specifically Brattleboro. Almost everyone I asked said they love living there. The one exception is a New Yorker who said she is only there for school.

I happen to be a New Yorker, too, and I have been warned about culture shock.

[leedspaddy]

Originally Posted by goldenholden

hello.

i know this is asking a lot, and that it may seem that i am wanting for somebody to paint with a broad-stroke brush, but can anybody give me at least some kind of idea of what people from vermont are like?

perhaps, as compared with different parts of the country, preferable those in states like montana, wyoming, and south and north dakota, if possible.

again, my apologies for the nature of the question. no offense intended.

thanks!

LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING ABOUT VERMONTERS........THEY ARE THE BIGGEST BUNCH OF ENVIRONMENTAL NUTBALLS I HAVE EVER MET AND i CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT OF THIS GOD-AWFUL STATE. MOVING TO VERMONT WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE........Prior to moving here I was blinded by the beauty of the state......I failed to see or I just ignored the plain simple fact that there are no jobs, terrible salaries, outrageous property taxes and a lazy work ethic. Is it no wonder that the state has problems attracting new business and jobs to the state........every company that tries to set up shop here has to jump through so many hoops that its just not worth the effort in the end. Yes it was my mistake for not doing the necessary research before moving here but I hope I can now warn anyone who has the insane idea of moving here about the pitfalls

[harry chickpea]

More accurately, the Allens were real estate developers that were clever enough to keep competing claims from New York, New Hampshire, Canada, Connecticut, and the colonies from disrupting their land deals. Some of that was by guile, some by threat. Vermonters have retained many of the lessons learned.

The unique concept of liberty is egalitarianism, populist, and granger mixed together. A Vermonter doesn't much give a skunk's derriere about who you claim to be, and if you expect special treatment, you'll get the treatment of that animal's aformentioned body part. I've been told of one resident of the town I grew up in who, swear to G truth, used to keep skunks and use the glands in a patent medicine he made. Other than a wide berth at town meeting, he was treated like anyone else.) However, if you don't try to lord it over folks, and treat the town drunk with consideration for his years of service in the great war, and the town busibody with understanding of the crazy family she survived, you will earn the right to be ignored like the rest of us that aren't in the country club set.

Being a 7+ generation Vermonter, I can say that the people who are like me but tough it out in the state rather than moving, deserve their idiosyncracies. It isn't an easy job, and fly-by-night fame isn't worth considering.

Example: Maria Von Trapp of "Sound of Music" fame got equal treatment, and eventually earned respect by giving equal treatment to tradesmen. I forget his name, but one fellow working on her ramshackle CCC lodge handed Maria his bill, which was his fair and reasonable estimation of costs, and had her complain about the math on it. He left in a huff, and it took a mediator to let him know that she wasn't disputing his worth, but just wanted exactly what was written on the bill to match exactly what she was paying. Once the town learned that, she was able to continue to do business.

Now that you have learned all of this, I'll have to shoot you.

[ab8mi]

by leedspaddy..LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING ABOUT VERMONTERS........THEY ARE THE BIGGEST BUNCH OF ENVIRONMENTAL NUTBALLS I HAVE EVER MET AND i CAN'T WAIT TO GET OUT OF THIS GOD-AWFUL STATE. MOVING TO VERMONT WAS WITHOUT DOUBT THE BIGGEST MISTAKE OF MY LIFE........Prior to moving here I was blinded by the beauty of the state......I failed to see or I just ignored the plain simple fact that there are no jobs, terrible salaries, outrageous property taxes and a lazy work ethic. Is it no wonder that the state has problems attracting new business and jobs to the state........every company that tries to set up shop here has to jump through so many hoops that its just not worth the effort in the end. Yes it was my mistake for not doing the necessary research before moving here but I hope I can now warn anyone who has the insane idea of moving here about the pitfalls

Are you still here

[Jason_Els]

Originally Posted by ab8mi

Are you still here

I hope not.

[christoforest]

Leedspaddy, you make Vermont seem like a great place