[ansible90]

Originally Posted by yearinvermont

Interesting things I didn't know. Are New Hampshire people more from Boston and Massachusetts? Where are these Massachusetts people from? How come New Yorkers look different than Massachusetters if they are also from England. Vermonters don't really look like New Hampshire people or Massachusetts people. Where are they from?

Originally Posted by yearinvermont

I lived in Vermont for over a year and went on a trip and went through New Hampshire. I thought New Hampshire was really freaky and strange. Manchester was particularly odd. Do people from Vermont consider themselves New Englanders like people from new Hampshire? Or do they think New Hampshire is weird too?

WHAT are you talking about? What about NH was really freaky and strange and odd?

WHAT do you mean about people's looks? People in New England come from all over this country... with whatever ethnic/national background their immigrant ancestors were. What we don't have a lot of are African American and Asians... there are some but not many.

Where did you live before and after your year in VT that makes you wonder these things?

[yearinvermont]

To be fair, I liked New Hampshire a lot in the summer. I just really don't like how all the foliage disappears for six months. I guess this is true of some other states as well though, in retrospect.

[ABQConvict]

Originally Posted by yearinvermont

To be fair, I liked New Hampshire a lot in the summer. I just really don't like how all the foliage disappears for six months. I guess this is true of some other states as well though, in retrospect.

Just about every state north of Florida.

[harry chickpea]

Originally Posted by yearinvermont

Okay I see. What background are people from Vermont?

Early settlement of Vermont was mostly up the Connecticut River and the Crown Point Road from Connecticut and Mass. Those settlers generally had English backgrounds. Remember that prior to the American Revolution, England used the colonies as a dumping ground for criminals, much like it did with Australia after 1775. 90% of settlers came to farm, and that 90% figure roughly held until the Central Vermont Railroad was constructed around 1850, when it might have shifted to 70 to 80% agricultural.

There were later substantial migrations from Ireland (partly from railroad laborers), Scotland, and a little later there were stone cutters that came from Italy to work in the stonesheds in Barre, Rutland and Proctor. When the textile mills opened in Winooski there was a migration of French Canadians. There was a sprinkling of Jews escaping from Russia, there were also a few other Europeans represented. Germany and Poland come to mind.

For various reasons, there wasn't a lot of migration into Vermont from New Hampshire or New York until post WWII. After about 1970, people came from any number of places.

To answer the title question, except for people living in the eastern third of the state, New Hampshire just isn't much thought of in Vermont one way or another. The general impression is of forests in the north and a very entrenched conservative newspaper in Manchester with much of the southern part of the state oriented towards the sea and coastal megalopolis.

[cgregor]

As soon as Vermonters heard there was land out west where you could plow all day without hitting a rock, they started leaving. The state lost 30 percent of its population between 1830 and 1950. It's detailed in The Yankee Exodus.

[ftwelder]

I live in VT near the NH border. NH is a little more business oriented, serious and in more of a hurry. VT is more rural, outlaw but more tourist oriented.

NH and VT are great states if you count what really matters. I would move to NH with no reservation. I would still buy VT maple products but NH before Canada!

[arctichomesteader]

NH is more crowded overall and has more of a rat race mentality and feel. But there are many historical ties between he two states (my family came from NH originally for instance and the Green Mountain Boys were fighting for the NH grants against NY's claims) and at present almost everyone living close to the state line is shopping in NH at least some.

[LeviDunn]

I think VT, ME and NH make a fine trio. The other states south of us....... not so much.

[Biker53]

Originally Posted by LeviDunn

I think VT, ME and NH make a fine trio. The other states south of us....... not so much.

My sentiments precisely. Northern New England is different than Southern New England. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

[Judder]

I'll throw western mass into that equation too.