[mels]

Originally Posted by Mr_250

I work in Vermont and they have these little mom and pop car ads that say "such and such auto of New England" and they show a little map of New England. 80% of the time CT is left out but Rhode Island is there. I started to notice it once my boss pointed it out to me. Plus when I go to dinner and talk to people I say I'm from CT and they say, that's not New England.

Interesting. I used to live in Vermont and never heard that. As far as I know, it is widely accepted that there are 6 New England states.

[WILWRadio]

I have family from VT and still in VT. Spent a lot of time there in years past. Never heard that or saw that either.

[Mr_250]

Take a look. It's a Toyota commercial. When I'm up there I'll take a snip video of it. It's more comical than anything.

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by basehead617

LOL. There are probably people in Maine who think New Hampshire isn't really New England.

Very True Peoplein Northern Maine will tell you nothing south of Augusta is real New England

[7 Wishes]

I was the "undecided" voter as I consider FFC to mostly be NYC metro but the rest of CT seems very New England. However, even in FFC you see a lot of houses and street signs in the "New England" style. While you do sometimes see that even in adjacent towns in Westchester County, NY (especially the northern towns like Pound Ridge or North and South Salem), it is not as obvious or prevalent.

[ads94]

I've heard people from rural New Hampshire say that they are in "real New England" which I just take to be "rural New England." A classic New England feel would be a small town surrounded by farms or just a nice hilly rural place. Connecticut, eastern Mass, and the Providence metro area don't really fit this description because of how urban and suburbanised they are, but they are still New England in character. Go to the Philadelphia suburbs, Tampa suburbs, LA suburbs ect... Connecticut feels so much more different. Lower Fairfield County does feel a bit more like a NYC suburb, but it's still significantly different than a true NYC suburb on say, Long Island.

[wetnewspaper]

Two possible answers:
1. CT is New England, even culturally, except Fairfield county. In much of NE there are Yankee cultural characteristics. It's clearly not New Jersey. You could say NE starts where the metro north train line ends in New Haven. For example, if you look at a map of NBA fans, all counties in CT are majority Celtics fans sans Fairfield county (Knicks).

2. Historically, another possible dividing line: The CT river. In colonial days, communities east of the river traded with Boston, while west of the river tied it'self economically and culturally to New York. These fault lines continue-just see a map of Red Sox/Yankee fans.

[East of the River]

Originally Posted by ads94

I've heard people from rural New Hampshire say that they are in "real New England" which I just take to be "rural New England." A classic New England feel would be a small town surrounded by farms or just a nice hilly rural place. Connecticut, eastern Mass, and the Providence metro area don't really fit this description because of how urban and suburbanised they are, but they are still New England in character. Go to the Philadelphia suburbs, Tampa suburbs, LA suburbs ect... Connecticut feels so much more different. Lower Fairfield County does feel a bit more like a NYC suburb, but it's still significantly different than a true NYC suburb on say, Long Island.

The eastern half of CT and the NW hills still have a rural New England feel (well the NW hills are a carefully curated version of New England) Driving thru Coventry Wood stock etc. still feels a lot like other parts of New England.

[ads94]

Originally Posted by East of the River

The eastern half of CT and the NW hills still have a rural New England feel (well the NW hills are a carefully curated version of New England) Driving thru Coventry Wood stock etc. still feels a lot like other parts of New England.

I will give you that. I always forget about, pardon the pun, east of the river. Always did think about buying a house out there though. Commute to Wallingford would be too long in the morning sadly.

[missionhill]

Don't know why 'New England' has to mean rural. Boston, Salem, Newport, Portsmouth, etc. are very New England. So are all the19th century mill towns. Hartford is about as NE as you can get even if not most people's ideal. Anyway, it's a question that doesn't need asking. The only reason anyone would ask it is Boston sports loyalists upset that parts of CT root for NY.