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Honestly 99.9999% of the time when I hear "What part of Boston are you from" or ask myself, they say a suburb or I say my suburb and nothing happens.. and we each make a joke of the said town or put it some comment and continue the convo. EVen living in Boston when I go to bars, people I meet currently reside in Southie or Charlestown but will say "Im from Boston" and when you ask where they say "Oh Newton" or "Weymouth!" or "Gloucester!". Its part of an identity.
Its just something unique Bostonians do, and so be it.
Its just something unique Bostonians do, and so be it.
No it’s specifically something that non-Bostonians do. If you’ve never gotten a snide remark or an “oh, really!?” then a) you’ve never had an interaction like this with someone who grew up in Boston or b) they were being polite or were surrounded by too many transplants/suburbanites to feel comfortable making a fuss about it. (Happened to me at a lot of college parties)
Most people I know from Boston would ask “what neighborhood?” upon hearing someone say “I’m from Boston”.
Last edited by Boston Shudra; 05-04-2020 at 03:40 PM..
No it’s specifically something that non-Bostonians do. If you’ve never gotten a snide remark or an “oh, really!?” then a) you’ve never had an interaction like this with someone who grew up in Boston or b) they were being polite or were surrounded by too many transplants to feel comfortable making a fuss about it.
Most people I know from Boston would ask “what neighborhood?” upon hearing someone say “I’m from Boston”.
Never heard of people doing that within the region but outside NewEngland it’s Shorthand for the region.
If you say you’re from Salem or Bedford people will actively tell you that you are in fact from Boston so it’s pointless to make that distinction nobody understands.
No it’s specifically something that non-Bostonians do. If you’ve never gotten a snide remark or an “oh, really!?” then a) you’ve never had an interaction like this with someone who grew up in Boston or b) they were being polite or were surrounded by too many transplants to feel comfortable making a fuss about it.
Most people I know from Boston would ask “what neighborhood?” upon hearing someone say “I’m from Boston”.
Never heard of people doing that within the region but outside NewEngland it’s Shorthand for the region.
If you say you’re from Salem or Bedford people will actively tell you that you are in fact from Boston so it’s pointless to make that distinction nobody understands.
Boston is shorthand for New England? Who is ‘people’?
Never heard of people doing that within the region but outside NewEngland it’s Shorthand for the region.
If you say you’re from Salem or Bedford people will actively tell you that you are in fact from Boston so it’s pointless to make that distinction nobody understands.
This is fair. If we’re in Italy or Southern California, I’d understand people saying Boston as a stand-in for Eastern MA. I have cousins that grew up in MN and for a long time they didn’t even know MA was a state (they honest to goodness thought “Boston” was the name of the state).
No for places that get MBTA as their primary Bus system or so. But only applicable if you are outside of New England.
Otherwise Boston isn’t a tech hub, Boston doesn’t have elite universities. Dunkin Donuts isn’t a Boston thing.
I get what you’re saying of course but It’s still all of those thing really. There are plenty tech jobs in Boston itself. Northeastern and BU are elite. There’s 45+ Dunkins in Boston’s 48 square miles, it’s a Boston thing even if it was founded in Quincy.
For a second I thought you really said Boston was shorthand for New England though.
For a second I thought you really said Boston was shorthand for New England though.
When you’re in California, “Boston” can be shorthand for Eastern MA, cuz you can assume that they know their states well enough where you can say “New Hampshire” or “Vermont” and they’ll get it.
If you’re in Poland, however, they will only respond to “Boston”. They likely won’t know anything else about New England. There’s a slight chance that they may not even know Boston, and you’ll have to default to “near New York” (doesn’t happen often in my experience).
Its because its so close to NYC people have a better perspective on how much smaller and insignificant Philly is compared to NYC.
Up in Boston many New Englanders don't go to NYC much or know much about it (many do) but the distance creates this illogical disconnect where Bostonians think the city is bigger and more able to rival NYC. Its not.
Agreed, but you don’t give New Englanders (and others) enough credit. It’s not that people think Boston is larger than it is because it’s far from NYC: it’s that Boston is the biggest city for miles. NYC may be a heck of a lot bigger, but it’s not often worth the drive.
Quote:
They just forget how tiny Boston is.
“Tiny” definitely isn’t a good word to describe Boston.
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