What do people in western mass think of people in eastern mass (Boston: employment, college)

[in_newengland]

Growing up in WMass, people would casually say that they didn't like Boston. I never knew why but it's probably due to the fact that we were ignored by Boston.

I think, growing up, I only went to Boston a very few times. A few scary visits to Childrens Hospital and once about age 15 when an aunt took me to Boston to do the tourist thing.

For shopping, Springfield and Hartford were still nice. When malls were built, we shopped there. We usually looked to neighboring CT for things to do. The idea of going to Boston never occurred to us. College was around here, not in Boston. Most of us are not city people; we are suburbanites. In the past 20 years I've gone to Boston more than ever before...for a play, the MFA, symphony, but someone has to take me there, someone who understands the "T" and that sort of thing.

I probably couldn't even afford a cup of coffee in Boston and I think of thrm as stressed out and occupied with accumulating wealth. I also don't think of them as being very interested in nature or outdoor activities. (stereotypes)

What happens in Boston usually doesn't apply to WMass.

We drive up and down rte 91 for mostly everything. CT, MA, and VT. People in Boston often have strange accents...we know little about them and they probably know little about us. Like two separate states.

[tovarisch]

I love having "dual citizenship," or maybe even triple. I was born in CT, but then grew up in a Boston suburb. Then I went back to CT for college plus three more years, then to W. Mass., where I have been ever since (more than thirty years). I feel like if anyone is qualified to be aware of the multiple New England cultures, it's me (I have also spent LOTS of time on the Cape, and in ME, NH and VT). And yes, there are multiple NE cultures, but we are more alike (IMHO) as a region, compared to other parts of the US, than we are different within our region.

[G-fused]

At first, anything past 95 qualified as Western, I became more lenient and now think anything past 495 is Western Mass.

[GeoffD]

My friends who live within a few hundred yards of the Connecticut River are freakin' Yankees fans.

That's all I got. LOL

[in_newengland]

Originally Posted by G-fused

At first, anything past 95 qualified as Western, I became more lenient and now think anything past 495 is Western Mass.

and never the twain shall meet.

Having grown up and lived most of my life in WMass (with abt 15 years of college and work in CT), I had never even heard of 95, 495, 128 until I moved out to the north shore for retirement.

EMass is nice..
you have ocean, access to the Cape & Maine, plus, if you can afford it, you can partake of Boston amenities. EMass does seem to get everything while WMass is an afterthought--or no thought at all.

[FCMA]

Originally Posted by G-fused

At first, anything past 95 qualified as Western, I became more lenient and now think anything past 495 is Western Mass.

You're doing exactly what Western Mass people figure Eastern Mass people do, lumping two very different parts of the state together. Central and Western Mass are two very different areas in politics, vibe, land use patterns, and geography. Central Massachusetts has more in common with Eastern Mass since it functions largely as a far flung suburb of Boston up to and including Worcester on the Mass Pike and out to Gardner on the Route 2 corridor.

I mean that's fine, but you might be doing that thing I mentioned earlier, extrapolating the 495 forcefield of outer suburban boringness bleeding in to semi-rural Trump towns to indicate that it's what Western Mass is like.

Originally Posted by GeoffD

My friends who live within a few hundred yards of the Connecticut River are freakin' Yankees fans.

That's all I got. LOL

Yuck! My sense is that the balance doesn't shift to Yankee fandom until the Berkshires. Your friends must be outliers as I've overwhelmingly met Sox fans in the valley.

[Judder]

I grew up in a very small town in rural Franklin County. We shared more in common with Vermont than Springfield, or even Northampton for that matter. After college I lived and worked in Boston for 6 years, before moving to Southern Vermont. I enjoyed living in Boston, and really liked certain areas of Eastern Mass including the Ipswich area and some of the neighborhoods of greater Boston. In the end Eastern Mass wasn't for me. Sure I took a pay cut moving back to a rural area, but for what I valued in life, it was worth it.

Western Mass folk don't get the Eastern Mass lifestyle and vice versa. The two parts of the state have a great albeit VERY different quality of life. Eastern Mass folks are obviously more urban, and hence value things like: career advancement, cultural amenities, a certain suburban/urban lifestyle, lively nightlife, restaurants, having lots to do, etc. Western Mass folk are willing to forgo many of these things for what they value: the outdoors, no traffic, farming, hunting, small town lifestyles.

Like all rural areas, people in Western Mass will be skeptical of folks from urban area, as they see many of them as threatening; throwing around a lot of money, building large homes, and changing the character of the landscape and small towns. I have second home owner and transplant friends from cities - they do well when they work to acclimate, volunteer, and offer up something to the community.

[massnative71]

I once knew a woman from Wilbraham. When she mentioned to somebody she was from Western Mass., they replied "Oh really, I was in Framingham once"...

You can't make this stuff up.

[FCMA]

Originally Posted by massnative71

I once knew a woman from Wilbraham. When she mentioned to somebody she was from Western Mass., they replied "Oh really, I was in Framingham once"...

You can't make this stuff up.

I'll add a classic statement about Mass geography once spoken to me, when I was discussing where I live on the Route 2 brink of Western Mass -- "Oh so you're out by Framingham and the Quabbin Reservoir."

This person actually managed to use both of those places in the same sentence, implying that (only in her mind) the two places must be in close proximity, both being beyond 128.

[western mass and love it]

And for the most part people in the Springfield area have no idea what lies past Northampton to the north or Westfield to the West. They know the Hartford region and most people I know have no problem hopping in the car and traveling to Boston. But you ask them to drive to Greenfield and that's like taking an overnight expedition. It's all about how people perceive things. Forget going to the Berkshires, that's almost out of the question for most people I know.