timberlandko; i was really agast mostly just because i could not fathom why they came and what i had done. they had a bit of interrogation with ID's, checking on their radios searching my truck etc. then i began to complain saying "am i being detained and if so for what reason?" so they left but parked across the street for the rest of the day. i finished my job contract and left Rhode Island headed out for western skies. just another learning experience i guess.
I sympathize with your New England experiences, Dys, especially that hitch-hiking put-down. Around that time, late 60s, the hippy movement was just starting to spread from the sinful cities like Boston and Providence to the backwoods. The locals of the older generation were absolutely outraged by their sons and grandsons letting their hair grow and wearing peace signs. It was even ruimored that some had started experimenting with marijuana instead of guzzling beer and whisky like their sires. Outraged! And they had no notion of the distinction between beats and hippies. Other than that, many are nice people.
Dys, I love regionalism including accents, food and life style. It's a shame that so many of us sound like radio announcers who could be from anywhere. I think regional accents are delightful.
I grew up in Tucson and had relatives in Colorado and Texas, so I only knew the Southwest. My first job was in San Francisco and I fell in love with the Bay area. It was great to see rivers with actual water in them and FOG. I love fog!! On little cat feet.
Like jjorge says, the South is lovely, but I wouldn't want to live there for the same reasons--fundamentalist religion and the pervasive bigotry. Despite this, the people are so friendly and hospitable that it's hard not to fall in love with it.
I drove to Mississippi with a friend who is writing a book about a Civil War general. It is a beautiful state, but it seemed haunted by its past. The poverty is unlike anything I've seen in the rest of US and there seemed to be a kind of distrust of us because my liscense plate had Connecticut on it. Thinking about it, I realized how often I had heard derogotory remarks about the South from people in the North East, many of whom don't hesitate to make these remarks loudly and publicly when they travel. Around Oxford and Jackson, we found an open friendliness and people who went out of their way to help us in our research.
Many of my Colorado relatives are very suspicious of the big Eastern cities. My aunts and uncles look at me as if I have traveled in space and ask about New York City in a disapproving tone. They were stunned when I said that I would love to live in NYC. I'm sure they think my soul is lost, but they still love me.
Regionalism is diluted now because of the mobility of US citizens and job requirements. In a way, this is a good thing because the more inbred and isolated areas are exposed to people of different regions and ethnic groups.
I seem to have a sudden urge for hush puppies and collard greens.
What I find much more worrisome is nationalism. The possiblity of misunderstanding in that case can lead to war--just watch the news. Sigh. That's why John Lennon's song, Imagine, is one of my favorites.
Mea culpa, jjorge,mea maxima culpa.
New England is really atypical of the whole USA. It's nothing like NYCIty, Chicago or LA.
THANK GOD FOR THAT!
I love big cities and I really hate the snobish yankee attitude, so common in the New England area. Too much frost bite up here!
One of my favorite regional experiences was a drive through Arizona with my former husband who was raised in Greece and Paris, weird though he was almost the only native Californian I had ever met even though I lived there for some time.
We were driving into Tucson, I was driving actually as he did not know how, Europe, you know he never had to. Any way I heard this sort of croaking sound and when I looked over at him he was speechless and pointing to a guy on a motorcycle with a side arm and a rifle strapped over his shoulder. Poor baby had only seen people carrying guns in movies.
The funny thing is that here in the Southwest it is OK to carrying a weapon openly, you have to have a license to conceal. However, in the DFW metroplex there are so many places with a posted: No concealed weapons allowed. The penalty for going into one of these places with a concealed weapon license or not is big time jail penalty.
joanne that very well could have been me
i would have been riding an english motorcycle, either my Norton or BSA.
Bring on the dewy women!!
You are kidding a Norton or BSA. Do you still have them they are worth mucho bucks. I am sure you know that.
Another one of my favorite regional stories:
At my going away party in Washington, D.C., everyone kept asking me why Texas and wouldn't I miss the seasons - to which I replied. You mean that one nice day in the fall and the one nice day in the spring.
No one even got it. Then from out of the blue this stranger walked up, saying he could not help but hear the conversation and he had heard me say I was born in Colorado and I was moving to Texas. He said he was born and raised in Minnesota and could not understand why everyone in Tejas thought the state was so great and did I feel special because I was born in Colorado? Pausing to think for a New York minute I said yes, I thought being born in Colorado made me special.
Bring on NYCity. It's the "City that never sleeps".
New Haven wrote:Bring on NYCity. It's the "City that never sleeps".
I believe sleep disorders are characteristic of paranoia, aren't they? Vegas never sleeps either, but I suppose that would probably be Obsessive-Compulsive disorder
timber
Vegas sleeps, when it gets it's turn in the bed. Then it passes out until the next guy comes and rousts it. (Common arrangement among casino employees is to share a one bedroom with one or two other people who work different shifts and sleep at different times.)
pd, Sort of like the navy in subs.
c.i.
Re regional differences and racist attitudes: I grew up in NY at a time when the Civil Rights movement was in the news, and, of course, it was all happening in the South. So the perception was that racism was a Southern issue, and nothing of the sort was occurring up North.
Well, it took a while before I realized what a crock that was! Of course, the racism in the Northeast was far more subtle, but still quite pervasive. And I remember well the uproar in Boston over school busing. I was there on a visit in the early '70s and was rather shocked at the level of animosity toward the black kids who were going to school in white neighborhoods. That was the last of my naivete on THAT issue...
D'art, I did visit the Hermitage in St Petersburg, but didn't realize there was one in Seattle - even after my many visits to that northern City By the Bay.
c.i.
Well, The Hermitage in Seattle is a bit less impressive than the one in St. Petersburg. This one is rather small physically--more of a state of mind, I guess. That mind being my own!
D'art, It wouldn't be "hermit" by "age" by any chance. LOL c.i.
Had you 
