Friday, August 17, 2007

Ordinary Me: N

N: New Hampshire I was born and raised in NH by people born and raised in NH by people born and raised in NH, but that's where it ends. And my parents were born and raised in the section of Nashua where people spoke French at home and went to school to learn English, so I'm not that kind of New Englander. I always thought of it as a pretty ordinary place. Sure we could drive to the mountains or the ocean or the lakes in only an hour (we lived in the south central part of the state). And the leaves turned in the autumn, and we made maple syrup at school. But pretty ordinary. When I went off to college, upon hearing I was from NH, people would tell me they had a "summer place" in NH. It started to piss me off. Mostly because they were missing the point. New Hampshire has year-round joys.

The other thing I learned pretty quickly was just how white NH had been (98.8% in the late 80s).
The upshot is that I realize the limitations of NH, but don't you go badmouthing my home state!

nonprofit With the exception of the 6 months I spent in retail and the year as a paralegal, I have spent my whole career being frustrated by the nonprofits I've worked for. That's 17.5 years of banging my head against incompetence.

1 comment:

Stitchermommy said...

I agree with the whole "summer place" thing. I love in NH and was born here too and I have to say that I absolutely love living here. There are so many great things about this state.