"From Stockbridge to Boston" Massachusetts by emilienoelle

It's hard for me to explain how I feel about Massachusetts. I have lived here nearly my entire life, at least for all of it that I remember. My father's family grew up here. All of my siblings were born here. I guess I could say that I love this place the way that you love family: Unconditionally. The cost of living here is outrageous (among the highest in the US), the weather here is a true misery nearly all of the time, most of the people here could use a good manners lesson, and yet every time I leave here to travel someplace else I miss it like hell. I am incredibly proud to be from the land of the Kennedeys, to be a Red Sox fan. I feel a definite sense of pride in sending my daughter to school here, to have the opportunity to share with her all of our cultural and historical treasures.

To tourists, Massachusetts means the American Revolution, Harvard University, The Boston Symphony Orchestra, Cape Cod, the Berkshires, and we are all of these things. But we are also so much more. We are one of the unique cultures that exists within the larger context of the United States. We are strong and stubborn and incredibly loyal to the things we love and deem worthy. (We are also the worst drivers on the planet.)

This page is going to take me a long time to make. I've thought about making it for nearly two years and still can't picture it entirely clearly in my head, but it will get there. So check back every once in a while for updates!

The Original Tonic

Here in Massachusetts, as in other parts of the country, we have words and phrases which are unique to us (and perhaps to a few other parts of New England). If you visit these may be helpful for you to know:

Regular: If someone asks you if you would like your coffee regular they mean do you want it with cream and 2 sugars. This is considered the standard way to drink coffee here. Anything other than regular is considered to be a variation of such. For example, "dark" and "light". If you order your coffee dark or light it means regular with either less or more cream. Of course, you can always just spell out what you want when you order, too.

Tonic: Not too many people under the age of 50 use this word anymore but you still hear it sometimes. The word is a synonym for "soda", or "pop" in the South. It means any non-alcholic beverage that is carbonated. I think the word originated and remained here because this is where soda was invented (Moxie!). Moxie was originally meant to be used as a "tonic" for ailments, not as just a drink. The only other place that this word remains used in the way of carbonated drinks is with "tonic water", as in gin and tonic, which was also originally meant as a cure-all, as its active ingredient, quinine, was a treatment for malaria (the tonic not the gin!). Yum.

Wicked: Use of this word is a dead giveaway to anyone in the rest of the US that you are from New England. I try really hard not to use it when I'm not at home, but it just slips out sometimes. If you don't know how it's used, or if you've never heard it, it is used as a synonym for "very" or "such" or to make a regular adjective into a superlative. As in, "The Red Sox are wicked awesome." I often use it in a negative sense though, as in, "That is a wicked stupid idea." My friends in England tell me that it is used there in the same way in certain places so my guess is that it's leftover somehow from our Colonial days.

Barrel: In Massachuetts this word means a trash can, the same as it does in England. When we say it we don't mean a keg to age whiskey in or anything like that!

Tissue: Tissue means Kleenex. No one here says Kleenex to mean Kleenex as they do in the rest of the country--except for my mother, but she is from Michigan!

Jimmies: These are the little chocolate sprinkles that you put on ice cream. In most places they are called "chocolate sprinkles" but not here. If you order ice cream and the kid behind the counter wants to know if you want jimmies he's not being a pervert! I've heard this word used in a few other places in the US, but I can't think of where at the moment.

Bubbler: A bubbler (bubblah) is a drinking water fountain. If you are thirsty go and get a drink at the bubblah.

Cellar: The cellar (cellah) is the basment. The washah and dryah are down the cellah.

Dunkin Donuts! Yum!

* The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is one of the original 13 Colonies. We were the 6th state admitted to the Union.

* We are the only state in the US where same sex marriage is legal. We are a very liberal state, and always have been. The Women's Suffrage movement and the Abolishionist movement also began here. We are a very tolerant place except for when it come to the NY Yankees, and in that case we are more like a totalitarian regime.

* Massachusetts has more than 64 colleges and universities including the very first university in the US (Harvard) and the very first state funded college (Framingham State) in the US as well.

* The guy who invented the smiley face symbol was from Worcester, MA.

* We pronounce the au in the word aunt the same way you would in taught. We don't say "ant".

* There are more Dunkin Donut coffee shops per square mile here than anywhere else on earth. (The company started here.) In fact, there are 15 Dunkin Donuts in my city and they are all almost always packed. This is the only place I know of where Krispy Kreme went out of business.

* We honestly believe, along with New Yorkers and Parisians, that we are the center of the universe. The nickname for the city of Boston is "The Hub".

* We are a democratic state primarily, and have a democratic legislature, but like to elect republican governors just to make sure that nothing too drastic can ever happen.

* Too much change is bad. We hate it when the names of things, streets, or buildings change. We will call a thing by its original name forever regardless of what it is supposed to be called or how long its been called by a different name. We don't care that no one who isn't from here will know what we are talking about.

* Very few streets here have signs. This makes following maps and directions hard. Additionally, very few people even know the names of the streets where they live. They don't need to. I don't. I can tell you excatly where something is, but not what street it's on.

• Pros:Full of History, Culture and Natural Beauty
• Cons:Can be Expensive, People are sometimes Rude, Terrible Weather