In NH there are "towns" which straddle the border between two towns. Pinardville is a section of both Manchester and Goffstown; Suncook has the border between Pembroke and Allenstown down the middle of it; Penacook is part Concord, part Boscawen. All three are heavily French-Canadian, or were when they were first founded. It makes for confusion of school districts, fire department coverage, Post Offices, and even telephone exchanges. A medical office will ask me which pharmacy I prefer, and it still offends me to have to say it's Hannaford in Manchester, because it's not in Manchester. It's a mile over the border, firmly in Goffstown in that Pinardville section which French-Canadians settled long after the town centers were built.
I'm not blaming the immigrants from Quebec. That's where the affordable land was and ethnic groups like to cluster together. The Yankees created the situation and have no call to kick about it now. Yet it does make for multiple answers to the question of "where are we, anyway?"
2 comments:
I grew up in the Midwest, so it was confusing for me to find that, in New England, you were always in a town. There was no between towns. Hey, I grew up not in any town.
I can readily imagine it would be disorienting to a New Englander to be in the Midwest and find they were not in any town. Welcome to the Twilight Zone, population undefined.
Which reminds me of the Midwest's geometrically exact grid of country roads. This fascinated my wife when she first saw it from the aid.
A New England-born friend of mine went on a vacation to the Midwest to look up family and, on return, rermarked that the road system was boring. I replied that, out there, we did not look to the road system for entertainment.
"Saw it from the aid" should be "saw it from the air".
Post a Comment