I found a charming NH history site while looking for something else.
Cow Hampshire. Like many other insulting *nicknames, "Cow Hampshire" has been embraced by natives as a badge of honor instead - perhaps because it is mostly Marsschoositts folk who call us that, and we like being unperturbed by them gen'rally. Why, after all, would Maine or Vermont call us "Cow Hampshire," except perhaps as a
Hail, fellow! Well met! greeting? But there are subtleties within, as there often are in ongoing PR battles. Cow Hampshire purports to embrace the rural, unsophisticated nature we are supposed to have (and believe me, there are places where it is absolutely true. There are entire towns which seem to survive on an economy of sharpening each others' saws.), but there is a bit of further mahketin' going on as well. The SE section of NH is essentially Manchester, Nashua, and suburbs of Boston. It kills us to admit that, but it's just true.
So we dig in our heels a bit to insist that we are not suburban Boston, but a pristine rural state with lots of wildlife,
farms.
and wilderness,
So that tourists will come.
We've been doing this for a long time, actually.
Ambivalent reality: the Lakes Region (blue gray)
has a lot of Massachusetts people in the summer - other states too, but MA predominates. All of them think they are practically natives. It is in our interest to let them keep thinking that, but in reality, only a few do.
At any rate, Cow Hampshire, the blog. The first recorded
use of the word cocktail was in NH. The speculation is that it comes from horse-racing, referring to a horse that is not a thoroughbred, and thus "mixed." Could be.
So that tourists will come. 
Is that an albino moose in the picture there?
ReplyDeleteI love that the first map shows "O" population for that small blue patch - i.e., the ocean. What about the mermaids, don't they count?
ReplyDeleteAnna - assumedly. Dunno.
ReplyDeleteSponge, one does wonder why they felt the need.
Ahh, Wolfeboro my home town, from where I write this. My commute is a half mile. En route home from work at certain times of the year I can stop for half an hour and catch a half dozen landlocked salmon. When my kids were small they'd walk to the bait shop, eyes on the ground all the way for dropped coins, then the shop owner would manage to find some bit of bait for their pennies: moribund smelt, tired worms etc., or would open a pack of hooks to sell them a couple. Small town life. I know the name of almost every person I saw en route to work this AM.
ReplyDeletePerhaps from your blog, I was aware of the Cow Hampshire blog. Or, from hearing use of the term “Cow Hampshire” on your blog, I discovered the Cow Hampshire blog. After following it intermittently, I found out several years ago the Cow Hampshire blog had DISAPPEARED.
ReplyDeleteSoon after Easter, I find out that the Cow Hampshire blog has been resurrected. For a further Easter coincidence, around Easter I was reading a passage from Faulkner’s Sound and Fury that described an Easter service.
Urbane and urbanized Massachusetts. As a child, one of my first encounters with the higher population density in that state was to decide that there was a mass of people in Mass.
Khornet, our roots go back quite a ways in Wolfeboro - I worked at Point Breeze in the 70's, and my mother and stepfather retired off Airport Rd in the mid 80's through 2000. She started First Night. Before that they were on Cow Island and Senter Cove. My stepbrothers still have vacation homes there. My uncle went to Brewster in the 40's and built a place up beyond Melvin in the 60's. From Upper Suncook to Lake Ossipee, we've been up there for almost a hundred years. These days I only know the folks that work at the mental health center, though.
ReplyDeleteRegular commenter Dubbahdee lives not too far from you.
Incredible, this can be stunning. Envision each of the reading through along with producing you could do this... Cool during the cold months though.
ReplyDeleteI have been in NH all my life. Cow Hampshire refers to the women who do not leave this retirement state. %85 are pigfaced stuckups who are clearly overweight. The rest consist of college girls from mass who come up foe college guys from mass. An honest error. The remaining %15 are skinny girls who remained for reasons that are thier own. They believe they are made of gold. Ashley Bonocolto and Nicole D are prime examples. Exercise caution before enrolling into colleges like Plymouth state and unh. This is the land of cold Winters, high fuel prices, and gross stuckup ladies. NH is a great place to retire, just dont go there for the girls or nightlife...and godsakea dont get a criminal charge... They will milk you and you're family for everything they can, no mattet how petty..caution to those who venture North. Skiiing is all we have to offer, it comes at a high price, very high.
ReplyDeleteThe auto correct on my mobile doesnt help much either..
ReplyDelete