7 Legends about New England ...

Harsh, right? But this is a common legend about the people who live in New England. It's awful, and the thing is, I can understand why people feel that way. It's not at all true – I've met some of the warmest, loveliest people here! But whether you're in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, or Connecticut, everyone movies so fast! They're all impatient, hurrying to get somewhere five minutes ago, and it can make them seem really abrupt and, well, snobby.

Okay. I am about to take a vacation to Cape Cod, sometime in April. But that doesn't mean everyone does! I've met people who only live an hour away from the famous Cape, and they've never set foot there. That's like assuming that, just because someone lives in New York state, they've been to New York City tons of times. I lived in NY for something like eight years, and I've yet to visit NYC!

Uh, yeah. No. No way, no how, never going to happen. The majority of residents in New England are not as rich as they're believed to be, and believe me, you have to be rich out the box to afford a summer home at Martha's Vineyard. I don't think I can even afford to visit Martha's Vineyard, to be perfectly honest.

Believe it or not, the New England fishermen who trap lobsters and their families would probably be happy if they never saw a lobster again – and they're the only ones who might frequently eat it. They call it Seacoast Meatloaf, and it's not the delicacy to them that it is to anyone else. I love lobster, but I don't eat it everyday, and I've never met anyone who does.

People wonder why I don't sound like I come from Boston. Or from Maine. I've actually been asked to sound like Jud Crandall from Pet Sematary. Uh, what? Sorry, no. And not everyone who's from New England has the archetypal accent. For that matter, people from, say, Revere have different accents than people in Boston; Maine does have its own accent, but it's rarely as strong as a Stephen King movie; and Rhode Island has an accent entirely its own.

This isn't true either. I know Patriots fans are wicked rabid and serious about the sport, ditto Bosox fans (I shudder to inform some people I used to live in New York), but most folks really don't give a flying flip about sports. Or, if they do, they don't go freaking crazy over every game.

All right, it's winter, right? And although it's snowed a whole heck of a lot, there have only been a handful of really cold days this winter. As for the rest of the year: last summer, it was 90 just about all the time. All the time. The only thing that made it bearable was low humidity levels, but the point is, the weather here really isn't as crazy as everyone thinks it is. Except in Vermont. I believe the entire state of Vermont is currently buried in snow.

The libraries and bookstores are full of the rich historical myths and legends surrounding New England. However, few of them deal with the legends that exist about the people who live here. But every area has misconceptions, I think. What are the stereotypes for your area?

Top Photo Credit: markwaitkus