New Hampshire, an Opinionated Demographic Profile (Non-Scientific) 1.0 [January, 2007]
Kevin O'Mara
Note: I'm thinking about starting a website for these types of
articles, but I am making initial posts to Usenet to see how much
attention these articles receive. If you like (or, for that matter,
dislike) what you see here, reply and let me know. I am not including
an e-mail address for feedback, but I'd like to see some noise as a
result of my writing. I chose the rec.travel.usa-canada newsgroup
because I assumed that people who travel (or want to travel) would show
the most interest in demographics as a result of their own experiences
with culture, if for no other reason. You will also find that this
article does not have a graceful ending to wrap it all up. I am
debating about whether or not this is necessary at this point, so this
version will not have an organized ending, but rather an abrupt ending.
Common Header:
I find that it is becoming increasingly difficult to profile areas
around the globe because of the progressively consistent unification
(or should I say "Americanization") that is taking place. However, I
find that there are still some areas which have very distinct
characteristics and traditions that, to this day, easily lend
themselves to profiling and demographic distinction. I feel that it is
my responsibility to present my observed profiles to the world because
such information is generally difficult to find or even discern from
other existing pieces of writing because of the modern practice of
political-correctness. This shockingly remains true even in the
information age, perhaps because people are still too reserved to voice
their opinions on such matters. The profiling of areas is my favorite
topic to read about because I feel there is no greater power than
properly understanding multiple cultures. And, in addition, most of
these make for excellent conversation topics on dates or at cocktail
parties. But, as I had stated before, there is a limited amount of
useful material available in this genre. There is no doubt that this
type of material is subjective, and so much so that it has the tendency
to offend. However, I find that the potential of such information is
always useful for anyone (in any time period) to rationally formulate
and evolve their own knowledge and opinions, regardless of the source.
I suggest just taking it all in with a grain of salt, of course. The
more opinions, the merrier, in my opinion. And thus, I encourage
everyone reading this, who I assume has an interest in this kind of
information, to take the time to do the same thing I am doing -
reporting about places (and perhaps even about events or things).
I try to profile areas in the tradition of the Jack Lait and Lee
Mortimer "Confidential" series of books, such as "New York
Confidential" and "Washington Confidential." In the decades since the
originals have been published, there have been many books and movies
that have borrowed the name and usage of "Confidential" for silly
guides and plots, but have not been able to successfully live up to the
content of these original works. In this spirit and sense, I attempt
to be as intelligent, honest, and explicit as possible, potentially to
the point of sensationalism (if I'm lucky!). However, you will find
that the information even I provide will fall short of this standard
because I usually do not include the seamy political controversy of the
area (past or present), nor do I include an adequate picture of
everyday life in the area. The reason is that I have not put this kind
of work into my writings thus far, and will admit that I am quite
limited in my proper exposure to most areas. I also find that I do not
currently possess the investigative ability nor the social influence to
get truly "down and dirty" with the locals and the underworld
(especially in certain areas), nor do I consider myself to be a truly
"street smart" person. However, I try the best I can to gloss over the
certain distinctions about the area that I find interesting. One will
find that I won't take the time or effort to redundantly define ALL of
what is usually well-known about a place, but rather to define what is
not so immediately well-known. In addition, you will find that I am
somewhat of a geek, and I tend to focus on some geeky observations that
others would most likely overlook (perhaps even due to their lack of
technical knowledge). All of the observations I write try to include
rationales whenever possible, and try to include citations if
applicable. Please note that not all things truly lend themselves to
rationales or citations on a practical level, so please also keep this
in mind when making up your own mind about matters.
Considering that the observations of ANY human being, including
myself, will be inherently limited, I consider this to be a
never-ending work in progress. Upon learning more things about a place
over time, I will be sure to include them in significant updates that I
will certainly offer to the public. To do so is part of my philosophy.
I will not update this document publicly per every additional
insignificant fact or observation that I discover. However, be rest
assured that I will compile this additional information over time and
update this document when a significant amount of information is ready.
Also, I have tried to control annoying spelling, tense, and grammar
mistakes in this document to the best of my ability, but should you
find some, please forgive them.
If you are reading this and which to add to or contest any of the
information listed, please be sure to send me a message or reply to the
posting. I will be more than open and willing to consider your
viewpoint and how it will fit into this piece. After all, I want this
work to be as concise as possible for the benefit of everyone. I do
not plan to remove, or censor, anything that has already been written
here, but I will most likely append your viewpoint to the matter if it
is relevant.
So, to sum everything up, I offer the following caveat. I cannot
guarantee the validity of any of the following information. It is true
to the best of my knowledge and observational ability, but my word can
only go so far. Before believing any of this information to be the
absolute truth, I encourage you to validate this information for
yourself. I, myself, am a firm believer that all information should be
prudently challenged whenever possible. However, you should find that
I take great strides to present good information when publishing like
this.
New Hampshire, BEGIN ARTICLE:
New Hampshire is a state with less legislation at the state and county
levels and more legislation at the level of each individual town. The
aspect of county does not mean much (or as much) in this state in terms
of community and legal organization. Counties do exist, and they do
act to sanction off portions of the state according to towns. However,
a resident will not commonly refer to an area in New Hampshire through
its county affiliation. Rather, the aspect of regions take precedence
here, and the designated regions in this state are as generally as
large as the county designations here. But, regions do commonly
overlap one or more counties.
New Hampshire was traditionally a red state, but has just recently
made the transition to a blue state for the first time in hundreds of
years in 2007 due to a democratic majority in the House and Senate.
However, because of its legacy, you will find that many of the laws
there are quite conservative. Of course, I would not have considered
this state to be as red as a western red state in recent years, like
Wyoming, but I definitely would still consider it to be the reddest
state on the upper-half of the east coast, regardless of its blue
orientation now. Considering this, one might even consider it to be
out of place.
When getting an idea of the laws here, think of the state motto: "Live
Free or Die" (within reason, of course). However, as cited from the
Laconia New Hampshire Rally News magazine (2007, Vol. XV, No. 1, Page
10), a magazine sponsoring Laconia Motorcycle Week, the Laconia police
department issues the statement that it has strict laws in accordance
to drunk driving. I have not verified this official claim, but I would
not be one to challenge it.
Due to its recent transition to a blue state, however, one may find
that the different political climate will most likely have a repressive
influence over the traditionally conservative laws here, and that this
interpretation of the laws will only be accurate for a limited time.
It is the opinion of many that the state will eventually become more
like Massachusetts in terms of politics and law, which is an outrage to
many. For instance, it is definitely easier to own a gun here, as well
as to obtain a concealed carry permit. I assume that all
semi-automatic weapons are legal here as opposed to only some. It is
also a state law for each town to take the responsibility of plowing
all of their respective sidewalks, not that there are as many here as
elsewhere. Also, there are no laws governing the mandatory use of
seatbelts in vehicles. However, most of the more potent and desirable
kinds of fireworks are not allowed to be possessed or used here. One
might not expect this, or find this to be consistent with how the laws
are profiled here. There are larger stores carrying and advertising
fireworks in the state, but they are of the simpler sparking variety,
the only kinds of fireworks legal there. Alcohol may only be purchased
from one of the many available official state liquor stores.
It is of the impression of many residents that the level of crime in
New Hampshire is quite low, and thus they feel obliged to maintain
traditional living habits, such as keeping vehicle doors and
residencies unlocked while unattended. I was informed by a news hound
in the area that the instance of murder in New Hampshire is quite rare.
Since the level of crime in this area is under manageable levels,
however, I was informed that local law enforcement agencies are keen on
handing out speeding tickets because they are not otherwise preoccupied.
It turns out that I am not the only one who had ever felt compelled to
profile New Hampshire. All of these bites refer to Nashua, New
Hampshire, and it seems that this is an area of New Hampshire which is
more representative of the state in popular culture than any other.
The residents of the Lakes Region of New Hampshire will refer to Nashua
as their "downtown" area.
During the years of 2002-2003, someone posted a popular rumor on the
Web which stated that Nashua, New Hampshire was the home to the easiest
women he had ever seen. He recommended this area for business trips
combined with one-night stands. I cannot personally vouch for the
validity of this, since I have not ever gone about dating in this area,
but I suspect this might have an element of truth to it considering its
"more innocent than not," small-town atmosphere. I wanted to provide a
citation to this original statement, but it appears that no Web host is
carrying this piece of writing any longer. This is just a practical
reminder to always archive information that you find interesting on the
Web, as it is such a dynamic place prone to the forfeiture. I also
recall seeing a report that the Nashua Public Library is one of the
most highly patronized libraries in the Untied States. Thus, I suspect
that this is a well-informed community that definitely reads. On
http://www.nh.gov/nhsl/services/librarians/gsl/42happenings.html, the
New Hampshire government admits that the city of Nashua has a large
Asian population, and is a population that favors Indian "Bollywood"
films on a local level. Please contact me if you find any of the
original citations to any of these topics which are currently uncited.
I think that the act of profiling the conservative nature of the area
can be assisted through a localized commercial that I saw for a
nationwide law firm specializing in Social Security Disability
representation. They presented an older, rustic gentleman's voice
along with a dark, minimalistic backdrop. Their angle was to have this
person take great efforts to convince viewers that he was "not lazy"
and not "cheating the system" for wanting benefits while he could not
work. Obviously, demographics research had revealed this about people
in this area. This set of attitudes and beliefs is a vast difference
from those of the people in the Baltimore, Maryland area, who generally
don't seem to require any convincing based upon their "straight and to
the point" commercials of this type. Baltimore is also where the
Social Security Administration happens to be headquartered.
I only had the opportunity to observe the Lakes and Seacoast regions
during my stay in New Hampshire, so these observations are largely
limited to those regions in particular. I cannot always speak for the
entire state of New Hampshire.
The supermarkets and club stores (list does not include "mom and pop"
stores) that have the most presence in the Lakes Region and most of New
Hampshire are:
>>> * Shaw's (most popular)
>>> * Market Basket
>>> * Hannaford's
>>> * BJ's Club
>>> * Sam's Club
FYI: There are no Price Costco stores in New Hampshire.
Some of the local advertisers featured on MetroCast Cablevision's
various television stations that I had the chance to witness as of
1/2007 are:
>>> * Mr. Fireplace
>>> * Happy Jacks Tobaccionist
>>> * MetroCast Cablevision
>>> * Funspot Retro Arcade
>>> * Meredith Harley Davidson
>>> * Lakes Region United Way
>>> * Young's Autosales
>>> * Jon's Roast Beef & Deli
>>> * Tim's Truck Capital & Auto Sales
>>> * Grevior Furniture
>>> * JobsinNH.com
>>> * Laconia Athletic & Swim Club
>>> * D.F. Richard (Public Television)
>>> * New Hampshire Credit Unions (Public Television)
The production values of these commercials, on the whole, are not as
high as what you might expect in a major metropolitan area. However,
they all have an "amateur," grassroots feel that is appealing, and at
times humorous. And because of their unmistakable similarity, It is
very possible that the advertisers in this area actually attempt to
mimic this same style. This is mainly judging from their narrative
technique, slow folk background music, and preference for hamming,
non-career actors.
The two closest casinos, located in Connecticut, are:
>>> * Foxwoods
>>> * Mohegan Sun
There are no casinos or even slots within New Hampshire itself.
However, there are forms of gambling present that are legalized by the
state. There is a state lottery system offering multiple games. The
state features both horse and greyhound racing tracks / lodges at four
different locations throughout New Hampshire, as reported by
http://www.nhliving.com/tracks/index.shtml. Other minor forms of
gambling are legal here as well, if they meet certain criteria.
The lakes which make the Lakes Region popular are:
>>> * Lake Winnipesaukee
>>> * Lake Winnisquam
>>> * Newfound Lake
>>> * Ossipee Lake
>>> * Squam Lake
* Lake Sunapee
It is common to find that many of the towns, counties, lakes, and
landmarks carry historical, American-Indian names. As a result, these
names are proudly further perpetuated in the names of local sports
teams, churches, newspapers, special interest groups, and other
community programs. The instance of partial American-Indian ancestry
is very common among the residents of New Hampshire, according to
Census 2000 data. However, whether all of this is translatable into a
greater tolerance for and acceptance of native American-Indians and
their culture is "up in the air." For instance, the local cigar store
still proudly boasts an extremely obvious and huge cigar store indian
which sits out-in-the-open, directly adjacent to a town sidewalk.
These statues are considered very politically-incorrect, and even
racist by some standards (not that the author agrees with any of this).
Thus, I figure there have been very few complaints regarding issues
like this. The Census 2000 also reveals an extremely small
American-Indian population in this area.
In New Hampshire, the people seem to be much friendlier than those of
Mid-Atlantic states (which are inherently more populated, anyway). You
will find a small-community atmosphere present most everywhere
throughout New Hampshire, even in its major cities, such as Nashua. It
is not uncommon to find that the toll collectors and bank tellers there
have dog treats on hand to give to those who take their canines with
them on car trips (the action of which also appears to be more common
here than elsewhere).
Skinny dipping seems to be a more popular practice among youth
throughout this state, as opposed to others, based upon the frequency
this appears in female online dating profiles that listed New Hampshire
as the individual's state of residency. Also, the Nashua area was a
hotspot for raves back in the 1990s, and was heavily related to Maine's
rave scene. This was before law enforcement began to heavily crack
down on this type of activity at the beginning of this decade. One can
still find one or two clubs that routinely play electronic music in
Nashua, and a scene still exists there.
To see a black or African-American person out in public is a very rare
experience, but those that have presences here are, for the most part,
treated very well and with due respect. Apparently, one really never
hears about hate-based crimes on the news. The majority of people out
in the open react to racist slurs with an exacerbated element of
surprise and disgust, but admit to hardly ever being exposed to a
member of a minority.
The highest toll present within the state is on Interstate 95, and is
exactly one dollar each way (this is a federally maintained road, so
this is to be expected). All of the other existing tolls in the entire
state are only seventy-five cents.
Coming from a big city far outside of New Hampshire, I understand the
importance of choosing one's oriental food restaurants wisely. This
may sound crass, but if one is not selective in their choice, one could
end up with stale food that hasn't moved for months, or exceptionally
low-quality food in general that could make one sick. However, it
appears this problem in New Hampshire is mostly non-existent. All of
the oriental food restaurants here resemble the finest that usually
only reside in rural areas elsewhere. Many of the traditional takeout
places even go so far as to decorate their establishments with marble
and exotic fish, for example.
The local international airport, Manchester Boston Regional Airport,
offers many many of the niceties you would expect in a small town
setting. The parking rates are significantly cheaper than you will
find at other airports across the country. They also offer totally
free WiFi (wireless Internet) access to anyone on its premises. There
are no strings attached. One can simply join the unencrypted network
and go. There is no signup process or feedback to provide, which
implies that the process of using this service is mostly anonymous. I
suspect this is due to the traffic per population density quotient of
the area. I do observe that the traffic is generally much lower than
other metropolitan areas. However, many residents of northern
Massachusetts also prefer to use Manchester Boston Regional Airport as
opposed to Logan, as implied by its title.
Upon talking to another Southwest passenger heading towards Manchester
from BWI (Baltimore-Washington International) on business, he had
stated that one of the biggest differences in culture between
Massachusetts and Baltimore was that everyone seemed to be "more
formal" around the D.C. area. This is in relation to business and even
many casual matters. He claims that up north in Massachusetts, one
would not be caught dead wearing formal clothing, as this is reserved
mostly for the legal profession only.
New Hampshire does have a significant tourist industry. It is popular
for Laconia Motorcycle Week (Laconia Bike Week), and for skiing. There
are nineteen different downhill ski resorts, and nineteen different XC
ski resorts, as reported by http://www.skinh.com.
The Laconia Bike Week has a very large fan base, especially among
older patriotic Harley Davison bikers. Laconia, New Hampshire is
really a large part of Harley Davidson culture, as it is considered to
be one of the prime, major biking events in the country. Without
question, it definitely is one of the "big boys," as opposed to a
lesser-known Harley event which can be found throughout the year at any
locale or community worldwide. Regardless, most bike weeks, including
Laconia, cannot really be considered to be Harley-centric anymore.
Bikers who ride bikes from foreign manufacturers, who are far more
likely to be from younger generations, can be found at these events as
well. They are not considered to be out of place there, and are not
generally prejudiced against in any way. However, dominating brand
loyalty wars will always exist.
MetroCast Cablevision is the major cable provider in the Lakes Region
of New Hampshire, and throughout most of the towns of New Hampshire in
other regions. However, not every town in the Lakes Region or
throughout New Hampshire offers Metrocast Cablevision. The decision of
which cable provider gains access to a particular town is the
responsibility of that individual town's government.
There are no community colleges in New Hampshire in the truest sense,
but there are a series of colleges entitled The New Hampshire Community
Technical Colleges System. They only offer technical programs, as the
name suggests. In addition, there seem to be no financial aid programs
for those with disabilities. Programs like these are commonly
advertised and are easy to find on other community college websites.
Recycling programs are not implemented in all areas of New Hampshire.
Unfortunately, it is even a necessity for some homeowners far out into
the country to rent their own commercially maintained dumpsters for
waste disposal management, as the government will not provide for them.
There are government roads reserved for ATVs (all-terrain vehicles) in
New Hampshire. One must be licensed in New Hampshire to use an ATV
there. By far, the most popular brand of ATV reflected through
dealer's offerings is Polaris.
About MetroCast Cablevision:
There are three community channels, one on channel 24, 25, and 26.
Lakes Region Public Access TV, LRPA-TV (the local town governments run
these channels). There is also a channel that shows a brief, static
text-based advertisement with wallpaper that advertises MetroCast's
digital cable service on channel 23. There is a commercial radio
station (98.3 WLNH) broadcasting in the background on channel 23, as
opposed to a community radio channel. Finally, there is a channel
present on channel 72 that constantly streams the same MetroCast
sponsored video over and over again. The video in question always
details how to use one of Metrocast's premium services, such as "Guide
to Using Video On Demand." This is a group of five television stations
total on this network that are not dedicated to cable programming. I
find this to be an unusual waste of bandwidth, considering the
increasing consumer demand for more channels on analog cable systems.
There are Spanish-speaking channels, but no African-American channels,
such as BET, on their analog cable channel offerings (it is unknown to
me if these are offered through their digital service).
Channel 24: Community Bulletin Board
Channel 25: Public Programs and Programs from Educational Institutions
Channel 26: Government Meetings
The New Hampshire area provides two independent public television
stations. There is a PBS channel, and there is the NH Public
Television Channel, or North Country NHPTV. The original, independent
programming on NHPTV, such as New Hampshire Outlook, is quite
excellent. Their features are also multicultural, for instance,
featuring reggae concerts related to the Rastafari movement.
I am surprised to see such quality local programming on the community
channels. For instance, there is a show produced by the Christa
McAuliffe Planitarium called "The Sky This Month." They cater to
teenage and adult audiences, but do not dumb down their content at all.
They even go so far as to show computer simulations to demonstrate why
they recommend various dates to see various objects in the solar
system. it is also a long show lasting about a half hour. Shows of
this type I usually see in other communities last as long as three
minutes if you are lucky! They obviously receive more public and/or
private funding than many planetariums in other communities. The web
site for the planetarium is: http://www.starhop.com.
The screen on channel 24, which always rotates an hours worth of
community announcements, is slightly, yet consistently jumpy and is not
properly trimmed (overscanning) due to an improper, low-quality,
high-resolution VGA to NTSC 480i conversion process. The segments are
sometimes illustrated with animated graphics, most closely resembling
animated GIFs, compilation clipart, and Microsoft Office based vector
graphics. Well-recognizable animated slide transitions, Web-quality
horizontal dividing lines, and TrueType fonts are also distinguishing
features of the various slides shown, all suggesting that a
Windows-based slide show software similar to Microsoft Powerpoint is
used.
The local Unitarian Universalist Church hosts a local GBLT support
organization for the Lakes Region called the Twin Rivers Outright, and
it is advertised on the community announcements channel. I think that
it is uncommon to see a Unitarian Universalist Church that has an
actual voice in a local community, especially with such a liberal
message that might not be so openly accepted should it have been issued
in other communities.
MetroCast outsources its program guide channel to Zap 2 It, who places
a permanent banner of the endorsing cable company in a pane at the top
of the screen. There is an original, new age soundtrack, but no custom
programming featured on this channel. It is actually modeled to look
much like the TV Guide Channel's predecessor, The Prevue Guide Channel.
That is, its featured computer-generated graphics have a certain
aesthetic so as to suggest that the software is executing in an
alternative computing environment (that is, something other than a
Microsoft environment).
The music on one of the Lakes Region community channels (channel 24)
is rebroadcast from one of MetroCast's digital music channel offerings.
It appears that MetroCast contracts Music Choice
(http://www.musicchoice.com) for its digital music content. There is
obviously some confusion on the part of the staff at LRPA-TV, since it
is announced that the music being played is from the "Smooth Jazz"
channel. After a careful look at Music Choice's channel offerings,
however, it is clear that the music channel actually being broadcast is
the "Big Band and Swing" channel. If anything else, this is a clear
indication of the level of intelligence and cultural savvy that the
people who usually work for these community channels possess.
Underived songs which feature lyrics written for and sung by women that
were later reprocessed by Frank Sinatra can be frequently encountered
on this channel.
About City Council Meetings in the Lakes Region (Alton):
In Alton, New Hampshire, the code of dress is to wear business casual
clothes. The council members will go so far as to raise their voices
to the point of yelling to disagreeable community speakers. Speakers
will commonly interrupt the panel members and there is sometimes very
blatant sarcasm present. The speakers will also occasionally curse
mildly. All of the settings in local Lakes Region programming all
appear to be just as casual as well. No "courthouse" backdrops.
Of course, a New England accent is not uncommon to find here. There
are a significant number of female members on the panel in Alton.
Beards and mustaches on men is also more common that not.
But, all of this is quite understandable since the city council
members in New Hampshire are volunteers, not career politicians like
they may be elsewhere. There are apparently no political perks to
being a city council member here.
All of the videos featured on the community channel made within the
last few years were captured in digital format. For the Alton city
council zoning hearings, a high-compression codec is utilized, which
shows itself with some (but very few) visible artifacts and slow-motion
"ghosting" where there is movement. In addition, there are some
significant dropouts in the video from time to time, as if a satellite
downlink were interrupted, for instance.
Each of the towns (more commonly known as cities) in New Hampshire has
its own city council, and since the main grouping of towns here takes
place at the level of region, and not of county, each region in New
Hampshire has its own respective community access channel which covers
their own respective town meetings.
--
carol...@gmail.com
Thanks for your view of New Hampshire, Kevin. My suggestions for
future regional surveys or travel reports:
1. Make it shorter.
2.Severely limit the amount of info about cable TV and its channels.
3.Include other relevant NH info such as the lack of sales tax and
income tax (only major tax is property tax, which means millionaires
are claiming NH residence but "residing" in small cheap apts.).
4. Mention the state capital - it is NOT Nashua which at this point is
considered almost a suburb of Boston.
5. Tell us the source of the famous "Live Free or Die" quotation on
the license plates.
6. If you're going to mention skiing, you should also mention the
summer outdoor recreation in the White Mountains and the lakes.
7. If you're going to refer to "New England accent " be sure to
differentiate between NH, ME, MA coast and RI. They are different.
8. Make it even shorter!
Good luck on your future write-ups of New England areas.
CC