Country Roads - Life in Massachusetts

Life in Massachusetts

You don't have to move to another country to experience culture shock. Moving a mere 750 miles can put you into a whole 'nother world and it did just that when we moved to Massachusetts. I suppose when you've lived 40 years in one spot any other place would seem foreign, at least for awhile, but this move was a bit like the what the Beverly Hillbillies must have experienced when they loaded up for California.

Settling In

We were no strangers to Massachusetts when we unloaded the moving van that day in 1988. We had been coming to the area on summer vacations for almost 20 years. My husband's brother and wife lived here for those 2 decades and every few years we spent a week or two enjoying a visit with them. My husband had come back with them in 1987 to find work and lived in their home for almost a year before he rented us a place to live and I made the move with our son and belongings. Once the truck was unloaded and we sat down in the middle of the piles of boxes in our second floor apartment the reality of the move hit. We weren't on a vacation. We wouldn't be going back home. This WAS home.

I was too busy getting settled to do much thinking the first few weeks. I had to find a job, get our son enrolled in school, transfer all the necessary papers---such as car registration and drivers license, find a pediatrician for our 8 year old son and doctor for myself, and unpack 20 years of our lives from the boxes we'd lugged up two flights of stairs. I was to discover some of these simple-sounding tasks were far more complicated than I'd ever imagined.

Getting settled into the apartment wasn't much of an ordeal. My husband had been living there for a month and our sister-in-law, who was a lifelong friend and had grown up in the same small town in Ohio as me, had already whipped the place into shape before I arrived. Curtains and drapes had been hung and the basic necessities were stashed in the kitchen and pantry. About all we needed to do the first day was setup the two bedrooms and unpack some clothes. The next couple of days were spent trying to find places to put all the things we'd carefully packed and brought with us from Ohio. They seemed strangely out of place in our new home but they were a comforting part of our history so they stayed, at least for then.

Finding work wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Work in this part of Massachusetts was plentiful and, once again, our sister-in-law was a blessing. She suggested I put in an application at the hospital where she worked as manager of the operating room. I had no medical background at all and had been teaching in a private school in West Virginia before the move but I liked the idea of working where I knew someone and gave it a try. Two weeks later I was working as a Central Supply aide and earning more money than I had back home although the cost of living was so high it didn't seem like it.

Culture Shock

Language Barrier

Somehow you just never think about a language barrier if you move within the boundaries of the United States. We all speak English, right? It didn't take long to discover this error in my thinking. The Boston accent adds a twist to common words that makes it hard to understand some pretty simple stuff. There are no R's in words and A's at the end of words are often replaced with an ER sound. This makes some pretty funny sounding words. "Party" becomes "potty" and "car" sounds more like "cahh". My name changed from Brenda to Brender and to this day it makes me laugh when I hear it. My first few months at work were maddening because of accents; mine and theirs. I was dealing with unfamiliar medical terminology, which was difficult enough, but add the pronunciation issue and I had a real hard time figuring out what someone was saying. Try this link for more of Boston's unique handling of English: Boston English

I have to admit the language problems weren't all caused by the Massachusetts natives. I brought along a few of my own because we spoke our own language back home too. You might describe it as a mixture of Midwestern and Southern with a down-home, hillbilly twang. No words end in "ing" in our language so "being" becomes "bein' " and sounds like "be ann" and "going" (goin') sounds more like "gone." And how could anyone explain words like "youins" and "yourn"? Just for the record: youins means "you as a group - you ones" and yourn means "belonging to you - yours". Sometimes the results of both of our accents ended up to be pretty comical. New England isn't known for colorful expressions like we used back home so every once in awhile I found myself staring into the shocked faces of my co-workers when I made statements like "Watch out for the water on the floor. It's slicker than snot on a doorknob."

The Registry

No one could have prepared me for what I'd face when I attempted to secure auto insurance and transfer my car registration and drivers license. In order to do these things I needed to visit the Massachusetts Department of Vehicle Registry, known as The Registry and always spoken with the same tone of voice one would use when talking about death row. I began this ordeal before 9:00 AM, with the 8 year old in tow. The lines extended to the door when I got there and, after edging my way to the clerk, was told I was in the wrong line. This was repeated for each of several steps I needed to accomplish title transfer of my out-of-state car and I began to feel they suspected I had stolen it because I couldn't produce a bill of sale. (In Ohio we didn't need a bill of sale once the car had been titled.) The episode ended at 2 in the afternoon with me in tears and another trip scheduled for the next day because I had to leave for work ending all chances for completing my task. My starving, whining youngster threatened to run away from home if I ever forced him to go back to The Rejust Tree again and I gave serious consideration to joining him.

Another interesting twist to this tale is the method for obtaining license plates for your car. You do this by going to your insurance agent and getting proof of coverage before you go to The Registry---again. They also have the right to send someone to remove the plates from you car if you do not keep up your insurance payments. You don't even want to know what insurance rates are like. When I finally accomplished all I'd set out to do I had spent 2 days and a week's paycheck. Trips to The Registry are to be avoided at all costs in the future.

Finding a Pediatrician and a Doctor

This also proved to be more difficult that I had imagined. The phone book had a huge listing so I picked out a name that sounded good and called. "Sorry, Ma'am. Dr. So-and-so is not taking any new patients at this time." No problem. I wasn't surprised. I knew that name sounded good and I'd been right. He was so good everyone wanted to go to him. Next name on the list. Same results. After 20 more calls I began to see this was not going to be easy. Time was running out and my son had to have an updated medical history in order to be registered for school, which would be starting in a little over a month. Once again my sister-in-law came to the rescue. One of her friends had children and knew a pediatrician who might be taking a new patient because one of her friends' older children was about to switch to an adult practitioner. Gasp! I dialed the phone and pleaded for my son to be taken as the next victim. Success! We had a doctor who would take him but it would be December before we could schedule a physical---unless----he got sick before then. "No problem, lady. He's as good as sick already. How does Friday at 10 sound?" She only laughed and said "I guess we can try to squeeze him in." The following Friday, after 2 hours of squeezing, we left the office with our paper in hand and a sigh of relief that we'd found a wonderful pediatrician in spite of the way it happened. He remained my son's doctor until this year, when he turned 19 and had to find his own adult practitioner.

I used a more scientific method when I chose my own doctor. The ones my sister-in-law knew were not accepting new patients so I picked up the phone book and started at the top. My doctor's last name begins with an A. He's good. I understand most of what he says. I haven't died yet. How lucky can you get?

Traffic and People

Coming from an area where there are more cows and chickens than people, I found living in a bustling, urban area quite a change. The first shock was the long lines everywhere I went. This only happened once a month back home. The first of the month was check day for everyone on Social Security, welfare or retirement. Stores were to be avoided the day the checks came out. The rest of the time there was never a problem getting what you needed and checking out. Not so here. Everyday was like check day. Standing in line for half an hour or more in the grocery store was the norm. Banks weren't much better unless you could go on weekdays and were lucky.

Another thing: People here didn't talk when they stood in line. I'd lived all my life where everyone knew everyone else so standing in line in the store was a social event. You found out all the latest news and caught up on everybody's aches and pains, who'd died, who got married or divorced. You know the scene---kind of like Jerry Springer goes shopping. Not here. No one spoke unless you got in the way or ran over their heel with the shopping cart.

One thing I found amazing was the ethnic mix in the area we settled. My husband took me to a store across town one day and I never heard a word of English the entire time I was there. As we maneuvered up and down the aisles we heard Spanish, Chinese, Russian, Greek, Vietnamese, Italian, Portuguese and other languages whose origin I wasn't sure. I was fascinated with this vast diversity of people but a little saddened also. The only people who spoke were people I couldn't talk with or understand. I envied them and wondered where the art of polite conversation had gone in the New England culture.

Now, something I wasn't prepared for was the traffic. Unless you've driven in the commute traffic in a major coastal city, you have no idea what this experience is like. The first thing I noticed on the freeway was how the breakdown lanes sparkled in sunlight or my headlights. Those sparkles turned out to be pieces of broken headlights, windshields and mirrors from cars that had met an untimely end. The glass eventually gets ground into sand-like particles and finds its way to the edge of the highway to provide a festive atmosphere for the dance of death you witness daily going to and from work. The volume of traffic is incredible. I see more cars in one day going to and from work than I saw in a year back home and I can only imagine what it must be like for the people who work in Boston. The money might be there but they can have it if it means I'd have to make that trip every day. I travel enough of it to have my fill and I stop several miles short of the city. If you would like to see what traffic can be like without risking life and limb, try one of the links to traffic video cams. Live Traffic Video Cams

An interesting side effect of the traffic is road rage. I'll never forget the first time I saw a scarlet face pressed against the side window as the man screamed curses and waved his middle finger at me. I've talked to other women who moved to this area and they were just as shocked when it happened to them. Folks, men don't do this to women in the country even if they aren't driving as fast as you'd like them to. My offense the day I got my first finger of friendship on the highway; I was in the far left lane because the highway split and my destination was toward the left. Traffic was moving about 70 but I guess this man wanted to go 80 and I was blocking his progress. After sending me his best, he roared by me and nearly hit another car when he discovered the highway split and found himself in the wrong lanes. Courtesy on the highway seems to have vanished along with the art of polite conversation.

The Weather

The weather in New England changes in the blink of an eye. Temperatures can and do vary as much as 40 degrees within a 24 hour period and you can never be sure of how to dress when you leave the house. We remembered years by floods in Ohio and New England remembers them by blizzards. We missed one of the most famous one--the Blizzard of "78. I can't say I'm sorry I didn't get to see it. We did get a chance to see what it was like though. On April 1, 1997, we had a real surprise. After an almost snowless, open winter we were hit with a 30 inch snowfall on April Fool's Day. How appropriate it came on that day.

There are a few other weather phenomena that happen New England. One is a tricky little thing called black ice. This type of ice is invisible but deadly and will send you or your car in directions you hadn't planned. Another is ground fog. Even during daylight hours it reduces the visibility to a level that makes Mr. Magoo look like a he's got 20/20 vision. We also have ocean effect snow that hits without warning, endless wind because there are no hills to block the moving air currents and we live in the hurricane zone. So far I've only experienced one direct hurricane, Bob, and one winter hurricane referred to as the December storm with no name.

A curious affect brought about by any forecast of severe weather is the droves of people heading to stores to stock-up on milk, bread and bottled water. Within an hour of the first radio or television announcement of a possible storm, there isn't a store left with these items on their shelves. I'm not exactly sure why this happens and so far no one I've asked has come up with a plausible explanation.

The Good Parts

So far you probably think New England is a terrible place and you'd never want to end up here. That's far from the truth. Massachusetts, especially the Boston area, has more advantages than it has disadvantages. I often wonder if people who live here even realize how much they have available to them. Education and career opportunities are here for the taking and there are no limits to what a person can do if they want it badly enough. Boston has over 90 colleges and more hospitals than some entire states. It also ranks near the top on tourist attractions around the world. There is much to see and do in Boston and that's only the part of what Massachusetts has to offer.

Pictures tell more than words could ever do and there are sites on the Internet that have far more than I could put on this simple page. I've provided links to the things I found interesting.

Photos from the Boston Insider : This list of photos will give you a view of many of the best sites in Boston, from the home of "Cheers" to the Paul Reever's bedroom. Each photo has a link to articles about the picture.

Live Cam in Downtown Crossing : This set of 12 pictures shows the corner of Washington St. and Temple Place in Downtown Crossing, Boston. A new picture is taken every 2 minutes from 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

Live View of Boston (WB56) : A live video cam showing a shot of Boston.

Boston.com's Weather Report : If you need an update on weather conditions in Boston this site will provide all you need.

The Boston Globe : One of Boston's major newspapers.

The Traveler's Life: Boston : One of my favorite sites. The photography is beautiful and the writing style will keep you entertained. The rest of his site is just as good.

Boston Bizarro - Part of Boston-Online's humorous view of Boston. This section deals with the some of the stranger places and facts, featuring disasters, true crimes and things history didn't teach you.

Old Sturbridge Village : You can take a virtual tour of this historic village and learn more about New England and its traditions.

Sports

New Englanders love their sports and support the local teams with enthusiasm. If you doubt their loyalty run a search for websites about any of the teams and you'll turn up dozens of sites created by ardent fans. I'm not an aficionado of any of the NE teams so a link to the official home page is as good as it gets.

Boston Celtics : Official Home Page.	New England Patriots : Official Home Page.
Boston Bruins : Official Home Page.	Boston Red Sox : Official Home Page.

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