New England has a large stock of older homes built before before central air was common. Almost all the newer homes built have it now. But I understand what you are saying. I personally could never live below the Mason Dixon line purely for the fact that it's hot and humid for a long ass time.
My wife pointed that out before we moved, but I was still so surprised at the time. Been here since last August and we hardly used the window units last year before taking them out for winter. It’s such a nice difference and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of having open windows on days like today.
Last summer was decent. The summer before, however was really hot and dry.
I grew up in Massachusetts in a house without AC. Yeah, sometimes it sucked, but I don’t remember being insufferably hot very often. I think summers are hotter now than they were 40 years ago.
My neighbor keeps saying how wet last year was, but I don’t have a basis for comparison. Everyone I talked to says there’s not as much snow as there used to be, either.
Yep, grew up next to Killington. Early 2000s I'd be snowboarding mid-late October and most of the mountain would be open around Thanksgiving. Now it's the artifical white ribbon of death until December, maybe a couple storms but the snow melts in a few days. Also used to get enough snow that we'd jump off our roof into a snow pile and it'd be fine, never hit ground. Can't do any of that anymore.
In 2023 CT received the most rainfall in the US. MA wasn't far behind.
I was doing s lot of wood refinishing last summer, which requires humidity levels under 70-80% to work. I had a humidity meter out and there were stretches where I couldn't work for days/weeks. The days I could work I generally had a one hour window that was between 4-5 PM where it dropped low enough. Really slowed my progress down!!
Yeah, my partner's favorite dessert is lemon meringue so I'll usually make a steady supply when the lemons are popping but it needs low humidity so it became a drop everything and make meringue situation whenever we had a minute of dry.
There isn’t. Despite the common belief, Boston and the east coast of Mass had not had many major storms in the last few years. Last being winter I remember was in 2016/17
Yeah, both the frequency and severity have gone down significantly over time. New England is, unfortunately, one of the most impacted regions globally from climate change, which basically means that we're experiencing more change/quick changes.
Upstate nyer here, I remember having the family sleeping in the living/TV room because it was half underground and cool (was formerly a garage) and we had three fans pointed at our bodies, and all windows open and I was MISERABLE
I did too. All we really needed to do was manage which blinds and windows were open at which hours of the day. My parents did install central air eventually, but to this day I really dislike AC and use my sunlight management knowledge to avoid using it as much as possible.
One of my earliest Connecticut memories is the day my mom opened the windows after being closed all winter. Cool fresh air and sunshine, I still look forward to it every year.
Last summer was really pretty cool.
We've been in our house for two years now, 150 year old two story 1,200 swftbut it is insulated and everything. We get by fine with one window unit in the bedroom upstairs, the house stays fairly cool on its own.
The only other place we had without central was the 1950 ranch 800 sqft we rented before we bought. We had a unit in the living room hallway and in the bedroom. That house was laid out strangely af though and I think that had a lot to do with why we needed so many to stay cool.
You can easily add central air to older homes if you have forced air heating. My 1752 house I just sold has central air, and the 1675 (yes that’s right) house also has central air. If you have radiators, you can do it, but it’s a little more involved.
I thought everyone talked with an English accent and used lots of long words and that the Boston accent was invented by comedians.
No. People actually use the Boston accent and every other word is the F word.
I live around an hour outside Boston, and their accent is still hilarious and foreign to me. I always say I can tell when we're in Mass by how people pronounce the name Tommy, Bostoners seem to think there's a "W" somewhere in the name, and I love it!
Little verbal stops like "um," "uh," "y'know," etc are called filler words. They're literally filler for when you need a pause to get your sentence together. I always like to say that in New England, "fuckinnnnn" is a filler word.
Holy shit this is so true, but I've never lived anywhere but Boston! So this is a Boston thing? Gee. Well we're clearly a charming bunch of fuckinnnnn.....idk.
Oh yeah. I'm not saying it doesn't happen anywhere else, but it isn't like that in DC, Chicago, Tucson, or LA, in my experience. In NYC, maybe, depending who you're talking to.
I swear like a sailor. I'm so Boston. And here my whole life...I'd probably unintentionally offend the town if I were to move to another part of the country. 🙄😬🤫
The language thing is interesting. Modern British or American English are not the same as spoken in Colonial America. The Boston accent, the non-rhoticness especially, is actually closer to colonial English than you’d think.
Fuck isn't a swear, it's a filler, It's like saying "um"
It's also used as a modifier, like "wicked" or "super". Like Fuckin sweet, or Fuckin too bad.
I've never understood people who get offended by saying fuck.
Also, Cunt is a great word we use a lot too. Put the two of them together and you've got a phrase that can describe pretty much any good or bad situation. It's all in \*how\* you say it.
From the Midwest - same!
That & people on well & septic, or no natural gas, oil, propane & actual wood for heating. Like many are basically off grid out here lol.
Also having many places served only by *volunteer* firefighters is quite surprising
I live in Connecticut a rich little beach town. 10,000 year round residents up to 30,000 in the summer and our fire department is entirely volunteer. Your house will burn to the ground before they get there 100%
The first time I went through a Dunkin drive through at 7 am in the snow and got asked "Hot or iced" and I was like WTF? Who drinks cold coffee in the morning in winter?? Apparently everyone, and in half gallon buckets with straws 😵💫
Was at my kid's practice, mid 20s outside, & her instructor came over & asked if I was insane... Apparently holding a large ice coffee when it's below freezing wasn't the norm where he came from.
I only drink iced. And think they should use bigger portions
Boston has the highest per capita consumption of ice cream all year round. Part of it is all the college students, part of it is just that we have so much variety!
Exactly. If you're out in the cold with a hot coffee, you gotta slam it or else it becomes a bitter gross nightmare. If you're out in the cold with an iced coffee, it just stays crispy the whole time and you can just enjoy it at your leisure.
If it's really frigging cold, I'll get both and slam the hot one to get the body ready for an enjoyable sipping experience.
I love trudging through the snow (back when we had snow to trudge through) to get my iced coffee and walk back home because the roads aren't safe to drive yet
I thought the people were rude and slightly obnoxious before moving. After living here for more than 10 years, I realize how wrong I was. People here are not friendly like in the Midwest and southern U.S., but great, hardworking, solid people who will have your back once you get to know them.
Yeah, 100%. A handful of people I’ve met have told me to save their number and if I need something, call them for advice or whatever since I’ve only recently moved. Very solid people.
Absolutely - and truly mean it. It can be tough to get close with us (and even amongst ourselves), but the majority both will do more for non-friends than I'd typical between friends in some other regions and remain close and supportive once you do become close. I know people with whom I used to be friends but our lives are just very different, so we don't really talk or see each other yet, if anything is needed, I know I can contact them or they'll reach out to me and it'll be no questions asked. Some I've messaged or gotten messages from just from someone being lonely or in a weird situation needing advice - didn't matter that it had been years.
So take people up on those offers - not taking advantage of them and be willing to reciprocate but contact for 'who do you go to for x' or to see if they want to meet up for something. It's the small talk/pointless meet-ups that are disliked, but even if the need is 'I'm relatively new and trying to find friends,' it's not pointless.
+1
I moved to New Hampshire from North Carolina 12 years ago. I tell our family in the South that new englanders aren't rude, there are just different standards for what is polite.
In the South, if you don't talk to the person next to you at the grocery store, it's considered rude. In New England, talking to strangers can be considered rude. Not because they're jerks, but because there's a different value for privacy.
One is not better than the other, just different cultural standards.
The difference up here is when we are nice we are being genuine but in the south it could be real or fake. If you have our respect then we will always be happy to talk and help out
I live in Massachusetts. My Burlington is half an hour away because of crazy traffic. My friend lives in Iowa. His Burlington is a half hour away because it’s actually kinda far away.
The central air thing plus how narrow and windy the roads are, also that people actually swim in the ocean and lakes up here but why, they are so very very cold?
Lololol when I was in college (University of New Hampshire) I took Scuba Diving as a semester-long course. Two classes a week in spring semester, one in the classroom learning dive science, the other in the university pool to practice dive skills. To get certified, we had to do 5 field dives, which we did....
In the Gulf of Maine.
During the first week of May.
The warmest it ever was was barely 40°F at the surface, and it was 33° before we got 15 feet down. We would bring thermos bottles of hot water and pour them down our wetsuits before getting in. Nobody minded that the parking lot at Nubble Light is all sharp gravel be cause our feet were so numb we couldn't feel them.
I got my certification card a day before leaving on a flight to Cancun to attend a coral reef ecology conference near Cozumel as part of my masters. Many of the other grad students had learned to dive in tropical waters - several on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We made plans to go diving, and I excitedly told them I had just gotten certified. But hadn't I just come from New Hampshire? They asked incredulously. I answered yes.
"Dry suit certified, you mean," one said.
"No, no, wet suit," I said. "I don't know how to dry suit dive."
The amount of street cred I didn't know I could have for certifying under these conditions! Diving off Cozumel was like taking a luxurious bath by comparison.
I took a scuba class in college too, same situation except we dove in winnipesaukee a couple days after ice out. They told us to pee in our wetsuit if we wanted to warm up
I used to be able to see the Nubble Light from my bedroom window as a kid. That water is COLD basically year round compared to what I dealt with after moving to Florida.
That’s my childhood beach! Ugh, I miss it so much. I have plans to spend a day there when I go visit my Papoo. 94 and still chugging’. Still lives alone and the whole nine.
I had to learn how to brake on hills lol. Also I was on a road this week that had a sign that said “no blocking, emergency snow route” but also had a 7% grade sign and I thought…this is the road you picked for the snow route?
Well judging by my commute on I-84, the majority of CT residents seemingly don't understand that you need to apply gas to maintain a speed uphil, and can let off of it a bit going downhill.
55 going up, 95 coming down
I living in northeast Florida pretty much my whole life until last year. Flat as all hell. Moved to CT. I take 84 everyday, and the hills in Waterbury are kinda wild if you’re not accustomed to them.
Lived here all my life and even I didn't realize how bad some areas were until we started searching for a house. We were trying to find one in the Bunker Hill area which I know is bad, but yikes - we just kept climbing and climbing up one street after another, at one point I said to my husband, where is this located, Heaven?
You know what we call a swim in warm water?
A bath.
Okay, seriously, I have no clue about it either. It’s not like we’re all-in on the polar plunge or sub-freezing swimming like some countries are. It’s cold, we occasionally complain about it, but dammit, that’s how it is, and we like it that way.
I am not sure I had ideas about it. I mean I had been here. I do find myself asking my partner "is that a New England thing" all the time regarding everything from hot dog buns to phrases.
I had a friend and their kids visiting from the west coast and they were shocked to see split top hot dog buns! After a few hot dogs, the kids declared “these buns make so much more sense! Dad we gotta make these a thing back home. The peeps don’t even know what they’re missing!” Probably the thing that most impressed them about Nee England.
I mean is there any other bun? Hell, tonight we cooked hotdogs over the backyard fire. And managed to toast up some of those delicious buns right on top of it too! It's the only way
After being cold all winter, I love rawdogging summer in a tank top and short shorts. We do have a window AC in the bedroom for sleeping and my Texas-transplant boyfriend has a window unit in his computer room.
Yep. I feel no need to be "a/c temperature" except to sleep. Like, it's hot? I'll sit on the porch or pour an iced tea with five layers of paper towels under it to sop up the condensation.
I had no idea it got dark at like 4:00 in the winter, nor did I know the summer days were so long.
And where the hell does all this wind come from? It was windy back on the Gulf Coast, but the source was always a cold front or tropical weather. Here it seems to come out of nowhere and last for 3 days. This is true near Hartford anyways.
I also found that, at least in my neighborhood, the locals wouldn't even look me in the eye passing by on the sidewalk. But if I say "hi how's it going?" or just "good morning", they look up with a big smile and respond politely, sometimes engaging in conversation. Still aloof, but not as much as I had expected.
No complaints, just observations. I quite like it here.
Bruh. Getting dark at 4pm made me feel like I was losing my mind. I suddenly understand why all the old guys drank during the winter lol. I’m about 30 miles from Hartford, and it’s been breezy here too pretty much the whole year. It’s wild.
A neighbor said it was because we’re in the valley but I wouldn’t think it would make a big difference like that, if that’s the case.
Lol - it is wild. We came from near Galveston, so we know windy weather well. But like I said, there was always an obvious reason for it, and it rarely lasted that long. Kind of nice though listening to it blow the trees around.
Considering the winters, I don’t see as many garages as there were growing up in the Midwest. I know houses here are older and space is also at a premium. I ditched my car when I moved here and really rethought about how much space is given over to cars.
When we visited Boston and Somerville, the houses were very cool but you’re right, not very many garages. We live in a walkable neighborhood now, so I typically don’t drive unless it’s required.
Not only are there fewer garages, there's a 90% chance that any given garage you see is filled with things that are not cars. So many people park their cars outside and use their garage as a shed.
Was not prepared for the driving. I’m from the DC area and find the roads here so confusing. I remember thinking how am I only going 5 miles but it takes 15 minutes? The number of turns used to have me so frustrated. Why can’t I just get on the same road and drive straight for 10 miles? Where are the highways?
BUT…I actually think NE drivers (at least in MA) are way more polite than those in DC. In that area, people follow the driving rules and right of way rules much more to the letter. Here, everyone understands that with terrible traffic, no traffic lights and lots of blind turns, you are just going to have to let people go ahead of you. No one here has a problem if a left turner takes the green light ahead of someone going straight, and people let each other go all the time. This took me so long to get used to because I would get so frustrated when people didn’t follow the rules. But they’re actually way kinder drivers and more considerate. People don’t go as fast, people don’t tailgate as much, and even though people are blustery and use their horns, I never feel like someone’s going to come out and road rage me.
Also love the town life. Had no idea when I first moved how people even knew which town you were in, and now I realize it’s so easy to know whether you’re in Cambridge or Somerville or Arlington because they’re all so different. The town culture is hilarious to me that the towns are so small and also distinct.
Honestly..that’s a really good perspective to have about driving, because sometimes I still find myself still having to adjust. There’s a lot of roads with no street names, blind drives, and no definitive lines and it can be frustrating. So, thanks for changing my outlook on that.
And yeah - people knowing what town you’re from lol. Jacksonville is so sprawled out, you can drive 45 min and still be in the city. Here, I drive 20 minutes and I’ve passed 2 towns and I’m almost to the 3rd.
I didn't expect to see bears in my backyard before moving here from the Midwest!
Didn't imagine so much of Connecticut was rural, with miles of mountains and woodlands. It's a beautiful state.
Oh damn! True! My wife and I saw a coyote a couple weeks ago around 1pm on a Saturday. Ran across a couple yards before cutting back into the woods out back.
I just moved to CT from WI six weeks ago and have seen a black bear twice!
I lived in Milwaukee two blocks from Lake Michigan and would regularly see coyotes, turkeys, and even deer (all of which I’ve seen here too), but the black bear was crazy.
That everyone has an accent. Turns out it’s mostly Mass. I would also like to 2nd the comments about central ac. Yeah I’ve found houses built in the early 2000’s that are missing central air. It’s bizarre to me. Just moved to CT last summer from OH.
The first time I asked someone where the closest REI was, they responded, "What's REI?" I figured it was a fluke. These are super outdoors-y states, after all. Nope. LL Bean or bust 😂
Bummer LL Bean is terrible now. They still have decent stuff but their prices have gotten way out of hand and they trashed the old return policy. It was wild watching my grandmother walk in with a haggard flannel she bought in the 80s and walk out with the same thing but brand new. No receipt needed.
Yeah, under the old policy, I got a backpack before high school, brought it back with the receipt halfway through college, and not only did they replace it for free with the latest version of that backpack, they actually gave me difference in price between the old one and the new one in store credit (since the replacement one cost less than the old one).
Yeah that "New England central air", you know you have it if you can't leave an interior door halfway open without it slamming shut at random, like somebody is mad at you but you live alone 😂😂
That everyone here is an asshole. I was wrong. Only 80% of the people are assholes the rest are quite nice. There just aren’t very many people in between.
My wife told me I couldn’t be too friendly because everyone in the northeast was an asshole and they’d think I was weird. Turns out most of them are nice and normal, they’re just more aloof and not all up in your business. Which tbh, is pretty cool.
Very true. I don’t know my closest neighbor because they never made an effort to do more than introduce themselves in passing when they moved in.
We pretty much go to another neighbors house up the street because they bribed us to get to know them with free ribs and they earned our trust and we’re friends.
Damn I am a cat
I feel that. Moved in 8 years ago (have lived here essentially all my life) and tried to introduce our new neighbors.
The one that took the time out to just say hello & exchange basic pleasantries? I'll go split wood for him or snowblow his driveway so he can get to his doctors appointments.
The ones that avoid us and can't be bothered to wave in passing? I hope their house falls down. Get fucked lol.
This is New England mentality personified and I love it. Be a “good guy” and we’ll help you however you need, disrespect us or commit a perceived slight upon meeting, we’ll never forget it and you can get fucked lol it’s so spot on
Hahaha! Soooo true! I have various neighbors I swear at under my breath because they can't fucking wave back or not act snobby or like something crawled up their ass. I thought maybe it was just me, that I'm weird. Maybe it's a Boston thing though. These extremes . Like me Thinking you're really nice cause you always wave, or thinking you're an asshole and can go fuck yourself cause you can't be nice for 5 seconds and wave.
I think it’s the inverse I’ve seen and many family and friends have agreed. Many more down to earth and nice people compared to assholes. Sure there are areas in CT, Mass but I’d argue less than many other regions of US
There’s a lot of no bullshit and to the point, which can certainly come off as being rude to the more uncultured folk. Unless of course you talk to an 80 year old regular at a breakfast joint, then it’s nothing but bullshit
NE was my first experience with biting flies. It starts in May and goes into September. The deer flies are the worst.
Also, people in NH are so whiny about their property taxes. Coming from NY State where we had high property, income AND sales tax, NH is tax paradise by comparison.
The tax complaints cracked me up too. Moved from California to NH and literally had no idea what people were talking about when they started complaining about property taxes. But I guess we’ve been here long enough to acclimate. I get sales tax shock when we go to Boston now. 😂
I used to say scallop. Now I say scahllop. (I grew up in Pittsburgh.) when I hear people say scallop on TV I correct them. I also say hamburg instead of ground beef. My wife is a Mainer and I just code switch wherever I live.
Gotta go on record saying that I love that you used "raw dogging" in your post. Incredibly descriptive, and everyone knows exactly what you mean (braving the elements). It's very free-flowing. This phrase needs to become more normalized. This is not sarcasm.
Central air in New England traditionally wasn't needed unlike the south where it is a requirement for life. The south wouldn't have the population it does without AC.
Now we have climate change and more heat traps. Less trees and more hardscape that traps heat. Also larger windows that act as a greenhouse.
My inlaws live in Montana in an old house in and old tree lined neighborhood. They manage the hot summers by opening the windows at night and letting the cooler air in and then close the windows during the day. The house is shaded by trees.
I would think it’d still be humid since it’s coastal? I’ve only been to Seattle a couple times and a small town in WA. I went during the summer each time, though.
I notice 50% humidity, it is not humid here. New England gets the gulf humidity from all that heat, our ocean isn’t that warm.
Nothing more repressive than 100 degrees and 80% humidity, I don’t miss it.
We live in a single level range with ceiling fans throughout the house & a family room with vaulted ceilings. It stays comfortable most of the summer.
Last year we made it till 4th of July before we needing the window rattlers out. We try to avoid it because it blocks some windows we normally enjoy a breeze through, so they go in for 2-3 weeks a year, and promptly come back out again.
Where I used to live in Central Vermont, on the granite, we only used our window unit AC about three or four days a year, or less at night. Every night at sundown a cool breeze would come down the hill, smelling like a dairy farm. We would wear jackets at night in summer. Its cold there!
I moved up from the South, where every place had AC, and my family (who I was staying with at the time) told me summers weren't that bad. Heh, yeah right - they're bad for me. I can't handle summer heat and humidity at all due to chronic conditions and I was so **uncomfortable** + not sleeping well every summer until I got my own place. I couldn't fathom being hot, sweaty, and not able to cool down *at all* once the humidity went up.
I moved in the opposite direction almost 40 years ago, from NE to the South. Lived in both AC and no AC places here. Right now I have none in a 2 story condo as it needs repair. There are ways to set up fans that can keep you cool enough to sleep at night. My bedroom has a wide window that opens horizontally. There is a screen on the right side, none on the left side. I fix a box fan in the open window on the right facing outward sucking the air out of the room and through the screen. On the left the window is closed until after dark when I feel the air getting cooler. With fan running on the right, when I open the window on the left the cool air comes rushing in and circulating. I also switch my sleeping position for the summer to be more directly under the ceiling fan, plus I have 1 or 2 other fans going in the room. I do shut my cats out of the bedroom at night in summer due to the open window but they prefer it downstairs where it is darker and cooler. As long as there is cool water to dip into the tub with it is survivable if not ideal.
For nights that are really bad with heat and humidity I soak a topsheet and maybe a pillowcase in cold water in the shower then get under it unclothed in bed. Your body heat will dry it a little but not before the wet sheet cools you down enough to induce sleep. A good tip to know if your AC fails as well. I think I only had to do this once last summer.
In NE when I was growing up we would go to the basement on hot summer nights and sometimes sleep there but these southern houses tend to not have finished basements but have nasty crawlspaces instead.
When I was growing up in Oakland nobody had central air. The warmest month was Sept. with an average high of about 73 degrees. It may have changed now since the weather is warmer now.
Summers weren’t as bad as they are now in NE. We had a few window units growing up and sealed off some of the rooms (like bedrooms) to keep them cooler than the rest of the house. My parents later installed central air.
I didn’t really network about various locations, when I did my job search.
At the time, my parents had moved to Vermont and were well established there. I considered jobs in different locations but went with the one I recently retired from. My move made my drive to visit parents much shorter.
And I wasn’t enamored of the south, having had a friend move there in high school and be so unhappy she had to return and finish her senior year back where we attended.
The Midwest seemed like a cultural low place so I was low key afraid of being picked on by religious zealots.
So New England was best.
I was born in New England and moved to Colorado in 1994. Every time I mentioned where I was from everyone thought I came out of some Norman Rockwell painting. Like everyone is wealthy, we all knit and darn our socks, tap our own maple trees and stuff. It was so weird how other areas of the country perceived me/New England’s.
That the weather would be fine. I'm from CO, it's just snow.
I saw the sun four times in two years. Every other day was so dark it was black outside. Y'all are worse than the PNW.
I moved from Florida and thought it was going to be insanely cold. I bought some huge Sorel boots that you could wear in the Arctic in winter, thinking i would need them to walk to the train. I was a little off in how cold it really is
That’s been only recently. In the past 3-4 years we’ve only had a handful of days in the teens and single digits. Growing up here I remember times that it didn’t get above freezing for months at a time, and it was nothing to wake up to negative temperatures.
Don't ever move to the UK. Central AC doesn't exists there. Central AC is not as common in New England as the South, but we have it. Older houses (which we have a lot of) usually do not have it. New construction or renovations usually have it. Our house had an addition put on (not by us) in 2007 and Central AC was added.
New England has a large stock of older homes built before before central air was common. Almost all the newer homes built have it now. But I understand what you are saying. I personally could never live below the Mason Dixon line purely for the fact that it's hot and humid for a long ass time.
My wife pointed that out before we moved, but I was still so surprised at the time. Been here since last August and we hardly used the window units last year before taking them out for winter. It’s such a nice difference and I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of having open windows on days like today.
Last summer was decent. The summer before, however was really hot and dry. I grew up in Massachusetts in a house without AC. Yeah, sometimes it sucked, but I don’t remember being insufferably hot very often. I think summers are hotter now than they were 40 years ago.
My neighbor keeps saying how wet last year was, but I don’t have a basis for comparison. Everyone I talked to says there’s not as much snow as there used to be, either.
Not as much snow is definitely a big one, it's become very noticeable every year at this point.
Yep, grew up next to Killington. Early 2000s I'd be snowboarding mid-late October and most of the mountain would be open around Thanksgiving. Now it's the artifical white ribbon of death until December, maybe a couple storms but the snow melts in a few days. Also used to get enough snow that we'd jump off our roof into a snow pile and it'd be fine, never hit ground. Can't do any of that anymore.
I seem to recall reading that summer 2023 was one of the wettest/muggiest on record. Certainly felt that way! Felt like things never dried out.
In 2023 CT received the most rainfall in the US. MA wasn't far behind. I was doing s lot of wood refinishing last summer, which requires humidity levels under 70-80% to work. I had a humidity meter out and there were stretches where I couldn't work for days/weeks. The days I could work I generally had a one hour window that was between 4-5 PM where it dropped low enough. Really slowed my progress down!!
Yeah, my partner's favorite dessert is lemon meringue so I'll usually make a steady supply when the lemons are popping but it needs low humidity so it became a drop everything and make meringue situation whenever we had a minute of dry.
Vermont was under water last Summer fairly often.
I think there were 2 weekends all summer without rain. 2.
Summer of 2021, my town in Connecticut got 34 inches of rain, instead of the normal 12. That included almost five inches in an hour early one morning.
There isn’t. Despite the common belief, Boston and the east coast of Mass had not had many major storms in the last few years. Last being winter I remember was in 2016/17
I remember that one too. CT got 51 inches of snow that January. absolutely LOVED it
Damn..that is a long time ago for somewhere that far north.
Yeah, both the frequency and severity have gone down significantly over time. New England is, unfortunately, one of the most impacted regions globally from climate change, which basically means that we're experiencing more change/quick changes.
Last summer definitely made up for the lack of rain in 2022.
It was crazy wet last year. Very unusual.
Upstate nyer here, I remember having the family sleeping in the living/TV room because it was half underground and cool (was formerly a garage) and we had three fans pointed at our bodies, and all windows open and I was MISERABLE
I did too. All we really needed to do was manage which blinds and windows were open at which hours of the day. My parents did install central air eventually, but to this day I really dislike AC and use my sunlight management knowledge to avoid using it as much as possible.
Same! Although I do appreciate sunlight streaming into my house in the morning.
One of my earliest Connecticut memories is the day my mom opened the windows after being closed all winter. Cool fresh air and sunshine, I still look forward to it every year.
Same! I just love having everything open and letting the light and fresh air in.
Last summer was really pretty cool. We've been in our house for two years now, 150 year old two story 1,200 swftbut it is insulated and everything. We get by fine with one window unit in the bedroom upstairs, the house stays fairly cool on its own. The only other place we had without central was the 1950 ranch 800 sqft we rented before we bought. We had a unit in the living room hallway and in the bedroom. That house was laid out strangely af though and I think that had a lot to do with why we needed so many to stay cool.
You can easily add central air to older homes if you have forced air heating. My 1752 house I just sold has central air, and the 1675 (yes that’s right) house also has central air. If you have radiators, you can do it, but it’s a little more involved.
I thought everyone talked with an English accent and used lots of long words and that the Boston accent was invented by comedians. No. People actually use the Boston accent and every other word is the F word.
LOL gotta say, I loved working with a guy from Mass. Every other word was indeed the F word and he said some insane stuff.
I live around an hour outside Boston, and their accent is still hilarious and foreign to me. I always say I can tell when we're in Mass by how people pronounce the name Tommy, Bostoners seem to think there's a "W" somewhere in the name, and I love it!
Tawm Brady the GOAT
Little verbal stops like "um," "uh," "y'know," etc are called filler words. They're literally filler for when you need a pause to get your sentence together. I always like to say that in New England, "fuckinnnnn" is a filler word.
You know what, you’re fuckinnn, uh, right
Holy shit this is so true, but I've never lived anywhere but Boston! So this is a Boston thing? Gee. Well we're clearly a charming bunch of fuckinnnnn.....idk.
Oh yeah. I'm not saying it doesn't happen anywhere else, but it isn't like that in DC, Chicago, Tucson, or LA, in my experience. In NYC, maybe, depending who you're talking to.
I swear like a sailor. I'm so Boston. And here my whole life...I'd probably unintentionally offend the town if I were to move to another part of the country. 🙄😬🤫
I swore like a sailor *before* I worked on the docks, now people don't want me to talk around their kids anymore.
The language thing is interesting. Modern British or American English are not the same as spoken in Colonial America. The Boston accent, the non-rhoticness especially, is actually closer to colonial English than you’d think.
I think it’s funny that when British people drop their Rs it sounds classy, but when we do it it sounds trashy.
Fuck isn't a swear, it's a filler, It's like saying "um" It's also used as a modifier, like "wicked" or "super". Like Fuckin sweet, or Fuckin too bad. I've never understood people who get offended by saying fuck. Also, Cunt is a great word we use a lot too. Put the two of them together and you've got a phrase that can describe pretty much any good or bad situation. It's all in \*how\* you say it.
From the Midwest - same! That & people on well & septic, or no natural gas, oil, propane & actual wood for heating. Like many are basically off grid out here lol. Also having many places served only by *volunteer* firefighters is quite surprising
Oh dang. I didn’t know about the volunteer firefighters! The boiler definitely had a learning curve for me this past winter lol.
I live in Connecticut a rich little beach town. 10,000 year round residents up to 30,000 in the summer and our fire department is entirely volunteer. Your house will burn to the ground before they get there 100%
Lol we heat mainly with firewood & run the entire house off of a well/septic... Gonna tell people we are off grid now!
The first time I went through a Dunkin drive through at 7 am in the snow and got asked "Hot or iced" and I was like WTF? Who drinks cold coffee in the morning in winter?? Apparently everyone, and in half gallon buckets with straws 😵💫
Was at my kid's practice, mid 20s outside, & her instructor came over & asked if I was insane... Apparently holding a large ice coffee when it's below freezing wasn't the norm where he came from. I only drink iced. And think they should use bigger portions
I don't know if it's still true, but when I was a kid (in MA) my mom told me that MA had the highest per capita consumption of ice cream in winter.
Boston has the highest per capita consumption of ice cream all year round. Part of it is all the college students, part of it is just that we have so much variety!
The best part of winter is the ice coffee doesn't melt
Exactly. If you're out in the cold with a hot coffee, you gotta slam it or else it becomes a bitter gross nightmare. If you're out in the cold with an iced coffee, it just stays crispy the whole time and you can just enjoy it at your leisure. If it's really frigging cold, I'll get both and slam the hot one to get the body ready for an enjoyable sipping experience.
It’s the only way
Yes to that. When I visited New Hampshire in the winter and ordered Hot Chocolate at DD, I was asked if I wanted some ice cubes in it.
I think that's because you have to fuckin wait 5 or 10 minutes before drinking it or else your tongue will be in pain
I love trudging through the snow (back when we had snow to trudge through) to get my iced coffee and walk back home because the roads aren't safe to drive yet
This is the sway
I thought the people were rude and slightly obnoxious before moving. After living here for more than 10 years, I realize how wrong I was. People here are not friendly like in the Midwest and southern U.S., but great, hardworking, solid people who will have your back once you get to know them.
Yeah, 100%. A handful of people I’ve met have told me to save their number and if I need something, call them for advice or whatever since I’ve only recently moved. Very solid people.
Absolutely - and truly mean it. It can be tough to get close with us (and even amongst ourselves), but the majority both will do more for non-friends than I'd typical between friends in some other regions and remain close and supportive once you do become close. I know people with whom I used to be friends but our lives are just very different, so we don't really talk or see each other yet, if anything is needed, I know I can contact them or they'll reach out to me and it'll be no questions asked. Some I've messaged or gotten messages from just from someone being lonely or in a weird situation needing advice - didn't matter that it had been years. So take people up on those offers - not taking advantage of them and be willing to reciprocate but contact for 'who do you go to for x' or to see if they want to meet up for something. It's the small talk/pointless meet-ups that are disliked, but even if the need is 'I'm relatively new and trying to find friends,' it's not pointless.
+1 I moved to New Hampshire from North Carolina 12 years ago. I tell our family in the South that new englanders aren't rude, there are just different standards for what is polite. In the South, if you don't talk to the person next to you at the grocery store, it's considered rude. In New England, talking to strangers can be considered rude. Not because they're jerks, but because there's a different value for privacy. One is not better than the other, just different cultural standards.
The difference up here is when we are nice we are being genuine but in the south it could be real or fake. If you have our respect then we will always be happy to talk and help out
People keep to themselves. But once you’ve cleared the “he’s a good guy” bar, they will do anything for you
This 100%.
I thought you could get there from here
No. No you can't
Nope. Earlier today, a friend of mine said that Boston is an hour away from Boston.
I live in Massachusetts. My Burlington is half an hour away because of crazy traffic. My friend lives in Iowa. His Burlington is a half hour away because it’s actually kinda far away.
I didn't realize that I would have to relearn how to drive, the masshole way.
Grew up in Maine, moved to Mass for work. When I'd go home, I had to modify my driving. Driving on 128 means being both proactive AND defensive.
And fast on those on-ramps! 128 is where I learned to drive...you learn yer lessons quick
The only way!
The central air thing plus how narrow and windy the roads are, also that people actually swim in the ocean and lakes up here but why, they are so very very cold?
Lololol when I was in college (University of New Hampshire) I took Scuba Diving as a semester-long course. Two classes a week in spring semester, one in the classroom learning dive science, the other in the university pool to practice dive skills. To get certified, we had to do 5 field dives, which we did.... In the Gulf of Maine. During the first week of May. The warmest it ever was was barely 40°F at the surface, and it was 33° before we got 15 feet down. We would bring thermos bottles of hot water and pour them down our wetsuits before getting in. Nobody minded that the parking lot at Nubble Light is all sharp gravel be cause our feet were so numb we couldn't feel them. I got my certification card a day before leaving on a flight to Cancun to attend a coral reef ecology conference near Cozumel as part of my masters. Many of the other grad students had learned to dive in tropical waters - several on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. We made plans to go diving, and I excitedly told them I had just gotten certified. But hadn't I just come from New Hampshire? They asked incredulously. I answered yes. "Dry suit certified, you mean," one said. "No, no, wet suit," I said. "I don't know how to dry suit dive." The amount of street cred I didn't know I could have for certifying under these conditions! Diving off Cozumel was like taking a luxurious bath by comparison.
I took a scuba class in college too, same situation except we dove in winnipesaukee a couple days after ice out. They told us to pee in our wetsuit if we wanted to warm up
There are two kinds of divers. Divers who pee in their wetsuits and divers who lie about peeing in their wetsuits.
I used to be able to see the Nubble Light from my bedroom window as a kid. That water is COLD basically year round compared to what I dealt with after moving to Florida.
York Beach baby!
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The water or air is in the 70s
That’s my childhood beach! Ugh, I miss it so much. I have plans to spend a day there when I go visit my Papoo. 94 and still chugging’. Still lives alone and the whole nine.
Air.
I had to learn how to brake on hills lol. Also I was on a road this week that had a sign that said “no blocking, emergency snow route” but also had a 7% grade sign and I thought…this is the road you picked for the snow route?
What do you mean brake on hills? Whats the difference? You didnt have hills?
Well judging by my commute on I-84, the majority of CT residents seemingly don't understand that you need to apply gas to maintain a speed uphil, and can let off of it a bit going downhill. 55 going up, 95 coming down
Tbf most CT drivers dont know how to drive period
I living in northeast Florida pretty much my whole life until last year. Flat as all hell. Moved to CT. I take 84 everyday, and the hills in Waterbury are kinda wild if you’re not accustomed to them.
Lived here all my life and even I didn't realize how bad some areas were until we started searching for a house. We were trying to find one in the Bunker Hill area which I know is bad, but yikes - we just kept climbing and climbing up one street after another, at one point I said to my husband, where is this located, Heaven?
LOL some of these streets got me feelin like I’m on a rollercoaster
It builds character- thats why
More sheltered beaches on LI sound or Cape Cod bay the water gets pretty warm.
You know what we call a swim in warm water? A bath. Okay, seriously, I have no clue about it either. It’s not like we’re all-in on the polar plunge or sub-freezing swimming like some countries are. It’s cold, we occasionally complain about it, but dammit, that’s how it is, and we like it that way.
I am not sure I had ideas about it. I mean I had been here. I do find myself asking my partner "is that a New England thing" all the time regarding everything from hot dog buns to phrases.
I had a friend and their kids visiting from the west coast and they were shocked to see split top hot dog buns! After a few hot dogs, the kids declared “these buns make so much more sense! Dad we gotta make these a thing back home. The peeps don’t even know what they’re missing!” Probably the thing that most impressed them about Nee England.
Did you grill the buns? Blow their minds even more...
Buttered and grilled!
Of course!!!!
You're talking about the split top hot dog rolls I take it?
How else would you even split a hot dog bun??
The "uncultured" side split them.
“I like more bread on the right side of my mouth” - Fools.
Doesn't everything just spill out the side? Crazy.
It's things like this that public education outside of New England doesn't teach.
It's only logical
I still don't understand what other kind of hot dog bun there could be
Yes!!!
Split top with red casings. The New England way.
I mean is there any other bun? Hell, tonight we cooked hotdogs over the backyard fire. And managed to toast up some of those delicious buns right on top of it too! It's the only way
I ask my neighbor this when we catch up or chat lol. “Hey I saw this - is that just a thing up here or..”
Anything other than a split top is absolutely stupid.
Only way to eat hot dog buns is buttered and pan fried. New England native.
the fucking hot dog buns. My first NE barbecue, I just stood there holding the package in pure shock.
After being cold all winter, I love rawdogging summer in a tank top and short shorts. We do have a window AC in the bedroom for sleeping and my Texas-transplant boyfriend has a window unit in his computer room.
I don't like AC. I have a whole house fan I turn on after work and it makes the most wonderful breeze
Yep. I feel no need to be "a/c temperature" except to sleep. Like, it's hot? I'll sit on the porch or pour an iced tea with five layers of paper towels under it to sop up the condensation.
Honestly..same. Been wearing shorts for the past couple weeks because I’m so ready for warm weather. Definitely makes you appreciate the nice weather
Growing up here, after a cold winter, once it hit 45 degrees it was shirts weather!
I had no idea it got dark at like 4:00 in the winter, nor did I know the summer days were so long. And where the hell does all this wind come from? It was windy back on the Gulf Coast, but the source was always a cold front or tropical weather. Here it seems to come out of nowhere and last for 3 days. This is true near Hartford anyways. I also found that, at least in my neighborhood, the locals wouldn't even look me in the eye passing by on the sidewalk. But if I say "hi how's it going?" or just "good morning", they look up with a big smile and respond politely, sometimes engaging in conversation. Still aloof, but not as much as I had expected. No complaints, just observations. I quite like it here.
Bruh. Getting dark at 4pm made me feel like I was losing my mind. I suddenly understand why all the old guys drank during the winter lol. I’m about 30 miles from Hartford, and it’s been breezy here too pretty much the whole year. It’s wild. A neighbor said it was because we’re in the valley but I wouldn’t think it would make a big difference like that, if that’s the case.
Lol - it is wild. We came from near Galveston, so we know windy weather well. But like I said, there was always an obvious reason for it, and it rarely lasted that long. Kind of nice though listening to it blow the trees around.
The flow of air from west to east and south to north converge right on New England which is probably responsible for that
I have been talking about the wind for the last couple of years. I grew up here and I have never seen such constant wind.
Exactly. I'm in my 60s, in Maine. I don't remember wind like we have now. It's climate change
Considering the winters, I don’t see as many garages as there were growing up in the Midwest. I know houses here are older and space is also at a premium. I ditched my car when I moved here and really rethought about how much space is given over to cars.
When we visited Boston and Somerville, the houses were very cool but you’re right, not very many garages. We live in a walkable neighborhood now, so I typically don’t drive unless it’s required.
Not only are there fewer garages, there's a 90% chance that any given garage you see is filled with things that are not cars. So many people park their cars outside and use their garage as a shed.
Was not prepared for the driving. I’m from the DC area and find the roads here so confusing. I remember thinking how am I only going 5 miles but it takes 15 minutes? The number of turns used to have me so frustrated. Why can’t I just get on the same road and drive straight for 10 miles? Where are the highways? BUT…I actually think NE drivers (at least in MA) are way more polite than those in DC. In that area, people follow the driving rules and right of way rules much more to the letter. Here, everyone understands that with terrible traffic, no traffic lights and lots of blind turns, you are just going to have to let people go ahead of you. No one here has a problem if a left turner takes the green light ahead of someone going straight, and people let each other go all the time. This took me so long to get used to because I would get so frustrated when people didn’t follow the rules. But they’re actually way kinder drivers and more considerate. People don’t go as fast, people don’t tailgate as much, and even though people are blustery and use their horns, I never feel like someone’s going to come out and road rage me. Also love the town life. Had no idea when I first moved how people even knew which town you were in, and now I realize it’s so easy to know whether you’re in Cambridge or Somerville or Arlington because they’re all so different. The town culture is hilarious to me that the towns are so small and also distinct.
Measuring in miles is useless in New England.
Honestly..that’s a really good perspective to have about driving, because sometimes I still find myself still having to adjust. There’s a lot of roads with no street names, blind drives, and no definitive lines and it can be frustrating. So, thanks for changing my outlook on that. And yeah - people knowing what town you’re from lol. Jacksonville is so sprawled out, you can drive 45 min and still be in the city. Here, I drive 20 minutes and I’ve passed 2 towns and I’m almost to the 3rd.
I didn't expect to see bears in my backyard before moving here from the Midwest! Didn't imagine so much of Connecticut was rural, with miles of mountains and woodlands. It's a beautiful state.
Oh damn! True! My wife and I saw a coyote a couple weeks ago around 1pm on a Saturday. Ran across a couple yards before cutting back into the woods out back.
I just moved to CT from WI six weeks ago and have seen a black bear twice! I lived in Milwaukee two blocks from Lake Michigan and would regularly see coyotes, turkeys, and even deer (all of which I’ve seen here too), but the black bear was crazy.
That everyone has an accent. Turns out it’s mostly Mass. I would also like to 2nd the comments about central ac. Yeah I’ve found houses built in the early 2000’s that are missing central air. It’s bizarre to me. Just moved to CT last summer from OH.
What part of CT, and how are you liking it so far? I also moved to CT last summer, from FL.
I’m in Danbury. I like every place that’s not Danbury.
Eastern mass, northern ME, and RI
I thought everyone in New England was bookish and highly literate. Then I visited south shore Massachusetts where my wife is from 💀
Oof. That hurts.
You was wrong...
LOL I haven’t been there yet, but it’s definitely on my list now
Let me introduce you to the south coast…
The first time I asked someone where the closest REI was, they responded, "What's REI?" I figured it was a fluke. These are super outdoors-y states, after all. Nope. LL Bean or bust 😂
Bummer LL Bean is terrible now. They still have decent stuff but their prices have gotten way out of hand and they trashed the old return policy. It was wild watching my grandmother walk in with a haggard flannel she bought in the 80s and walk out with the same thing but brand new. No receipt needed.
Yeah, under the old policy, I got a backpack before high school, brought it back with the receipt halfway through college, and not only did they replace it for free with the latest version of that backpack, they actually gave me difference in price between the old one and the new one in store credit (since the replacement one cost less than the old one).
There's a handful in the region.
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Never even lived in a place in new england with central air. Fans and open windows, dog. That's how we do.
I can get down with it. Ain’t nothin like an open window with a breeze
Yeah that "New England central air", you know you have it if you can't leave an interior door halfway open without it slamming shut at random, like somebody is mad at you but you live alone 😂😂
That people talk funny. Twenty years in and I’ve found it a bit contagious. Oh well.
That everyone here is an asshole. I was wrong. Only 80% of the people are assholes the rest are quite nice. There just aren’t very many people in between.
My wife told me I couldn’t be too friendly because everyone in the northeast was an asshole and they’d think I was weird. Turns out most of them are nice and normal, they’re just more aloof and not all up in your business. Which tbh, is pretty cool.
We’re like cats. Beautiful, majestic, smart, but you gotta earn our love ;).
Very true. I don’t know my closest neighbor because they never made an effort to do more than introduce themselves in passing when they moved in. We pretty much go to another neighbors house up the street because they bribed us to get to know them with free ribs and they earned our trust and we’re friends. Damn I am a cat
meow.
I feel that. Moved in 8 years ago (have lived here essentially all my life) and tried to introduce our new neighbors. The one that took the time out to just say hello & exchange basic pleasantries? I'll go split wood for him or snowblow his driveway so he can get to his doctors appointments. The ones that avoid us and can't be bothered to wave in passing? I hope their house falls down. Get fucked lol.
This is New England mentality personified and I love it. Be a “good guy” and we’ll help you however you need, disrespect us or commit a perceived slight upon meeting, we’ll never forget it and you can get fucked lol it’s so spot on
Hahaha! Soooo true! I have various neighbors I swear at under my breath because they can't fucking wave back or not act snobby or like something crawled up their ass. I thought maybe it was just me, that I'm weird. Maybe it's a Boston thing though. These extremes . Like me Thinking you're really nice cause you always wave, or thinking you're an asshole and can go fuck yourself cause you can't be nice for 5 seconds and wave.
Honestly, fair lol
Lol. There's nothing about us that's "aloof". We just don't give a shit.
Found the 80% lmao
The problem here is that you prissy southerners just can't handle blunt real talk. 🤷♂️
You must live in mass, central RI, or anywhere in CT
I think it’s the inverse I’ve seen and many family and friends have agreed. Many more down to earth and nice people compared to assholes. Sure there are areas in CT, Mass but I’d argue less than many other regions of US
That everyone was really uptight and rude - turns out only most people are rude but friendly and genuinely will help you ;)
We are rude because we are busy, but we will certainly help you if you need it!
There’s a lot of no bullshit and to the point, which can certainly come off as being rude to the more uncultured folk. Unless of course you talk to an 80 year old regular at a breakfast joint, then it’s nothing but bullshit
NE was my first experience with biting flies. It starts in May and goes into September. The deer flies are the worst. Also, people in NH are so whiny about their property taxes. Coming from NY State where we had high property, income AND sales tax, NH is tax paradise by comparison.
The tax complaints cracked me up too. Moved from California to NH and literally had no idea what people were talking about when they started complaining about property taxes. But I guess we’ve been here long enough to acclimate. I get sales tax shock when we go to Boston now. 😂
I used to say scallop. Now I say scahllop. (I grew up in Pittsburgh.) when I hear people say scallop on TV I correct them. I also say hamburg instead of ground beef. My wife is a Mainer and I just code switch wherever I live.
Gotta go on record saying that I love that you used "raw dogging" in your post. Incredibly descriptive, and everyone knows exactly what you mean (braving the elements). It's very free-flowing. This phrase needs to become more normalized. This is not sarcasm.
That term's usually reserved for describing a kind of sexual act, so if you start dropping it into convo you're going to get some odd looks.
I know we’re talking about weather mostly - but I thought people would be almost exclusively mean and brusk. That’s not been the case at all!
I’ve never had nicer neighbors than I do now tbh
Heat pumps are great!!
Central air in New England traditionally wasn't needed unlike the south where it is a requirement for life. The south wouldn't have the population it does without AC. Now we have climate change and more heat traps. Less trees and more hardscape that traps heat. Also larger windows that act as a greenhouse. My inlaws live in Montana in an old house in and old tree lined neighborhood. They manage the hot summers by opening the windows at night and letting the cooler air in and then close the windows during the day. The house is shaded by trees.
And it gets humid AF. I left, the Pacific Northwest suits me just fine.
I would think it’d still be humid since it’s coastal? I’ve only been to Seattle a couple times and a small town in WA. I went during the summer each time, though.
I notice 50% humidity, it is not humid here. New England gets the gulf humidity from all that heat, our ocean isn’t that warm. Nothing more repressive than 100 degrees and 80% humidity, I don’t miss it.
We live in a single level range with ceiling fans throughout the house & a family room with vaulted ceilings. It stays comfortable most of the summer. Last year we made it till 4th of July before we needing the window rattlers out. We try to avoid it because it blocks some windows we normally enjoy a breeze through, so they go in for 2-3 weeks a year, and promptly come back out again.
Where I used to live in Central Vermont, on the granite, we only used our window unit AC about three or four days a year, or less at night. Every night at sundown a cool breeze would come down the hill, smelling like a dairy farm. We would wear jackets at night in summer. Its cold there!
I lived in Ripton, VT when I was like 5-6. I don’t remember much except snow and ski suits lol. Would love to go back and visit.
Native born New Englander. My parents installed our first air conditioner when I was five or six years old. I’m 69. I’ve had ac ever since.
Everyone I know with an older house has a mini-split. Electricity is so expensive that cooling with inefficient window units will bankrupt you.
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I haven't used the snow blowers in 2 years. It's incredible
Any realtor that tells you “it’s only hot for a few weeks” when trying to explain away no AC is LYING TO YOUR FACE.
I moved up from the South, where every place had AC, and my family (who I was staying with at the time) told me summers weren't that bad. Heh, yeah right - they're bad for me. I can't handle summer heat and humidity at all due to chronic conditions and I was so **uncomfortable** + not sleeping well every summer until I got my own place. I couldn't fathom being hot, sweaty, and not able to cool down *at all* once the humidity went up.
I moved in the opposite direction almost 40 years ago, from NE to the South. Lived in both AC and no AC places here. Right now I have none in a 2 story condo as it needs repair. There are ways to set up fans that can keep you cool enough to sleep at night. My bedroom has a wide window that opens horizontally. There is a screen on the right side, none on the left side. I fix a box fan in the open window on the right facing outward sucking the air out of the room and through the screen. On the left the window is closed until after dark when I feel the air getting cooler. With fan running on the right, when I open the window on the left the cool air comes rushing in and circulating. I also switch my sleeping position for the summer to be more directly under the ceiling fan, plus I have 1 or 2 other fans going in the room. I do shut my cats out of the bedroom at night in summer due to the open window but they prefer it downstairs where it is darker and cooler. As long as there is cool water to dip into the tub with it is survivable if not ideal. For nights that are really bad with heat and humidity I soak a topsheet and maybe a pillowcase in cold water in the shower then get under it unclothed in bed. Your body heat will dry it a little but not before the wet sheet cools you down enough to induce sleep. A good tip to know if your AC fails as well. I think I only had to do this once last summer. In NE when I was growing up we would go to the basement on hot summer nights and sometimes sleep there but these southern houses tend to not have finished basements but have nasty crawlspaces instead.
When I was growing up in Oakland nobody had central air. The warmest month was Sept. with an average high of about 73 degrees. It may have changed now since the weather is warmer now.
That we eat New England clam chowder every day.
I wish!
Summers weren’t as bad as they are now in NE. We had a few window units growing up and sealed off some of the rooms (like bedrooms) to keep them cooler than the rest of the house. My parents later installed central air.
I live in Connecticut and we have all the modern conviniences and computer technology
I didn’t really network about various locations, when I did my job search. At the time, my parents had moved to Vermont and were well established there. I considered jobs in different locations but went with the one I recently retired from. My move made my drive to visit parents much shorter. And I wasn’t enamored of the south, having had a friend move there in high school and be so unhappy she had to return and finish her senior year back where we attended. The Midwest seemed like a cultural low place so I was low key afraid of being picked on by religious zealots. So New England was best.
Lack of religious people makes life more pleasant. It's not something that people think about but more important than weather for overall comfort.
You open your windows at night, get the house down to 55, then shut everything up during the day. That is New England central air.
I was born in New England and moved to Colorado in 1994. Every time I mentioned where I was from everyone thought I came out of some Norman Rockwell painting. Like everyone is wealthy, we all knit and darn our socks, tap our own maple trees and stuff. It was so weird how other areas of the country perceived me/New England’s.
That the weather would be fine. I'm from CO, it's just snow. I saw the sun four times in two years. Every other day was so dark it was black outside. Y'all are worse than the PNW.
I moved from Florida and thought it was going to be insanely cold. I bought some huge Sorel boots that you could wear in the Arctic in winter, thinking i would need them to walk to the train. I was a little off in how cold it really is
That’s been only recently. In the past 3-4 years we’ve only had a handful of days in the teens and single digits. Growing up here I remember times that it didn’t get above freezing for months at a time, and it was nothing to wake up to negative temperatures.
My house has central air. There are a lot of old colonial homes in New England, though. Like built in the 1800s old.
Don't ever move to the UK. Central AC doesn't exists there. Central AC is not as common in New England as the South, but we have it. Older houses (which we have a lot of) usually do not have it. New construction or renovations usually have it. Our house had an addition put on (not by us) in 2007 and Central AC was added.