People In NH

I have lived in New Hampshire now for 9 months and have to say that I do not understand why the people in New Hampshire are not friendly or helpful. I know that is a generalization, but there have only been a handful that we have come into contact with that have been good, honest people (my mom's 2nd regular doctor, my advisor at PSU, the snow plow guy, one woman at the local Post Office, the guy at the Social Security Office and the guy who put hardpack on our driveway.) That is a total of 6 people in the whole state that haven't lied, tried to cheat us or weren't nasty to us. We have been up and down the state to many doctors, dentists, specialists, stores and have dealt with many contractors and all of these people have treated us badly in one way of another. To hear the locals here they blame all the bad things on the tourists from Massachusetts - they call them "Massholes" - but from what I can tell their (those from MA) only flaw is their bad driving habits. I went to college in Massachusetts and had no real issue with any of them (except when driving through Worcester.) I have also lived in New York and had no issues there. Due to those facts I know I am not completely to blame for the way we are being treated - I should say mistreated - in either Virginia or New Hampshire.

We thought that moving to New Hampshire we would get good old New England charm and hospitality, but instead we have gotten taken advantage of every step of the way. I guess we should have have learned our lesson last December when we were up here to look at the houses and got caught in the ice storm. The hotel had power and threw us out so they could get more money from others whose homes didn't. In the end we went to a better place in Massachusetts and had no problems afterwards.

I have stopped telling people that we aren't from NH even when they ask so that they won't automatically think they can pull one over us. Back in Virginia we had problems because we didn't have the Southern accent and then when they found out that my dad is in Iraq they did everything they could to rip us off or treat us badly. I guess here in New Hampshire we don't speak in their New England accent and don't look like mountain folk and so they think they can try to get one over us.

Unfortunately for both the people in Virginia and New Hampshire I catch on right away and will not stand to be treated badly or taken advantage of. I know the laws and my rights and also who to complain to. That along with this blog helps me get my message across - don't mess with me or my family because you may think you are smarter than us, but you aren't and 9 times out of 10 I get what I want.

I can only hope that they people up here will wake up and realize that we just want to live in the mountains and not have any trouble. We expect good, friendly service when we are paying for it and not to be taken advantage of. If they can accept that then living here in NH would be great - just like the views already are.