The Valley News recently received a letter from a fourth-grade student named Susan in Mrs. Smith’s class at Charlotte Latin School in Charlotte, N.C., asking for information for her state report on New Hampshire, including a list of some of “the best things” here. Columnist Willem Lange recently wrote a similar piece for a student from Virginia asking about Vermont. This is a view from the other side of the Connecticut River:
Dear Susan,
I am getting emails from friends in other places talking about their daffodils blooming, but as I look out the window here in Plainfield, New Hampshire, I still see a large pile of snow over where the daffodils will eventually come up. Even if my daffodils are late, one of the things I love about this state is that it has four distinct seasons.
My brother in Arizona used to say he got up every morning thinking, “Ah! Another perfect day!” I think I would go crazy if every day was like the other. Our recent winter, with all its snow, ice, sleet and freezing rain brought us plenty of skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling and skating. Spring, just around the corner here, will be all the more glorious because its colors will stand out after the perpetual whites and grays of winter. Summer in New Hampshire doesn’t get as hot as it does down south — there are lots of homes here that don’t have air conditioning — but it definitely gets warm enough for swimming and ice-cream eating.
Fall is my favorite season. The leaves start changing about the time schools go back into session, and by October it is common to see busloads of tourists (referred to as “leaf-peepers”) coming to look at the amazing colors. The trees turn yellow, orange and red, and any color in between. Postcards you might see of New Hampshire’s fall foliage don’t do it justice. That’s why thousands of people spend lots of money to come visit scenery I am lucky enough to see even on my way to something as routine as the recycling center.
When I was growing up in Pennsylvania, I always mixed up Vermont and New Hampshire. These “twin states” are shaped like upside-down versions of each other, and they share many things, such as fall tourists and maple-sugar season.
They also share the Connecticut River, which is the boundary between them, although the state border doesn’t run down the middle of the river, as is usually the case. It’s at the low-water mark on the Vermont side, which means that the entire river lies in New Hampshire. Among the many bridges over the Connecticut River that connect the two states is the Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge, the longest wooden covered bridge in the United States and the longest two-span covered bridge in the world.
Although New Hampshire and Vermont share a lot of things, they are very different in other ways.
New Hampshire has no income or sales tax, for example. It may seem funny to say that I think one of the top things about our state is that it doesn’t have a sales tax, but I do think so. For the most part, everything costs just what it says on the shelf — there’s no figuring out how much more you have to add because of tax. To me, it just keeps things simple, and I like that.
Something that really sets New Hampshire apart from every other state is the size of its Legislature. With 400 representatives and 24 senators, it is the third-largest English-speaking legislative body in the world. (The first is the British Parliament and the second is the U.S. Congress.) The New Hampshire Legislature has been meeting in the same halls for 200 years, longer than any other state. It is deliberately large; representatives are meant to be closely connected to the people and towns they represent. Legislators get paid only $100 a year, so being one isn’t a money-making career. Anyone 18 or over can run for representative — it’s truly a citizen legislature.
Keeping our government local is important to New Hampshire citizens. The tradition of an annual Town Meeting, where voters discuss the town budget and conduct town business, is still very much alive here.
Another tradition that keeps government close to the citizens — and another one of the best things about this state — is our first-in-the-nation presidential primary. This means, of course, that almost anyone who wants to run for president will make a visit (or several) to New Hampshire. Every four years we get a chance to meet all these candidates up close and give them a good looking over. I once met two major candidates in one afternoon — one at the airport in Lebanon and one in a local grocery store. (It was nice to meet them, but I didn’t end up voting for either of them.)
Franklin Pierce, the 14th president of the United States, was born and raised in New Hampshire, and lots of other interesting and talented people were either born here or lived and worked here: Alan Shepard, the first American in space; Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space; Bode Miller, Olympic skier; Tomie dePaola, children’s book author; Augustus Saint-Gaudens, sculptor; Maxfield Parrish, painter and illustrator; Ken Burns, filmmaker; and Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, to name a few.
The New Hampshire landscape has something for everyone. In the matter of a couple of hours, you could drive from the sandy, sunny beaches of our few miles (about 18) of Atlantic coastline, through river valleys and gently sloping hillsides, to the great White Mountains, where Mount Washington, the highest point in the Northeast at 6,288 feet, boasts “the world’s worst weather.” Here’s one example: On April 12, 1934, the observatory at the summit experienced the fastest gust of wind ever recorded on Earth — 231 miles per hour — a record that stood for more than 60 years.
For a small state, there’s a lot going on up here.
If you want to know more about New Hampshire’s local culture, do an internet search for “100 Things You Should Do To Know the Real New Hampshire,” a list compiled by the state’s former agricultural commissioner (and my neighbor) Steve Taylor.
The sturdy state motto is “Live Free or Die,” which shouldn’t be surprising coming from a place nicknamed the Granite State. While there are probably around 1.3 million “best things” about New Hampshire — one for each resident — I hope this letter helps you understand why we love our small state.
Whether we got here by being born here or moving here, we have all taken the road less traveled by and, in the words of poet and sometime New Hampshire resident Robert Frost, “that has made all the difference.”
Editor’s note: Granite Staters who would like to share their favorite things about New Hampshire are invited to send mail to Susan, in care of Mrs. Smith’s Class, Charlotte Latin School, 9502 Providence Road, Charlotte N.C. 28277. Small items such a postcards, maps, pictures and souvenirs sent before April 30 will be especially useful for the school project. Margaret Drye can be reached at mmdrye@comcast.net.