East Coast

The old East Coast vs West Coast vs Midwest has reared it's ugly head, before 9am, pre 1st cup of coffee. I didn't even sit down to eat. I took my meal to go. There was no point in arguing with someone about east coast stereotypes when I didn't have the energy. The conversation when a little like this 'So I was in a town the other day and it was very east coast.' another person laughed at the table and asked 'What do you mean?'
'Well it was full of little shops, it was touristy and cute' (facepalm. I wonder what if this person would feel that some rural Vermont roads in spring time were 'cute')
This then sparked a heated debate at the table. If the east coast is cute what does the midwest have? Well what about the west coast?

While this debate was absolutely riveting, I took my cup of coffee to go and ate in the safety of my own apartment.

I am from the east coast, born in raised in a tiny town in Vermont. I grew up skiing, swimming and hiking. Down the road there is a ski mountain which reminds us all where the money is all coming from in the area. My town and the surrounding towns would be even poorer than they already are if the mountain wasn't there. In the spring everything gets muddy and smells bad (did you know that mud has a smell? Trust me it does). Old timers can tell you about dowsing sticks, sugaring and deer hunting. Rural Vermont not only has it's own accent and vernacular but it also has a completely different culture from other areas on the east coast.

Often times when I hear someone describe the east coast, they say the people are closed off, rude and power hungry. Sure there are people like this, but there are people like this everywhere. Another generalization I've found is when people think of the east coast they really mean, New York City, Boston, or Washington DC. They rarely mean Bangor, Maine, Wilmington, NC or Savannah, GA. Same is true for west coast. Heavy hitters are LA, San Francisco, and Portland, OR. They rarely mean Eureka, CA, Eugene, OR, or Tacoma, WA.

Making generalizations about east coast/ west coast/ midwest is ridiculous. Just as my town in Vermont totally different from Boston, which is also again different from Ellsworth, ME, so it is everywhere. To describe a coast about the only thing you can say is that is nearer to either the Pacific or the Atlantic. Each coast has a host of different groups of people with their own values. My point is that stereotypes about such large areas (or stereotypes in general) inaccurately portray the smaller components of a place. The East Coast, West Coast and Midwest are BIG places. Don't scale them down to one or two general sentences.