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I have an even simpler answer to not watching people I don't like on TV. I never turn the set on during the day. I really don't like much of anything that's on so I just refuse to watch unless I'm not feeling well and don't feel up to reading.Give me a good book any day. Juno

Martha is not from Connecticut originally, but some city in New Jersey. I lived in Fairfield County, Connecticut for many (many) years, and never saw the reputed "reserve" you are talking about, even among the long estabilished natives..

I am a native new englander, and I have only seen such reserve in northernmost Maine, and even then it was only reserved for strangers to the area.

me

always creeped me out, I think mainly because I

It's a matter of perspective. I am currently living in Canton, sometimes described as a little "hippie" town, near Avon. Coming from the West Coast, Washington State to be exact, it is QUITE noticeable. It's not my imagination- Here are some examples:

The ex-New York City native, who said that moving here, he found people to be "half-dead". He had to really get in their face to get any kind of real, honest reaction.

The ex-New York state & city Pastor & his wife, who moved here to found a church. The pastor's wife gave me the quote about underneath the Reserve, there only being more Reserve. They found it especially difficult to witness to the local people (being a Pentecostal church, a denomination known for *un*reservedness), and in fact, made somewhat more of an effort to concentrate on winning souls who were not originally from this area. The church service atmosphere more closely resembles a Methodist/Episcopalian service than it does Pentecostal (ie, dry, formal, and "dead"- I just pulled those examples out of the air, I have never been to those.) It is the same case in all the churches of this denomination in the area.

The ex-New York state pastor of a completely different denomination I met by chance, who also agreed that the churches in this area are "dead".

The efforts I have made to make friends in the churches I attended were a completely different experience than in Washington state. I found that while the people would be friendly to me in church, and say they were my friend; outside of church, it was another matter. Their private life is private, and the two don't mix. It was NOT like that on the West Coast.

The California native I met who was visiting here in the area. We struck up a conversation in the store, and both agreed that we had found the CT natives to be cold and rude, and speaking to them in public was a completely different experience than on the West Coast.

The store clerks who grunt at me if I ask a question, and treat me like I've interrupted them. That does NOT happen on the West Coast to any such degree that it happens here, not whatsoever.

My husband's coworkers, who, also coming from the Seattle area (they moved the whole department from Seattle to Bristol), also agreed and said that people here are VERY Reserved.

----- So, those examples, plus many many others (3-1/2 years or so, now) make me say the things I do.

Thanks...

Interesting.. I am currently in western Washington State (for 10 + years now ), and I have never seen so many completely, terribly rude people in my life.. This is true of the store employees and is very noticable on the roads (terrible drivers). I never saw this type (or extent) of rudeness by store employees on the east coast.

me

Stewart always creeped me out, I think mainly because I