Are you a Real Vermonter?

I can clearly remember this sentiment growing up in Vermont. You were a real Vermonter or you weren’t. It was pervasive and no one thought about whether this was OK or not. It was just a basic truth.

After we moved to Massachusetts my husband wouldn’t change our car registration from those green plates until we were pulled over by an Amherst, MA policeman who told us gruffly, “get that updated!” We still have the plates in the house.

But now, 45 years later, having lived more years in Mass than in Vermont, are we still real Vermonters? My husband points out that Western Mass should have been part of Vermont- just extend the east/west borders of VT straight down into Massachusetts where we live.

But what about this sentiment- of being a real Vermonter? Yes, it’s pride of place and love of the many attributes of the Green Mountain State. But it’s also exclusionist. It’s a silent agreement that if you are a real Vermonter you understand things that an ‘outsider’ won’t. It is a quiet resolve that they will never be a real part of the place. It becomes a sort of ‘Us vs. Them’ approach to life. As I age I see the world as smaller and belonging to no one. We all just live here together.

If we move back to Vermont will we be real Vermonters again or somebody from ‘down country?’