Are you an "outtastatah?"

Are you an "outtastatah?"

Whenever I speak to a group about my new book Outtastatahs: Newcomers'  Adventures in New Hampshire, I ask the audience if they are out-of-staters.  Then, I ask them how they made that decision. I'm surprised by the variety of answers I receive.

One couple decided that they are no longer outtastatahs because after visiting New Hampshire for a few years, they bought a home here. That made them, as they saw it, in-staters. Oh, my. Oh, my. They are in for a sad awakening. I've lived here for 16 years, but by no means would native residents  think of me as anything but an out-of-stater.

I remember attending a deliberative session in Hampton, where one of the local town fathers stood up to make a point. He began by saying, "You newcomers who have lived here only 10, 20, or 30 years. . ."

Here's a joke to make my point. It seems a man was born at sea on the way from the mainland to Nantucket Island. He lived for 99 years on Nantucket and never once left the island before he finally died. The islanders pondered what inscription they should put on his headstone, because, in truth, he wasn't a native having been born at sea. At length, they decided upon "Farewell, Stranger."

Other terms used to designate people here who are not native Granite Staters are "people from away",  or "flatlanders." In her book Headin' for the Rhubarb, well-known author and story teller Rebecca Rule offers a definition of a flatlander. "For many in northern New England, a flatlander is someone from Rhode Island, Connecticut, or Massachusetts. For those in New Hampshire who live in the White Mountains region, a flatlander is anyone who lives south of the notches. And for those hardy few who man the observatory on top of Mount Washington, a flatlander is everybody else."

But being born in New Hampshire may not be enough. Rebecca Rule offers the strictest definition yet of who qualifies as a native  of the state. She notes that some old-timers won't call you that until you have "seven generations of family members in the ground."

Well, don't despair fellow out-of-staters. We now outnumber the natives who were born here by a two-to-one margin. So we aren't an oppressed minority; we're an oppressed majority.  So, just step off the sidewalk into the street, tug on your forelock, and bow slightly whenever you see a native Granite Stater approaching. It's a status not easily won.