R123, when R119 said:
[quote]The city itself is awesome but the people and weather are nasty.
you have your answer, at least in my opinion: the weather in New England is bad, but what made it unbearable was the people. At the first sign of a snowflake, they all (and I mean every last person east of the Connecticut River) rushed to the grocery store to stock up on water, bread and milk as though it never snows in Boston and the stores never close; everyone expects whatever they're doing (work, school, social affairs) to be cancelled and given another snow day, which also, apparently, excused them from shovelling said snow off their sidewalks or god forbid, moving their cars so that the plows could get by and not barricade the corner crosswalks. And despite that it snows a lot in New England, you'd think every snowstorm was the "storm of the century" or apocalyptic in nature if you watched any of the local news stations and particularly how the weathermen got so worked up over average storms.
The weather in Boston had two extremes: colder than a witch's teat or hotter than hell accompanied by high humidity that made either extreme uncomfortable, except for four weeks in the late Fall when the weather was, to be honest, spectacular. It was the month out of the year that I tried not to travel and get away from Boston despite the hoards of leaf-peepers that descended upon the region. Another funny newcomer story: just after arriving in the middle of July, I got in my car and was heading to work on a very hot morning. As the air conditioning got to working in the car, it started emitting what I thought was smoke and freaked me out. The car was acting fine, but I pulled over to see what was the matter and it took me a few minutes to realize that it was condensation as the cold air hit the hot moist air, and nothing was wrong.
[quote]I’ve vacationed there a number of times and found the people to be friendly and helpful
Of course you think the people in Boston are wonderful, R129! But let me tell you another story: when I arrived and would go into the city, I was always lost and ending up wandering around trying to find something familiar to reorient myself. I dared ask for help on a couple of occasions, and you'd think I'd asked the natives for their first born and not just how to get back to South Station or the Science Museum or what have you, so I stopped asking. However, when I became familiar enough with the city to know where things were, when I saw tourists (or anyone, for that matter) who looked lost, I'd stop and chat with them and give them directions and a hearty "Welcome to Boston!" greeting (I appreciate anyone who comes to wherever I'm living, drops lots of money, and goes away without taxing the local infrastructure).
One time, by coincidence, I was helping a friend move and he'd rented a cargo van. I was driving it back to the rental place with another friend who'd helped out, and we were caught in one of those New England sudden rainstorms that drop 3 to 6 inches in a matter of minutes. Up ahead, there was a family that were obviously tourists, unprepared and looking desperate. I pulled over, threw open the van door and called them to get in and out of the rain. You'd have thought I'd awarded them with a million dollars they were so grateful. They were completely lost, had gotten turned around and scared (this was near the old Combat zone). I asked them where they were staying and drove them back to their hotel, not far by car but a hike on foot. They offered to pay me for the ride, but I told them to pay it forward when they got home and saw tourists in need.
My experience throughout the whole time I lived in Boston was that people not from Boston or New England were much nicer than the natives. They had reason to be; they didn't grow up in hell, and were likely leaving hell as soon as possible. The natives were stuck in hell and knew it.
