Rhody Versus The World

This column isn’t sports related, but instead is an answer to a question posed on another site: Sheriff Sully. To set the context, Sheriff Sully was in the midst of a fund raising campaign last week and one of his promotions was to engage in a blogging marathon: 20 posts in 48 hours. That’s a tough assignment and the Sheriff was looking for some ideas from readers and one of the suggestions was to describe the differences between RI and Eastern Massachusetts. The Sheriff didn’t tackle that subject during the marathon (postponed until next week), but did say something to the effect of “RI and west of Worcester is basically the same place”. I had to disagree and at the behest of the Sheriff, I’m providing an explanation here.

First, here’s some background on why I’m somewhat qualified to comment on the topic. I grew up in RI and lived there for 23 years. I have lived in Eastern Massachusetts for the last 15 years, and I have a sister who lives in Western Mass., thus giving me some exposure to the 3 regions in question. Now, just because I grew up in Rhode Island doesn’t mean that this will be some sort of Rhody love-in. On the contrary, I’m fairly objective about the qualities of my home state.

So, are RI and Western Mass. essentially the same place? The Sheriff didn’t elaborate on his point so I don’t know if I’ll be able to refute his statement specifically. However, to begin to answer that question, let’s consider the State of Rhode Island. When RI comes to mind, what do you think of? Here’s my list, both good and bad:

Vinny Paz
Buddy Cianci
Corruption (see Ron Silver as Alan Dershowitz in Reversal of Fortune)
Mafia
Newport
PC Basketball (a.k.a., RI’s pro sport)
Ernie DiGregorio
Italians / Guidos
RI Accent
Cranston (Rhody’s version of Revere without the beach)
Mount St. Charles Hockey
PawSox
Roger Williams
Twin Oaks
Brown University
Lupo’s
The ProJo
The Foxy Lady
No one drives more than 15 minutes

I could go on, but I think that’s enough for now. Rhode Island is full of character and characters. It’s a world unto itself; a world in which few people leave and even fewer see beyond the state borders. Its almost in-bred nature has created this separate world that is so different from the rest of the country. Trust me – I’m one of the few escapees. It’s like a little neighborhood, yet it’s on a state-wide level. Many people don't see the need to ever leave the state.

When I think of where I live now in comparison with where I came from, I’m drawn to a baseball analogy. Boston / Eastern MA is the major league level; RI is Triple A. If you bring Western MA into the analogy, then surely it is Single A or Double A at best.

Western Mass. lacks character as a region. While there are some nice places there (Northampton, the Berkshires, Tanglewood, etc.), there are no characters that truly define that portion of the state. Please help me name someone interesting from that part of Mass. in the last 30 years. Also, the percentage of hicks that live out there is fairly high. My sister has a neighbor who doesn’t have a car, but instead has a horse! That’s hick or redneck or whatever you want to call it. RI has some of this element, but the vast majority of people reside in Providence and the immediately adjacent towns and suburbs. And that’s the environment in which WEEI’s Pete Sheppard was raised. Do you really think Western Mass. could have produced the bombastic, goombah idiocy of the Meat Man? I severely doubt it. For better or worse, that guy is Rhody through and through.

I don’t know if I really proved my point, but I still contend that RI and Western MA are not even remotely similar when you consider the people and the places. If the Sheriff had asserted that most of Connecticut and Western Massachusetts are the same place, I would have been on board with that. In the early 90’s, I split time on a project between Hartford and Springfield for about six months, and the people and cities were almost carbon copies of each other. Springfield was just a little more irrelevant than Hartford, but both cities were devoid of life. I couldn’t wait to get out of there and back to Boston. Today, I still consider Boston to be the top shelf of New England, and Rhody ranks higher than the 413 area code.