75 Things Every New Englander Should Do | How New England Are You?

Frost

Credit: Illustration by John S. Dykes

Here’s a life list of 75 things for anyone who loves the region, native and visitor alike.

75 Things Every New Englander Should Do
Credit: illustration by John S. Dykes

1. Actually Climb Bunker Hill Monument Two hundred and ninety-four steps doesn’t sound like that many at the bottom, but you feel it about halfway up the narrow spire. They should install inspirational signs along the way, like “How much do you love your country?” When you get back down, make sure to yell, “We made it!” at the park ranger. You’ve earned it, and he’s used to it by now.

2. Bet on Ice-Out In Kent, Connecticut, spring is heralded not by the groundhog but by ice-out on the Housatonic River. Each year townspeople place bets on the actual day, hour, and minute; volunteer firefighters rig a network of ropes and pulleys, with a clock mounted on a tripod to record the exact moment when the ice breaks up enough to move at least 100 feet downriver. The winner gets as much as a thousand bucks–along with the confidence of knowing that soon that heavy parka can be put away until November.

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3. Shop at 3:00 A.M. in Freeport Although on a busy Sunday afternoon the crush and din of the L.L. Bean retail shop resembles that of a discount department store, you can still brush up against the past, you can still feel its old Maine heart beating, if you come in the middle of the night in the middle of winter, when the temperature is dropping to zero and big black clouds are shouldering in across Casco Bay.

4. Sleep with the Symphony The Apple Tree Inn sits high on a hillside overlooking Stockbridge Bowl–a noisy neighborhood, what with the Boston Symphony at Tanglewood right across the road. On summer nights in the Berkshires, retire early and let one of the world’s great orchestras serenade you to sleep.

5. Learn a Really Good Mud-Season Joke “Two farmers are sitting on a front porch looking out at a muddy road. All of a sudden, they see a hat belonging to another neighbor, Frank, come sliding down the road. They go to investigate and lift the hat from the road. Sure enough, there’s Frank underneath, moving steadily through the mud. ‘No problem,’ says Frank. ‘I’m on my horse.’ “

6. Go on a Flea Market Spree In the gypsy world of the traveling flea-market circuit, any deal is possible. Legends of the Brimfield (Massachusetts) Antique Show include the Texan who brought his barbed-wire collection and swapped it for a lobster boat docked in Rhode Island. Brimfield can be irresistible and as memorable as a tour through a Middle Eastern bazaar, with the find of a lifetime just over there, at the next booth.

7. Negotiate the Braintree Merge Leaving Braintree, Massachusetts? At the end of the entrance ramp to I-93 from Route 37 it’s ready, set, merge. In a mere tenth of a mile from the merge, a commuter must cross three of those lanes to catch the left-hand split to Boston, or else find work in Weymouth. Of course, everyone on I-93 knows exactly what you’re up to, and they don’t like it much, especially if it means touching that really wide pedal next to the gas. So stay calm–because you’ve got just a full two seconds per lane change.

8. Have Another Doughnut! Or Two, or Three At Cold Hollow Cider Mill in Waterbury, Vermont, the cider is pressed year-round. But the real reason to go there is the cider doughnuts. The recipe: a secret mix of fresh cider, whole wheat, cinnamon, and cloves. The machine: a near-round-the-clock contraption that drops rings of dough into vegetable shortening, lets them fry for a minute, then transfers them to a conveyor belt that lifts the cakes out of the fat and onto trays. The result: a crisp shell, a soft, slightly dry inside, and a tangy aftertaste.

9. Watch the Revolution Begin, Again In truth, no one knows who fired first, and the Lexington production doesn’t seek to answer the question. But every April 19, before the sun has cracked the morning sky, the American Revolution begins anew. The British charge with bayonets leveled. It’s a mélée; there’s shouting and smoke, and in the gray dawn, it really seems dark and frightening. It’s over in a flash; moments after that first shot, the women of Lexington are on the green tending to the dead–there are eight–and wounded. The British are marching out of town, on their way to Concord.

10. Get Your Kodak Moment With the Big Indian Since it opened in 1914, the heart of the Mohawk Trail–a 38-mile neck-craning stretch of road between the Western Massachusetts towns of Greenfield and North Adams–has forced drivers to take their time. All those hairpin turns … all those vistas … all those totem poles. And one Big Indian. It’s this 28-foot-tall icon standing in front of its namesake shop in Charlemont that has for the last 38 years reminded travelers that it’s not just about the destination–it’s also about the beaded belts, headdresses, and rubber hatchets you collect along the way. Say “Cheese.”

11. Know Where the Chowder Turns Red The chowder line is that geographic boundary demarcating the place where creamy-style New England chowder asserts itself as top choice over tomato-based Manhattan chowder and clear-broth Rhode Island chowder. In the 1930s, one Maine publication went so far as to claim that the addition of tomato to clam chowder was “the work of the Reds,” who sought to undermine “our most hallowed tradition,” and suggested that housewives and chefs adding tomatoes be forced “to dig a barrel of clams at high tide as penalty.”

12. Weave Around a Real New England Frost Heave
Credit: Illustration by John S. Dykes

12. Weave Around a Real New England Frost Heave Frost heaves, like the Lord, work in mysterious ways, casting down some parts of the road and exalting others. We memorize the smoothest routes, until they become automatic. We become Mississippi riverboat pilots, meandering down the road, subconsciously aware of every hidden snag and mudbank.

13. Make a Fool of Yourself Playing Candlepin With an all-time high score of 245 (out of a possible 300), candlepin is a game that refuses to be mastered. Some say the small balls and tiny pins make for a game of grace and precision; others claim they’re punishment from God to humble smug ten-pin bowlers. Either way, the first time you strike the two center pins–and nothing else–you should learn to laugh at yourself, because everyone else at the alley already is.

14. Take a Whirl Down Maine’s Snow Bowl The toboggan run at the Camden Snow Bowl is not your neighborhood sledding hill. The piercing squeals, the throaty primal whelps, are an involuntary (and universal) response to New England’s longest toboggan chute, a 440-foot straightaway that’s 30-mph fast. It’s over before you know it; with your heart still in your throat, you may just want to come back for seconds.

15. Save Your Pennies Since its founding in 1946, the original Vermont Country Store in Weston has been serving up the expected (maple syrup and wheels of cheddar) and the unexpected (pants stretchers, anyone?). But it’s at the shop’s sprawling penny-candy counter where nostalgia is sold by the scoop. From Mary Janes to Bit-O-Honeys to Root Beer Barrels, there are hundreds of options. It’s all self-serve–open a paper bag and get to work.

16. Find Yourself on Sugar Hill in June Acres of purple, pink, and blue lupine blossoms … the Presidential Range all around … and the inns of this old New Hampshire resort open for teas and tours. What possible reason could there be not to see this at least once?

17. Drink Your Coffee Milk Hey, it’s Rhode Island’s official state drink. You don’t think a million people could be wrong, do you?

18. Ride the Scenic Railroad Unless you’ve ridden the Conway Scenic Railroad through Crawford Notch in New Hampshire’s White Mountains in autumn–chugging through the color, across a trestle so narrow that it seems to have no visible means of support, spanning a rushing stream 94 feet below–you’ve never seen the region like this before.

19. Get the Best Seat at the Finest Sculling Race in the World The site: Boston’s Charles River. The competition: 8,500 rowers. The fans: 300,000 of them, lining the banks to watch the three-mile-long Head of the Charles Regatta. But only the most knowledgeable will be perched at the absolute best lookout during this two-day autumn competition: Off Memorial Drive, in the shadow of Mount Auburn Hospital, there’s a turn in the river just before it gets to the Cambridge Boat Club. From there, you can see the racers stroking furiously as they jockey for position heading under the Eliot Bridge arch. These are the most dramatic moments of the competition. Arrive early, put down blankets, and if you stroll, have friends hold your spot. There’s competition on land, too.

20. Brown-Egg It The health benefits may be debatable, but New Englanders know that when it comes to the almighty egg, those bigger, tastier brown-shelled varieties (thank you, Rhode Island Red!) put the whites to shame.

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21. Locke-Ober Since the 1800s, Boston’s Locke-Ober restaurant has been serving New England cuisine to well-heeled Bostonians in search of elegance. For years it was a men-only establishment, so the steak au poivre and lobster dishes became a rite of passage for the male graduates of our local colleges and the place where many a business deal was transacted. It’s still a celebratory spot, and we’re happy to report that women are now not only welcome, but the joint’s co-owner is chef Lydia Shire.

22. J. T. Farnham’s or Woodman’s It’s not strictly necessary, but a slight sunburn and some post-Crane Beach sand in your suit add to the ambience of a fried-clam roll at J. T. Farnham’s or Woodman’s in Essex, Massachusetts. Both offer briny, fresh, local clams battered and fried to perfection.

23. Moody’s About halfway up the Maine shoreline on Route 1 in Waldoboro, you’ll find Moody’s Diner, a seemingly run-of-the-mill roadside eatery–that is, until you try the Grape-Nut pudding. No frills, no bells or whistles–just good, honest Yankee seacoast cooking.

24. Pepe’s, Sally’s, or Modern There’s pizza, and then there’s apizza (pronounced ah-beetz)–and in New Haven, Connecticut, there’s a lot to go around. These crazy-good, thin-crusted Neapolitan-style pies got going at Pepe’s many decades ago, but Sally’s and Modern are doing their fair bit of work to keep the dough rolling.

25. Autumn Rendezvous at Dead Creek In late October, about 12 miles northwest of Middlebury, Vermont, in a wildlife sanctuary at Dead Creek, nearly 15,000 wild snow geese rise out of classic fields for their morning and afternoon fly-abouts, filling the sky with the scintillating light of their wings and the echoes of their calls. Autumn in New England has arrived.

26. This Land Is Tuttle Land Talk corn, or summer squash, or blueberries with Will Tuttle, an 11th-generation farmer whose family has been working the same patch of earth (120 acres and counting) in Dover, New Hampshire, since 1632, making it America’s oldest family farm in continuous operation.

27. Lace Up Your Limmers In Intervale, New Hampshire, in a large green barn that sits in the shadow of the White Mountains, Peter Limmer and Sons build their famous custom hiking boots, just the way they did when they first opened their doors in 1950: They use handcrafted, fine-grain leather, with single-seam uppers. The backlog means you have to wait a good 18 months for your boots, but there’s a reason why hikers come here from as far away as Tanzania for their footwear.

28. Eat Your Sauerkraut No marketing blitz. No blaring billboards. Just as it has since it first opened for business in 1918, Morse’s Sauerkraut in Waldoboro, Maine, celebrates the season each mid-September with a simple ad in local Midcoast papers. It boasts just two words: Kraut’s Ready.

29. Test Yourself on the Batten Kill What the Ganges is to devout Hindus, the Nile to archaeologists, the Mississippi to Mark Twain … Vermont’s Batten Kill is all of that to dedicated Eastern fly-fishermen. You don’t just come up here for a casual weekend of fishing. And maybe, just maybe, what you’ve learned in other streams–Colorado’s, Michigan’s, even New York’s–doesn’t apply here. The sensitive waters … those fussy trout. In May, when the Hendrickson hatch is in full swing, hearty, driven, focused anglers descend on this river, matching wits with nature and the hungry fish. The promise of a new season of dreams awaits.

Ten Recipes You Need to Make At Least Once 30. New England Boiled Dinner 31. Yankee Pot Roast 32. Boston Cream Pie 33. Boston Baked Beans 34. Down East Clam Chowder 35. Indian Pudding 36. Boston Brown Bread (in a Coffee Can) 37. Anadama Bread 38. Sugar on Snow 39. Toll House Cookies

40. Find Your Own Separate Peace at Phillips Exeter Academy Listen for the First Academy Building’s 6 o’clock bell– maybe even peek inside for a look at the “long white flight of marble stairs”–or just make your way around the Center Common as you tour the campus that inspired John Knowles’ timeless coming-of-age classic.

41. Fowl History Head to Adamsville, Rhode Island–quite possibly the only place on earth that’s dedicated a monument to a chicken– and find out why the Rhode Island Red is New England’s most important bird.

42. Know a Little Something About the Other Old Man of the Mountain Perhaps you’ve taken in the spectacular evening views of the Pemigewasset Wilderness Area from the porch of the Galehead Hut. Maybe you’ve savored a lumberjack doughnut dipped in sugar at Zealand Falls. Or possibly you’ve found yourself engaged in a serious checkers contest in the game room of Mizpah Spring. Regardless of how you’ve taken advantage of the Appalachian Mountain Club’s eight huts in New Hampshire’s White Mountain National Forest, you have Joe Dodge, the visionary behind the creation of the AMC cabins, to thank.

43. Eat Your Apple Pie with a Slice of Cheddar Like Burt and I … like Fenway and the Green Monster … like the month of March and Town Meeting. These two institutions were made to be together.