[Buster]

My grandparents lived in New Hampshire and I went to college here in the early 60's partially because of the college and the rural environment. In the early '70's I moved to Mont Vernon NH and commuted to Nashua. Outside of Nashua, there were no stoplights and only one yellow flashing light at Pennichuk Square where the famous "Eat Here and Get Gas" sign stood. I moved to Alton Bay in 1989. At the time I moved, there grew 31 stoplights between Nashua and Mont Vernon. Route 101A became a hopeless congested mess of strip malls.
Alton was a sleepy small rural town and the trip to Laconia was a country drive. Then came the Hannaford mall, the Tilton mess and now more strip malls in and around the Laconia area.
When we were at Plymouth State college, we used to say "You weren't in New Hampshire until you were north of Concord." By the time I finally got to Alton Bay, we said "You weren't in New Hampshire until you were north of the notches". Now that I've seen all this congestion, all of this local money going to out-of-state chain store owners, boutiques in Meredith and flatlanders "hiking" the White mountains in flip-flops and spike heels. I'm fairly convinced the N'Hampsha ideal has gone to hell. I'm beginning to believe you're not in New Hampshire until you're north of the Connecticut Lakes. NH has become "Massachusetts-ized". All these stores bring convenience, but makes us homogenized and we lose our character, uniqueness, independence and freedom as a result. This is progress? Perhaps I'm getting old.