Ready for a cheeky look at a quirky state?

New Hampshire is not like any other place on the globe, for better or worse. Where else could a minor league baseball team successfully integrate, a year before Jackie Robinson and the majors? Where else could a flamboyant New York theatrical costume designer build a home and a life? Where else could Jewish people fleeing the heat and dust of a New York summer find vacation, and sometimes permanent homes, among people who say “Ayuh” and wear flannel? And where else could a diplomat (John Hay), an artist (Augustus Saint Gaudens) and an industrialist (Thomas Plante) find their forever homes, and leave them to be enjoyed by generations?

In New Hampshire, we don’t tear down statues or monuments to imperfect people (Franklin Pierce and Rene Gagnon come to mind). We learn from their flaws and go on. We welcome people who don’t look, talk or eat like us, because that’s the way you build a state. We always have, from the Swedes who built Concord’s granite industry to the French-Canadians who built Manchester to the recent immigrants who add color and flavor to our communities. We have open minds, when there’s something worth opening them for.

And New Hampshire is a place where the “Chicken Farmer” sign on a Newbury roadside will forever commemorate young love.

Kathleen Bailey and the late Sheila R. Bailey explore these and other aspects of New Hampshire history in their latest book, A History Lover’s Guide to New Hampshire, from Arcadia Publishing.

Kathleen is a native of Concord and has spent 35 years in journalism, with bylines from the Union Leader, Exeter Newsletter, Nutfield News, and Londonderry Times. She is the author of several historical fiction titles with Pelican/White Rose Publishing.

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