Newburyport is losing its culture

This last Friday, at the First Friday Friends Social, as Bill Plante was speaking about the D-Day Anniversary; he stopped for a moment and asked how many in the packed audience had been born in Newburyport.     

Scant ten individuals raised their hands.

The sad fact is that our population of Yeats is rapidly shrinking.     It is being replaced by newcomers attracted by our high quality of life and alluring real estate values.     There are many who come here and embrace our community and who, falling in love with Newburyport, want to retain the special culture that has been present for so many years.    But we are increasingly getting transients in the sense that they are here to enjoy the place and then will just as easily move on to the next place.      Some of them refuse to acknowledge the specialness of this Yankee City and many ridicule our culture.

So it has been very timely that Newburyport has adopted a cultural district designation for its downtown.      It gives us an opportunity for us to re-examine and hopefully preserve what makes the citizens of Newburyport, not just the buildings and landscapes, so special.

For those who want to get into the groove of our community, you need to go over some important behaviors, concepts and terms that are unique to our city.     

I have included a glossary that is very important to read and study.     

And when you begin to learn it, you’ll naturally start to embrace our history for so much of our culture is rooted in it.      That is why our two museums are so very important.     They give depth to our society and will also answer so many of the odd ‘mysteries’ of our place.

Don’t know it?     You better start because if you don’t you won’t even deserve the term, carpetbagger; you’ll just be a faceless ‘tourist’ who’s very actions are offensive and which will earn you closed doors and a feeling of being a stranger in a strange land.      

If you want to feel like you fit in, then learn the culture and the history and you will be amazed what gateways will open to you!

-P. Preservationist
www.ppreservationist.com