Here are Big Opinions about Eastern MA vs. Western MA

With family in Eastern Massachusetts, and also in Western Massachusetts, there appears to be a divide which landed on a curious Facebook page.

This isn't about trying to divide the Bay State, rather it's about complimenting different lifestyles and thinking in the same state, and living peacefully within the differences.

This Facebook page recently lit up with opinions about this discussion, and it was quite comical yet enlightening at the same time.

While Eastern Massachusetts is more citified given the proximity to the top 10 city of Boston, Western Massachusetts is thought of as more farm country, and a calmer way of living.

One comment talks about the ocean,

When I went to UMass Amherst my first thought was “how could anyone live this far from the ocean?!

Another says,

Anything outside the 495 belt is just shrubbery.

While another of the hundreds of comment quips,

It's exactly like Manhattan residents calling anything north of Yonkers "Upstate."

The real issue is a difference in lifestyle.  Western Massachusetts tends to be "hippy farmers" and "cultured farmers", and New Yorkers visit often, while Eastern Massachusetts is a traffic nightmare, and fast city life, according to the comments.

It’s like separate countries connected by traffic! Lol

 

No one can really agree on where Eastern MA ends and Western MA begins because there's also Central Massachusetts (Worcester).  Oh my, how we can divide up the state.

 It’s absolutely true. Originally from Western MA and live in Eastern MA. Nobody here knows anything past 495.

Then there's the people who don't know because they never ventured past their own area.

I realize after seeing some of these posts that I’m a total North Shore girl (from Salem) and almost never left that area to explore.

So perhaps there's a divide because residents stay in their own bubble and don't explore the beautiful differences within the state?

And then there's the whole North Shore/South Shore thing.

I grew up on the South Shore. Should we talk about the North Shore/ South Shore battle? I would never conceive of living North of Boston, too many people. Only the Berkshires are still an entity untouched by Boston.

Any which way, the Bay State has something for everyone, and not every state in the union can say that.  Carry on.