There is a quip that when it comes to breakfast, the chicken is interested while the hog is deeply committed. This came to mind one recent morning when I joined a few folks swapping Great Barrington insights over coffee. At some point, the discussion turned to what makes a “local.” One person posited that to be deemed a “local,” you need to have been born and die here, a level of commitment none at the table were able to muster. Another person noted that he had moved to the area in the late 1990s and his three kids were born and raised here (New Marlborough), yet he recognized that he could never qualify as a “local”—unless, that is, he could gain “local” status through his “anchor babies.” Nice try, he was told, but it wasn’t going to happen.
As I pondered the question, I contacted the keeper of all Great Barrington knowledge, Eileen Mooney, to determine whether a local should be referred to as a “Great Barringtonian” or “Great Barringtonite.” Ms. Mooney advised that only a newcomer would consider using such terms. Off on the wrong foot before I got started. Since Ms. Mooney suggests “local,” local it shall be.
The issue of local also recently came up on social media in connection with the posting of an article regarding Great Barrington’s small-town charm. The article was so laudatory that one would think it was drafted by the local chamber of commerce, yet it engendered postings, some since deleted, suggesting that only locals knew the real Great Barrington before newcomers came and ruined it. To their credit, no posters went as far as to suggest that newcomers were poisoning the blood of our community, but the comments were in the vicinity.
No one has explained what makes a local superior to a newcomer, even one here for decades, or on the insistence that newcomers be shunned. As a newcomer, it can feel like there is a secret club that you can never join. The worst thing a newcomer can do is to offer innovative ideas based on their experiences before moving here. While newcomers may want to improve the town to demonstrate their value, locals respond that just won’t fly: We like it the way it is or, well, the way it was.
The sense one has is that no change is good change to a local, but not uniformly so. Folks often post about the good days when Melvin Katsh brought Melvin’s Pharmacy to Great Barrington (where the new Dollar General will be located). Apparently, if you didn’t eat at the lunch counter at Melvin’s Pharmacy, you could never understand the real Great Barrington. Based on all the comments, this newcomer certainly would have enjoyed experiencing Melvin’s lunch counter and renowned customer service to better understand Great Barrington. It should be noted that Mr. Katsh was Brooklyn bred, so maybe there is hope for some newcomers, as long as you open a popular store selling just what locals want—you know, nothing Chi-Chi.
Social media postings unfairly ascribe certain of the town’s purported ills—increasing property taxes, Main Street retail mix—on newcomers. Macroeconomic factors, not newcomers, are responsible for inflation. Unless the newcomers are the president and chair of the Federal Reserve, newcomers have had no hand in increased property taxes. As for the stores on Main Street pitching to deep-pocketed tourists, that is simply good business. As Willie Sutton would tell you, that is where the money is.
It may be that locals believe that newcomers challenge their values, but how the values differ has never been explained. It is well understood that rural French communities are often not enamored of British ex-pats moving in, but there is a distinct cultural divide between those two communities. Since locals and newcomers alike both want to live in small-town America, one would assume assimilation would be less challenging here. After all, newcomers put their L.L. Bean gear on one leg at a time just like locals.
As far as I can tell, there is nothing inherently better about a local or unsuitable about a newcomer, but try convincing a local of that. Very recent newcomers will fumble when first moving here, says someone who knows by experience, but ultimately newcomers get traction and figure it out. The learning curve may be somewhat steep, but it is not insurmountable. At some point, locals and newcomers are indistinguishable—except to locals that is.
I am not convinced that the “locals are uniformly better” paradigm serves the interests of the community, but of course I would say that. I recognize that it is not in locals’ DNA to adopt that view. Still, surely we can all get along.
