Over Easy: Where have all the locals gone?

I am not a sociologist — or ologist of any kind — but I may be on to something.

Lately I’ve been wondering where all the local characters have gone.

As a flatlander who sputtered his way here in 1982 in a green Volkswagen Beetle that was no match for New Hampshire winters, I can’t say definitively. But this longtime visitor thinks we’ve been blending into something just a little bit duller. We more closely resemble “everyone else,” for better and possibly worse.

Not you, of course. You are reading this on pulp paper instead of watching Netflix or scrolling on your phone. If you are over 65 and reading this on a smartphone, much respect to your reading glasses.

Put on your flannel shirt, sip some apple cider and think this over with me.

I don’t hear many, or possibly any, authentic Vermont accents anymore, or the flinty New Hampshire equivalent. I don’t even hear commercials with fake Vermont accents. This — ayup — was a staple in the 1980s.

The region had town clerks with names like Clyde Jenne (Hartland) and Howard Zea (Plainfield, 58 years in office!). Longevity was still a thing. Hartford Town Manager Ralph Lehman (in office a mere 35 years) would leave his desk to fix roofs or ...