‘The best plants’

The Mayflower, Massachusetts’s official state flower.

“I was raised to believe that New England is the best place on the planet…best plants, the best grass .. and all that good stuff.”

— Abigail Johnson (born 1961), CEO of giant, Boston-based Fidelity Investments, started by her father Edward “Ned’’ Johnson (1930-2022) in 1946

Regional ruminations

A Fidelity Investments Investor Center on Boylston Street, Boston

— Photo by Grk1011 

“I was raised to believe that New England is the best place on the planet.’’

— Abigail Johnson (born 1961), CEO of giant, Boston-based Fidelity Investments, founded by her father, Edward (Ned) Johnson, in 1946.

Connecticut River Oxbow, in Northampton, Mass., from Skinner State Park on Mount Holyoke. Contrary to what Senator Lodge may imply below, there is much very fertile farmland in New England’s river valleys, with the Connecticut having some of the most productive agriculture in the East.

—Photo by Theo886 

“New England has a harsh climate, a barren soil, a rough and stormy coast, and yet we love it, even with a love passing that of dwellers in more favored regions.’’

— Henry Cabot Lodge (1850-1924), powerful U.S. senator and historian

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“But let’s face it…those of us from New England know we’re the real Yankees. We can’t bear being confused with folks from other parts of the country. Proud and stubborn, self-sufficient and independent. What a pain in the ass we can be. And as much as we piss and moan about the weather, we stay put. Until we don’t. Statistically half of all New Englanders who leave in search of greener pastures and warmer climates return. For good. As a stranger on a plane, from Vermont as a matter of fact, so he was the real deal according to Mr. White, said to me, as I we were hurtling through the air headed back to the biggest movestake of my life, “It gets under your skin. Some of us just can’t shake it.”

— From yankeesoul.com, which is defunct