Its very own dialect

A footbridge over an 18th Century dam across Spot Pond Brook, in Stoneham’s Spot Pond Archeological District, an archaeological area in the Virginia Woods section of the Middlesex Fells Reservation, a state park. The district has mill sites dating from the 17th to the 19th centuries. At the area’s manufacturing height, in the mid-19th Century, the Hayward Rubber Works was in the area, giving it the name "Haywardville". One of the state reservation’s trails runs through the area, and a park pamphlet provides a self-guided tour connecting the major remnants of the industries that once flourished there.

As you’d guess, Stoneham, like quite a few other Boston communities, was once a shoe-making center.

“I grew up in Stoneham, a little suburb of Boston. It's pronounced 'Stone 'em’ because Massachusetts doesn't bend to the will of 'how letters are supposed to be said.”’

Josh Gondelman (born 1985), American author, comedy writer, producer and stand-up comedian

Just ignore it

Welcome home.

“I grew up in the Boston suburbs and inherited a stubborn New England refusal to acknowledge frigid temperatures. “

-- Josh Gondelman (comedian)