Connecticut: A Hot Travel Spot?

The other day I was talking to a boy in Sigma Phi Epsilon and he told me that they went on a weekend retreat to Connecticut. Now, I live in Connecticut and don't see it as the perfect retreat place. Sure, if you want to hang out in sketchy New Haven or creepy Bridgeport, or hang out in the woods in the middle of nowhere, or hang out with the rich people in Greenwich. Living in Connecticut, I just don't see it as a vacation spot. So when deciding what WPA guide to read for this blog entry, I picked the one on New England particularly because it included parts of my home state, Connecticut.

What I really found interesting about the WPA guides as a whole was the tone. For instance, the New England one is quite dramatic and begins with "serene old cities, quiet elm-shaded villages, rocky coasts, sandy beaches, friendly wooded mountains, crystal lakes and streams - everywhere you will be greeted with New England's warm hospitality." While I don't deny that Connecticut and New England in general have lakes and streams and old cities, the description on this was highly exaggerated. Connecticut definitely has a air of history surrounding it, being one of the 13 original colonies, but it is definitely overplayed in these guides. While Connecticut is pretty during the autumn season, it isn't as spectacular as the WPA guides are making it out to be. Though, one must look at the WPA guides as a marketing tool and it is very effective marketing. The language and the sense of happiness and peace one gets from reading these guides would make you want to travel.

I also found it interesting how they promoted each particular town and city within Connecticut. Westport, for instance, is made out to be this writers town where boatmen used to stay. New Haven, on the other hand, is portrayed as this amazing city, home to the prestigious Yale University and having a fantastic green that the city is placed around. For the record, today, New Haven isn't so nice and one should really only stay on the Yale campus. Fairfield is a quiet village with a green, facing the tavern where George Washington spent the night once. Old Lyme "slumbers beneath a towering white church spire." While I can see the affect of this writing on people who have never been to Connecticut, for someone who lives there Connecticut might not be so great. Though I have a modern perspective in this whole thing, and Connecticut has changed a lot over the last 80 years with urban sprawl and urbanization, the descriptions in the guides are far too dramatic and unrealistic to me.