To those of us from New
England, "The Valley" most often refers to the Merrimack Valley, a bi-state area along the Merrimack
River. Most of the Valley is suburban. The largest cities are Haverhill, MA, Lawrence, MA, Lowell, MA, Nashua, NH, Manchester, NH, and Concord, NH. All of these cities are former mill towns powered by the
river.
If you live in the Merrimack Valley region, chances are you tell everyone you're from the "
Boston Area", have a Boston accent, and cheer for all the
Boston sports teams, even though
Boston is an hour away. About half the
people in your high school graduating class went to drug rehab before the age of 18. Unless your zip code is 01810, 05501, 01899, 01921, 01985, 01886, 03110, 03031, 03049, or 03087, you are working class/poor. Chances are, if you are from the working-class areas you pretend to be rich, while if you are from the rich areas you pretend to be "
ghetto". Ethnic pride is high in The Valley. You will see more Irish, Italian, Canadian, Lebanese, Cambodian, Brazilian, Puerto Rican, and Dominican flags than American ones, though almost every other street is named for a KIA war soldier.
All in all, The Valley is a place of contradictions, not to mention a shitty place to live and an even shittier place to say you're from.
Situation #1:
Angie: I'm from the
Boston Area.
Milly: Wonderful! Where in
Boston?
Angie: Methuen.
Milly: Hmmmm that's funny. I live in
Boston and have never heard of any place in the city called Methuen.
Angie: Ughh, actually, it's in The Valley. And it's not Andover, Boxford, or Windham.
Milly: Ew! Do you live in a slum? Are your kids potheads? Do you shop at Marshall's? DO YOU SPEAK FLUENT ENGLISH?!
Angie: What?
Situation #2:
Ryan: Yo, yo, I rep The Valley.
Santos: Sweet
man. What part?
Ryan: Amherst.
Santos: Shit
man, you ain't
ghetto! You probably live in a colonial mansion. Try living in Nashua with a drug bust or gang fight outside your house every ten minutes.
Ryan: No way homie. Am-town has way more oxy and e than Trashua, cause we have the bank to buy all our shit off you!
The Valley: the trashiest place in America's northeast.