To most of the world a Yankee is an American. To those below the Mason-Dixon line it is anyone not from the South. And in the rest of the country it means a New Englander. Yet even here there are standouts. Whose families go back 15 generations to the Mayflower, but have not made or spent much money since. Shrewd, independent, traditional rural people. With souls of ice and granite.
You can spot them by the size of their wood pile. Have you seen the price of heating oil? Or the accumulation of things in the dooryard which they brought home to fix. And the rusted truck they bought for $1,500 cash that still starts every time. They are more likely to sport Dickies than L.L. Bean because that would be showy. They are white, Anglo-Saxon, and protestant. Or French-Canadian Catholics. But true Yankees are a dying breed.
It is not only the disappearing regional accent. The folkways are fading because most of the people here are not born here anymore. New England states are among the lowest in total fertility rates in America. Well below replacement level. Yet all continue to grow in population. From domestic migration in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. And from international migration in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Which all had domestic outflows.
I do not point this out to other anyone. I moved from a metropolitan areas of the Midwest to a rural New England town myself. But I came here to be a good neighbor, integrate into the community, and hold to the local ways. Tough old Yankees serve as a sort of a cultural glue for a place. Binding those from away to what was there before them. "Where are you from?" can be a loaded question. But a forthright answer can get you taken under someone's wing. To learn how to steward a place, or at least not ruin it. Whereas a bullshit answer will get you shut out.
People love to call New Englanders "flinty" when what they mean is direct. It is a plainspoken manner which gets taken for rudeness by those used to social hierarchy. Urbanites are rarely true Yankees. The pragmatism that comes with living close to the land of rugged topography and harsh winters has little time for useless people. While I am not sure one can ever become a Yankee, I can tell you that becoming more self reliant would have to be part of it. And a love of hard work because a willingness to do what needs done will make you welcome most anywhere.
New England is the most iconic American region. For its long history and its cultural identity. It gets into a person over time, and makes them think much longer than their lifetime. I may never be a true New Englander. But many in my community are older. If people my age do not step up the local culture will fade. So I take responsibility and do the work others avoid. In hope those damn Yankees will not perish from this earth.
Urbanites are rarely true anything other than urban. An urbanite is an urbanite, just as an urban centre is typically without any regional distinction anymore. You could be anywhere.
I liked the comment on the woodpile and the old stuff. Most interesting folks in the rural area i grew up in were the ones with farmyards strewn with stuff, and the ones who complained about the look of those peoples' farmyards were usually the least interesting folks.
"The New Englanders are not an amiable people. One meets in them much to approve, little to admire, and nothing to love. They may be disliked, however, but they cannot be despised. There is a degree of energy and sturdy independence about them, incompatible with contempt. Abuse them as we may, it must still be admitted they are a singular and original people. Nature, in framing a Yankee, seems to have given him double brains, and half heart." Thomas Hamilton, "Men and Manners in America," published 1833