9 Things New Hampshire Natives Miss Most Once They Live Somewhere Else

New Hampshire’s governor invented a summer holiday in 1899 for one reason: to lure back the people who’d already left.

It worked, and towns still hold Old Home Day every summer.

More than a century later, the state is still handing natives a list of things nowhere else quite replaces.

These are the things New Hampshire natives miss most once they live somewhere else.

1. Not Doing Sales-Tax Math

New Hampshire charges no general sales tax, one of only five states in the country that don’t.

A sticker price at a New Hampshire store is the price.

No math required.

That’s rare enough to become a habit.

The habit doesn’t travel well.

A transplant’s first receipt in a sales-tax state comes up short every time, no matter how many trips it takes to unlearn the habit.

The Other States Without a Sales Tax

New Hampshire shares its no-sales-tax status with only four other states: Oregon, Montana, Delaware, and Alaska.

None of the other four sit anywhere near New England.

A New Hampshire native who moves to Massachusetts, Vermont, or Maine hits a sales tax on the very next purchase.

Every other state in the region already charges a sales tax.

2. Never Filing a State Tax Return

New Hampshire’s last tax on personal income, the Interest and Dividends Tax, was gone for good as of January 1, 2025, according to the state’s Department of Revenue Administration.

That leaves the state with zero tax on wages, interest, or dividends, while every other New England state taxes income, sales, or both.

No return to file.

A New Hampshire native never opened a state tax form each April because there was nothing to report on it.

Move to Massachusetts, Vermont, Maine, or any other state that taxes income, and a New Hampshire native fills out a form every April that never existed back home.

3. Riding the Train up Mount Washington

The Mount Washington Cog Railway, the world’s first mountain-climbing railway, opened in New Hampshire in 1869.

It still hauls riders to the 6,288-foot summit of the state’s tallest peak, the same route it’s run for more than 150 years.

For a lot of New Hampshire natives, that was a field trip or a Sunday drive, not a bucket-list trip.

Nobody planned a trip.

A transplant in flat country has to explain what a 6,288-foot summit even looks like, since there’s nothing nearby to point at instead.

4. Funspot on a Rainy Day

Funspot, in Laconia, New Hampshire, holds the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest arcade.

The place runs 60,000 square feet and more than 600 games, from a classic pinball museum to ordinary skee-ball.

It was the default plan on a rainy August afternoon.

Everyone went.

A transplant in a state without anything like it loses the whole backup plan for a rainy day at the lake.

5. Nothing on the Kancamagus

New Hampshire’s Kancamagus Highway runs 34.5 miles through the White Mountain National Forest with no gas stations or restaurants anywhere along it.

Locals just call it the Kanc.

Nothing to buy.

The road climbs to a 2,855-foot pass, follows two rivers, and drivers get a fall foliage view that no billboard or gift shop interrupts.

A New Hampshire native who moves somewhere where every scenic road doubles as a strip mall misses that one stretch with nothing on it.

6. Fireworks Without a Border Run

New Hampshire lets residents buy a wide range of consumer fireworks, a kind neighboring Massachusetts bans outright without a special license.

A trip to a New Hampshire fireworks stand off the highway was routine before the Fourth of July.

Nothing to hide.

Somewhere else, that same errand means driving back across the border, or not doing it at all.

7. Wednesday Nights at Hampton Beach

Almost nobody in New Hampshire was ever far from the water, thanks to a coastline that runs barely 18 miles end to end.

Hampton Beach sets off a fireworks show over the water every Wednesday night each summer, a schedule that’s kept running for years.

No ticket required.

Just a blanket on the sand, and showing up was the whole plan.

A transplant might find fireworks somewhere new, but Wednesday nights won’t feel the same without that stretch of Hampton sand underfoot.

8. Old Home Day, Invented to Bring You Back

Governor Frank Rollins started New Hampshire’s Old Home Day in 1899, hoping to give former residents a reason to come home, even if only for a weekend.

Forty-four towns, among them Andover, Bristol, Wolfeboro, and Sandwich, held the first celebrations that summer, according to the New Hampshire Municipal Association’s history of the tradition.

Neighboring states noticed.

Maine and Vermont adopted Old Home Days by 1901, and Massachusetts and Connecticut followed soon after, according to the New England Historical Society.

New Hampshire got there first, and its towns never stopped holding one.

New Hampshire towns still fill their commons with parades and potlucks every summer, built around the idea Rollins had in 1899: show up, even if it’s only for a day.

A New Hampshire native who skips it misses the one day designed, since 1899, to get them back.

Psst! How much of a New Hampshire native are you still, even after leaving? Check off what’s true and see where you land.

9. Knowing Your State Rep by Name

Up to 400 members can serve at once in New Hampshire’s House of Representatives, the largest state legislative body in the country, per the General Court.

That’s roughly one representative for every few thousand residents, a far tighter ratio than many state legislatures offer.

Everybody knows somebody.

A New Hampshire native’s state rep might live two streets over, work the next register at the store, or coach a kid’s team.

A New Hampshire native who moves to a bigger state discovers the math fast: One representative can cover a hundred thousand people instead of a few thousand neighbors.

Calling that office means waiting behind thousands of names instead of the handful of neighbors who used to beat them to the phone.