Woodchucks

When I saw this picture, I though he looked like a Vermonter, not a typical one (he doesn’t have a beard and he’s not wearing a flannel shirt), but maybe a preppy Vermonter. It’s the boots, socks, plaid blanket, and woodsy setting that made me think that. However, the model above, James Yates, is from England not Vermont. In Vermont he’d be known as a “flatlander,” much like I am. In Vermont, there are two types of people: woodchucks (native Vermonters) and flatlanders (everyone else). 

Vermont Public radio have several different definitions and/origins for the term woodchuck to refer to Vermonters:

“In Vermont, the term woodchuck means someone who was born here.”

“...Second- or third-generation Vermonters.”

“Basically redneck or hillbilly…”
“...A country person who, who literally chucked wood. I mean, they heated with wood.”

“Woodchuck is somebody that is very comfortable with machinery and guns and trucks.”

“Someone who, either real or perceived, has some sort of a relationship with the land.”

“...Grow their own food if they can, do their own plumbing, do their own wiring, do their own heating. In part because, well, when I first moved here, there wasn’t anyone else to do it.”

The term “flatlander” is easier to understand: Vermont is the Green Mountain State (Ver, from the French word for green, vert; and -mont from mountain.) Therefore, anyone not from Vermont is from flat land, though it’s a stretch as the Northeast has a lot of mountains.

If you’re wondering what an actual woodchuck is, it’s another name for a groundhog, of which, Vermont has plenty, and most people consider them a pest. I have several that live around my apartment. I see them quite regularly. So since today is Groundhog Day, (or maybe Woodchuck Day in Vermont) I thought I’d give you a little Vermont trivia.