Which South Shore town has the nicest people? (Boston, Brockton: middle-class, transplants)

[linguine9]

We are relocating to the south shore area and looking for nice, friendly people.

[goyguy]

There's no colony of personality types anywhere. Regardless of where you might end up, you'll find gregarious block-party-throwing people like me along with those who never let their iPods and cell phones and PDA's out of their sight and treat saying hello as an imposition.
It's a sweeping yet safe generalization to make that New Yorkers and New Englanders as a rule are less sociable on the surface than Midwesterners or Sun Belt dwellers. But what you see is what you get. The Suth'na's who greet total strangers on the street with "Hey, buddy" or "How ARE yuuuuuw?" could easily be lying in wait to coax out personal details to use against you. Gossip and social ranking are practiced to the Nth degree. Down South, you're marginalized PDQ if you're of the "pale persuasion" and don't think/vote Republican or attend the "right" Baptist or "mega" church. In the central "flyover" states outside the major cities, being not Lutheran or Scandinavian (and, needless to say, not White) raises eyebrows and sets tongues clicking. Not so in this neck of the woods. Folks may pass in silence on urban sidewalks and start a real conversation only after recognizing your face for several months. But you stand a far better chance of having genuine and rewarding friendships over time. As a longtime Massachusetts transplant raised in the Midwest by Southerners, I know of what I speak.
Having said all that - my favorite people from south of "town" hail from places like Rockland, Randolph, Weymouth, and Brockton. It ties in pretty significantly to socioeconomic levels. Those four municipalities are solidly middle-class, with broad diversity in Brockton seeing as how it's a full-fledged city of some 80,000 people. Money has a direct effect upon human behavior - news flash, huh? lol The old-moneyed shut out anyone not of their tribe, the new-moneyed are fixated on staying ahead of the Joneses ("My flat-screen is a 58-incher with HD"), and the unmoneyed prey upon one another. Give me salt-of-the-earth types any day - the folks who hold down multiple jobs yet still keep an orderly household, raise "good kids," and find the time to lend a helping hand or host a cookout. Their figurative collars are deep blue or unbuttoned white, they don't lack ambition but aren't obsessed with getting ahead, and their door is always open. Odds are that you stand a better chance of finding these folks within the cities/towns already mentioned. Additional good locales include Halifax, Avon, Plympton, Whitman, Braintree, Abington, Holbrook, Hanover, Sharon, Stoughton, Hull, Quincy, and Canton. Any coastal community which isn't listed has a high proportion of new-and/or-old-moneyed, snooty, superficial, and pretentious sorts of humans. Not to take anything away from the quality people who dwell in those particular towns (or in Milton, Norwell, Easton, or Pembroke), but the preppie and yuppie subsets of society set the prevailing tone thereabouts. Unless your lives are centered around material acquisitions and being seen in the "right" spots skiing golfing "summering" etc, the fit wouldn't be as good.
Best o' luck! Incidentally, name your price point and - if it's a significant factor in your existence - religious/cultural background and the town list can be narrowed down.

[capecodcathy]

Many good suggestions, goyguy. But I would steer clear of Randolph and Brockton. Both are disasters with crime. While there are still many good people there, I'm glad I no longer live in Randolph every time I visit. I'm also glad I no longer have to take trips to Brockton for kids' sporting events. Rude, obnoxious kids and parents every time I was there, no matter what the sport. The schools I've been to in Brockton were pits of the universe. I've never been inside, but you only need to pass the Randolph Middle/High School to know they need metal detectors, if they don't already have them.
Although I live on Cape Cod now, I grew up in Lynn and still wouldn't want to live in either of these places.

[linguine9]

Thank you for the well written response. Based on your response andother info here, we are looking at:
Whitman
Hanson
Hanover
Marshfield
Pembroke


Any further guidance is appreciated.

Thanks

[goyguy]

Pembroke broke away from the Silver Lake regional school district and set up its own just a year or two ago. That speaks to the explosive growth it's experienced, particularly in terms of families with children aged 4-18. A co-worker with two kids lives there and raves on and on about it: safe, quiet, neighborly streets; good-quality schoolteachers who LIKE their jobs; an extensive park/rec program; etc. The down side of it in my eyes is that it's not a real town if you consider a real town to have a definitive center and distinct neighborhoods. Pembroke has been developed willy-nilly and haphazardly since the '80s. A block of McMansions can be a bend in the road away from a cluster of Capes. Pedestrians on the main routes take their lives in their hands from the speeding vehicles - unhindered by traffic lights - and lack of sidewalks. Aside from a strip mall way down by Route 3 there doesn't seem to be any commerce within its boundaries whatsoever. No major problem, though, since Hanover with its supermarkets and mall is the next town up 53.
Hanover, Whitman, and Hanson are all more established than Pembroke with a more blue-collar/middle-class feel. Being that much nearer Boston, they were built out earlier to house urban refugees. The latter two towns share a middle and high school. The only real claim to fame any of them have is that the Toll House Cookie was said to have been invented at a restaurant in Whitman which, sad to say, burned to the ground a while back and was never reopened. I'm biased in their favor over Pembroke only because they seem more "lived in" in a good way - real neighborhoods with well-constructed older Colonials and Capes as opposed to scattered sprawl developments with no focal point. There's something more appealing about letting your children walk down a tree-lined street to the library than having them dodge cars on a treacherous winding two-lane road.
Marshfield, the only place on your "short list" with a coastline, has a tad bit more of an economic mix than do the other four. As is true everywhere, the moneyed have houses on or close by the beach and the less moneyed are inland - but 'tain't necessarily so. Green Harbor was once a retreat spot for blue-collar Bostonians during the summer; the cottages may now be winterized and more expensive, but the salt-of-the-earth vibe is still very much there. Among other places, you'd do your food shopping at the same strip-mall Stop & Shop by the 3/139 interchange as you would if you wind up in Pembroke.
The quality of the respective school districts is uniformly better than average but less than top-notch. From very casual observation I'd have to say that "team spirit" is strongest in Whitman/Hanson. It seems that no matter where you go in New England, you're apt to spot somebody in a school jacket with interlocking red "WH" letters. Being the new kid on the block, Pembroke may be making a concerted effort to stand out academically.
Demographically speaking, all five of the "short list" towns are decidedly if not entirely White. On the South Shore, that translates as "Irish Catholic." But if, as the TO's screen name implies, the family in question has Italian roots that's a non-issue. Ethnic and religious turf wars are a thing of the past. There's also a WASP presence; after all, Plymouth Rock is right down the road. But WASP's are more concentrated in the wealthier towns i.e. Hingham and Scituate. The Jewish community south of Boston is diminishing somewhat in Randolph, Stoughton, and Brockton. But it's still very much present in Canton and is the predominant population in Sharon.
I've briefly gone over the "character" of all but one of the towns. That of the other one, Pembroke, is fairly easy to discern. While Marshfield, Hanson, et al have their share of former Bostonians who left the city, the wave of migration crested and ebbed by around 1985-90. Consequently, second and even third generations of families are there now. Pembroke is comprised more of transplants than natives, with the difference being that the transplanting took place more recently. It's favored by yuppie types somewhat more than the other four communities (save perhaps Marshfield) because a far greater number of its houses are new or almost new. So, on the one hand you have a collection of humanity with no strong hometown bond, but on the other you have folks with a dare-I-say pioneering spirit who are excited to be part of a growing town complete with a brand-spanking-new high school.
All five places have their strong suits and none have major negatives outside of cultural homogeneity. One last thing I have to add is that Hanson and Whitman have commuter-rail stations within their boundaries. That's a real convenience for excursions into "town" so you don't have to endure driving on the Southeast Distressway and paying double-digit parking fees.

[linguine9]

I am grateful for the time and thoughtful insight. I will print this and refer to it as we narrow down the list.

[kaioak36]

I find it comical that goyguy calls Hanover a blue-collar town. It's mostly white collar and has one of the best school systems in the state.

[kaioak36]

Hanover is not blue collar. Why would you say that? It's almost entirely a white collar town. Much nicer and richer than Pembroke!

[clevedark]

Pembroke is a lovely town.

[southshorelady]

Originally Posted by linguine9

We are relocating to the south shore area and looking for nice, friendly people.

I grew up in Rockland, just sold my condo in Abington and am in the process of buying a house in Hanover (close next month). We were looking to find a better school system for our kids and looked at Norwell, Hingham, Pembroke and Hanover. Hanover was the best fit for our family. It's a good mix of blue collar and white collar with a great school system. It's close proximity to the highway and still relatively close to the commuter rail made it appealing to us too. I just get a good vibe from Hanover. There are some snobs but there are also reasonably priced homes too.

Good luck with your choice.