What Would You Call Someone from Connecticut?

If asked, I would say we were "Connecticuters," but apparently Cotton Mather thought differently about it and in 1702 he coined the term "Connecticutians". That lasted until 1781 when Samuel Peters got up one morning and claimed that the residents of Connecticut should now be known as "Connecticutensians."  In spite of all these name changes we really never lost that "Nutmegger" image, which at one time caused us to be known as the Nutmeg State. 

History has it that early inhabitants were so ingenious and shrewd that they were able to make and sell wooden nutmegs.  "Unknowing buyers may have failed to grate nutmegs, thinking they had to be cracked like a walnut.  Nutmegs are wood, and bounce when struck. If southern customers did not grate them, they very well may have accused the Yankees of selling useless 'wooden' nutmegs, unaware that they wear down to a pungent powder to season pies and bread."  (Elizabeth Abbe, Librarian, the Connecticut Historial Society; Connecticut Magazine, April 1980).

So now I know a little more about nutmeg.  But you never know what you will find until you look.  For instance, did you ever hear about nutmeg butter?  Geeze, I thought, I'd like to try some.  Maybe some nutmeg butter on toast.  Hmmm...  That is until I found out that one of its uses, when mixed with other fats like cottonseed oil or palm oil, is to be used as an industrial lubricant.  What?  I think I'll pass.  Sorry, I just can't see myself eating something that I can also grease my car with.  How about you?

Jimmy Halloran is Co-Owner of ConnecticutHandiworks.com, an online retailer featuring handcrafted items made in Connecticut.

jimmy130@live.com  /  860.942.7571  / 

PO Box 26 Hampton, CT.

  06247