Every town has home-grown truisms, sayings that the
locals all know and outsiders don’t. For
almost forty years now, “No Barneys in Somerville” has been at times a rallying
cry, a T-shirt, a bumper sticker and
even a political campaign slogan. If you are an old Somervillen, you recognize what this slogan means but for some of us it is high time to pass this torch
to a new generation.
My introduction to the phrase dates back to the
early to mid-seventies. One evening I was drinking beer at the Rosebud in Davis
Square with my younger brother Barry and his friends. I had left Somerville and become a suburban
homeowner but Barry lived just around the corner on Cutter Ave. Barry was
active in the Ville; he produced a show called “Dead Air” on Somerville Cable TV, played in a band at
the Woodbridge, and led the longest rent strike in the city’s history.
As we discussed weighty issues, a fellow came by
wearing a T-shirt, “No Barneys in Somerville.”
I asked, and here is what I was told.
A group of guys from Somerville had walked over to
Harvard Square one fine evening. As they
walked through the Harvard Yard, one guy, who had never been there before,
asked “where are we, what place is this?
“The Harvard Yard,” he was told.
Looking at the people in the yard, many of whom were
dressed and groomed Hippy style, he said “Harvard Yard, this looks more like a
Barnyard, and these people here, they’re the Barneys.”
Upon further discussion, these guys decided that
Barneys were not to be welcomed to Somerville.
A decade or more later, the ever vigilant Boston Globe
covered the story.“Every town has a derogatory word
for newcomers who don't fit in with the locals, the outsiders who natives claim
threaten the old ways of life and who aren't likely to stick around.
“In Somerville, the word for those
outsiders is "Barneys." And with a growing number of students and
high-income professionals moving into town, proud natives of the
"All-American City" three miles northwest of Boston are making no
secret of their disdain for the new arrivals. At evening porch chats, in local
pubs and now on bumper stickers, sun visors and T-shirts, the message from
Somerville natives is loud and clear: "No Barneys in Somerville!"
“This usage of the word
"Barney" goes back 12 years, to a summer afternoon in Harvard Square,
according to Greg Gillis, 26, the Somerville native who is credited with the
coinage. "When we had nothing to do we used to go over to Harvard Square
and hang around," said Gillis, a warehouse worker. "And we always
called the square and Harvard Yard 'the Barnyard' because of all the weird
people there. They had kind of a rural look, you know, with different types of
clothes and long haircuts. One day, I went up to some gentleman who had a
knapsack full of yogurt and literature, probably eating something good for him,
and I said, 'Hello there, Barney.' My friends all laughed, and I guess the word
stuck."”
The Globe described how the slogan
was spreading: “ a new shipment of anti-Barney artillery, 200 "No Barneys
in Somerville!" bumper stickers, is expected this week. Joseph Brisbois,
30, a Somerville native who has handed out the bumper stickers free for the
past three years, said the stickers are an inside joke among natives and aren't
meant to offend the Barneys.
“"I
just give them to friends and people who ask about them," said Brisbois,
who works in a plumbing supply house. Last year Brisbois and his pals printed
50 "No Barneys in Somerville" visors, and this past week T-shirts
were added to the collection.”
Alas,
that was in 1989, and “no Barneys” paraphernalia has gotten scarce. There is a Facebook group, “No Barneys in the
Ville” that has 825 members, but few recent postings. The page description says
“If
youre from old school-somerville u know exactly what this title means.”
Some current Facebook posts.
From Anthony: “ Dude, I remember growing up you
would see the Barneys’ riding their bikes down the street and they would be
chased back over the line, back into Cambridge… Somewhere after 1985 somebody
dropped the ball and let these Yuppies into the city … and it all went to sh*t
from there …:
From Susan
Pritchard : “I am a Somerville girl. I graduated from SHS in 1968. I
lived in Somerville all my life until 2010, 36yrs on Winter Hill alone and
didn't move far away… I am not a Bahney.( a term coined in 1984 for supporters
of Sal Albano in the State Senate race against an indicted Vinnie Piro).”
From
Gerard: "I think the “Barnies” won their invasion decisively. The majority
population of Somerville now is made up of the young scions of families who
make their homes in the most posh of American suburbs – like Weston,
Sudbury, Dover, Grosse Pointe, Los Gatos, Westchester County, Bucks County. Or
they come from the most elite graduate school campuses – Harvard, Duke, MIT,
Tulane, Berkeley, Princeton. Or they come from the “best and the brightest”
talent pool in Bejing, Delhi, Dublin, Seoul, Nairobi, Tel Aviv, Ho Chi Minh
City and Warsaw, to name a few.
"So I’d say there have been four “migration waves” to
take over Somerville – the Yankees, the Irish, the Italians, the
“multi-culturals” (for lack of a better term) and finally – the “Barnies”, to
use the term of their denigrators. It’s their city now; let’s see if they
decide they want to hold onto it for three generations."
Maureen
Houghton Foster:
“There were even several references to the Harvard
students as Barneys in Good Will Hunting! I get a kick out of that every time I
see it.”
And then we have Joe
Hickey with a contrarian view. “I Have worked in Harvard square now for 25
yrs, and grew up in Somerville in the 60's-90's, and will tell you that the
term Barney did not come from the people in the square, but from the building
known as " the Old Barn " , Memorial Hall
, just on the outside of the main yard, on the corner of Oxford and Kirkland
streets, it was where students went to eat their meals, thus the people going
in and out were referred to as Barneys.”
What do you say? Today, some people call Somerville the Hipster Capital of the Western World. Is this the formula: Villen + Barney = Hipster, or do they represent a whole new invasion. And never ever call us Townies, they belong in neighboring Charlestown.
Photos contributed by Joe Brisbois.
