tonrob

Are you suggesting that the discussion on babies drinking habits has somehow taken your thread off-topic?

Have you done a search for the moving company topic on other threads? If you have, and still have not turned up the info you need then I suggest you start a new thread with that topic as the subject title. Otherwise there may be people with the info you need who do not open this thread because they think it is just about moving to Amherst/Northampton in general.

And +1 on ditching the car.

Hiro11

I grew up in Amherst.

My reactions to this corner of the Pioneer Valley:

Plusses:
Beautiful, lots of fresh air
Lots of outdoor activites (notably, has some of the best road cycling in the US)
Good record stores (do people still go to record stores? Probably not, but it give you an idea of the type of place it is)
Lots of culture for small towns, lots of art and music in particular. Lots of great bands are from the area, notably Dinosaur Jr and Sebadoh
Lots of college kids make it vibrant
Relatively cheap housing
Easy-going culture, very accepting and open minded
Pretty good restaurants and good local beer
Close but not too close to Boston and New York
Easy access to Vermont which is my favorite state

Minuses:
Can be a bit isolated
More expensive than equally nice surrounding areas
A bit hippy-dippy, which is reflected in some questionable schools and some very silly "town meeting" decisions
Everyone either works for the colleges or is a student, it's a bit of a bubble
Not as diverse as it would like to believe it is, it's pretty much lilly-white
Lots of college kids who are annoying little brats
Town and gown issues

Overall, a great place to live but it's "home" to me so YMMV.

Bob

I answered that earlier...depends how small a shipment we're talking about.

Car, sell it, torch it, push it off a cliff.

tonrob

Translation: Lesbian central.

Which I think we can all agree is a good thing.