What makes someone a local?

[Schmear]

I really don't know what the big deal about being local.... In my opinion it’s not a big deal.

That's because you're a local.

[truth]

"The social climber's guide to Aspen"

Aspen still sucks.

[Cirquerider]

For some, you're local when you visit family at the local cemetery. What a drag. You live there, work there, pay taxes, have a licensed car, you are good to go. For heavens sake, illegal alians don't have to prove they're local anymore.

[rideit]

You are officially a local in Jackson when you can't afford to live there, and have to move to Idaho.

[mntlion]

When you can survive using mostly the barter system.

fat rock skis for sushi is my favorite, has taken 15+ years, but it works.

as others have siad, when things are dialed. have the job that you like, pays OK, lots of ski time,


if you have been in town a while you stop calling yourself a local, and just a resident.

[WWCD]

fat rock skis for sushi is my favorite, has taken 15+ years, but it works.

as others have siad, when things are dialed. have the job that you like, pays OK, lots of ski time,


if you have been in town a while you stop calling yourself a local, and just a resident.

My currency was pizza.

[ak_powder_monkey]

And just about cried when I had to give up my AK plates.

Which ones did you have?

[ill-advised strategy]

this thread gave me a headache.

[Ripzalot]

Aspen still sucks.

Aspen- where the beer flows like wine.

[Lynx]

...when you stop dropping names ...... then you are a local

does that make Xover a ginormous gaping touron?

[Freejax]

local = knowing where and when to get the shit. Pow, gear, cheap beer, cheap food and chicks from outta town.

[bbirtle]

"The social climber's guide to Aspen"

By Roger Marolt
December 30, 2005

... the Natives. ... the Locals. ... the Residents. ... the Johnny/Joanne-come-Latelys, also know as Wanabees. ... The Tourists ... Time Sharers.

Nicely described. I'd add Season Worker to the list for most resort towns = somebody that shows up in December and stays until end of April. Comprises 50% or more of the population of most Alps ski towns in the winter.

The Locals/Residents are a mixed bag... some are great, friendly people that just radiate positive energy and continue to love and live the place. Some just seem to become very snoby, cliquey, and get so bored/jaded that they average less time on the mountain than some Tourists, yet at the same time project the fact on everybody that they somehow know and experience the place "better" than you.

May all the would-be Locals not forget the magic that the Newcomer sees!

[horizon]

from another forum...pecking order in Chamonix (in ascending order below):

0.5 Internet ski pundit
1 Tourist,
2 Seasonaire/Bum
3 All Year Seasonaire/Bum
4 Property Owner Tourist
5 Business Owner Tourist
6 Tax Paying Seasonaire/Bum ( F/S French Speaking)
7 Business/Property Owner Seasonaire/Bum (F/S)
8 Married into a local family Seasonaire/Bum(F/S)
9 French from another region.
10 Young Chamoniarde.
11 Old Chamoniarde.
12 A Ghost of someone whom died in the mountains.

[schindlerpiste]

Just owning a home and paying taxes won't do it. You are only a local when you truly feel like one and the people who were local's before you say that you are "a local".

[snow_slider]

Ali - you know you're a Maryland local when:

You know more than 10 people who own boats and they all park them at the same marina in Annapolis

You can pronounce and spell "Pocomoke," "Mattaponi," "Accokeek," and "Havre de Grace"

You prononce "Bowie" BOO-ie not BOW-ie or BAUW-ie

1 hour is an easy commute to work

You have more than three recipies for crabcakes

French fries just don't taste right without Old Bay

There are more than two crab places in your town

Even your high school cafeteria made good crabcakes

You got your first lacrosse stick before you were six years old

You call all turtles "terrapins"

You refer to your state as "Merlind"

You still call Six Flags America "Adventure World", or even "Wild World"

You still remember the Wild World commercial (Wild World's the cure for the summertime blues!)

You can tell the difference between the smells of septic and marsh.

You not only know how to eat hard crabs but you also know how to catch them, cook them and tell the males from the females.

You don't think that Assawoman Bay is a strange name for a body of water.

You know perfectly well why Rehoboth is called "Little San Francisco"

You think Salisbury is a big city.

You think of dumplings as wet slippery squares of boiled dough.

You've eaten muskrat at a church dinner but think it's better the way you fix it.

You think of "Dairy Queen" as a pageant title and not a place to get an ice cream.

"Formal wear" is a ball cap, a flannel shirt and Timberlands.

You still root for the Orioles even when they suck

You'll never understand why tourists come to DC.

When in Florida, you can only laugh when you see signs saying "Real Maryland Blue Crab Cakes!"

You color with "Crowns", take a "Share" with "Wooter" and think the president lives in "Warshenton."

You know the difference between Glen Burnie ghetto and Catonsville ghetto.

Dale Earnhardt's accident was a close personal loss to your father

At least one man in your family is a waterman

You plan for "The Festival" a year in advance.

During the summer, you spend more time in Ocean City than at home.

Margret Heater, Hedspace, Jepetto, Outside Joke and Mary Prankster are people you think are "Famous"

Your radio dial is stuck on 99.1

You actually get these jokes and pass them on to other friends from Maryland.

[Rusty Nails]

I move around a lot and have been a resident of several different states for more than a year in the past decade. ND, NC, AK, WA, VA and will hit HI when I move to Oahu this summer for a couple years. Before that, I moved several times while I was young as well. There were places where it took me a couple months to feel like a local, and there were places where it would not have mattered how long I was there, I would have never felt like a local. But my feelings about it only matter to me. There is still the question of how I am perceived by others. I know that when I move to HI, I will be a Haole and that is all I will ever be there in the eyes of native Hawaiians. In sum, to be a local you must subjectively believe that you ARE a local AND objectively have that status placed on you by the what seems to be the common definition in your given environment.

[verbier61]

from another forum...pecking order in Chamonix (in ascending order below):

0.5 Internet ski pundit
1 Tourist,
2 Seasonaire/Bum
3 All Year Seasonaire/Bum
4 Property Owner Tourist
5 Business Owner Tourist
6 Tax Paying Seasonaire/Bum ( F/S French Speaking)
7 Business/Property Owner Seasonaire/Bum (F/S)
8 Married into a local family Seasonaire/Bum(F/S)
9 French from another region.
10 Young Chamoniarde.
11 Old Chamoniarde.
12 A Ghost of someone whom died in the mountains.

rad! so I'm level 7, and my kids have chance to improve to level 8 should their love stories with young bagnardes keep on goin' on...

[Core Shot]

James McMurtry said it better than I ever could:

I'm not from here
I just live here
grew up somewhere far away
come here thinking I'd never stay long
I'd be going back soon someday

it's been a few years
since I got here
seen 'em come and I've seen 'em go
crowds assemble, they hang out awhile
then they melt away like an early snow

onto some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending postcards when they get there
wherever it is they think they're goin'

I'm not from here
I just live here
can't see that it matters much
I read the papers and I watch the nightly news
who's to say I'm out of touch

nobody's from here
most of us just live here
locals long since moved away
sold the played-out farms for parking lots
went off looking for a better way

onto some bright future somewhere
better times on down the road
wonder if they ever got there
wherever it was they thought they'd go

hit my home town
a couple years back
hard to say just how it felt
but it looked like so many towns I might've been through
on my way to somewhere else

I'm not from here
but people tell me
it's not like it used to be
they say I should have been here
back about ten years
before it got ruined by folks like me

we can't help it
we just keep moving
it's been that way since long ago
since the stone age, chasing the great herds
we mostly go where we have to go

onto some bright future somewhere
down the road to points unknown
sending post cards when we get there
wherever it is we think we'll go

[board]

When you come up with better excuses for why the snowboarder following you out of bounds to a local favorite should turn back.

Some of the better ones I have heard are:

"Its like a 6 mile flat hike out, at least chest deep man."

"I wouldn't go unless you feel comfortable hucking 70 plus to flat"

"DUUUUDE, unless you have your rope and harness, its not a good idea"

Do you know how perilously close you are to getting your membership in the Summit County Air force pulled for admitting you are not sly enough to slip into The Beavers-Montezuma Bowl-Steep Chutes-Rock Garden without being noticed. How very very "un-core" of you.

[EPSkis]

Ali - you know you're a Maryland local when:

Your radio dial is stuck on 99.1

Que`?

[Monique]

I always thought it was getting the proper bro-bra beanie, then greeting everyone who's wearing the same style with "Hey" (accompanied by an almost imperceptible lift of the chin, of course).

For a while I thought about starting a "localization" service in ski towns across the country, i.e. setting up new arrivals with exactly the right beanie, battered Subie, chocolate Lab, etc. for their new location.

[Viva]

Perhaps I missed it, but has the word "home" come up in this thread?

[snow_slider]

Que`?

So it's an old list, but give it time and that will be the language of preference....

[CantDog]

DC area radio really blows now. HFStival was awesome back in the day...remember seeing Rage, STP, Chili Peppers, Run DMC,etc...

My sisters babysitter was one of the Sports Junkie's fiancees. Cute gal.

God its been a while since I've thought about Wild World. My parents wouldnt let me go there. Now I thank them.

[45hill]

My kids are locals.