What makes someone a local?

**rideit** · 01-12-2006, 01:30 PM

"Boomtown"
Here come the artists with their intense faces,
with their need for money and quiet spaces.
They leave New York, they leave L.A..
Here they are - who knows how long they'll stay -

[chorus:]
It's a Boomtown
got another Boomtown
and it'll boom
just as long as boom has room.

Here come the tourists with their blank stares,
with their fanny packs - they are penny millionaires.
Something interesting happened here long time ago.
Now where people used to live their lives the restless
come and go.

[repeat chorus]

Nice to meet you, nice to see you
in a sheepskin coat made in Korea.
Welcome to the new age, the new century.
Welcome to a town with no real reason to be.

[repeat chorus]

The rich build sensitive houses and pass their staff around.
For the rest of us, it's trailers on the outskirts of town.
We carry them their coffee, wash their shiny cars,
hear all about how lucky we are
to be living in a ...

[repeat chorus]

The guy from California moves in and relaxes.
The natives have to move - they cannot pay the taxes.
Santa Fe has had it. Sedona has, too.
Maybe you'll be lucky - maybe your town will be the new...

**hemlock hiker** · 01-12-2006, 03:14 PM

Greg Brown!! Great album... I play this song over and over again especially in the summer when even the backcountry lakes and creeks are littered with line, lures, etc...

**MacDaddy** · 01-12-2006, 04:43 PM

I'll take this the other way and say;
After almost 10 seasons here in UT, I still have my CA drivers license and in no way will I ever be a local!

My two boys (even though they were born here,) are not considered local by the "local" kids because of their "local" beliefs! Sorry but its true!

**mntlion** · 01-12-2006, 04:50 PM

Originally Posted by Viva

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

good call

when people "go home" they are not locals, when they "come home" to the place they are living. then they are...

**Merlyn** · 01-12-2006, 05:38 PM

Originally Posted by mntlion

good call

when people "go home" they are not locals, when they "come home" to the place they are living. then they are...

Hey - after a decade-plus of sleeping on your floor on a weekly basis, I must have some kind of "quasi-local" status. Shit, I'm even paying you rent this year ...

**mntlion** · 01-12-2006, 05:54 PM

Originally Posted by Merlyn

Hey - after a decade-plus of sleeping on your floor on a weekly basis, I must have some kind of "quasi-local" status. Shit, I'm even paying you rent this year ...

I think you are a "Resident" then...

**powder11** · 01-12-2006, 05:56 PM

most conversations in whistler start with "Ive been a long term local for X # of yrs" its pretty funny. I consider myself a local in the town I grew up. I havent lived there for 12 yrs, but I still know lots of people when I visit and they treat me like I never left.

**Tippster** · 01-12-2006, 06:08 PM

I refuse to ever think of you as a MD local. Now, are we getting together this weekend for some Bluegrass? The band from my party is playing in Alexandria Sat. night....

**Tippster** · 01-12-2006, 06:10 PM

On topic: Since nobody is really "from" Vail, all it took for someone to be considered a local was to work there for a full calendar year. Bonus points for not getting time off during mud season.

**CantDog** · 01-12-2006, 06:29 PM

Originally Posted by Tippster

On topic: Since nobody is really "from" Vail

What about that cattle herder? he'll be mighty pissed when he heres about you taking away his local status.

**surfsnowywaves** · 01-12-2006, 09:28 PM

Well, to be a true local, you need to have gone there for a reason other than skiing. If you move somewhere for the skiing, you'll always be a gaper. If you moved there because there was some nice land to herd your dairy cows...go for it: you belong there. Either that or you were born there or moved before you were 18, generally in tow of your parents.

On that note, I guess Ill be a gaper for the rest of my life, but I wont give a damn.

**Yossarian** · 01-13-2006, 11:07 AM

back where you belong

**kailas** · 01-13-2006, 11:25 AM

So why is it people from somewhere else have this need to qualify themselves as a local? I think it is a very American phenomenon to come to a place and learn some beta then run around shouting about all you know, trying to make
yourself look like you belong. I beleive it is a very American insecurity. I've spent a lot of time in Europe and with the locals there, my experience is they act the opposite, they keep quiet.

**Alioops** · 01-13-2006, 12:43 PM

Originally Posted by Tippster

I refuse to ever think of you as a MD local. Now, are we getting together this weekend for some Bluegrass? The band from my party is playing in Alexandria Sat. night....

I actually have Sat. off, but we are going to be watching the games.

That Bluegrass band was great!