Transplant vs native

[Anonymous]

There just aren't many white adults native to DC over the age of 20.

Probably aloof because they were East Coast Establishment/WASP/preppie types. The three families that I knew that lived in the Red Line neighborhoods in the 1970s were all very WASP-y. School connections included Andover, Williams, Bowdoin, Wellesley, etc. Supported their lifestyles with trust funds and sent kids to private. Connected to upscale jobs like National Gallery of Art curator, World Bank, private financial advisor. Their kids are less successful due to not being academic/career strivers and I don't think any of them live in DC anymore.

I'm the married-to-native PP and I agree with your take on who was here in 1980 along the Red Line and why. I will add another cohort, the Jewish intellectual people who came from NYC at some point to work in media and law and certain Administrations. I married into one of those families.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Also, it's National Airport to Natives. Not "Reagan."

And Cabin John Bridge, not American Legion.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in the DC area and lived there most of my adult life. I have never cared one iota about whether someone was a native or a transplant.

I now live in another state where I run into some attitude occasionally about who grew up here vs who moved here. I find it very tiresome and pointless.

[Anonymous]

This conversation is so played out. Nobody gives af.

[Anonymous]

If they don't know how to drive and keep to the right, they're from here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, it's National Airport to Natives. Not "Reagan."

And Cabin John Bridge, not American Legion.

Omg I have lived here my whole life and somehow I thought the American legion bridge was the one at the bottom? I’ve never had a beltway commute though I guess I just heard it on the radio and assumed once and then never cared again.

I usually call the airport “DCA” now usually because I don’t want to call it Reagan but it’s not called National any more whether we like it or not and it’s kind of obnoxious. I still do it out of habit sometimes though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If they don't know how to drive and keep to the right, they're from here.

X100000 totally angry, passive aggressive and antagonistic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This conversation is so played out. Nobody gives af.

You do!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Also, it's National Airport to Natives. Not "Reagan."

And Cabin John Bridge, not American Legion.

Omg I have lived here my whole life and somehow I thought the American legion bridge was the one at the bottom? I’ve never had a beltway commute though I guess I just heard it on the radio and assumed once and then never cared again.

I usually call the airport “DCA” now usually because I don’t want to call it Reagan but it’s not called National any more whether we like it or not and it’s kind of obnoxious. I still do it out of habit sometimes though.

The one at the bottom of what? I’m confused now

I like to stick with the names I grew up with, so it will always be National Airport and Cabin John Bridge for me. My kids are even using the original names, but it confuses their friends sometimes, haha.

[Anonymous]

These conversations are always so funny to me. I was born at Wash. Adventist. I still live in Rockville. I am good friends with about 5 kids from my K class and another 2-3 that I met in Jr High. DH and I met in HS.

Even though I live in MD, I refer to MVA as DMV because no one else knows was MVA is so I just changed what I call it. I'm happy to meet new people--there's always room for more at the backyard fire pit. I call the bridge between MD and VA "the bridge". I don't know why it matters if you've lived here all your life or if you moved here after college. I'm not privy to some secret handshake that makes living here different for me than someone who moved here in the last 10 years.

[Anonymous]

As a black native, I can identify 90% of the others by their accents and slang. There are some who don't use either, but they still have their tells (e.g., mentioning long-gone landmarks).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:10:25 PP here. By responding this way, I realize I sound like I'm penciling out Black families. Not my intent. I just wanted to highlight the rarity of white District families in the period following the riots of the late 60s.

Black multigenerational Washingtonian families are much more common and those who I've known are not so insular and aloof as the white ones.

x100000

The white ones tend to be racist. Of course, they would never admit this.

Yes, these people tend to reside in specific neighborhoods and have similar characteristics. Many of them are purchasing homes for their kids in these neighborhoods. We aren’t native
to DC, but it is very obvious if you move into a neighborhood around them that they want to maintain the homogeneity.

[Anonymous]

When someone calls...

Rockville - North Bethesda
Silver Spring - Chevy Chase
Gaithersburg - North Potomac

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Married a true District of Columbia native born at Columbia Women's. I've lived here 30 years -- most of my adult life -- but grew up in Midwest.

IMO a tell between the _very_ few white natives and someone who grew up elsewhere* is that the white natives are less kind, more aloof, more insular. At baseline, their personality is not "Hi everyone! C'mon in!"

Note that I'm speaking only of DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA NATIVES. Fairfax County miitary kids don't count, Rockville children of scientists don't count. Just white now-adults who grew up in the 60s - 80s in the District.

If you're a white family in 1970 and you 1) chose to buy in the the District (vs. Arlington or Chevy ChaseMD and 2) stayed in DC throughout your children's childhood and then 3) educated them in DC .... you are actually very rare indeed. Census data bear this out.

White people didn't begin staying in the District and raising their children to adulthood in any significant numbers until well into the 2000s. Again, census data will prove this so pls don't bother arguing.


I am one of what you call a rarity. Born in DC in 1970 and have lived here all my life (minus college and a stint on the west coast. In college, when people asked where I was from and I said DC, many would say "oh like Virginia?" I guess some people just don't understand that DC is a real place where people live.

There just aren't many white adults native to DC over the age of 20.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The DMV is the Department of Motor Vehicles. Any other use indicates transplant.

Except I can tell also tell you’re not a native (to Maryland) if you call the place where you get your driver’s license and tags “the DMV”. Because it’s not called that in Maryland and no one who grew up up here calls it that.

That’s not true, I grew up here and I call it that. I feel like it WAS called that when I went there to get my license? I don’t care, I still call it that.

+2

One of my native friends (silver spring) also called it that