How do you tell a DC native from a transplant?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The DMV is the Department of Motor Vehicles, not the DC area.

Yep, I can spot all of the non-natives on this thread. Natives do not use the phrase DMV to refer to this area.

Many African Americans from this area report they have been using the term DMV for decades …

LOL that is one white lady on another thread, not "many African Americans."

[Anonymous]

My old friends and I often call it "Washington" which I never hear anymore except on the news.

Anyone who says "the city" arrived 5 mins ago and lives outside the Beltway. If they indeed do live in town and call it this, they need to be forcibly removed.

Also, people who refer to most of DC as "downtown" as opposed to actual "downtown" are new/outside the Beltway as well.

And yes, the newbies are ambitious social and career climber types who always are always basically reading you their resume. It's a dead giveaway.

[Anonymous]

If a person complains that people in this area are "so unfriendly!" I immediately know they are transplant.

Lived her a lifetime, it's all I know, and I think people are friendly enough. But I understand that in other areas of the country people can be super chatty and friendly so when people move here and it's a you mind your own business, and I will mind mine and we will be cold polite as needed, that it feels unfriendly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If a person complains that people in this area are "so unfriendly!" I immediately know they are transplant.

Lived her a lifetime, it's all I know, and I think people are friendly enough. But I understand that in other areas of the country people can be super chatty and friendly so when people move here and it's a you mind your own business, and I will mind mine and we will be cold polite as needed, that it feels unfriendly.

I came here from Connecticut in the early 90s (so feel kinda native by now) and I thought people were very friendly, chatty, and Southern. Ha.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is a DMV-Baltimore accent.

Baltmer

[Anonymous]

Natives aren’t obsessed with being perceived as being in a big city, don’t refer to Virginia and Maryland as the “bridge and tunnel crowd”, don’t get all hot and bothered when someone from the MD side of Takoma says they’re from DC and insist they’re actually from Maryland and have nothing to do with DC, don’t care about your brush with some famous politician, doesn’t think “no one is from DC”, doesn’t think all cowboys fans are from Texas and knows why, and definitely doesn’t say DMV unless they mean the department of motor vehicles

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My old friends and I often call it "Washington" which I never hear anymore except on the news.

Anyone who says "the city" arrived 5 mins ago and lives outside the Beltway. If they indeed do live in town and call it this, they need to be forcibly removed.

Also, people who refer to most of DC as "downtown" as opposed to actual "downtown" are new/outside the Beltway as well.

And yes, the newbies are ambitious social and career climber types who always are always basically reading you their resume. It's a dead giveaway.

Or better yet, “Warshington”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Still Calls Reagan airport national

That’s me. Will never be anything but Washington National Airport.

[Anonymous]

You remember the Redskins Super Bowl win, call the the basketball team the Bullets and at some point a Kennedy either threw up on your or screwed your sister

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Natives aren’t obsessed with being perceived as being in a big city, don’t refer to Virginia and Maryland as the “bridge and tunnel crowd”, don’t get all hot and bothered when someone from the MD side of Takoma says they’re from DC and insist they’re actually from Maryland and have nothing to do with DC, don’t care about your brush with some famous politician, doesn’t think “no one is from DC”, doesn’t think all cowboys fans are from Texas and knows why, and definitely doesn’t say DMV unless they mean the department of motor vehicles

Let me guess, you live in MD?
I remember when the Bethesda Metro was being constructed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ask if they remember the Bayou in Georgetown.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Natives aren’t obsessed with being perceived as being in a big city, don’t refer to Virginia and Maryland as the “bridge and tunnel crowd”, don’t get all hot and bothered when someone from the MD side of Takoma says they’re from DC and insist they’re actually from Maryland and have nothing to do with DC, don’t care about your brush with some famous politician, doesn’t think “no one is from DC”, doesn’t think all cowboys fans are from Texas and knows why, and definitely doesn’t say DMV unless they mean the department of motor vehicles

Let me guess, you live in MD?
I remember when the Bethesda Metro was being constructed.

I’ve had the pleasure of living in every jurisdiction inside the beltway. My dance card is full.

[Anonymous]

They know what you mean when you say which hospital?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
1. Everyone not from the DMV thinks you mumble when you talk, but you and your friends understand each other perfectly

2. you don't understand when people say they can buy a nice house for 250k

3. "5 miles" can mean a place is 20 min away or 1 hour and 20 minutes, depending on time of day

4. You remember when parking on the Mall was free

5. It is likely that you are a first generation DMV person, growing up in the area with parents from outside the area. However, you consider yourself a heritage Midwesterner. Although when you go back to Illinois for Thanksgiving, you don't quite understand how people can live in that winter, every winter.

6. What, the kids at your K-12 school didn't speak 43 languages at home?

7. At least 50% of your friends parents are lawyers, or were lawyers. They are universally miserable, and yet 50% of your friends are now lawyers, too. So much for all those high GPAs and test scores, some people never learn.

8. Snow is a beautiful thing that shuts down the whole world. No one should ever been expected to function when snow is falling, or could be reasonably expected to fall within the next 24 to 48 hours.

9. As an adult, the chance of running into friends from HS at the supermarket or whatever is infinitesimal, because everyone moves away (the Heritage Midwesterner often returns to the nest).

It should not be such a surprise, because you don't live there anymore, either.

10. It will always be National Airport

Totally with you on 7-10. I do have some high school friends here but most of my HS classmates (Sidwell) are elsewhere.

I'd add: When you meet someone local, the first question is about where you each went to high school. (I met someone last week, we are both over 50, and the first question he asked me was about where I went to high school).

NP: This is particularly true in the Black community — and dates in part the time when the racially segregated school system had only 3 high schools for Black students, including the college prep DVNBAR. (Spelling choice is deliberate.). Many of us oldies then go on to ask about JHSs, elementary schools, church affiliations and sports. By the time we’re done, we usually have multiple people that we know in common.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My old friends and I often call it "Washington" which I never hear anymore except on the news.

My parents, who were DC natives born in the 30s, both called it Washington. I switched to DC when I was a teenager b/c it sounded cooler/less Southern.