Why is the DMV so unaware of the traditions of the DelMarVa region? If you are from the DMV, how familiar are you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's hours away and a totally different, rural culture to our urban/suburban culture.
I used to go to Ocean City, Rehoboth, Bethany as a kid for a week. We weren't immersing ourselves in local culture.

all true

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:fried soft shell crabs
oyster dressing
parker house rolls
hot crab dip

All of that is just east coast southern and not specific to “Delmarva”

Parker House rolls are from Boston lol

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Scrapple

Isn’t scrapple originally Pennsylvania Dutch?

No it's from West Virginia and then migrated to PA.

But where do they hold the Apple & Scrapple festival?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP, Did you think they were the same?

Come back.

Op here. No, I think you misinterpreted the question. My question is not if they are the same, I am a native Washingtonian so I know they are not the same. My question pertains to why many people on both sides know so little about the other when we are not that far in distance. Is it a lack of interest in knowing about the life and culture on both sides? The distance? The differences? Etc..

How much do you actually know about DelMarVa and its traditions if you are from the DMV area and vice versa. Kind of how Bakery Pizza is well known outside of Rhode Island in the surrounding New England area but some of the things like Orange Crushes are not locally as you get further from the Bay. Smith Island Cake, if you polled people in the DMV, how many would know what is is? It’s not served in the DMV area all too often. Things like that.

[Anonymous]

I am from delmarva - born and raised south of Salisbury, graduated high school in the mid 80s.

There was a radio station that used to always say (on beautiful days): It's a delmarvelous day on the pennisula! Which I have always loved and still ay sometimes.

I've lived in DC since 1993. The two areas are very different - food and drink traditions are really opposite.

I was raised on chicken and slippery dumplings and scrapple and yes have eaten muskrat. Getting a bushel of crabs for any occasion in the summer and eating them on the porch with newspaper covering the table, soft shell crabs in the spring. Christmas parades were huge, Pony penning and the Chincoteague carnival, going to ocean city for Thrasher's fries during the summer. However, crushes are a relatively recent addition.

DC is more half smokes and Ben's chili bowl and Horace and dickey's and brunching and free museums and for my kids the public elementary school identities and the various school sports in high school and the Catholic school leagues.

[Anonymous]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Seems to me the OP is saying "DelMarVA" but talking about traditions that are very much "DelMar", not VA and not DC.

I've never vacationed at any Maryland or Delaware beach other than one weekend trip to Bethany and that was off season. Crabs I get, that's something that also lands in DC culture territory. I've had crush drinks.. at the Jersey shore.

But I don't know of Thrashers, eating muskrats, or any other of those traditions.

[Anonymous]

I grew up in Baltimore, have lived on the Eastern Shore (still have lots of family there and go several times a year) and have spent the past 20 years living in the DC area. I've heard of all of the things on this thread (though have never eaten muskrat). What surprises me more than DC not knowing about DelMarVa is how little DC people know Baltimore and vice versa. And they have no interest. Both cities offer so much, are so close and yet they feel worlds away from one another.

I was talking to my uncle who lives in Baltimore recently and told him he should come to DC for the day. He said he hadn't been to DC since the 8th grade. He's 74.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Baltimore, have lived on the Eastern Shore (still have lots of family there and go several times a year) and have spent the past 20 years living in the DC area. I've heard of all of the things on this thread (though have never eaten muskrat). What surprises me more than DC not knowing about DelMarVa is how little DC people know Baltimore and vice versa. And they have no interest. Both cities offer so much, are so close and yet they feel worlds away from one another.

I was talking to my uncle who lives in Baltimore recently and told him he should come to DC for the day. He said he hadn't been to DC since the 8th grade. He's 74.

Op here. This is precisely what I am talking about. I used traditions as an example to show how little the areas know about each other. But the overall sentiment is that there is little interest in learning about the other though we are not too far from each other. I’ll admit I was probably 19/20 the very last time I was in Baltimore. I could not tell you much about Baltimore even tho it’s less than one hour away.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Baltimore, have lived on the Eastern Shore (still have lots of family there and go several times a year) and have spent the past 20 years living in the DC area. I've heard of all of the things on this thread (though have never eaten muskrat). What surprises me more than DC not knowing about DelMarVa is how little DC people know Baltimore and vice versa. And they have no interest. Both cities offer so much, are so close and yet they feel worlds away from one another.

I was talking to my uncle who lives in Baltimore recently and told him he should come to DC for the day. He said he hadn't been to DC since the 8th grade. He's 74.

Op here. This is precisely what I am talking about. I used traditions as an example to show how little the areas know about each other. But the overall sentiment is that there is little interest in learning about the other though we are not too far from each other. I’ll admit I was probably 19/20 the very last time I was in Baltimore. I could not tell you much about Baltimore even tho it’s less than one hour away.

I thought it was an interesting thread! I grew up in Montgomery County and did not know much about Baltimore until I was in my late 20s. I didn’t know about Smith Island cake (Delmarva) until then too. I think all of these areas have little unique and interesting local traditions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I (late 50s) are Fairfax County natives and our parents (and my way back to my great grandparents) all grew up in Washington, DC proper.

I call my parents’ hometown Dee Cee or maybe Washington. The DMV is dept of motor vehicles.

DH and I rarely visit DC. Maybe once a year for an event or if we have guests who’d like a tour.

I’ve given zero thought to “Delmarva” although I’ve spent every summer on and around Delaware beaches.

DH and I aren’t alone in our shared hatred of the entire state of Maryland - the drivers, the infrastructure, and with very few exceptions the state’s overall grubby grittiness. We joke that any time we drive into MD we feel vaguely queasy and a bit car sick. I could never live in Maryland because I fear the nausea would be ongoing. I think there’s a reciprocal “rivalry” between VA and MD. My friends and family from equivalent suburban MD expressed surprise/discomfort/unease when visiting VA ‘burbs (“you have the same stores we have!” or “I can’t find my way around here - can you help?”).

Delaware? Sure. Sign me up and would move there in a hot minute. Love the tax free shopping.

I get the MD hate we're the same way feeling sick if we have to step foot in MD.

"Delaware? Sure. Sign me up and would move there in a hot minute. Love the tax free shopping."

But where in DE would you move? Lots of DE resemble MD.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I grew up in Baltimore, have lived on the Eastern Shore (still have lots of family there and go several times a year) and have spent the past 20 years living in the DC area. I've heard of all of the things on this thread (though have never eaten muskrat). What surprises me more than DC not knowing about DelMarVa is how little DC people know Baltimore and vice versa. And they have no interest. Both cities offer so much, are so close and yet they feel worlds away from one another.

I was talking to my uncle who lives in Baltimore recently and told him he should come to DC for the day. He said he hadn't been to DC since the 8th grade. He's 74.

Op here. This is precisely what I am talking about. I used traditions as an example to show how little the areas know about each other. But the overall sentiment is that there is little interest in learning about the other though we are not too far from each other. I’ll admit I was probably 19/20 the very last time I was in Baltimore. I could not tell you much about Baltimore even tho it’s less than one hour away.

Because there is not much to "learn." This is a non-thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, Did you think they were the same?

Come back.

Op here. No, I think you misinterpreted the question. My question is not if they are the same, I am a native Washingtonian so I know they are not the same. My question pertains to why many people on both sides know so little about the other when we are not that far in distance. Is it a lack of interest in knowing about the life and culture on both sides? The distance? The differences? Etc..

How much do you actually know about DelMarVa and its traditions if you are from the DMV area and vice versa. Kind of how Bakery Pizza is well known outside of Rhode Island in the surrounding New England area but some of the things like Orange Crushes are not locally as you get further from the Bay. Smith Island Cake, if you polled people in the DMV, how many would know what is is? It’s not served in the DMV area all too often. Things like that.

Liar. A native Washingtonian would never use the term 'DMV'. Never. Ever.

[Anonymous]

It makes sense to me that many area natives and transplants don’t know the Delmarva traditions - there’s not a lot of exchange between the two areas.

I’m a DC native, but my parents were transplants. So we never went to the MD or Delaware beaches or ate crabs or any of the typical Eastern Shore foods. The only time I crossed the Bay Bridge was with friends who took me to the beach.

But now I’m married to someone who grew up on the shore, and we regularly visit family there and go to the beaches. My kids are exposed to Eastern Shore culture and I think they will consider more a part of their cultural identity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, Did you think they were the same?

Come back.

Op here. No, I think you misinterpreted the question. My question is not if they are the same, I am a native Washingtonian so I know they are not the same. My question pertains to why many people on both sides know so little about the other when we are not that far in distance. Is it a lack of interest in knowing about the life and culture on both sides? The distance? The differences? Etc..

How much do you actually know about DelMarVa and its traditions if you are from the DMV area and vice versa. Kind of how Bakery Pizza is well known outside of Rhode Island in the surrounding New England area but some of the things like Orange Crushes are not locally as you get further from the Bay. Smith Island Cake, if you polled people in the DMV, how many would know what is is? It’s not served in the DMV area all too often. Things like that.

Liar. A native Washingtonian would never use the term 'DMV'. Never. Ever.

Except that Black natives would. Though in my experience, white natives, who typically grew up WOTP, know very little about them.