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Why do people say they are from DC when they are not?
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Anonymous
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Get this, OP. All my life, I've said I'm a Washingtonian...but I've never actually lived in DC! Can you stand it?? So what if I grew up a few blocks away from the DC line, and I've worked my entire working life in DC, and my father is a native Washingtonian ("for real"), and so was his mother. Plus, mom took me to the Smithsonian nearly every week when I was a child, and I've always ridden Metro, and rooted for the Redskins and watched the Washington TV news. But according to you, I can't claim the title.
Bah! I say Washington is a state of mind. Well, maybe not a STATE of... 
Stop stamping your foot, OP. It's gotta hurt by now! |
Anonymous
Oh, good point. Yeah OP! Assuming you fly, I do hope that you tell everyone that you are flying to VIRGINIA (or MD if BWI) and not DC... Otherwise, that would be misleading, wouldn't it? |
Anonymous
21:26, it's a District of mind. Please use the proper terminology. |
Anonymous
| I don't know anyone who says they're from DC when they're from somewhere else, but if I met someone who lied like that, I would spit on them. |
Anonymous
Ha! Me too and I live in Maryland. When I told someone in Sun Valley, Idaho that I live in Maryland, he asked if I lived on a farm and if I had horses and cows. I live in Silver Spring, no farms in sight. It's just easier (and makes it easier for others to get the general geographical area) when we just say, "I live in Montgomery County, MD, a suburb of Washington D.C." |
Anonymous
| Really? I would never want to say I come from the suburb of anywhere. I might say right outside DC but I wouldn't say I live in a suburb of DC. |
Anonymous
Very similar story here - I grew up a mile from the line in Maryland, now live just north of that two miles from the line. All my grandparents were from/lived in DC. Wilson now stands on land that used to be my great-grandfather's. Went to school in DC (at one of the "big three" that everyone here seems to worship no matter where you live) and do most of my business there now. Remember driving to Van Ness and Connecticut to get on the Metro before it extended further. Cried when entering RFK for the first time at a Nationals game, remembering all the good times from the Redskins games there. I'm from DC, but say "just over the Maryland border" when asked for specifics, and usually blame my husband for it since he lived in DC during the last Barry administration and vowed he would never live there again. OP, just join the "when I say I'm from DC, I'm ACTUALLY from DC" Facebook group and get over yourself. |
Anonymous
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Who cares how many generations? Is it a I'm "waspier" than you mentality? It must be! SO, SO, SO typical! Should I say I'm (this many) generations from (this town) that makes DC area look like a third world country? LOL! |
Anonymous
One of my childhood friends from LA once referred to Maryland as "one of those states that hardly anyone lives in." She was a teenager commenting on my choice of college, and it was admittedly a pretty ignorant remark, but these things still represent real perceptions. |
Anonymous
| And... so far I've learned from this thread that people from California are stupid. PP's is not the only example. |
Anonymous
This how-many-generations thing is so bizarre to me. DC was actually at its largest in the 1950s (a mere 800,000-ish, I think), but its relative triumph was brief. It was such a backwater until WWII development happened, then lost so much population and vitality after the riots. Until recently, DC was nothing. It is in fact newcomers who are starting to fix this place up, seeing as how it's supposed to be a world capital and all. I'm proud that my antecedents and I spent the past hundred years in several major cities all over the world, not here. |
Anonymous
No. My friend's remark was stupid, because she sat through 5th grade lessons about other states (even minor ones) like everyone else and might even have remembered population figures to show she didn't mean it literally. But misperceptions are telling. People from California are far away, and Maryland is relatively less populous, doesn't have any really large cities, hasn't done anything to distinguish itself. |
Anonymous
Are you referring to Hollyweird, La La Land and Land of the Doo Dah Parade? |
Anonymous
| Not sure why this bothers you. Maybe they say it because it's the closest area that people have any ideas about or have visited, and they or their spouse might work in DC, ie DC Metro area. Could be also that they feel like they need to be a part of a city. |
Anonymous
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Ooooh! Ooooh! I have a theory.
I think the OP lives in Chevy Chase, DC. After all the years of people not from DC treating her like a poseur for saying she lives in Chevy Chase when they have ONLY heard of Chevy Chase, Maryland, she is having some kind of backlash reaction. |