<p>Oh my goodness!!! And to think we are all from the "YOU-nited States" (accent on the YOU)!</p>
<p>Ahh, actually, sgio, its Yahnited States ;)</p>
<p>"Speaking of snootiness. How can anyone stand the old guard Main Line Philadelphia?"</p>
<p>The Clothier and Biddle types (who are probably very nice people for all that I know) are not the social center of the western Philly suburbs. The notions that people have of what life is really like on the "Main Line" are amusing....even people who only live ten miles away. They think that certain families control much more than a couple of investment firms and a few private clubs. The local tabloid press likes to perpetuate this myth because it sells magazines. Like any other relatively affluent suburban area the supposed power is about money and has very little to do with lineage these days. There are small pockets of great wealth just like outside of Chicago, New York and Boston. The majority of people in the area are middle class and spend their Saturdays at children's soccer and baseball games just like in every other suburb. </p>
<p>What I am grateful to the "old guard" for are the huge checks that they write to support the art museum, the orchestra and their support of those of lesser means....since I am not in a position to do so to any substantial degree. If that means that they get their pictures in the Main Line Times each week, so be it. </p>
<p>One of the reasons I like living here is that the cost of living is considerably less than the NYC suburbs. The schools are good and it is a safe place to raise children in close proximity to a city for all that a city offers. No complaints here about the "Main Line" even though I am a Jersey girl at heart.</p>
<p>Sac,</p>
<p>I am so pleased to read about your son's happy transition to life in NYC. Isn't it great?</p>
<p>My daughter's friends all went to bartending class as well. My daughter finds it difficult to pour a glass of milk without spilling it (and this child wants to be a surgeon - beware!) and when I asked her why she didn't go to bartending school with her friends she said that "I know my limitations. I would be an embarrassment". She occasionally tutors high school students and makes surprisingly good money at it.</p>
<br>
<blockquote> <p>No complaints here about the "Main Line" even though I am a Jersey girl at heart.>></p> </blockquote>
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<p>Yesterday, Jon Stewart did a wicked skit on a so-called competition to publish a magazine called "South Jersey Times" which ended up in a discussion of where South Jersey begins (Exit 4, 6, 7 or some other exit?)</p>
<p>My S at Harvard had an opportunity to attend "bartending" school there. His roommates did and he did not. I asked, "Why not? All the other guys are doing it." (that's a switch for a parent!) His claim....."I don't want to contribute to someone else's drinking problem." What does he do now? He writes programs for an online gambling company. Go figure.</p>
<p>Marite,</p>
<p>I am going to check for when his show is replayed today. New Jersey takes so many hits on the comedy circuit that it makes those who were born and bred there stronger people. :) God Bless Springsteen and the Jersey Shore.</p>
<p>These continued references to the "who are your people" cracks me up each time! It wasn't until this thread that I realized what my mother meant when I was a teen and she was always asking me the following about my friends "who are her/his parents?".....it would confuse and annoy me because I couldn't understand what she meant. I would say "you don't know them"....(I mean, if I said the parents names what would it mean to her?). Honestly, I would get mad because I really couldn't understand the point of the question and how I was supposed to respond. Now I see that "who are her/his parents?" was a way of asking "who are their people?". guess what, she's now starting to ask me about friends of son....."Who are his/her grandparents?" </p>
<p>Sac, Cangel, Curmedgeon, Over 30, Sybbie - lists are too funny!! Half of our family is from rural Virginia - though many are in Great Falls and McLean, VA now (that doesn't count as "south" to me). We don't go down to the rural area much...but when we do it's either for a funeral, wedding or barbeque. The funerals are most interesting to a Catholic girl like me.....sitting in a Baptist church in rural Virginia and always afraid that the person next to me will "get happy" at any moment....it's funny how all of us from the north will sit together with eyes darting around the church waiting for whatever to happen (the nurses at the front of the church are always a sign that things will get interesting). The barbeques are the second most interesting.....I never knew that filling watermelons with grain alcohol and sitting them out in the sun for a few days would allow you to put a "tap spout" into them so people could get a drink as easily as I get spring water from the big jug in my fridge. And everybody's name begins with "Cousin"......and when the flat bed 18 wheeler pulls up for the DJ to set up on top you know things are about to get started....so you go get some more watermelon grain.</p>
<p>Becasue I spent a good part of my childhood growing up in the Caribbean, I have a whole different set of tales to tell. I still don't think any of them top the stuff you guys are saying abotu the south! LOL</p>
<p>Momsdram,</p>
<p>Gosh you have brought back memories of our parents taking us south for the summer.
We won't even get started on funerals and the nurses in waiting for something to happen (cause it happens in NY too, I guess all of those transplanted southers raising the next generation). Goodness knows it gives a little comic relief to the greiving process (one of the things that we can laugh about today is when my mom passed and my uncle (her brother) brought a sheet cake to our house and asked for the leftovers to take home and one of the women from the church bringing over a box of uncooked rice). I remember going to church with my aunts, once I took my neice and she told her mother that she went to "the show' with all of the shouting and getting happy going on.</p>
<p>My thing is the family reunions. Could someone explain to me how do people live all year until you get there? I've got some relatives see a set of NY license plates and begin seeing $$$ . Everyone wants to take you out you get to the place and come to the realization that you are the only one with some money and they are all looking for you to pay their way. My oldest sister has lived in Barbados for over 25 years and the stories that I can tell you as she spent the first 12 years in the south before my parents came to NY.</p>
<p>Philly Old Guard.... Believe me, they're still out there! I went back for my HS reunion (30 years out, my god) and they were just as snobby and witchy as they've always been. I will say that the Strawbridges were wonderful people--they had a rental stable where any house-struck kid was welcome and put to work, and even given a chance to ride from time to time! That horse farm is now a huge development of new houses--60 or 70! They gave up and sold out when the Blue Route went through their land, but I have a wonderful memory of galloping down it on one of their horses.</p>
<p>There is a new 'old guard' also. These are the ceo's, surgeons, and top partners in the law firms.I have great respect for these folks. Awe.</p>
<p>But I can hear the dripping contempt from the "old guard": "New Money. They think you can buy anything." (When I was in Phila last, someone actually described Bill Gates to me as "new money.")</p>
<p>Of course, they're right--the new money bought their huge old estates and made a fortune off building new houses on them. </p>
<p>On a more serious note, I think the new money and new people may save Phila from itself in the long run---but god, it's a stifling place and I'm SO glad to be in the west, where who you are and your own actions--not who your parents were or what your grandparents did in X war--is what's important!</p>
<p>I guess that's part of what I enjoy about Philly. I love the Old Guard and have much appreciation and respect for families with long histories of major accomplishments who live with a deep sense of tradition and legacy. My own grandparents did some wonderful things that have allowed people to become who they are today by creating paths for them. I can't imagine feeling like such things aren't important.</p>
<p>Maybe the black "Old Guard" in Philly is different.....but I don't think there's much difference for people with family legacies ...regardless of ethnicity.</p>
<p>Warning: I live in Calif. and in CERTAIN communities it is a west coast Philly! </p>
<p>Where I live, the first thing mentioned when speaking or weighing in at any civic meeting is "My family has been here since...." Basically you can't say you're "from" here until you have at least 1 generation dead & buried in the local cemetery (preferably two). Even better if you have a street named for your founding family. </p>
<p>You're considered a brand-spanking-new new newcomer for at least one decade. </p>
<p>Of course, this area was settled by snooty easterners!</p>
<p>"but god, it's a stifling place and I'm SO glad to be in the west, where who you are and your own actions--not who your parents were or what your grandparents did in X war--is what's important!"</p>
<p>Hi dmd77,</p>
<p>I grew up in Westfield, NJ and I felt the exact same way about leaving the country club crowd there (Don't flame me! It is a lovely town). Funny that I should move to the area that you left for the same reasons. Of course, I get to live the life I want to here and not the one set in play by my parents just as your life in the West is one that you created.</p>
<ol>
<li> You would never utter the word "Frisco."</li>
<li> You have every level of flip flops, from dime store to platform, to black sequined for evening.</li>
<li> All your childhood pets were acquired at Be-ins in people's park.</li>
<li> You would not hesitate to wear shorts & bare feet on a midnight run to 7-11, even in February. Even in Tahoe City. Even when it's snowing.</li>
<li> The "Big game" is Cal vs. Stanford</li>
<li> You boycotted grapes.</li>
<li> You have never owned an american-made car.</li>
<li> Your favorite part of the SF Chronicle was Herb Caen.</li>
</ol>
<p>"You have every level of flip flops, from dime store to platform, to black sequined for evening."</p>
<p>Love it! The house is on the market, I am moving to Northern California.</p>
<p>SBMom: how about revising #1 to its proper name, 'The City', which, for our right coast friends, should be 'THE City'. :-)</p>
<p>In south TX barbecue is a noun and a verb. We have two kinds of music...country and western.</p>
<p>I was once on a committee with someone who kept referring to herself as "sixth generation Texan." Another committee member then brought up his slave ancestors, which made for some interesting discussions. Both took great pride in their forebears.</p>