<p>Marite: I think there are several historical organizations that require five or six generations to join. (I'm a transplant) Some of the oldest 250+ years land owning families in our area are actually of Mexican descent.</p>
<p>Well, there's the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Daughters of the Confederacy, and now the Daughters of the Texas Republic (<a href="http://www.drt-texas.net/membership.htm%5B/url%5D">http://www.drt-texas.net/membership.htm</a>)</p>
<p>I've always liked the idea that genes that have stayed in one place for a long time somehow make you superior. I find it amusing.</p>
<p>Sybbie, your NYC list was FANTASTIC, loved it. I have enjoyed the subsequent lists too. Sac, I got a kick out of the quick transformations your son is having in NYC being a CA boy. </p>
<p>Sybbie, you are right about the way of life up here and the absence of crime. While I grew up outside of Phila. and went to college outside of Boston, I have been in VT for over 23 years and I still get into cultural shock when I return to the city in many ways (traffic, etc) but truthfully just watching the local news is SUCH a contrast. In Philly, when the news comes on, the first ten minutes is often one crime story after another (that is not specific to Philly but to any big city) and I realize that we barely have ANY crimes and when there IS one, it is MAJOR front page news, unlike it being on page 25 in a city paper. The way of life here is such that we don't worry about crime, though sometimes I think people have too safe of a sense that is not realistic. It is common in my town for people to drive up to a country store or video shop and leave their car running with the keys in it as they go in the store. People leave their kids in the car too, unlocked (I always locked mine even if it was for one minute when my kids were in it). People do not lock their doors, though we do as we once had a burglary where someone came in the house and went "shopping" and took some very strange choices for a robber. </p>
<p>But sometimes because it is so safe, people forget what can happen. As well ,I am always thinking if I were a child snatcher, i would come to VT as kids will be walking alone on rural roads where nobody can see them (I never let my kids do this) and how easy it would be here for these sorts of crimes. But even in rural America, one is not safe (just safer than in a city ridden with crime). Once when our babysitter did not show up, I did not know why only later to learn that that very night, she was kidnapped, raped and beaten and left for dead in the remote woods, though made it out in that condition due to being a hiking guide and in good physical shape (she is now involved in violence against women issues). As well, in peaceful Hanover, two rural VT teenager murdered two Dartmouth professors in their home. These kinds of stories are RARE up here but even in a rural peaceful laid back place like this, it unfortunately still happens. It just is not like NY. </p>
<p>I am not as creative as you guys but I will take a quick stab at "you know you are from VT when...."
1) you know what the fifth season is (mud season)
2) you wear plaid
3) Birkenstocks win over Manolos (in fact, nobody knows what Manolos are and I probably even spelled that wrong!)
4) you say "you can't get there from here"
5) the common saying is "don't like the weather? Wait a minute"
6) you don't want to be in the yard during hunting season,as well asthere are strange men in orange walking up your road
7)in fall, when driving, you get annoyed by the "leaf peepers"
8) you learn about ruts and "washboard" in March on dirt roads and hope your car survives
9) you buy a cell phone but it barely works anywhere
10) your kids go to school with kids who live 25 miles away and want to get together or "car pool"
11) you live in a car and your second career is "taxi mom"
12) driving in snow is a breeze compared to in ice
13) school barely closes for snow but will for ice
14) some years we wonder how long into June school will go due to snow days
15)while it ain't NH, some still say, Ah...yep
16) you are either a real Vermonter or a flatlander
17) it's Dean country
18) you are likely a vegetarian
19)you likely have an organic garden
20) you compost
21)you shop at health food stores
22) you pump your own gas
23) cars stop for pedestrians (so you almost get killed in NYC as they do NOT stop for you in crosswalks)
24) you must have a car, make that four wheel drive, and in fact, most have trucks
25) protecting the environment is crucial
26) stores close at 5:30
27) what's a traffic light?
28) you must drive with brights at night on two lane country roads
29) townsfolk argue over ANY development, even someone's addition onto a house, any business, any improvements to the resort in town, ANYTHING
30) what's a billboard?
31) there is no McDonald's in the state capital
32) Town Meeting is when you see your neighbors after cabin fever
33) where we have an event called Cabin Fever Follies
34) people are civil about Civil Unions
35) where two of the three elected Senators/congressman are Independents
36) you know what Sugar on Snow is
37) you actually have met Ben and Jerry
38) where an ice cream factory is the biggest tourest draw in the state
39) where you learn to ski before you can walk
49) where "designers" of choice are LL Bean and Northface and Patagonia and nobody has heard of Prada, Juicy Jeans, or Kate Spade
50) where the pocketbook of choice is a backpack
51) where fleece and down are a fashion statement
52) where you have never heard of public transportation
53) where you can own five acres of land and a 3000 sq. foot house for less than that 500 sq. ft. apt. in NYC that Sybbie mentioned
54) where THINK SNOW is a bumper sticker
55) where people brag about how many ski days that got in that winter
56) where a dump means playing hookey from work
57) where you see your neighbors at the Dump (different dump this time)
58) where the farmer's market is the weekly happening every weekend in summer
59) where folks play Cow Chip Bingo
60) where the convenience stores in town are not chains but are country stores
61) where everyone knows your name
62) where your name (or your kid's name) is in the paper almost every week and it seems like no big deal
63) where you go into the locallly owned supermarket and it takes forever to go shopping because you know everyone there or they know you
64) where when you run into folks who know you (you don't know their names) and they say, "you're the (hubby's profession)'s wife" or "you're the mom of (kid's name) who is in all the shows"....I'm never who I am
65) where everyone knows your business
66) where people CARE about others in the community
67) what's air conditioning?</p>
<p>I forgot one VT one:
Where cows outnumber the people.</p>
<p>Great list Soozie. </p>
<p>I can't take credit for the NY list as one of my friends e-mailed it to me. I shake my head because so much of it was true.</p>
<h1>65/66 just goes to show no matter where you are ther's a version of Who's your people?</h1>
<p>Sybbie, actually the comment about everyone knowing your business is a bit different than "who's your people". Here, in my resort community, so many folks are not native Vermonters and really nobody knows who my "people" are and I really don't know who theirs are either. It is like everyone is a transplant who chose to move here (though we have natives here too and maybe THEY know who each other's "people" are) and we really don't know each other's backgrounds growing up and people are NOT, what shall I say, "status conscious" here. In fact, the LACK of status consciousness is one thing I LIKE about VT. People here might be well off or on trust funds or well educated or a farmer, or a waitress, or a clerk, or a telecommuter, or a professional, but everyone mixes incredibly so, WAY more than where I grew up and communities were made up of people of "like" kinds either socio-economically, religously, or culturally. Here, in our community a WIDE range of types and backgrounds and socio-economic levels hobknob with each other unlike I see elsewhere. </p>
<p>The one where I wrote where everyone who does not know my name identifies me in town as the wife of the "hubby's profession" or the mother of the girl who does "X"....is not so much who are "people are" but what I meant was that everyone knows everyone's name here or at least face because the town has about 1700 people and so if they do not know my name, they associate me with either my husband or my kids, and my identity sometimes is wrapped up in whose wife or mom I am, rather than my own name! (as opposed to "my people" meaning my background growing up) Because everyone looks so familiar in town, it is embarassing to sometimes ask their name. I was just out in town and frankly I was talking to folks who I know who they are to talk to and by their face but do not know their name so I would never ask as it would be embarassing ! So, yeah, it is like, he is the guy who owns the ski shop with the two little kids who I have talked to many times but just do not know his real name! That is sort of what it is like in a teeny tiny town. </p>
<p>Susan</p>
<p>All you posters are so clever! At this stage in my life I realize it would be some what of a detraction for my kids if they were asked "WHo's your people?" They're the Ivy League grads...we barely made it out of city university!</p>
<p>I live near Washington D.C. where you're considered a native if you've lived here longer than one complete administration.</p>
<p>Searchingavalon: VERY FUNNY! LOL!</p>
<p>That IS funny. Here, I will never be considered a REAL Vermonter but my kids are. </p>
<p>Oh, I forgot another Vermont thing: The natives refer to going into town (village) as going "downstreet".</p>
<p>10) Conversations begin "So, How's yer Mama'an'nem?"</p>
<p>Cangel darlin', you're givin' curmudge a run for the money. Do we all agree? Are the CC Dixies the best comedians?</p>
<p>What's unique about my section of Pennsylvania (nothing to do with Philly except for being big Eagles fans);
1) You wouldn't ask "who are your people?" but you might ask where they go to church. This area was settled by the Moravians and there is a preponderance of Moravian, Mennonite and Lutheran churches in our area. We have many more churches then bars in my town.
2) At football games very popular food items are pierogies and cabbage and noodles.The latter two items are mixed together.
2a) One can buy two different kinds of shoo-fly-pie, regular or wet bottom.
3) An interesting topic of conversation runs to who hit a deer last. And then everyone tells their hits or near miss stories. This sometimes leads to how stupid Wild Turkeys are too.
4) Schools have off the Monday after Thanksgiving - first day of deer season.
5) One can go to a craft show every weekend from late September to the middle of December - and see the same things at each one!
6) Every local volunteer fire station has a "club" that one can join that has a bar.<br>
7) Speaking of alcohol, in Pennsylvania beer is sold by the case only and that's seperate then the state run stores that sell wine and hard spirits. Nothing is to be sold on Sundays, except in bars and resturants.</p>
<p>And, that's my neck of the woods!</p>
<p>Kathiep. I presume you mean "hit the deer with a car"? That's a driving hazard around here, too. As is being in your yard on opening day of deer season if you live anywhere that is remotely remote.</p>
<p>bluebayou,</p>
<p>LOL! Most definitely "The City"! (Until going to the east coast at age 18, I never knew there was another one!)</p>
<p>Also I forgot to mention:</p>
<p>-a true Northern Californian knows exactly who made the goat cheese, olive oil, bread & and wine for their evening meal-- and gets extra bonus points for knowing them personally.</p>
<p>-a true Northern Californian finds every thing about LA vaguely disgusting</p>
<p>Great lists and stories! And, yes, there does seem to be something about the South...including South Jersey and Southern California.</p>
<p>Which reminds me of my favorite Berkeley story: A few years ago, we attended my daughter's graduation from Berkeley High School, which is so large that ceremonies are held at UC's Greek Theater. I introduced myself to a woman sitting next to me who had come up from a very monied, yacht-club kind of Southern California town to see her granddaughter graduate. First, as kids came up to get diplomas draped in this and that, under or over their gowns, the woman asked me who was pictured on one kid's huge red and black flag. I said: "That's Che Guevarra."
"Oh," she said. "We don't have him in Newport Beach."
When her granddaughter got on stage to receive the diploma, of course this would be the one girl who turned around to face the audience, and did a little shimmy --at which point the girl's bare breasts popped out of her tube top in front of about 10,000 people. The poor grandmother. The last thing she announced as she clambored down about 50 steep stone steps, with her daughter and son-in-law trailing behind her, was: "That was a fine Christian girl until they moved to Berkeley!"</p>
<p>In Oklahoma and Texas deer are a road hazard, but not as much as cattle. A friend in college actually killed a bull one night on a dark road.</p>
<p>Ahh, yes, with a car. Actually, my husband has hit two with a car and one with a motorcycle. I had one jump out (and I hit) at me also. They just wait to see the car lights at dusk or dawn and then leap in front. Over30, I thought you were going to say that your friend was killed after hitting a bull. The deer that I hit really smashed in the front of our little subaru.</p>
<p>Cangel, Thank you for your thoughtful information. Our daughter will most likely be going to school somewhere in the south. She has liked those two state universities in South Carolina despite the fact that many folks from New England are telling her that she won't get as good an education in the south. We think the education she will get will be fine there. She wants to be in a different part of the country. She is not concerned about the atmosphere on the college campuses but is a bit concerned about how women fare once they graduate from college or even in internship opportunities she may experience. She is a "northern girl" and will noticably be one as that is where she was raised. We will continue to visit the schools and eventually (she's junior) arrange for a couple of overnight visits. We'll see what happens.</p>
<p>Nope, she was fine, although her car flipped and was totaled. Seatbelts do save lives.</p>
<p>Okay, representing Jersey (stole most of these except the last two):</p>
<p>You've been seriously injured at Action Park.
You know that the only people who call it "Joisey" are from New York (usually The Bronx) or Texas.
You don't think of citrus when people mention "The Oranges."
You know that it's called "Great Adventure," not "Six Flags."
You've ordered a hard roll with butter for breakfast.
You've known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.
You've eaten at a diner, when you were stoned or drunk, at 3 am.
Whenever you park, there's a Camaro within three spots of you.
You remember that the "Two Guys" were from Harrison.
You know that the state isn't one big oil refinery.
At least three people in your family still love Bruce Springsteen, and you know what town Jon Bon Jovi is from.
You know what a "jug handle" is.
You know that a WaWa is a convenience store.
You know that the state isn't all farmland.
You know that there are no "beaches" in new Jersey - there's "The Shore," and you know that the road to the shore is "The Parkway" not "The Garden State Highway."
You know that "Piney" isn't referring to a tree.
Even your school cafeteria made good Italian subs, and, you call it a "sub" not a "submarine sandwich" or worse yet, a "hoagy" or a "hero."
You remember the song from the Palisades Park commercials.
You know how to properly negotiate a Circle.
You knew that the last question had to do with driving.
You know that "Acme" is an actual store, not just a Warner Bros creation.
You know that this is the only "New..." state that doesn't require "New" to identify it (like, try ...Mexico, ...York, ...Hampshire (doesn't work, does it?).
You know how to translate this conversation: "Jeet yet?" "No, Jew?"
You only go to New York City for day trips, and you only call it "The City."
You know that a "White Castle" is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.
You consider a corned beef sandwich with lettuce and mayo a sacrilege.
In the 80's you wore your hair REALLY high.
You don't think "What exit" (do you live near?) is very funny.
You know that the real first "strip shopping center" in the country is Route 22.
You know that people from 609 area code are "a little different."
You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton - that's for out-of-staters.
The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school or local bar.
You live within 20 minutes of at least three different malls.
You can see the Manhattan skyline from some part of your town.
You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers.
Every year, you had at least one kid in your class named Tony.
You know where every "clip" shown in the Sopranos opening credits is.
You've gotten on the wrong highway trying to get out of Willowbrook Mall.
You've eaten a Boardwalk cheesesteak with vinegar fries.
You have a favorite Atlantic City casino.
You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February.
And finally...
You've never pumped your own gas.
Not only is it the shore, but when going there, you go "down the shore."
Not only do at least three people in your family love Bruce, but at least that many have a Bruce "connection" story. (Like, I went to HS with Miami Steve Van Zandt's brother.)</p>