So you're a local. Bust a move ...

[Dees]

The Mrs. and myself now live in a Maryland ocean resort community(About 10 months). I've had it past my gonads with this "local" crap. Who cares? Are you so local you won't accept my non local money for your exorbitant goods and services? If I'm a local do I get a discount?

There is a video channel on television constantly spewing the mantra. Go where the locals go. The locals know. A local's favorite. On and on. One ad spews, "Secrets...for locals and those who wish they were". Give me a break. I've been to a few of these local favs...I won't be going back. I'm sorry you don't like Midwest rubes like me in your community but you sure take my money and make a good living doing it. I certainly understand love of one's community, etc and in general I like the state of Maryland. But, this local thing is out of control here. I don't feel like I've diminished this community by living here from what I've seen.

I used to spend a good deal of time in Colorado. I always got a kick from all that native, semi-native, Don't Californicate Colorado nonsense. Excuse me folks, is it OK for me to ski for a week, drop two thousand dollars in your local community and then disappear?

When I visit or live in a particular community I don't think I'm any better than anyone else. On the other hand I don't feel inferior because I'm not a local. Are we not all tourists at some time?

I'm trial balooning this post. Maybe I've got that arse/head thing going.

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. We have this problem here in Michigan. If one is West of Woodward

they call themselves "West side", and many tend to think of themselves as better than what they term East side". In their minds East side=tacky, low rent, no class. Yet they have no idea how classless it is to behave in this manner. Thank you for letting me vent in your thread. Tell em to go to hell.

:hi:

[KinkyDem]

2. Grrr ... Maryland beach resorts ... F*CK 'em

Bastards forced a convention I wanted to go to out of their town based on byzinteen ABC laws about nudity and flagalation. Forced the hotel to break the contract and the fundie cockroaches came crawling out of the woodwork to try to put down myself and my sexuality. Why the hell did you move to such a right wing, bigoted, fundamentalist community? Did you not know?

I will never again spend money at any resort on MD's Atlantic coast.

[Dees]

4. No I did not. I always thought of Maryland

as a Dem and reasonably progressive state. Visiting once a year is certainly different than living here. My wife is from this area and dragged me here kicking and screaming. No actually I will accept my share of the responsibility. I do believe I know of your situation and what hotel it was.

[billybob537]

5. Try Cape Cod

they even like Clintons Here

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. "Oh, but this is a FAMILY resort!"

Can't have a woman in nothing but a black vinyl g-string and a few X's of electrician's tape being whipped by a man in an SS officer's uniform on our premises...what if someone HEARD we allowed this sort of thing to go on?

Absurd...as far as I'm concerned, were I in the resort business, if a large group wanted to spend several days in my hotel having a convention, which would include rental of a ballroom or other space for private (i.e., closed to the public) activities, I'd have no problem with it. (I would have to draw the line at a swingers' convention, probably, as that seems a bit unsanitary. But nothing wrong with a little bondage, flagellation, wax play, etc...)

[truthseeker1]

3. I hear ya

My family is from Montana but I was born and raised outside the state and moved around a lot - my dad was in the Air Force - well, he retired and they moved back there in '92 (after being gone 25 years) and let me tell you, it's as if they never left! They pull that total local native bullshit along with all of the other narrow minded fundamentalist conservatives and libertarians up there.

I've gotten to the point where I don't even want to visit anymore. Of course, there is the subliminal "Californians are the devil" shit that we have to constantly deal with (my husband - who is a born and raised Montanan himself! - and I live in LA so we are the worst of the worst and don't get me started on how they "don't support Hollywood" and let me know that all the time, even though I work in the entertainment industry. Whatever).

My older brother - after attending UW in Seattle, living in San Diego and LA, decided to move to Montana a few years ago and take his rightful place as a Montanan native. He completely changed. He wears Wranglers, a cowboy hat, got a pickup truck....totally blended in. He is now running for state assembly (as a Republican) and I simply cannot believe that I am related to these people.

But yeah, the local native crap gets old REALLY fast. That's why I can't see myself ever moving away from an urban area.

[Rabrrrrrr]

6. Assuming it's a big tourist area, I understand

Having lived in tourist attracting areas, it's nice to have to some areas of "localness" that the tourists don't necessarily know about, to have a place to get away from them and be local. Not that tourists are bad, but that's sometimes it's nice to be without them.

And sometimes it's nice to go to a place that serves REAL local foods, or entertainments, or etc., and isn't catering to what the tourists' idea of the place should be.

We don't get this so much in NYC, since there's so much here anyway (though I stay away from Times Square unless necessary); but when I lived in Honolulu, you betcha there was a lot of opportunity for the real local scene and not the waikiki made-up Hawaii scene.