Locals, Transplants and Tourists

I live in a particular part of the U.S. known for being a prime target during hurricane season. My state isn't infamous like Florida or Louisianna, but we've had some major storms knock us silly in the past so it's not like we're inexperienced. Which is why I find it interesting to notice the way people around me react when one such storm is coming towards us. Not because natural disasters are funny business (they aren't) but because you can always tell who's lived here all or most of their life versus a couple of years.

The big test is not the big storms, but the little ones. So many people are running around like chickens with their heads cut off over (tropical storm) Hanna, practically converting their garages and attics into bomb shelters. I wish I could just tell them all to calm down, but of course you cannot reason with an unreasonable mob.

Beyond a lost tree limb or two, a blown-away lawn chair, and maybe a couple of hours without power, tropical storms (and their weaker cousins a'la tropical depressions) are just highly publicized rainy days. In fact, unless you live in a mobile home, there's really nothing to worry about until a Category 3 storm. Even in the worrying, there are distinct differences between locals and newcomers: transplants worry about the winds, while locals know the flooding is far more disconcerning.


The whole point of this TERRIBLY LONG post is: how can you spot the differences between a local where you're from and a transplant/tourist, behavior wise? Slang and accents put aside, of course; if we added those into the mix, we might be here for quite some time.

Thank you, I was just telling Hibia about this in the IRC. My moms like, ready to buy a boat due to this tropical storm and I'm just rolling my eyes at her.

I live in an area where we almost never get these sorts of things (Pennsylvania), but have once or twice in my lifespan (18 years so far) and just the way people react.

They're calling for wind and lots of rain. Okay? Stay indoors.

I wouldn't even call it a local or tourist thing. It's just how finicky people are. Like, my state isn't used to this so everyone IS running around like chickens with their heads cut off.

clothing would be a big hint. a person from the north will wear lots of warm clothes while a southerner will not. Not to forget the size, color of the skin and hair. Of course that's in an extreme case i wouldn't have the faintest in telling the difference from a person from north Carolina and south Carolina.

Here in Toronto, I really can't tell the difference between a tourist and a local at all. I guess that's normal when you live in a multicultural city like T.O.

Exactly but, you don't really have something like a Hurricane or tropical storm (or similar event) that brings out the differences. Normally you couldn't tell someone was from somewhere else in Atlanta (unless you see a white person on the South side then you know they aren't from around here). We all just look alike since there is very few ways for people to just walk up and say "Hey, your from (insert city or state) aren't you?"

In my case you can tell they're tourists if they're asking how to get to the beach, how they react (awe or shock) to the random stuff people are doing downtown, or which roads they're driving on during heavy traffic times.

A slightly less reliable method would be to get together a group of about 10 people you know live in town (but not your close group of friends) and see if anyone knows said person. If nobody does they're probably a tourist. (There's seriously about 2 degrees of separation from one person to any other in this town....on a good day...usually it's more like 1.) Though in this case we have to count university students as tourists (and they usually act like it so I do).

i live in england so pretty much everyday is a storm :D lol
and pretty much every 4 person is a "transplant" i can't say i see key distinguishable differences in their behavior as they mostly know wot to expect wen they come to england in terms of weather. but i do think that you see a definite difference in driving styles public decency and just general things that you don't rely think about wen you walk round town.
on the whole i think that someone needs to tell these people that this is the way we do things and if you want to live here you will have to at least attempt to do them like this.

New Zealand. The tourists are the ones that are looking at maps and have funny accents. Otherwise, it's just people who follow the pedestrian rules. I don't, and fly across crossings that I know the traffic light patterns for.

But yeah, NZ is pretty damn diverse, so it's hard to tell them apart. Easiest way? When there are people wandering around at night, the ones wearing normal clothes are the Wellingtonians [I live in Wellington] and the ones in puffer jackets and several layers are Aucklanders or out of towners. We're used to the chilling wind.

And other small things give them away.

yea its the little things that give the foreners away lol

God, you wouldn't be able to see me for all the insulation I'd be buried under. The one time I visited family out of state it was in Michigan in the early part of spring, and the radio DJ was raving about the toasty 70 degree weather. I was freezing my ass off! I guess I'm just too used to heat and humidity.

I live in Nova Scotia, and the easiest way to tell if someone's from out of town is if they're talking about the weather or not. (That's the biggest topic around here. I don't know why, but we all love to talk about the weather...) It's also pretty simple to tell from the accent. I know, don't bother with that, but have you ever heard a maritimer talk? There's a bit of a difference in language. The easiest example I can think of for this is a simple sentence that my teacher told us: "Out and about in a boat." And a maritimer (Me included.) would pronounce it like this: "Oat n' aboat n' aboat." Slight difference there...

Go to New York city. Anyone driving a car doesn't live there.

lol