Semi-Native Son
Last night at the KOMO meetup (nice seeing all of you, those of you who figured out which tight clique we were) I got to talking to SJ of a blog whose name isn’t family friendly about nativeness.
“How long you been here?” she asked.
“1995. 12 years.”
“Well, you’re a native now.”
And it stunned me, a bit, to think that being here that long means you’ve been here longer than most of the rest of Seattle. I endured the collapse of the tech market in 2001. I was working downtown during WTO. I was in the Kingdome when the M’s clinched their first ever playoff berth in 1995. I don’t feel like a native, though. I never watched JP Patches, I didn’t spend my childhood in the Kingdome, and I didn’t graduate from a local high school.
There was a story years ago about how a Denver-area company started putting out “Colorado Native” stickers people could put on the backs of their cars to show their superiority to the driver that just rear-ended them. But after a year or so, they started putting out “Colorado Semi-Native” stickers as well, because the original product wasn’t selling all that well. No one ever really defined what a “semi-native” was, but they were lapped up, mainly by people who had been rear-ended in traffic by locals who were distracted by their own local smugness.
Of the 15 current Seattle Metbloggers, only four — Denny, Jeanna, Naomi, and Zee — are natives. The rest of us spent our childhoods elsewhere. Even then, having 4 of 15 people in a group be natives seems like a greater concentration of locals than you’d see in any other random Seattle group of 20-30somethings.
So, mull over these questions for me.
- How would you define a Seattle semi-native?
- How many years would you have to live here in town before you’re considered a “native?” Forever? Been here for WTO? The 1995 Refuse To Lose season? JP Patches?
- How long do you have to live here before you’re no longer considered a newcomer?
1. 10+ years for a semi-native
2. To be a native, I think you need to be born here, so amount of years may vary (I consider myself a PA native).
3. Newcomer status ends after 1 1/2 years. Because 1 year is not enough to stop being a newcomer, but 2 years seems like too long.
I’m a proud Seattle resident.
Although I was originally born in Tacoma (left when I was about 1)…so I can (legally?) be considered a native. But in between the day I left and the day I moved back (last year), there’s a 23 year gap.
I think being native isn’t so much as actually being born in the city or what high school you’ve gone to, but how well you fit in. If someone’s moved here and complains about the weather or how much he hates the Mariners, and honks in traffic for no particular reason, then I would consider that person an outsider.
But someone who is involved in the local festivities, is activly involved in the community, has a local drivers license, and knows enough about Washington to know that Olympia is the capital. Then your a native.
Ironically, having lived in Colorado for most of my life (almost enough to be considered a native), I’ve always felt like an outsider there…I simply didn’t care much for the place. Yet in Seattle it’s different. I feel like I belong here, and it’s not because I was born in this state, but because it’s a place that I can finally adapt to.
How snotty would it be to point out that at least one of the four is actually from Bothell, not Seattle. I don’t know about Zee and Denny though…
Ahhhh native smugness, how I love it.
That said, I tease, but without all the foreigners here, we would not have the culture and wonderfulness that is Seattle today versus the Seattle of yesteryear…
Let’s start with: I’m married to a Washington native, 3rd or 4th generation, so I will never ever ever get to be one myself.
That being said, I think the 10-year mark is where you hit semi-native. The other piece of it is that you know what the markers of true native-ness are: JP Patches, “last person to leave Seattle turn out the lights,” etc.
Native means being here at least since elementary school; the point at which you form solid memories.
I’m pessimistic (?) enough to say that newcomer goes out as long as 5 years, longer if you came here specifically as part of the boom. :\
I’ve been here 15 years as of the end of this month; it won’t be too much longer until I’ve been here longer than where I grew up. (That might be the other defining factor of semi-native, for people under the age of 30.)
And I wouldn’t leave for anything.
You are a semi-native if you moved here as a young child and grew up here. You are a native if you were born here. You’re a newcomer if you’ve been here less than ten years, so that includes a bunch of you here at WTO. Everyone else is a long-time local, but not a native.
I was born in Seattle (Group Health on Capitol Hill), so I’m a native. But most of my life I haven’t lived in the city, and I currently live outside the city, so in that sense I’m a semi-native of the city but a native of Western Washington and the Puget Sound region.
But I like most of the foreigners, and I figure in the larger sense anyone who’s not 100% descended from the people who lived here for thousands of years is an interloper, myself included.
Ahh.. the “Who’s a Native” discussion. I remember, like Scott, the Colorado Native bumper stickers, and sometimes how secretly jealous I was. Growing up a Military Brat, I called no one place home. Since college I have lived in a variety of places, Colorado, a Pacific Island, LA, the Bay Area, and Puget Sound. Been here since ’95 (Mariners playoffs, Nisqually, out of town for WTO). I don’t consider myself a Native, wasn’t born here. Semi-Native doesn’t seem fit either, I did not live here as child or attend school here. Resident or long-term resident is closer to the mark. Do I dispair over not being a Native, absolutely NOT. I feel blessed to have been so many places, both as a child and as an adult. And I have to say, this is one of the best places I’ve ever lived.
i think that Cascadian has it exactly right. i moved here when i was 5, so i’m semi-native (see, i can remember what it was like in some of the other places i lived before then). i grew up with J.P. Patches. i was in the Kingdome before ever a game was played in it. i remember the house shaking when St. Helens blew (i was in Tacoma then). of course i remember all the rest, too. but i also remember walking in ditches and going to bluegrass festivals in Charleston, SC, climbing on a local hippie-graffiti’d rock (“Daisy Rock”, it said!) in Hartford, CT, and bathing in a large bucket in Monson, ME (because the water came from an indoor pump and was heated by wood fire, and i was very small).
i gotta agree with Mark, this is one of the best places.
oh the embarrassment to be ousted by one of my colleagues… “bothell is SO not seattle.” you might as well call me a semi-native
I took a course recently, and in the introductory talk the instructor asked all native Seattleites to raise a hand. No-one did. Then he redefined “Seattle native” as someone who had been here for 10 years. Two of the thirty in the room had.
You are SO LUCKY you didn’t spend your childhood in the Kingdome. Try explaining to your classmates why you had Astroturf marks on your cheek every morning. I still cry myself to sleep.