As a northern Virginian, do you identify more with the Md. suburbs, or with ROVA?

[saganista]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

Well, it's good to see that people in northern Virginia don't write off Maryland completely. lol.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think that's the point. Certainly, there are lots of nice enough things to say about Montgomery County -- maybe about some other nearby Maryland counties as well -- but the point seems to be over some sense of "identification" or "connectedness" with either one of MD or non-Northern Virginia over the other that I don't quite get, given that none of us by definition live in either one of those places and hence can be only visitors, tourists, and other sorts of passers-through.

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

BTW, I've been to the tidewater area a few times and it's definitely a cool vacation spot down there.

Yes, yes, I've spent wonderful vacation weeks in Virginia Beach, but also in Maine, Florida, Wisconsin, Californis, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, and so forth. I don't see how that can create the sort of relatedness to and personal affiliation with location that seems to be contemplated. I do understand how living in a place for a long time can see it come to grow on you. But how that is supposed to extend to perhaps even unvisited places that are tens to hundreds of miles away is just not clear in my mind.

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by saganista

Yes, yes, I've spent wonderful vacation weeks in Virginia Beach, but also in Maine, Florida, Wisconsin, Californis, Hawaii, Jamaica, Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, and so forth. I don't see how that can create the sort of relatedness to and personal affiliation with location that seems to be contemplated. I do understand how living in a place for a long time can see it come to grow on you. But how that is supposed to extend to perhaps even unvisited places that are tens to hundreds of miles away is just not clear in my mind.

Interesting you should say that. When I was a child my family and I took a trip through RoVA and it seemed like a foreign country. Up to then no member of my family had set foot East of the Mississippi since before the civil war and in VA since the revolution. I recall my dad being too afraid to stop for gas in Washington, VA because there was a pickup truck full of redneck looking locals with rifles (probably just deer hunters). I guess he thought we'd be lynched or something. It was amusing when I discovered years later that one part of my mom's family was from there and some of those rednecks were likely my relatives. That same area out 211 is now one of my favorite places to go for a country drive.

[saganista]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

When I was a child my family and I took a trip through RoVA and it seemed like a foreign country.

When I was in my 30's. I took a trip to Manassas, and THAT seemed like a foreign country. That was in the 1970's and almost everything outside the Beltway would have fallen into that sort of category back then. Fortunately, I'd spent lots of time in the Deep South in the 50's and 60's, so was able to keep my bearings. Don't recall that I was bold enough to buy any gas, though. Then last year, my daughter got married there. Ya just never know...

[HarryLou]

I came up in Baltimore... still have some family in that area.
My former spouse was from Lynchburg...
I like it here.