You Know You Have Been in NoVA Too Long When ... (rent, new home)

[Margery]

You remember when the Colts were in Baltimore.

[jacmadhel]

You remember the giant bird cages inside of Tyson's Corner mall.
You had a birthday at Farrell's
You went to the little kids' rides at Bailey's X-road.
You shopped at Bruce's variety on Columbia pike
You remember when Old Town was yucky
All of the adults you knew referred to it as "town" not "D.C." as in, " He has to work in town now"
Centreville was the end of the earth and Leesburg was NOT a place to live and commute

[Kembek]

You remember when BWI was Friendship International Airport.

You remember when Disney wanted to build a park in Manassas.

[CaliTerp07]

You spend the week driving through Los Angeles and find yourself repeatedly saying, "WOW, the drivers here are so nice! No one tailgates me, no one honks at me for not turning right on red right away, no one has flipped the bird all week, people are going the approximate speed limit..."

NoVA drivers have really lowered my standards!

[CAVA1990]

You remember when you couldn't get a decent loaf of crusty sourdough bread anywhere and your only option was the soft crap they sold at Safeway or Giant.

[LocalGuy61]

Originally Posted by Yankeesfan

You shopped at Landmark when it was a strip mall, and went to its grand opening as an enclosed mall.

And your favorite stores there were Hecht's and Woodies.

You had one kind of "charge plate" that you could use at Hecht's, Woodies, Garfinckels, and ??? -- someone remind me what was the fourth store? (I never had one of these but some of my friends and relatives did.)

You had to transfer from the Metro to a bus at the Pentagon because that's where the Metro ended in Virginia. Yellow Line? Green Line? What are they?

Springfield Mall was THE place to go.

You dialed the area codes for Maryland and DC (which were local, not long distance), but not if you were calling within Virginia. The only area codes in Virginia were 703 and 804.

It doesn't seem like it was all that long ago when one, calling from NoVA, didn't have to dial any area codes for DC, or the close-in parts of Montgomery and PG Counties. The 7-digit number is all that was necessary well into the 1980s.

[stpickrell]

I know I am not the only person here that looks on people with 571 numbers as parvenus.

[Flamingo13]

Originally Posted by stpickrell

I know I am not the only person here that looks on people with 571 numbers as parvenus.

I guess I'm not "up" on terminology - what the heck does that mean?

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

I guess I'm not "up" on terminology - what the heck does that mean?

If you think about the French verb from which it's derived I'm sure you'll figure it out.

[stpickrell]

Originally Posted by Flamingo13

I guess I'm not "up" on terminology - what the heck does that mean?

Someone recently arrived. You know, someone pretending to be Northern Virginian, as evidenced by their 571 area code. Although, of course, the status of a 703 vs. 571 number is nothing like that of a 202 vs. the other area codes in Manhattan. I'm sure my Maryland friends think that of the poor slobs with 240 numbers.