At what point are you a townie? archived

Recently a couple of neighbors let it known (in group conversation) fiercely and staunchly that they were "Brooklynites" (despite loving Maplewood and living in Maplewood for 20+ years). Reluctant townies seem to be everywhere. At what point are you a townie? Do townies gather? and if so, where? MOL? Is there a townie checklist?

I think you are a townie when you think you are. I haven't run across many reluctant townies over time.

I think the "Brooklynites" thing is part of a larger issue - some people move to New Jersey but keep wanting to say that they're from somewhere else.

I thought I was a "townie" when I moved here, but I grew up in NJ, so what do I know?

I guess it could be looked at a couple of ways, maybe it is about where they are from, originally. For example, I am a Texan, but a maplewoodian for 38 years, but hail from Texas,. Was Brooklyn their orginal home, as in where they were raised? Perhaps that is what they meant.

You're either a townie or you just live here. You decide.

Very simple, my home is here but I am from Texas, origianally.

Same here.. I will always be Austrian yet I only lived there for the first 19 years of my life and the next 26 in South Orange and now 3/4 of a year on North Carolina..so yeah to the south I am Jersey but in my heart I am Austrian.

I've lived here my whole life. I always assumed that was what made me a "townie"

I've lived in short hills for 15 years with my cousin who has lived here all of her life. I'm her NY cousin.

Maybe "Brooklynites" are people who should have just stayed in Brooklyn. Like it or not, our special little towns are firmly located in Jersey.

Major Strasser: What is your nationality?
Rick: I'm a drunkard.
Captain Renault: That makes Rick a citizen of the world.

Oldstone said:

You're either a townie or you just live here. You decide.

There you go.

I think the point where you have enough confidence and realism to stop trying to pan yourself off as a Brooklyn hipster...because crossing out of that borough automatically depreciates your hipster book value, just like driving a new car off the lot depreciates it's value.

I always thought that term just referred to people who live as adults in the town they grew up in.

TigerLilly said:

I always thought that term just referred to people who live as adults in the town they grew up in.

That is how I define townie.

Granted, I will always be a Chicago girl at heart.

So that makes me an "out-of-townie" now right?

The exception to my definition would be college kids who live on campus who pretty much refer to everyone else who lives around their campus as townies.

This:

TigerLilly said:

I always thought that term just referred to people who live as adults in the town they grew up in.

and I always thought of it as a sort of negative thing...like you grow up somewhere and just never leave because you're a 'townie'
and never move on. Sort of like a 30 year old who still lives with their parents. (but this was years ago...I know that now that 30 year olds living with their parents is not uncommon due to the economy...but when I was this age it was unheard of unless it was a situational thing...like illness)

"Brooklynite" seems as vague a term as townie is. Sure, it conjures up the hipsters, but it also could describe someone from back in the day who misses Ebbets Field and egg creams and all that, and people with ties to neighborhoods but looking nothing like a hipster.

Townies are from the town where they live. You can't move somewhere and become a townie. There are more stringent rules with some people. My mother moved to my former town when she was 4 years old. She has a friend who firmly believes my mother is NOT a townie because she didn't live there since birth. Same friend believes I could never be a townie because, unlike my siblings, I was not born in the town hospital.

I will never be a townie here but my son could be if he lives here his entire life.

From what I was told by an old Maplewoodians, you really belong here as soon as you learn how to jaywalk downtown.

apple44 said:

"Brooklynite" seems as vague a term as townie is. Sure, it conjures up the hipsters, but it also could describe someone from back in the day who misses Ebbets Field and egg creams and all that, and people with ties to neighborhoods but looking nothing like a hipster.

I don't think my husband calls himself a townie but he also doesn't call himself a Brooklynite and that's where he was born and raised for the most part. So were his parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. He never took to kindly to the hipsters who said they were Brooklynites. He just called them Posers.

A townie is someone who grew up here (or at least went through the school system).
My kids are townies even though they were born in Greenwich Village and lived for awhile on Long Island.
Me, I will never be a townie since I moved here in my late 30's even though I hope on living here forever.
I will always be a Lawng Islanda (born and raised) and a City Girl, having lived/worked/birthed in NYC from from 19 -35 years old.
As far as a Brooklynites, back in my day that was an insult!

EllenA said:

Recently a couple of neighbors let it known (in group conversation) fiercely and staunchly that they were "Brooklynites" (despite loving Maplewood and living in Maplewood for 20+ years). Reluctant townies seem to be everywhere. At what point are you a townie? Do townies gather? and if so, where? MOL? Is there a townie checklist?

At what point are you a townie? When you're no longer snobby enough to not want to be associated in name with your neighbors.

TigerLilly said:

The exception to my definition would be college kids who live on campus who pretty much refer to everyone else who lives around their campus as townies.

This is the only definition I have ever heard.

If you’re around my age, you’ll remember little Michael Jackson had a big hit with the song, “Never Can Say Goodbye.” Perhaps that’s the Brooklynites’ theme song.

Can’t you just hear that prepubescent voice going way up high singing, “Never can say goodbye…”

About a year ago, I was going to Coda with my stepdaughter and her BF. I saw Jamie as I was crossing the street and said hi, and she said, "You really are a townie." Her BF gave her a hard time for saying it but well, like Popeye said, "I am what I am."

In the mood to watch Breaking Away.

Refund? REfund? REFUND???

I was born in Brooklyn so I believe I get a lifetime free pass on the awkward question of being "from NJ".

I was born in Manhattan. If I went back in time to my lower east side resident self in 1987 and told him I lived in New Jersey now, I am sure he would kill himself to prevent such a travesty.

2013 self is smug about the bigger house and better town I got for not falling for the stigma and moving to LI or Westchester instead.