A story about "Natives" and "Outsiders"

This story comes courtesy of my father, Gary Schwertley:

This is a story about the "natives" and "outsiders". As you know, there was a minor wave of Californians who emigrated to Washington state in the late 1980's-early 1990's and was greatly resented by some "native" Washingtonians. Moving here in Jan. 1987, we were a little early in that wave, and interestingly enough, it has been reported in the newspaper that a certain number of the emigrants from California from that time have moved back. Anyway, for many years, there were all kinds of slurs being thrown around about "outsiders" from California, "Californicators", and that sort of thing. I remember one loud-mouthed former co-worker saying, "I wish every realtor in the state would grab a Californian under each arm and go back there." He, of course, blamed increases in real estate prices on the influx of Californians.

Anyway, we learned to keep our previous state of origin to ourselves if people didn't already know that information. So, 21 years went by, and I figured that this kind of provincial, petty attitude had faded away. Those old complaints are rarely heard now. Recently, I was involved in a Group Health Cooperative study at their fancy head office at 320 Westlake Ave. N. in Seattle. I was talking to this lady across the table from me who lived in Lynnwood. She mentioned that she had lived around Edmonds and Lynnwood all her life, and hearing that I was from Edmonds, had I lived there all my life too? I said, "No, I've lived there for 21 years." She then asked, "Where did you live before that?" to which I answered, "California." Her next comment was, "Oh, one of those." I swear, the next time some congenitally inbred Norwegian-Washingtonian asks me that question, I'm going to lie and say, "Iowa." To that they'll probably say, "Oh, that's nice, what a cool state." Stoopid sonsabitches.

You know, you'd think these people still believe they live in a town of 5,000 people. This is a major metropolitan area. It's so childish and provincial of them to harbor these attitudes. What do they say to a Chinese-American, "Where did you used to live?" When he says, "China," if they respond with the same answer I got, "Oh, one of those," they'll be facing a civil rights violation lawsuit.

I guess being a native Washingtonian counts for something, and when I was a native Californian, it didn't count for shit. California was a state that was always growing with new arrivals of emigrants from all over the country and the world. When I went to grade school, lots of kids were from elsewhere, like Texas, Michigan, Ohio, you name it, even Iowa!! In Lakewood, California, the city where I grew up, entire neighborhoods consisted of people from somewhere else. Nobody ever said anything to neighbors about their former states of residence, except maybe, "Hail, fellow Iowan!"

Seattle and the metropolitan area around it strives to be a cosmopolitan, progressive place, but old attitudes die hard, I suppose. The history of mankind has been one of movement, and the "Washington native" mentality ain't gonna stop it.

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