Us Locals

I popped into the local grocery store to pick up some last minute supplies. Including: protein bars. The cashier chatted with me and said, "Whenever I see these I think of hiking."

I smiled and replied, "Well, I'm going hiking, so that works well."

"Oh?" she asked, "where?"

"Just the park."

She then asked if I was going to hike Half Dome and we chatted about the permit system a bit and how it's new and sometimes quite frustrating. She indicated that she probably wouldn't hike it again because of the permitting system. Then said, "They really should have some sort of separate permit for us locals, you know?" While I couldn't agree more (and, that would be easy enough to do) I pointed out that they do have a day-of permit option, so she could try that.

More importantly, did you see what happened there? The 'us' she threw out was an inclusive 'us', not exclusive. While I think I'll always consider myself a local to the area, I know that I've become the outsider. So, what was it that made her see a fellow citizen? "the park." For as long as I can remember we have always referred to Yosemite simply and casually as "the Park." Sometimes with capital emphasis, sometimes not. When my town finally got a community park it was slightly confusing. Things would be scheduled there and it would be simply referred to as the park. That quickly changed. The community park is now, "the community park" and Yosemite has remained "the Park".

So, if you're ever in the area and you want to be tagged as a local (though, honestly, there's precious little benefit) when talking about Yosemite simply shrug and say casually, "oh, just the park."

Note: if you're in Fresno they'll have no idea what you're talking about. You have to be in gateway communities for people to fully grasp how not big of a deal having the world's most famous US National Park in your back yard really is.