You Know You're From the Duluth Area If.

water really is. You know what DECC stands for and have been there. You think going to Superior is a long drive. You constantly make fun of people from Iowa. You have more than one vehicle that does not run properly. You keep a shovel in the back of your vehicle just in case. You know how to get to the mall with your eyes closed. You get mad when you get stopped by the lift bridge. You have never run in Grandma's marathon, but stand by the finish line. You have gone sledding on more than one golf course. Schools close because of the extreme cold. You get mad because it only snowed 6 in and not 12. You know more than 1 person that has killed a deer without using a gun. You where I-35 starts. You own a snowmobile. You have ever lick frozen metal. You have walked on water in March. You think Perkins is a good place to meet friends. You have gone to the Wade. You avoid Canal Park in the Summer. You still drive over the speed limit even though you can't see 10 feet past the dense fog or snow that's blinding your vision. You know that Mesaba isn't a marsupial. A main road get's paved twice, when it doesn't need it, before another main road, that has pot holes the size of compact cars, gets paved once. You still drive over the speed limit in a blizard. You are saddened by the lack of good restaurants such as Chipotle, Panera, etc. You describe your car color as "Dirt mixed with salt". The road you live on has more potholes than canal park has tourists! You have a vehicle with a block heater. You have a four wheel drive vehicle. You have every gone swimming in a lake in October. You give people directions and you tell them to go up the hill and then realize how insane you sound when they give you blank stares... which hill? You make fun of two harbors because their mascot is the "agates" even when your's is the "rails." You know that there's a stoplight.... on the freeway. Your car alarm has ever been set off by the 4th of July fireworks. You know 5 people with the last name Anderson and none of them are even remotely related. Sometime in your life, you have worn gloves inside the house for warmth. You complain about the cold, but don't turn up the thermostat because you don't want to get hot. You have been double bridged. You have ever bottomed out your car on a city road due to a large pot hole and taken the oil pan off. You know what crusin the loop is. There is no snow on the ground and a day later there is over 3 feet. You've gotten hypothermia after being outside for ten long minutes, wear 3 layers of clothes on a "warm" Duluthian day. You have shoveled out your car a couple hundred times in your lifetime. "When driving in Duluth, you give the directions "go up here" and "go down here" instead of "take a right" or "take a left" due to the fact that all turns are made on an incline. You've ever lost your boot in the snow and had to step around barefoot looking for it. You only start and let the car run if it's below zero. You laugh at the people who go running to see a ship come through the lift bridge and when they marvel at the size of a 1000 footer. You call Minneapolis and St.Paul "Da Cities." You know someone who's been stuck at work for over 24 hours due to snow. You experience a snow storm so massive, that afterwards, there are doctors on the news warning people not to have HEART ATTACKS trying to shovel all of it. You keep your plow on your truck all year long. You can spot a tourist just because they're feeding a seagull. You can't find a decent job? You laugh at the kid who breaks out the shorts at 40 degrees. You've been to a Dukes game. Pretended to drive off the edge on Skyline. Think the aquarium is the ugliest building you've ever seen. You have ever shovled off the roof of your house so you could jump off it and used your little brother as test pilot. You laugh at all the tourists daring each other to jump into the lake. You refer to Lake Superior as "The Lake." The Christmas City of the North Parade is before Thanksgiving. You know there is a weather difference between the bottom of the hill and the top of the hill. All the Local News is the same. You know what winter smells like before any snow has even begun to fall. Sand volleyball is played in 2 places... the beach and behind bowling alleys. You wear flip-flops in the middle of winter and nobody questions your sanity. You know what B**g and Blatnik are and which one is which. You are the kid who wears shorts when it is 40 degrees...

You have 5 different coats for all the different seasons and the seasons in between the seasons that only Duluthians can sense, and know what it means to wear a "fleece." You've ever driven up to hawk's ridge at night in the summer and honked at people in parked cars. You've driven up Woodland Ave a thousand times, and every time, seemingly worse than the time prior, that right lane makes your car feel like it is going to fall apart. You know what an Anchor Burger is. You call "Park Point" the beach even though its not by the ocean. You find yourself saying to out-of-state friends "Yes, but it's a DRY cold." You think one Grandmas is enough, we don't need 4. Fun to you means going to canal park and watching seagull feeding tourists get pooped on. You go to canal and get hypothermia for fun. You know each major high school has its own Perkins. East, Central, and Denfeld

You think something like "Let's go to the Miller Hill mall, Oh but the bridge is scary! The smell from the water treatment plant on the way in to town reminds you that you are home. You notice yourself responding to someone's story "yeah?...yeah?...oh yeah?..yeah?.." You have caught yourself saying "ya sure ya betcha." You know what the icehouse/uncle havey's mausoleum/ da cribs are and have jumped off it. You move away and people question your sanity. You here snowmobiles go by.... in town. All your friends names are Peterson, Anderson, Carlson, Olsen, Swanson...

The size of the American flag at Perkins is bigger than your house! You know what being "bridged" means. You looked at all the pictures and know exactly where they were taken! You knew what the 'lake effect' was long before they taught about it in school. You laugh at tourists who ride around in those little buggy-cart things and suggest to your family members that they should rent one "just to pretend." They consider 'Grandmas Marathon' a holiday.

'Pound the Hounds' is written on you car all year long. The women's hockey is better than the men's. Your mother delivered a baby during a snowstorm that not even the police were allowed to drive in... typical...

You consider people who live in the Twin Cities "southerners." You are picky about how the water tastes. It's in the below 0's or just plain cold and you still eat ice cream. You start looking for "The Lake" everywhere in
Minneapolis when there is no lake around. You know it is "summer" when the Portland Malt Shoppe starts serving up those delicious treats! You pay city taxes, but none of that money is ever used on the roads. Everything is closed due to Hunting and Fishing opener! You give directions using Left, Right, "up the hill" or "toward the lake" - Never really using North, South, East or West except in vague discussions about Range towns. You wear shorts and a parka at the same time and no one questions your sanity let alone your fashion sense. To cool down in the summer you've jumped off of the old unloading dock...

Bentleyville and observation drive are the place to be during Christmas....

After 4th of July fireworks, you wait an hour to get off of skyline...

You know what the Incan Superior was, but were never fast enough to actually see it. One street gets plowed 30 times before a street less than 3 blocks away gets plowed once. You've ever ridden any of the Scenic Railroads. You see 3 foot waves on lake superior, think that they are huge and have a blast playing in them. Telling people you're from Duluth and their reaction of "I LOVE Duluth" makes you really excited to return. Your snowmobile get a spot in the garage even if your car doesn't, and no one questions it, even your mother in law. You constantly fear that your brakes will go out while driving down one of Duluth's massive hills. You have ever hiked up chester bowl in the middle of the night to climb up the ski jump. As a child your parents forced you to bundle up in 4 layers, snowpants, boots, etc. because there were 3 feet of snow at your house but once you got to school at the bottom of the hill, there were about 3 inches. You spend many days of your summer break swimming at "the deeps." You know the bay side is warmer and why. You cheer for the Bulldogs and not the Gophers. You hate the movie Fargo. You know who Sven and Ole are. You know the new tech center doesn't have anything technical in it. You grew up with donut holes from Mount Royal Fine Foods (back when it was Super Valu as well) and still nab a few if they're sugar-coated. You can find your way around obscure country roads within a thirty-mile radius because you have about ten friends that live out on them. You remember which movie was played as a last hurrah at the mall movie theater because it was there for close to a year. You call the Blatnik Bridge "the High Bridge." You say "roof" and "hoof" closer to how you say "rough" or "huff" (though not exactly) and have found people from anywhere further south than Hinckley will ask you to say those words again. A "freak" ice storm turns your college into a red cross relief center and random people are showering in your dorm. You've considered it was a "bright idea" to jump in lake superior in November while its snowing to "sober up."You ever floored it down Lake Avenue and tried to get air. You race up 21st Ave East and try to get air when you hit Superior St. You've eaten a Bear Claw at the House of Doughnuts at 2:00 a.m. You remember the two "pet" deer at Fitgers. You swim in lake superior in the spring and/or summer no matter how many incredulous looks you get. Your canoe costs more than your car. Even if we turned the aquarium into a waterpark, it would still be an ugly, ugly building. You've been to Thunder Bay and consider that having seen Canada. You know who Dr. Merryheart is and you look for him in the superior's 4th of July parade. You've ever thought a good use for the aquarium would be a fish fry. You measure distance by time. You consider Dennis Anderson (channel 10) and Mark Mallory (channel 6) to be
celebrities. When small talk conversations center on the weather. When people who haven't heard of Duluth spell it Deluth. When people "down south" ask if we have flush toilets this far "up north”. When people try to imitate your northern MN accent and you can't understand what they are saying

When strangers think that Duluth is so far north that it is in the Arctic Circle. You have the best friends in the world! You know the cops that pull you over. You've bottomed your parent’s car out at 4-5-6. You know what 'Warmer By The Lake' is and been to it. You take a tour of 'The Ship' at least once every halloween and get scared out of your mind EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! You Do Not consider Canada as going out of the country. You can remember from memory the smell of the paper mill on the way in and out of Duluth on I-35. You see a mystery building being put up, hoping it'll be a cool new restaurant or shopping center, and it turns out to be an office building. You knew Holy Rosary when there were still nuns. You remember the old DIAMOND TOOL AND HORSHOES Co. You remember that the West Dulut (Spirit Valley) Menards used to be Shopper's City!! You take the boat out one last time to go skiing and the next day the lake freezes. You can give someone directions using "Snow White" as a reference. You used to go swimming at "Twin Ponds", and were cool if you went off the "Big Slide"

You remember how confused you were when they changed 5 corners to no corners. You skipped school to play hockey! You were disappointed the first time you saw the ocean, because it looks just like Lake Superior. You now live in Oregon and love to brag to your co-workers about the snowstorms you've experienced. You check out DCB on a regular basis. You understand the phrase, "George said it would be like this..." The Mayor decides to cut city jobs instead of closing the "fresh water" aquarium that is the eye sore of the North. You drive, or slide in the winter, on brick paved roads. Your favorite holiday song is Christmas city wonderful city...all dressed up in snow and mistletoe. You've ever traveled to southern states and you are the only one dying of heat when it's like 80, and everyone gives you funny looks and says it's cold out. You are visiting any beautiful city on the globe and it reminds you of Duluth. You think Brighton Beach is great place to swim. One of the members of a local news team has visited your classroom to talk about weather or nutrition. You go to other areas of the country and people get all freaked out because of 5 inches of snow and you’re commenting on the nice weather. In the winter, before you go to bed you pray that tomorrow morning your car will start. You have seen people ski down a major avenue during the day. You have been forced to stand outside in -20 degree weather in elementary school as a crossing guard to help little 4 year olds across the street. You tell people that you can drive in any conditions. Then you start to reference hills, ice, snow, and mud. Your dad pulls out the "walked fifteen miles in the snow, uphill both ways" story and you can almost believe him. In the winter, when you want to see how cold it is, all you have to do is look at the steam roll off the lake...when
you see a giant cloud thats when you know it's cold. You don't think the movie Fargo is funny, because those people all sound normal to you. You dress for every weather you can think of: hot, cold, rainy, windy...because you get all of them in one day. You brought you first car to Burnout Corner to impress your friends. You shopped at Community Market or Red Owl. You're one of thousands of people who check out www.duluthcitizensblog.com on a daily basis. You know which tree to honk at and why on the way to Two Harbors! Never knew about hypothermia until you moved South of Duluth. You are convinced to spend $250,000,000+ to close schools due to dwindling student population, and your mayor tries to bill you if the fire dept. comes to your house. You know the dividing line of Gary and New Duluth. When someone mentions the "Rangers" and they're not talking about a professional sports team;

When people ask where you went to school, usually they're asking about high school - not college;

You still hear people call Minnesota Power "MP&L";

You pronounce "sauna" sow-naw, not saw-naw;

You drive around with sand bags in the back of your car for six months for added traction;

It takes 20-30 years for trends to die (e.g., the mullet, Zubaz, acid washed jeans) and an extra 10 years for some trends (or retailers) to make their way here;

You took a week off of school to watch hockey tournaments;

You participated in the 6th grade Square Dance Festival at the DECC;

You remember elementary school trips Saints Roller Rinkyou know where "the wall" is and know it is more than just some wall. You’re from 'The Park'!!!!! You know where that is. At some point in your life, you have gone sledding on a golf course. The plows are pulled because a blizzard is so bad. You know who the Cake Eaters and Cookie Pushers are. You come over the hill into Duluth expecting to see a skyline and see nothing but fog until you dip down the hill, and the fog clears, and it's 20 degrees cooler, you've passed through the threshold into Duluth. You know ever movie scene that has taken place in Duluth. You've experienced a change in temperature of 30+ degrees, not because time has passed, but because you went from the mall to Canal Park. You have seen the sign "Not out of state checks. Yes, a Superior address is out of state." You know that "East" is really on the north end of the City and Gary is considered "West" (though it is really south on the map). You go to watch fireworks on the Fourth of July and tell the kids to bring along their winter coat, hat and mittens. You remember driving over the old wooden bridge where the B**g Bridge is now located. You remember swimming at "Gundy's" and you bought something from his stand, you remember swimming at the Deeps and the names of the spots you jumped off from were, the "Bell", the "Tower" and "High Pines" (don't forget "low pines"), and you also swam at "The Shallows" and dove for golf balls. You ever skated up Lester/Amity river in the winter. You went down to watch "the smelters" try to fish after drinking all that beer (or whatever). You remember where the old Perkins was....and actually worked there.....AND during smelting season received a smelt for a tip. You remember going to Bridgeman's on Superior Street and 45th(?) to have ice cream. You went to the "Sweet Shop" on Superior Street and 54th. You remember Sandy's Hamburgers. A Tourist Comes To You And Asks Why You Are Wearing Shorts When Its That Cold Outside, And You Say It Isn't That Cold, Its Only 20 Degrees Out. You couldn't wait to leave town on your own and now that your gone you wish you could live there again. You read these posts, nod your head, smile, and old memories come flooding back! You hate The Lake Walk not just because of the tourists but because "down by the Lake" was your playground where you could have a bon fire and camp out for the night with no one around! You learned how to ice-skate backwards at an outdoor rink with the wind pushing you backwards, doing all the work. You can use Canadian money without question... and you know the conversation rate. You constantly make fun of the Mariner Mall. You've spent several hours of your life looking out your window in a winter storm watching people trying to drive up an icy slick hill. You know that your yearly brake job can be blamed on Mesaba Ave/Piedmont Ave/21st Ave. E etc…

You call Superior "SoupTown." You know where to find the "multi-level dance floor." You feel like you've seen a celebrity when you run into Mayor Gary Doty at a Twin Cities coffee shop. You're the only one of your friends who pronounces "sauna" correctly. You've driven on the first paved streets in Duluth and you realize that they haven't been repaved since your friends at college ask you to stop talking about how awesome Duluth and Minnesota are. You dress in at least three layers year round or carry a sweatshirt with you everywhere. You carry an ice scraper in your car all year round. You know what the DCC stands for, and have played there many times. Every time you parked your car you had to make sure your tires were turned the right way "just in case your car rolled down the hill.”

You still recall (longingly) the potato puffs at the Canal Park Inn. You are familiar with wildlife in the city...deer, birds, bear, moose, fox,

You refer to yourself as being "from the sticks", and refer to "going to town." You know that Bill Cody's sister used to live here and that Bill and his friends used to hang out here too, and that there is even a street named after them for it. You remember as a kid coming down the hill into town, and smelling the combined smells of roasting coffee (from ARCO) and coal smoke. Check the wall for more posts. Check the original fb group out, too. "You Know You're From the Duluth Area If..."