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Just after WWII, my grandfather moved from Indiana to Nevada and homesteaded a farm. Any visit to family in Indiana was a visit "back east". Today, I heard a coworker use that phrase to describe a visit to family in Indiana.
I find it interesting that, after three generations, we still remember that we've just moved "out west" and that going east is going back. I think the Indiana part is a coincidence - surely Indiana is not the only location that can be "back east".
Is anyone else familiar with these phrases, and if so, how often are they used? I think that phrases would only persist where there's a familial connection. That is, east remains the origin only so long as someone remains there. Once ties are lost, the reference point moves.
I never thought about it being a family connection; I just took it to be a sort of cultural recognition that on this continent, we (well, those of European stock) started in the east and migrated west.
But now that you've said that, I have to admit the family memory seems more likely. I think.
And yes, I hear "out west" and "back east" all the time. My earliest memories are from Minnesota, by the way, and to me "out west" meant places like Colorado, Montana and Nevada; I was bemused when I moved to Pittsburgh at 14 and discovered that they thought I was from out west.
Maybe it's the latitude difference, but most of my family is in Wisconsin, and I live in Arizona. When we refer to travel, it's "up there" and "down there." Same with my bro in Albuquerque. Occasionally it's "back there" and "out there." Curiously (at least for my family) the east/west thing never comes up.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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