What do you call tourists in your hometown? In New England, they have leaf-peepers. In Wisconsin, it’s berry-pickers or shackers, as in “people who rent cottages.” Coastal areas have pukers, a reference to people who charter boats but then can’t handle the waves. And in Big Sky, Montana, tourists are known as gapers. This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Names for Tourists”
You’re listening to A Way with Words. I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
If you’ve ever been a tourist, you can rest assured knowing that you’ve helped stimulate the local economy there.
But, you know, for locals, tourism is a mixed bag, right? Because they need our business, but as with houseguests who linger too long, they’re often happy to see us go.
And we talked about this in a recent episode when Dave called us from Michigan to talk about a term that they used there for tourists. And you remember that term, Grant? Fudgies.
Fudgies, because they buy a lot of fudge.
Yes, yes, and take it home as a souvenir.
And we asked you for other examples of locals’ terms for tourists, and boy, howdy, did y’all respond. We heard from a lot of people in New England talking about leaf peepers, and that’s a rather benign expression, I think.
I think so, yeah. People who go up to see the beautiful fall colors.
And we heard from a lot of people in Wisconsin. Mark wrote from northwest Wisconsin to say sometimes they call tourists berry pickers. Troy wrote from northeast Wisconsin to say that they call tourists shackers.
Shackers.
Yeah, because they rent shacks, you know, little cabins on the lake.
And then there was Chad and Tanya and Kelly and lots of other Wisconsin listeners who told us they refer to tourists specifically from Illinois as FIBS or FIPS. And I’m afraid that’s an acronym that’s unmentionable on the air.
Illinois is in there, but you have to guess the rest.
And then we got a lot of other great examples. Marcus from Olympia, Washington, sent us the term Pukers, which actually is in a lot of coastal towns.
And you can kind of guess what it might be, right? Somebody who charters a boat and goes out and they’re not used to the waves.
Sure, they’re up and down, back and forth. And they come back and they’re, well, puking.
Puking.
So pukers, yeah.
Yeah, that Googles very well.
And then we got a great call from Sarah in Big Sky, Montana. She said that the term they use is gapers.
Gapers.
Yeah, I mean, imagine Big Sky, Montana. What she said was they love to drive around in really weird spots and stand and gape at the wildlife.
Or they go up to the ski resort and they stop in the middle of a ski run and stop and gape at something. So we call them gapers.
I would totally be a gaper in Big Sky, Montana.
Yeah, absolutely. It’s beautiful, right?
Yeah. You leave your ordinary world or the place that you’re used to and go up there. It seems strange and beautiful and unusual.
We learn so much from our listeners, don’t we, Grant?
We do indeed. If you have more to tell us about what they call tourists where you are, send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.
Or give us a call, 877-929-9673.
