Nicknames for Tourists

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Yes, hello.

Hi, who’s this?

My name’s Dave, and I’m calling from Michigan.

Hi, Dave. Welcome to the program.

Well, this is the beginning of a tourism season here in Michigan, and we have a word that is one of those unspoken words, or oftentimes if it’s spoken, it’s spoken amongst a closed circle of friends or something like that, or maybe coworkers.

And the word is used for outsiders, and I don’t mean to, I don’t want to apply any undue pejorative connotations to the word. You know, tourists are what they are no matter what part of the country they’re touring or where they’re from. And I think that’s somewhat interesting on this word.

And what we call tourists in this area are fudgies.

Fudgies?

Fudgies, yes. It’s got a bit of a history in the state where someone opened a business on Mackinac Island up in Lake Huron, and the island was always a tourist place. And this man made quite a bit of fame and fortune with selling fudge to tourists, and so all the locals would refer to the tourists as fudgies.

It’s probably synonymous with cone liquors, meaning ice cream cone-eating folks.

Wait, you also have cone liquors there? That’s another derogatory term for the tourists?

Well, you know, interestingly, you might wonder why Michigan reserves the title fudgies, because you can make fudge anywhere in the country. And they do. I’ve eaten in numerous tourist towns. It sells well until it gets too hot. So Michigan, being in a northern climate, it’s one of those things that does really well. But if it does get too warm, ice cream sales are more your better bet.

And I guess my curiosity is really I’ve been a tourist in other places, and I guess I’m kind of wondering what other people have called me when I was in their neck of the woods visiting.

Well, a better question, Dave, is do the fudgies know that you call them fudgies? Are the tourists aware that there’s a nickname for them? Or I mean before now, now they are. It does leak out every now and again. I mean, it is somewhat unspoken in that you don’t want to call somebody a fudgy to their face generally, unless maybe you’re arguing over whose fault the car accident was. It’s always the out-of-towner, right?

It’s always the fudgy.

Right, right. Got rear-ended by a fudgy.

Yes, exactly. So I think it’s unique in that we aren’t calling them by a pejorative word because of where they’re from.

Right. It’s because of what they do when they’re here, which is, by the way, I mean, northern Michigan people probably don’t eat that much more fudge than any other part of the Midwest.

Probably not. If you’re in business here, you more really affectionately call them fudgies because they’re the source of your income.

Yeah, they’re job creators. That might be a better name for them.

Exactly.

Right. I’m reminded of that term nosebagger that we talked about a few weeks ago, people who go to a tourist spot and they bring their own food so they don’t stimulate the economy. And also, you know, there’s also the term shoobies.

Right, from New Jersey, right?

Yeah, on the Jersey Shore. Supposedly they came with their lunches and shoeboxes instead of buying from the local vendors and merchants.

Yeah, shoobies.

Yeah. Here in Southern California in the San Diego area where we record the show, zonies or zoners are people from Arizona. And they do come in, big loads of them as tourists because we’re the nearest beach.

Huh.

Yeah. And it’s mildly derogatory. You might talk about how a zonie or a zoner is driving.

Yeah.

Right?

Yeah, exactly. And when I lived in central Florida for a while, you know, we would call the people coming down from the north, from places like Michigan, we’d call them snowbirds. Or if they were older folks with white hair and white shoes, we’d call them Q-tips.

Q-tips, yes. We have the same term here.

Oh, you do?

Fuzzy white tops, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, terms for outsiders are often a thing. I know that you really touched upon something here. I suspect that we are now on our way to getting many, many emails about words for outsiders. I know in Vermont and Colorado, they use the term flatlander for somebody from outside their region, perhaps in New Hampshire and parts of upstate New York as well.

Yeah, probably other places.

Yeah, flatlander for the people who are from away.

Right. Thank you so much for a wonderful call, Dave. You have given us lots to think about.

Martha, I think it’s time to put the word out to everybody.

Oh, I thought you were going to say it’s time for him to send us some fudge.

Yeah, some fudge.

Yeah, no doubt, or cherries. We also want to hear about what you call outsiders, where you are. What do you call the tourists or the people who are from somewhere else? Give us a call, 877-929-9673, or send in an email to words@waywordradio.org.

Thank you.

Take care.

I really appreciate what you do.

All right.

Have a great day.

Thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

877-929-9673 or send us email to words@waywordradio.org.