THINGS YOU’LL ONLY UNDERSTAND IF YOU’RE FROM WENATCHEE

THINGS YOU’LL ONLY UNDERSTAND IF YOU’RE FROM WENATCHEE OR WASHINGTON 

A couple weeks back I wrote an article about What Makes a Person a ‘Local’ in the Wenatchee Valley. And I got some great answers from listeners. But one theme that I found interesting was there were places, names, and things that locals from Wenatchee…and quite frankly anyone in Washington State would say. In fact, that last sentence is example number one. 

WASHINGTON VS WASHINGTON STATE: Here in the state of Washington, we don’t say Washington State. Actually, I don’t think anyone in any of the states on the west coast say Washington State. Even when I was a kid in Southern California, we just said, “Up in Washington”. I think it’s more of an east coast thing that people will say, ‘Washington State’ because to them, Washington is where the nation’s capital and the White House are. Here we call Washington DC, ‘DC’. “Man, those people in DC are screwin’ up the country!”

THE AVENUE: When I first moved to Wenatchee, I was told, “Mav3rick. To sound like a local, don’t say on the radio, ‘Wenatchee Avenue’. Just say, ’The Avenue’. We like to shorten words or phrases to sound, ‘cool like that’. Like we don’t say, Washington State. By the way. Feel free to just call me Mav. Hummm. Since our radio station is on Wenatchee Avenue, I could just say, “I’m Mav on the Ave.”

THE CITY: Actually this is pretty common in many small(er) towns outside a major metropolitan. Live in Sacramento or Santa Cruz, California and say you’re going to The City, means you’re going to San Francisco. Same here. Going to The City means you’re going to Seattle.  

WEST SIDE: Here’s one that fooled me when I moved to Wenatchee. I just assumed West Side was West of East Wenatchee…meaning…Wenatchee. But apparently it means anything on the other side of the Cascades.

 MOUNTAIN JUMPER: This is similar to what they have in the Mid-West called ‘puddle jumper’. Example, a smaller plane flying from Grand Rapids to Milwaukee, flying over Lake Michigan. Here, ‘mountain jumper’ (I heard someone call it ‘hill jumper’) is that one plane flying from Pangborn, over the Cascades, to Sea-Tac (and back).

SHEDDER: I caught on to this real quick when I moved to Central Washington heading into Watershed. Shedders are those who regularly campout and attend Watershed at the Gorge every year. It’s a great country lifestyle.

THE ROYALS: I was telling a friend of mine in Vegas that we had ‘the royals’ coming into the radio station. Puzzled she was thinking someone from England. Nope. It’s the Apple Blossom Queen and Princesses.

THE WINDS WILL STOP AS SOON AS THE SNOW IS OFF THE COLOCKUM: Although I’ve never heard of this one, I like it! Someone wrote to me stating that every year there would be a big wind storm, and it would blow all the snow away from Colockum is Eastern Washington. Then it was Spring.

THE MOUNTAIN IS OUT: This is more of a Seattle thing (Sorry. The City thing). It’s when the sky is clear and you can actually see Mt. Rainer in all its glory.

THE KISSIN’ BOOTH: You know we had to bring this up. It’s the on air studio of the Townsquare Media radio station, Kissin’ 977.

GO WILD: The next few are terms we use for the Wenatchee Wild hockey team. Sure, we know it like a Seahawks fan saying, ‘Go Hawks’. But ‘Go Wild’ has a double meaning. For those who don’t know would simply think we would go wild, nuts, crazy, wacko.

THE DEN: Sometimes known as the Wolf Den. Simply, it’s what we call the Town Toyota Center when the Wenatchee Wild take to the ice. 

RESTORE THE ROAR: A relatively new term. When the pandemic hit, that left our junior level hockey team with no 2020 season. When games resumed in 2021, there were still restrictions. When the restrictions were lifted, the administrative team came up with, ‘restore the roar’ to get fans excited and back into ‘the den’, with even more fun events and things to do.

So did we miss anything? I’m sure there’s more. We’ll have a fresh new list for ya.