East is back (was: /or/ distinctions: TOUR)

[Peter A. McGraw]

Allen,

Thanks for the "back"-up.

By mentioning the Mississippi in an earlier post, I didn't mean to imply it
was a hard-and-fast boundary between a Westerner's 'back east" and the rest
of the world.  When I went abroad under the AFS program in high school, the
whole Europe-bound contingent from Oregon and southwest Washington traveled
together to New York.  During one of our briefings there, a local AFS
staffer mentioned some event that had taken place "somewhere out west--like
Nebraska."  Our entire group burst out laughing, much to the staffer's
puzzled consternation.  Although the term wasn't used, I'm sure most of us
laughed because for us Nebraska counted as "back east."

Peter Mc.

--On Mon, Apr 17, 2000 10:59 AM -0700 "A. Maberry"
<maberry at U.WASHINGTON.EDU> wrote:

> Peter,
>
> I won't bust your bubble. I've never heard any native Oregonians (or
> Washingtonians for that matter) use the phrase "out east", only "back
> east". However, I have heard "back east" extended to places like Iowa,
> Minnesota, etc.
>
> Allen
> maberry at u.washington.edu
>
> On Mon, 17 Apr 2000, Peter A. McGraw wrote:
>>
>> Now after all of my "never" assertions, I'll probably hear about three
>> native Oregonians say "out east" within the next three days or so. :)


****************************************************************************
                               Peter A. McGraw
                   Linfield College   *   McMinnville, OR
                            pmcgraw at linfield.edu