Spot the tourist.

Well...it's happened. I've now been in Hendersonville long enough and have become enough of a local that I can spot the tourists in and around town or on rarer occasion somewhere in the mountains. Now it's a little more difficult than it might sound as Hendersonville does have a diverse collections of citizens for a small mountain community. It's no Los Angeles, where one also develops an ability with time to spot the tourist even when they're not holding a map or taking pictures, but it's no Mayberry either. It's more difficult than just picking out the people who aren't wearing camouflage...or assuming that all groomed and "put together" folks are out-of-towners. You can't immediately assume that a metrosexual is from elsewhere...or that a hot, heroin-chic female in skin tight jeans with a sex for sale haircut is just visiting. There's something more to it. I can't yet say exactly what it is other than that they do have a "tell" that you pick up after you've become a Hendonite yourself. Maybe with more time I'll be able to put this "tell" into words.

This new ability to spot the tourist makes me wonder how I am perceived by others here. At first I was no doubt an out-of-towner. I looked, dressed, and carried myself like an Angeleno. I couldn't hide it if I wanted to. Now I feel like I straddle a fine line. I'm sure that most tourists perceive me as a local while I imagine many locals might place me as a tourist. I think my beard and camouflage hat, with a certain lack of attention towards a personal style appears "local" to the tourist. On top of that, I've slowly lost a lot of the Angeleno carriage and swagger while adopting more of a "mountain life" manner, carriage and way of communicating. At the same time, twenty five plus years of non-mountain/big city living is hard to completely erase and I think the locals can pick up on the those traits that I still have. For example, I use an umbrella when it rains, occasionally I wear dress shoes with jeans and sometimes a sports coat, I stay in my lane when I drive and use my blinker, and I admit to liking and will talk about certain elements of culture that would be taboo for a mountain man; Glee, musicals, fashion, hair products, poetry, etc.

No matter how long I stay here I think I will continue to straddle this line. I have an ability to, with time, adapt into any culture and "localize" myself quicker than most. I thank God for this gift as it suits itself well to world travel and mission work. At the same time I don't have such a need to "completely fit in" that I will give up and lose different parts of myself that I've gained through my travels and previous experiences. I suppose this chameleon-like ability is something that I can turn on and off at random depending on what the situation calls for and how much I want to "blend in".

As far as now being able to spot the tourists in and around town, I hope to gain more insight as to what these "tells" are rather than simply spotting them and knowing without quite being able to explain how it is that I know. In addition, maybe the next step will be the ability to pick out the other "chameleons" who are not tourists, but in a previous time were anything but local.