What’s it like to live in a Tourist Town?

Hi everyone! Anna here, and I’m one of the moderators for the East Bay site here. I’m a senior at East Bay High (Go Lobsters!) and have lived here pretty much my whole life.

Let me address a few of the messages that I see from people, like maybe you, reading this, have about East Bay, living in a tourist town, and what life is actually like here.

If you want the official version, head over to the about page. If you want the real version, read on.

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Hey, We Live Here!

First things first. People actually live in the towns you like to visit. Tourism kind of seems to make people forget that. People come to our town, think it’s lovely, quaint, and serene, but don’t see what’s happening under it all. Mel gets up at 4 am to open the diner and make sure that the fishermen are fed. Mrs. Johnson also is up at stupid o’clock baking.

Pier Street Market and the other shops still need to get their deliveries and stock the shelves before all of you come pouring in expecting to find everything set up and ready to go.

Tourism also makes people less aware of their surroundings. Do you know how many times I’ve been bumped into by some tourist with an over-sized camera backpack? Half of you don’t even apologize. You guys honk your horns like it’s NYC over here. We’re not like that.

The biggest thing that I’d ask you to be aware of is the fact that whoever is behind the counter serving you is a real person. We have good and bad days, and our sole purpose in life is NOT to serve tourists. It’s to make a living, and it just so happens that tourism is an easy win for us, but we’re still human.

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We’re Not in the Dark Ages. I have an iPhone too.

Just because our town is two miles, running north to south doesn’t mean we don’t have modern communication. The school and library have fiber. We all have mobile phones. I use a Mac for school. We’re not cavemen here.

The channels you’re seeing here is a faster way for all of us to communicate though. Our town talks. A lot. Sometimes, it’s good, other times it’s not, but most of the time, it’s real, and up to the minute.

Two-Way radios serve a purpose here. If Garbageman Joe misses your house for some reason, you just Two-Way him, and he comes back. If you want a takeout order at Mel’s, just go to channel 6 and call her, but most of the time, Danny’s the one answering you. You need two loaves of bread? Channel 6 again, but to Mrs. Johnson, and let her know what you want. Sometimes one of us will run it up to you if we’re already headed your way and hear the order on the radio.

Everything happens on the radios. They’re arguably more important than a phone here for us locals.

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Do We Buy From Our Own Tourist Shops

The quick answer is, yes, when it’s got something that we need or want. You might have come across Finch’s post about the camping cups. Several of us got those. They were just cool mugs. who cares if it’s a tourist mug? The thing is, and what I think that people wonder under the question, is whether we pay tourist prices because we live in a tourist town.

Not always but sometimes is the clearest answer. Most of the time, locals don’t try to make a lot of money off each other. If anything, we have a barter system that’s unwritten. Those mugs will cost you $20, but I paid $9 for mine. Finch doesn’t say what he got them for, but it’s fair to assume that he makes less off locals buying than he does with tourists. Same with Joe. When you buy one of his Case Knives or Zippos, you get it for a bit less than a tourist, but in that case, taking care of the local business means free knife sharpening, and refills on your fluid if you stop by his stall at the market.

Think of the tourist shops having two modes. Tourist mode with what you see when you walk in. A hoodie might cost $50. We get the same hoodie for maybe $35 because we’re shopping a local store where we know the people.

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What is the Off Season really like?

The off season is probably the busiest, which might seem backwards. This is the time when the locals “reclaim” the town, and we enjoy having it to ourselves. This is also when the tourists that are here are friendlier, relaxed, and have a better time than during the summer season.

To give you a slice, I’ll go over to Todd’s and watch movies or something. My mom makes firemeat and weirdly a bunch of friends just show up. Mel upgrades and replaces stuff around the diner, Finch travels to find stuff to sell, and go to watch shows.

Pier Street Market’s bigger location on Bayside stocks the local stuff rather than national brands. G&S cafe turns on their free wi-fi for students to study. It’s like any other small town then. The tourist shops stay open, but most of the business comes in off Etsy, or their ECommerce shops, but with the money made during the summer, we all get through the winter just fine.

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Don’t Visit Expecting Us To Cater To You.

You’re visiting our town because you want to be here. We owe you nothing. You pay money for trinkets and food and leave. We’re still here. Don’t forget that tourism towns have their own ways of doing things, and if you happen to be here on an afternoon when everything’s going south, we don’t owe you an apology. You were just here on a very trying day.

Anna Ko.