You Know You're From Adelaide When ...

So, this morning, current Prime Minister Scott Morrison made a rather unfortunate Freudian slip at a press conference, suggesting that Adelaide is shitty. (See more here.) For many seasoned Adelaidians, it was just another typical jibe from someone from the Eastern states who should have known better but didn't, quite possibly because there is votes in it for him on the other side of the border. Sadly what Scott Morrison failed to realise there is no one who knows quite how to make fun of Adelaide like someone who actually lives there. But who actually counts as someone who is from Adelaide? Well, if you identify with at least one of the things on this list, you probably are from Adelaide, or at least spent an afternoon here, instead of merely stopping by for a press conference. 

You know you're from Adelaide when:

  • You think it's perfectly normal to see a bronze statue of a pig eating out of a bin in the middle of Rundle Mall. 
  • You also think that it's normal to see a giant pigeon in Gawler Place.
  • You're secretly a little bit pleased that Starbucks isn't in Rundle Mall any more.
  • Despite this, you still know that the first Starbucks in Adelaide opened at Colonnades Shopping Centre in 2006.
  • You know perfectly well what the locals call Colonnades.
  • You think that Woodies Lemonade is superior to Schweppes Lemonade, despite both being made in the same factory.
  • And you know that it's Woodies Lemonade, not Woodroofe's Lemonade.
  • You've used Woodies Lemonade as a cure for a stomach-ache at least once.
  • You also know that Woodies made Sno Top and it's a travesty that you cannot find Sno Top at Foodland, Drakes or OTR anymore.
  • It's a Farmer's Union Iced Coffee or it's nothing. Unless Woodies Lemonade, Sno Top, Old Stonie or Fruita are being offered. 
  • You've have Yo-yo biscuits with your coffee at least twice.
  • You feel patriotic every time someone mentions frog cakes, but you also think that the rest of the Balfours range is lovely.
  • Especially the custard tarts.
  • You've eaten at least one Villi's pie at their 24 hour cafe.
  • You've queued outside the Port Elliot Bakery on a long weekend.
  • You jumped off either the Grange, Brighton, Glenelg or Henley jetties at least once when you were a kid.
  • You've travelled to Southport at least once for the view.
  • And you uploaded the pictures of Instagram.
  • And you know that it's Southport, and not Port Noarlunga South.
  • You stopped by the Port Noarlunga fish and chip shop while you were there.
  • You know that Ryan Fitzgerald played for South Adelaide in the SANFL.
  • And you know that it is S-A-N-F-L not San-fel.
  • You know that as soon as football season starts, someone is going to ask you if you're a Crows supporter, or a Power supporter.
  • And when you watch your team play, you mute the TV and tune in to the superior radio coverage instead.
  • You know that a certain radio station always was, and always will be SAFM and you've completely forgotten that Hit 107 nonsense.
  • You can remember when Osher Gunsberg was on the radio and went by the name Andrew G.
  • You can remember listening to Ben and Liam on Fresh FM.
  • You listened to Tunny on the Request Fest on Triple J and got annoyed with the half hour delay.
  • You're secretly proud that a street in Adelaide is now called No Fixed Address Lane.
  • You feel the same way about Cold Chisel Lane.
  • You think that Channel 44 should remain on Free to Air TV.
  • You've laughed while watching Good Afternoon Adelaide.
  • You're planning to see at least one act at the next Adelaide Fringe. 
  • You know that you'll buy food in the Garden of Unearthly Delights and that you'll feel ripped off afterward.
  • You miss Eliza's Restaurant and you've tried to make Frog in a Pond at home at least once.
  • Frog in a Pond is the only thing you can ever actually remember eating at Eliza's Restaurant.
  • You also know, without at doubt that John Martin's toy department was the best toy shop ever.
  • You think that the original Magic Cave was the best.
  • You think that Pop-Eye is an excellent name for a boat.
  • You get nostalgic any time someone mentions Red Hen railcars, even if you cannot remember riding on one.
  • Ditto for the Bluebird.
  • You've had a ride on the Steam Ranger to or from Victor Harbor at least once.
  • You've had an argument with someone over the spelling of Victor Harbor.
  • You secretly covet Willsy's earrings.
  • You also know that she once did the weather report in a bikini.
  • You follow Adelaide Remember When on facebook and get nostalgic for things that happened well before you were born.
  • You've met a friend or a potential love interest at the Malls Balls and you know the offical name for the sculpture is Spheres. 
  • You own at least one SA Great sticker.
  • You bristle every time someone calls Adelaide the murder capital of Australia, but you know every detail of every single crime.
  • You've travelled overseas and randomly met another a fellow Aussie tourist who turns out to be from Adelaide.
  • The other Aussie tourist knows someone that you know back in Adelaide. 

Comments

Anonymous said…
What a fantastic list, Kathryn.
It's heaps good!
24 February 2022 at 19:46
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more