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A Time for “The Locals”

We, entrenched in the business of tourism, are asked all summer, “Are you local?” Curious patrons, diners, campers, theater-goers, clients, and street walkers ask the question for a variety of reasons, and no matter the course of the conversation, inevitably the question, “What do you do up here in the winter?” follows with wide, attentive eyes and a laughing smile. Without any prior experience in the Door County off-season, I often answered the question with a shake of my head, “I have no idea.”

Now, sitting in a nearly empty coffee shop overlooking the calm chilly water, exhaling with ease (admittedly downloading Josh Groban’s Christmas CC to my computer) – I wonder if I might re-evaluate my response to something as simple as, “enjoy myself.”

After a couple weeks of getting used to the sparse traffic, the closed shops, restaurants, and galleries, my mind has only recently calmed after the hectic season. Working out the knots in my shoulders, enduring the last of my waitress-related stress dreams, I have come to think of this time as a time for “the locals,” a wonderful, blissful period of selfishness – sleeping in, reading a book (and finishing it), taking a hike, or cooking a meal – enjoying activities that seemed like indulgences all summer long.

The real locals, the “hard-core” residents of this peninsula, are likely practiced in all I write, able to endure the seasons’ transitions with ease. They, after all, were the individuals I worked with, telling me about the languages they learned, the instruments they took up, the trips they took throughout the country and world during the off-season. To them, I am likely stating the obvious: this is a time to regain your balance, focus on individual goals and interests. In the meantime, there is camaraderie in the area, a collective sense of peace, and relief.

Browsing through this month’s events calendar, I find a much more local appeal – a potluck Ballroom dance, a Madrigal Dinner hosted by Gibraltar students, and a film short screening sponsored by the Peninsula School of Art to encourage arts to the community. This is the time to volunteer, to take up knitting, to sit in a coffee shop and exhale. This is the time to be a little selfish – if you worked/lived/survived through a Door County summer, you deserve it.