Dude Dad has, I think, successfully nailed every Colorado stereotype in the book. If he truly learned all this in only two weeks, he’s amazing. But maybe we Coloradans are even more obvious than I feared. One commenter noticed that DD is in Fort Collins (aka FoCo), a college town and probably the best place to get quickly immersed in local culture.

He did miss one thing that’s annoyed me since I moved here in 2005 — the weird pronunciation of some of our town names — the prime example being Buena Vista. (Nope, you’re wrong. It’s pronounced Byoo-na Vista. You’d think Colorado would observe Spanish pronunciations, wouldn’t you?) As for the missing “t” in “mountains,” I’ve only noticed it in transplants from back East. But maybe that’s because, as a former Okie, my speech already resembled that of a Coloradan. Or maybe not. When I went through Rush Week at CU Boulder, a favorite topic of conversation was my “cute” accent. I’ve been self-conscious about it ever since. (Of course, the gal who said that might have been from California … )

Oh well, I’ve got the Subaru, my dog is a rescued half Golden Retriever, my license plate says “Colorado,” and I own a house here, so I guess I’m on the right track. Sadly, I will never, ever, be able to put a “Native” sticker on my bumper. Some things in life you just can’t change.