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"This weekend I'm going to Six Flags."

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
It seems to me that 90-95% of the population with a local Six Flags park say things like this: "This weekend we're going to Six Flags." "Last year I spent the whole day at Six Flags." "Oh, I love Six Flags! They have that one coaster [insert specific coaster name here] that is so good!"

Resolved: A coaster enthusiast would never speak this way.

Agree or disagree?
 

Hixee

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I don't get the question.

Of course we don't speak that way - we're better travelled (or at the very least, more knowledgeable) and so don't see a theme park visit as a "once a year" treat as most people who aren't enthusiasts do. We know of, and have visited, parks far further afield than our local park(s), so to us these sort of conversations sound relatively mundane.

I have a friend who is qualified sky diver. I still talk about "that one time I went sky diving and it was amazing" - to him that must seem boring and repetitive (I'm sure he hears it off lots of people). These things are all relative.
 

GuyWithAStick

Captain Basic
Here's the thing, if you live close enough to a SF park(or any park for that matter), it kinda stops being this mystical place you go maybe once a year. It becomes a part of the community. It becomes the place your friends hang out at after school on Friday. It's the place where your family goes to dinner once a week because it's free with the dining pass. It's the place people use to help others know where they live. It's most local teenagers' first jobs. Since we've all been to the local SF, we don't need to talk about it. We already rode the biggest coaster, we've already done it all. Instead, the locals just go there to relax for the night. Maybe ride a coaster or two. But most of the time, it's just a glorified shopping mall.

Other parks/chains like Disney, Universal, or even Cedar Point are the kinds of places you described. Those are what people venture out to once every other year, and brag how they finally rode Dragster. Those are the places that have their own scrapbook. This is where you empty your wallet.

Essentially, since locals have been to their home park so many times, it just becomes a regular part of the community. It's the destination parks where people talk like that.

Sent from my VS820 using Tapatalk
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
OK, I was deliberately vague in my question to see how people might respond. You two took it along the lines of someone imbuing the local SF with magical reverence that experienced enthusiasts wouldn't have, and that's of course a valid and, for me, interesting/telling response.

However, what for me jumps out in expressions like this is the way people use the name of the CHAIN to refer to the name of their local park, rather than the name of that specific park. Now, I am not saying that there's anything wrong with that, and it's perfectly understandable if the local park is all you know. But for enthusiasts, "Six Flags" refers to thirteen (+) parks, not one. I would never refer to one park as "Six Flags" and I wondered if others felt the same.

Not that there's any right or wrong answer here, of course, just throwing it out there.
 

Hixee

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Now, I am not saying that there's anything wrong with that, and it's perfectly understandable if the local park is all you know. But for enthusiasts, "Six Flags" refers to thirteen (+) parks, not one. I would never refer to one park as "Six Flags" and I wondered if others felt the same.
Thing is, if there was one in my city and the next nearest one was a few hundred miles away, I probably would just refer to it as "Six Flags" when talking to my friends. It's just common vernacular. It's like saying you're popping to Walmart - you don't have to give the address each time, your neighbours know which one you're talking about - the massive one two miles away.
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
Thing is, if there was one in my city and the next nearest one was a few hundred miles away, I probably would just refer to it as "Six Flags" when talking to my friends. It's just common vernacular. It's like saying you're popping to Walmart - you don't have to give the address each time, your neighbours know which one you're talking about - the massive one two miles away.
Sure, I agree. But enthusiasts recognize the difference in audience and situation -- they can codeswitch, you might say -- whereas I see online every day someone referring to a specific park as "Six Flags" and expecting everyone to know which one they mean. It's obviously not a big deal, but to me it's a flag that this is probably not an enthusiast.

[full disclosure -- I grew up calling my local park by it's local name and so did my friends, even long after Six Flags took it over. I think I still subconsciously resist calling any park Six Flags, as if doing so would be full submission to our corporate overlords. Lol.]
 

davidm

Strata Poster
^^ I bet there are really strange Walmart-enthusiasts that get upset at us "norms" when it comes to referring to their local megastore. ;)
 

Mysterious Sue

Strata Poster
[full disclosure -- I grew up calling my local park by it's local name and so did my friends, even long after Six Flags took it over. I think I still subconsciously resist calling any park Six Flags, as if doing so would be full submission to our corporate overlords. Lol.]
It's just human nature to be that stubborn. I still call my location shop Safeway even though it became a Morrisons about a decade ago.
 

MestnyiGeroi

Giga Poster
^^ I bet there are really strange Walmart-enthusiasts that get upset at us "norms" when it comes to referring to their local megastore. ;)
Well, I didn't want to say it to Hixee, but we Wallheads refer to any branch solely by its full code number as laid out very clearly by the admins in Bentonville.

Actually, this analogy would work best if instead of bulldozing (or squeezing out) the Mom-and-Pop stores, Walmart just took them over directly, calling them things like Walmart Frankie's Five and Dime. Then the locals would have to keep calling it Frankie's or take to calling it Walmart. :p
 

gavin

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Some people don't get that it's even a chain. I've had friends ask me if I've "ever been to Six Flags" and then look confused when I've asked which one they mean.
 

Mack

Mega Poster
Some people don't get that it's even a chain. I've had friends ask me if I've "ever been to Six Flags" and then look confused when I've asked which one they mean.
My guess is that in California they're aware that there's another in the Bay Area. Although SFMM is very lax about referring to themselves as Magic Mountain down to the retro jersey-style uniform tees printed "Magic Mountain" and "TEAM MAGIC" with no instance of the word Six Flags.

An enthusiast is going to say aloud, or at least me, "ess eff em em" "ess eff en ee" "ess eff oh tee" "ess eff eff tee"
 
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Pokemaniac

Mountain monkey
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Some people don't get that it's even a chain. I've had friends ask me if I've "ever been to Six Flags" and then look confused when I've asked which one they mean.

This. I know a fair few people who've taken a vacation trip to the US, and afterwards told me they went to "Six Flags". When I ask which of the SF parks they mean, they usually aren't able to give the full name of the park, or even aware that the park was named more than just "Six Flags".

Then again, it's completely natural to speak in those terms when saying you've been to KFC or Walmart. "We went to the US and visited one of those US chains". You wouldn't ask them which outlet they were referring to. And since Six Flags has this knack for using the same ride names and types for all their parks, they're starting to become as indistinguishable from another as Walmart outlets anyway.
 
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