Local Life and Lore in Tampa Bay
By Judy Stark, FrontDoor.com | Published: 10/16/2008
Tampa locals refer to Raymond James Stadium, where the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers play, as RayJay. Tampa Bay & Co.
Locals know that if you say you live in Tampa Bay, you've probably sprouted fins. No matter what the national sportscasters say when they call the games from one of our local venues, Tampa Bay is the body of water between Tampa and St. Petersburg.
Locals also know that when we ask you where you're from, we don't mean your neighborhood or even your gated subdivision. We mean where you're from --where you lived before you moved here. You may hear some original Florida accents around here, but lots of us speak with the Noo Yawk or Joisey accents or the flat Midwestern vowels we brought with us when we moved here. You want honey-dripping magnolia talk? Move North, like to Jacksonville or Georgia. They're more Southern than we are.
You can tell the tourists from the locals because the tourists are the ones with bright red arms and legs from too much sun. They're the ones with the scarlet faces and white raccoon sunglass rings around their eyes. The locals won't go near the water from November until May; it's too cold! Live here long enough, and you'll have iced tea in your veins, too.
TERMS AND VENUES TO KNOW
- Pro Sports: "The Trop" is Tropicana Field, the domed stadium in St. Petersburg where the Tampa Bay Rays play baseball. The St. Pete Times Forum is actually in downtown Tampa, home of the NHL Tampa Bay Lightning and a major concert venue. "RayJay" is Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, where the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers play.
- College Sports: In the world of college athletics, which in many circles in Florida is more important than life itself, the only teams that matter are the University of Florida Gators, based in Gainesville, and the Florida State University Seminoles ("the Noles"), in Tallahassee. Closer to home, we cheer for the University of South Florida Bulls, based in Tampa.
- Bridges: "The Hump" is the highest point on the Howard Frankland Bridge, which spans Tampa Bay. Radio traffic reports will tell you almost every day that traffic is backed up to The Hump on what is also known as the Frankenstein Bridge, given its propensity for monster traffic jams and lane-blocking accidents.
The other bridges you'll need to know about: the Courtney Campbell Causeway, which Tampa residents take to get to the Clearwater beaches; and the Gandy Bridge, another link between Tampa and St. Petersburg. A 1956 version of the Gandy, no longer used by vehicle traffic, is now known as the Friendship Bridge and allows cyclists, skaters, joggers and walkers to make the 2.6-mile crossing of Tampa Bay.
Our grandest bridge is the 5.5-mile Sunshine Skyway Bridge, spanning Tampa Bay from Pinellas to Manatee counties. Its gorgeous cable-stayed main span is a signature of our area, by day and night. (It's a toll bridge; you'll want to get a SunPass, an automatic toll reader, so you can whiz right through the booths.)
- Highways: "The Vets" is the Veterans Expressway, a toll road that leads from the West Shore area near Tampa International Airport to the northern suburbs. At morning and evening rush hours, it's a slow-rolling parking lot. At off-peak hours, it's a fast way to those suburbs and the counties beyond. "Malfunction Junction" is the intersection of I-4 and I-275 in downtown Tampa, traditionally a snarl of vehicles.
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