clam digger
n.— «“Newcomers especially want to be a part of the community, so they figure we got rules to be called a clam digger,” Mr. Sadler said, using the folksy local term for a native. “They figure you can be a clam digger if you stand on your right foot in front of the diner for two hours.” But clam diggers are born, not made, Mr. Sadler said. Everyone else is relegated to the category of mussel sucker, the island label for nonnatives. Perhaps nowhere else in New York do natives have as strong a sense of themselves as they do on City Island.» —“In a Seafaring Enclave, Mollusks on the Mind” by Jennifer Bleyer in Bronx, New York New York Times May 27, 2007. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
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Carl in Sebastopol, California, was reminded of his childhood on New York’s Lower East Side while ready Harry Golden’s book For 2 Cents Plain (Amazon), the title referring to how customers ordered a plain glass of seltzer. For a little...