What's a Fudgie?

In the coming days and weeks and for the duration of the summer, you may hear me refer to "fudgies."

What is a fudgie?

Fudg-ee: Noun. A tourist; foriegner, especially during summer months. One who travels to the Traverse City area on vacation and buys fudge.
Used in a sentence: "Asher knew the car in front of her contained fudgies as they attempted to make a left-hand turn from the right-hand turn lane."

In general, I like fudgies. They keep my beautiful hometown afloat as their presence brings in over half (near 3/4s) of all business for local business owners between June and August. What draws them? Well, aside from the beautiful scenary:



There's the Cherries. We like our Cherries. So much so that we have ourselves a festival every summer celebrating them.
(that makes us sound like a bunch of polytheists, lol)




According to census, there were 14532 residents in Traverse City in 2000. It's grown rapidly since then, and keep in mind, there are a few thousand more who commute in from bedroom communities, ever day. We more than double our occupancy in the summer time, especially for the weeks directly surrounding the National Cherry Festival.

So, my fudgie friends! Thanks for coming! Really, we appreciate it. Please be curteous of the locals, though. We love our bays year-round, and when you dump your garbage into the marina, it makes me/us sad.
Stay safe; don't leave the beer tent in your car.
Be patient. fitting 40,000+ people in a town that's already bursting at its seems slows things down a bit, and while you're on vacation, we locals must go to work and serve you!

PS- Fudgies, I know you're confused and overwhelmed, but perhaps making a left hand turn out of the right hand turn lane in the 2nd busiest intersection in the city, isn't the safest idea. Please... don't do it. Death and carnage aren't our friends. Avoid whenever possible.