So are Mackems only from Sunderland

safcrob said:
and every other place is geordie town like? well everywhere else you go its all geordie, south shields (geordies) washington (geordies) durham (geordies) err the boldons (geordies) where else oh yes houghton and hetton (geordies)
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As there is no hospital in Washington then people from there will have been born elsewhere. Before I moved up here I lived in Washington my whole life. I was born in Sunderland so I class my self as a mackem. Am sure those from Washington that were born in Newcastle class themselves as geordies.
 


Was born in S/land, Lived in Millfield till i was Three, We had Rats so ferked off to Peterlee, Moved to Seaham where all my Mams family are from, We made em, Them took em :cool:
 
Lord Potts said:
I had never heard the term "Mackem" until the early 1990's.
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Same here ^ seems to me the term Mackem became popular around the time Hall announced the Geordie Nation and Mackem somehow became the buzzword to differentiate Sunderland from this newly formed Geordie Nation. When I started following the lads in the early 70s we sang Geordie aggro and Geordies here, Geordies there... at Roker Park. When working a way from the area I was always referred to as Geordie, it didn't matter what area of the North East you came from, you just got called Geordie. Times change, it's either you're a Mackem or a Geordie now, so for all I'm Sunderland til I die, I was born in County Durham and proud to tell folk I'm a Durham Lad or Pit Yakker.

matt228 said:
Outside the northeast, we are all Geordies in my experience.

Here in Canada, "England" is enough. If they ask where, I say "near Newcastle" as there's no way they know Durham or Sunderland.

In the rest of the UK, I always say I'm from Co Durham as I know no-one knows a small town like Shildon. If they haven't heard of it, I try "do you know Sunderland?" Then, at a last resort, I have to say it's "near Newcastle". Which it is, so I guess it's not much of a hardship. By the same token, I'm not going to know the difference between two small cities in the southeast.
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That's been my experience also. Trying to explain exactly where you are from to folk down south in the UK was always problematic, they seemed to instantly if you said near Newcastle. Now I'm in NZ and it's pretty much the same, folk have heard of Newcastle more than anywhere else in the North East.
 
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SteveFTM said:
That's been my experience also. Trying to explain exactly where you are from to folk down south in the UK was always problematic, they seemed to instantly if you said near Newcastle. Now I'm in NZ and it's pretty much the same, folk have heard of Newcastle more than anywhere else in the North East.
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To be honest most Canadians haven't heard of Newcastle either, but saying "between London and Edinburgh" seems ridiculous! I would just say northeast England but then they tend to ask for a city.
 
matt228 said:
To be honest most Canadians haven't heard of Newcastle either, but saying "between London and Edinburgh" seems ridiculous! I would just say northeast England but then they tend to ask for a city.
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Sometimes saying North East England can bring a few blank expressions, to some England is just London :lol:
 
SteveFTM said:
Same here ^ seems to me the term Mackem became popular around the time Hall announced the Geordie Nation and Mackem somehow became the buzzword to differentiate Sunderland from this newly formed Geordie Nation. When I started following the lads in the early 70s we sang Geordie aggro and Geordies here, Geordies there... at Roker Park. When working a way from the area I was always referred to as Geordie, it didn't matter what area of the North East you came from, you just got called Geordie. Times change, it's either you're a Mackem or a Geordie now, so for all I'm Sunderland til I die, I was born in County Durham and proud to tell folk I'm a Durham Lad or Pit Yakker.


That's been my experience also. Trying to explain exactly where you are from to folk down south in the UK was always problematic, they seemed to instantly if you said near Newcastle. Now I'm in NZ and it's pretty much the same, folk have heard of Newcastle more than anywhere else in the North East.
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I agree we should never allow the Mags to define who we are.
 
I remember reading something about Mackems also being from towns on the Wear (making me, from Bishop Auckland, technically a Mackem)
Lord Potts said:
I had never heard the term "Mackem" until the early 1990's.
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My dad, who started going to games in the sixties, used to stand in the Fulwell end and sing 'we are Geordies'.
 
All folks from the North East are Geordies with the proviso being that if you were born in County Durham you are a "posh" Geordie.

Sunderland supporters born in Sunderland were always know as "Townies" when I was a lad, at least by those of us from mining villages in County Durham.
 
the dude said:
As there is no hospital in Washington then people from there will have been born elsewhere. Before I moved up here I lived in Washington my whole life. I was born in Sunderland so I class my self as a mackem. Am sure those from Washington that were born in Newcastle class themselves as geordies.
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I was born in Washington (at home) Most babies whose families live in Washington these days are born at the Royal or the QE in Gateshead.
I am not a Mackem apart from at the match.
 
I always struggle with this as I remember as a 3 or 4 year old (1978/79] being told by my Granda and Dad “don’t let anyone ever call you a Geordie, you’re a Mackem”.

As for all this “near Newcastle” shite, that hasn’t been the case since the mid/late 90’s in my own experience. The last time I was asked to clarify exactly where Sunderland is, it was by a local in Mevagissey, he knew roughly where and I simply said “I’ve just driven 442 miles to get here”.
 
Charmless Man said:
Pretty sure Geordie always was a generic term for anyone from the North East. So no big deal.
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Hmm, not really. When my mum was a kid, it was just born in sight of the River Tyne within the boundaries of the (then) City and County of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. If you were born west of Newburn or east of say Wallsend, you didn't qualify.

Calling anyone South of the Tyne, up in Northumberland a Geordie just didn't happen. A Geordie at that stage would never countenance anyone from Sunderland as a Geordie. Mack'em and Tack'em was in use in Newcastle long before Sunderland regularly heard the term for the first time.
 

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