...you can't take Hartlepool out of the man.

It's been 30 years since I lived there. And yet.
I've just been talking to a random scouser, far, far from home, who began...
"I've got to be careful because I once called a Mackem a Geordie, but...are you from Hartlepool?"

Too right Senor.

The amount of conversation I've had that go 'where're you from mate?'

'Just south of Newcastle'

'Oh, Hartlepool?'

Me and our rass were in Hong Kong and Shenzhen last week on business. We met some people we knew from here in our city who'd moved away and got introduced to their friends and when it came out I was from Hartlepool, they said 'Oh, the Smurfs. The Monkey Hangers, the Penguins??'

I honestly think nobody down here would even be even able to pinpoint Darlo or Hartlepool on a blank Uk map. ..well lets say a good 200 miles away.