Do white people know they're white?

I was sitting on a 3-person chairlift the other day, I on one side and the boy sitting on the other side of his father from me. The boy asked where I was from.

“California,” I reply.

“I knew you weren't from around here,” said he.

“Oh? How did you know that?” I inquire.

“Because of your skin,” says he, innocently.

I had to think about the racial implications of that for a moment; then in occurred to me that even this young Seattle-ite knew that the locals are pale. I smiled and said that I’d been working as a ski instructor for the past several days.

I’ve since wondered what his father might have said to his son later (it would be ashame if he did).

Apparently, white people are aware of their whiteness.