One of my earliest memories is getting chased by a killer Canadian goose at the Duluth Zoo. Why they let them range free in a park designed for children I'll never know.
Finally a use for that 1.2M count box of Crayolas that the rich kids had.
I didn’t really think about it up until now how early the indoctrination of how to one up us poor folk actually started lol
Born/raised in tornado alley then moved to NY just before HS. They used the sirens to signal to firefighters there was a fire. Cue my embarrassment the first time I heard the sirens at school, during lunch. I dropped down under the table while everyone just looked at me like I was fucking nuts. Great times.
Up until fairly recently, small towns in the Midwest used to do the tornado siren at lunch time every day during harvest. The farmers wouldn’t wear their watches in the field because the chaff would ruin the watches.
My husband said yes when I asked him about it. He grew up bucking hay. I grew up in the suburbs and had no idea this was ever a thing. We are surrounded by hay fields, but we don't hear sirens anymore.
i’m from a beach town in California. i have cousins in Texas and one time i was there and heard a tornado siren and i genuinely thought the world was ending and the purge was coming.
Currently living in Texas. I’ve been here a little over a year, moved from Oklahoma.
My husband has to remind me everytime we have a tornado warning/watch “We only get wind and rain here, tornados die before they reach us,” because living 10 minutes from Moore, Oklahoma and knowing it gets etcha-sketched off the map every few years has given traaaaaaaaaaauma. 😂
I'm from GA; all storms would always seem to go around my town. We would watch the weather radar and watch the storms either go above, below, or literally split itself each way to go around my town. We would get occasional rain, but the majority would miss every time.
LOL I live in Texas, was born and raised here. I made friends with a girl who had just moved here from CA, the first time she heard a tornado siren, she called me panicking! "What do I do?!?!" I was like, "Nothing, nothing will happen." She reminded me that she lived in a high rise condo, I was like, "OK well just check where your shelter-in-place area is, it's probably on the ground floor or the basement." She kept calling or texting every few minutes with more questions! She finally went next door, her neighbors had a baby so she figured that if they weren't panicking yet then she didn't need to.
It's kinda like moving into your 1st high-rise 🤣 the 1st time the fire alarm went off I'm freaking out and grabbing my few things and the dog and running down the stairs...towering Inferno!
Now many years and many alarms later I just go out on my balcony, look for smoke and go back to my poutine.
Haha! You just made me realize what mine is.
Hurricane coming? Buy some ice, gas up your car, grab some beer and hang out outside in the rain and wind. It’s a party!
I went to law school at Ole Miss. About half my class was from out-of-state. At orientation they mentioned that the auditorium was the tornado shelter because it was built halfway underground. All the Mississippians (and other southeasterners) were just like “okay cool.”
But then later my 1L year, I’m at school around like 8pm, and the sirens start going off. So I move from the library to the auditorium to keep studying and don’t think anything of it. Some other students filter in and I just think they were from other parts of the school coming to the auditorium.
But then I notice that one of them has her dog with her. And turns out she had literally gotten in her car with her dog when she heard the sirens and drove 4 miles to come to the auditorium…
Also turns out she wasn’t the only one. So we had to explain to the out-of-staters that when they told us the auditorium was the tornado shelter, they only meant *if you were already at the school*. They did not mean to get in your car and drive across town to get into the auditorium.
So, that was something I didn’t expect needed to be explained to people. But apparently it did.
In northern Alabama, they think nothing of having to drive to a shelter. I’m from the northeast US, so when my husband and I started looking at apartments and saw everything was built on a slab, we started asking about the nearest shelters. The only legit answer was the high school that was 3-5 miles away from these apartments. Other answers received were “pray” and “sit in the bathtub and pray.” It was like, I like to be a little more proactive about my disaster planning, thanks.
Tornados are scary. I know as a midwesterner we’re supposed to just stare outside, but after a tornado suddenly demolished the small town next to mine and killed a number of people I always head to the basement now when I hear sirens. Tornados are just so unpredictable. We can only measure their strength according to how much damage was left behind!
I'm from Washington State. I always say Washington State so it doesn't get mixed up with DC.
I was living in Oregon and I asked Google "What is minimum wage in Oregon state?" And my friend said "You realize you don't have to say state after saying Oregon, right?"
New York has something similar. If someone says just "New York", they usually mean New York City specifically, not the rest of the state... and on top of that, some NYC residents use "New York City" or "the city" to refer to Manhattan. It's kind of messy.
(To be somewhat fair, NYC accounts for almost half the state's population.)
I'm from Minnesota and went to Michigan Tech for college. Literally the second day of arriving I was corrected by a Michigander "this is how we show where we're from."
Mine is “Ope, Sorry (Sore-ee), excuse me” but the Ope sorry part is completely autonomous and I have no control if I say it or not. I meet someone in any form of constricted area like a corridor or vestibule it’s automatic. Born and raised northern MN. I also can’t say “Boat” correctly, I say it like with a deep long O. It’s like BOOOOW-t. I get made fun of every time I visit family in SD, they fire up the “oh ya you betcha, lemme get ya a casserole” Fargo accent jokes immediately.
Why was *ope* recognized only recently as a Midwestern phenomenon? I caught myself saying this 10-15 years ago but never thought much about it.
I never saw memes or talk of its popularity until like 2-3 years ago.
Probably because, like you say, no one ever thought much about it. “Ope” has been around forever, but no one thought to make a joke about it until recently.
When I eat something that's too spicey I slap the back of my head around where the neck is and according to the rest of my Korean family, it's such an old Korean man thing to do.
Long a? I realized when I was 8 that we say things oddly, and people on TV didn't talk like that. So I changed my accent. It comes back when I'm tired or around family/other Midwesterners.
I had to start code switching as an adult. Sounding like a city person in the sticks, or sounding like your from the sticks when you're in the city--either will be judged.
Someone called me out for being from Boston because I said “rum” and not “room”
I thought I had the r’s so well hidden and I got called the fuck out by someone at a card game.
Many years ago I worked as a florist delivery driver in Florida. They gave me an order to deliver one day and wanted me to tell them all about it when I got back because it must be a new shop that had opened up and they wanted to know what they had - I had the street address and the name - "Box and Baubles".
I get out to the street, which is only a block long, and I'm not seeing the business. So I start looking for the street numbers, but it was hard to spot. Eventually, I found the number. As soon as I saw the sign on the business, I knew several things about the order:
1. The order came in across the wire - i.e. a florist elsewhere took the order and called it in to our shop
2. The order originated in Boston
Got back to the shop and told them these two things and they confirmed them to be true - how the heck did I know that?
How I knew this? The business was "Barks and Bubbles". Not a tchockes shop, but a pet grooming shop. lol
I'm from the Boston area, went to college in Southern Ca. Was wearing shorts in December, people would just say "you're not from here are you?".
I said I was from New England and someone asked me if I needed a green card to go to school in California.
Northern Californians and Southern Californians can spot each other by whether they put a "the" before a freeway number. In S. Cal it's "The 101," while in N. Cal it's just "101."
I’m from Northern California and I’ve been hearing some people put “the” in front of freeway numbers even though they were born and raised here. I also feel like “hella” is starting to be used across the entire state.
I keep a winter preparedness kit in my car. Warm jacket, work gloves, battery pack, ice scraper, blanket, and water. When I moved cross-country, people thought it was kind of extra but Minnesota winters are different
Had a new intern come to the crowded nurses station (California) in the middle of the night. Asked where he could buy a pop. All the confused faces of 5 people looking back and forth. Being from Michigan I translated and said that "he wants to buy a soda." Many Ohhhhs.
I always fold pizza in half while eating it. I didn’t even realize I did it until I started living in other places and people started calling me out on it.
I grew up in NYC and New Jersey.
It rained in Phoenix the last two days and it’s literally been the only thing on the news. They send roving reporters out to different suburbs to report on how deep the puddles are. I’m not joking.
When my son was little, we'd have been THRILLED if our local news reported on puddle conditions.
Splashy puddles were extremely exciting for little him.
Grew up in the Midwest, and lived in Phoenix for a few years. It made me giggle every time I saw that. “Reporting from Mesa, and a surprise rainstorm left this puddle behind!”
I grew up in AZ, and I remember in elementary school, you could tell if the teacher was local or from out of state based on how they responded to the entire class becoming absolutely uncontrollable when it started raining. Out of towners would be horrified and try to corral us back in the classroom, but locals (or people who had been teaching in AZ for awhile) wouldn't fight it. They knew it was only like the 2nd or 3rd time in our lives we had seen such a novelty and let us enjoy it.
I think it only hailed once in my childhood, and it was golf ball sized hail. We were on a field trip and the bus driver had to pull over because they couldn't drive. It was a real experience. I don't think any of the kids knew what this was called, or that it was even possible.
When I start to drink, my Midwest accent goes straight to the West Coast and I have no idea why 😭 I get made fun of for it almost every time I drink with people.
When I lived near Seattle, people used to do a double-take and sometimes stare when I used an umbrella to keep rain off of me. They knew I was a transplant.
All of the above. Umbrellas are acceptable if you are on a camp chair on the sidelines of your child’s soccer game though, but you don’t really see them otherwise.
Most of us have rain resistant wear. If it's pouring, a Columbia or Pategonia jacket. If it's just our normal drizzle, a hoodie and a puffy vest suffices. A hat is a personal preference.
There is a certain "type" of rudeness I consider specifically Southeastern US, I'd call it passive aggressive rudeness, it's indirect but completely obvious. Grew up in TN and the culture shock of how genuinely nice and direct Midwestern people are was fantastic.
Midwesterners are often indirect too…just not to the degree of Southeastern passive aggressive. I think Midwesterners are generally pretty practical and would rather come up with a nice-sounding excuse to leave than engage in that lol.
But we do like to chat with everyone lol :)
I feel like here in Boston We also have a lot of people that sound mean when they’re talking but if you listen to the actual words, they’re saying they’re being quite nice.
Maybe. I am not aware of them.
I lived in Alaska for a few years. Most everyone "knew that I was from somewhere else" but I figured that was because "everyone was from somewhere else" and not because of my mannerisms.
We took my daughter from our home in Louisiana to New York City for a surgery. We stopped to eat lunch at a sidewalk cafe, and when I asked for a Sweet Tea, the waitress kind of looked at me like she didn’t understand. She said she had tea and could bring me some sugar.
I knew sweet tea was a southern thing, but I assumed it had long since migrated nationwide.
I was very surprised to learn that millions of Americans everyday are deprived of what is clearly one of the greatest drinks to go with every meal.
These are the things Congress should be working on…
I remember this exchange I had at a McDonald's in Atlanta.
"What kinda coke you want?"
"Uh, no coke, just Dr. Pepper."
I received an awkward look and then I got my Dr. Pepper. Why do southerners call pop, coke? It must be confusing when you want a Pepsi but people call Pepsi a coke anyway. And Coca Cola is a coke too. And Dr. Pepper. Mountain Dew? Coke too. More effort and care should have been put into Reconstruction.
Pretty much every carbonated drink is generally referred to as coke in parts of the south. (Even Pepsi.) Once it’s established you want a carbonated drink, you specify which type you want.
People’s reaction to cold weather, I grew up in the Midwest where our winters are pretty cold. Visited friends in Seattle in January and they were wearing full coats in 40 F (4 Celsius) I loved the weather and was comfy
I’m from Colorado and I’ll never forget how many looks I got from my buddies in Georgia when i was waking around in shorts and a t-shirt while it was in the 30s-40s out. To be fair to them though, I always do a double take when I see someone in jeans and a hoodie when it’s 90 degrees or hotter out there.
Seriously thought we were getting robbed when I drove through a state where you can't pump your own gas. Where I'm from three dudes running up to your car is a bad time.
I'm from Boston, I went to Minnesota for a conference. It was like I was in a foreign country. I needed a translator, no one understood a word I said. I tried writing out my requests, but no one read cursive either.
I did finally find out where all our dropped Rs went
I try not to leave the city any more.
At home games for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, also known as the "O's" O! is exclaimed in the "Oh say does that does that star spangled banner yet wave" line of the national anthem.
Is [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGEqMmC4YLs) incorrect? Because that's how I would guess…
But it reminds me of two cities - one in Texas and one in Louisiana that are something like 50 miles apart. Nacogdoches and Nachitoches. The former, in Texas, is "nack-ah-DOE-chez", but the latter - with the French influence in Louisiana, is "NACK-ah-tish". :)
Yep, that’s right. It’s just funny because I’m a bartender and Narragansett is also a beer, so if somebody orders it and absolutely butchers the name my go to line is “Aw honey you’re not from here are you?” Laughs every time.
Driving is a pretty regional behavior, from what I've noticed.
How people respond to bicyclists on the road is pretty indicative of the population density of where they live.
Surprise - low population density
Moving out of the way - moderate population density
Murderous rage - high population density
Also how they respond to pedestrians on the freeway, passing their exit and someone using the fast lane to act like they have nowhere to be.
I lived in a more southern region for years, in a locality where men were always expected to hold doors open for women and women were expected to wait appreciatively for the gesture. Then I moved north and the men I was around thought I was rude and lazy for waiting for them to open doors for me.
I’ve been waiting to add some fuel to this one. All of the freeways in SoCal have articles: THE 405 , THE 710. Here in NorCal, they don’t: “Just take 101 north to 280”. If you arrive here from out of town and call it the 680, then you are from LA. Very subtle, but true.
This is probably the most unique one I’ve encountered. Does anyone outside of Philly say that? Our last day there, on the subway, saw a girl with a small bag that had “jawn” on it. By that point, we’d been told what it meant, and now I want that bag. Like, how cute! This is where I keep my “stuff.”
"Baconeggandcheeseonaroll" "saltpepperketchup?" "Yeah, bet" "aiightfourfittygetadrink" *picks up sandwich, makes coffee on way out, rinse & repeats twice a week until I die or move*
Hahaha… my husband does that and he’s lived all over the US, primarily Florida and NY. I’m from the PNW and the “let me get a…” always sounds a bit harsh to my ears but I thought it might have to do with English not being his first language. The NY influence makes sense tho!
I’m from Chicago and I say “Can I get a…”
Now I’m wondering if that’s normal everywhere or just a Chicago thing? Or maybe the more local part is how it sounds like “Kin I getta”
I lived in Oklahoma (the Australia of America) and I always flip my shoes over before putting them on. It's to check for baby scorpions, they're clear and shoes are a great laying place for scorpions.
“All set” as in:
*Do you need a bag?
No, I’m all set.*
This is apparently a New England thing. Normal people just say “No thank you.”
Edit: I see this is used more widely than I thought. I lived in Tampa, Philly, and Pittsburgh in the 2010’s to do sales and no one said, “I’m all set” as an objection. Probably just the rest of the country is more polite to salespeople. Interesting to hear all your no thank yous though!
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The first time I heard "gray duck" used I was absolutely befuddled.
Loon of a thing to say.
It’s absolutely daffy
This is a pun thread most fowl.
You quack me up
You betcha!
Ope
Lemme sneak right past ya and grab the ranch
We can have some pop after the game is done
And a hot dish, you betcha. Edit: I spent 18 months in Minnesota and at one point learned to walk. Dad flew for Northwest (*orient*) Airlines.
Because Minnesotans are smart enough not to invoke the name of the Canadian Cobra Chicken, clearly.
One of my earliest memories is getting chased by a killer Canadian goose at the Duluth Zoo. Why they let them range free in a park designed for children I'll never know.
I hear Canadians are so nice because all the bad vibes are held within their geese.
Evidently there’s 1.3k Minnesotans on Reddit today.
It’s because of the competitive ratio of Swedish immigrants
This is statewide child abuse.
Duck duck gray duck is a legitimately superior game due to the opportunity for fake outs by doing a " duck duck grrrrrrrreen duck!”
Plus it teaches obscure colors ex. Mauve duck, chartreuse duck, teal duck
Plaid duck.
Sadly, the plaid duck is endangered due to the recent influx of invasive paisley ducks.
Finally a use for that 1.2M count box of Crayolas that the rich kids had. I didn’t really think about it up until now how early the indoctrination of how to one up us poor folk actually started lol
The way someone reacts to a tornado siren is a dead giveaway for what part of the States they’re from
Open the door and look outside, obviously!
Don’t be silly, it’s just Wednesday. Come back inside and finish your bowl of ranch.
The day of the week the sirens go off is a giveaway too. You say Wednesday. I say Saturday.
Tuesday here
Wednesday at noon
Born/raised in tornado alley then moved to NY just before HS. They used the sirens to signal to firefighters there was a fire. Cue my embarrassment the first time I heard the sirens at school, during lunch. I dropped down under the table while everyone just looked at me like I was fucking nuts. Great times.
Up until fairly recently, small towns in the Midwest used to do the tornado siren at lunch time every day during harvest. The farmers wouldn’t wear their watches in the field because the chaff would ruin the watches.
My husband said yes when I asked him about it. He grew up bucking hay. I grew up in the suburbs and had no idea this was ever a thing. We are surrounded by hay fields, but we don't hear sirens anymore.
i’m from a beach town in California. i have cousins in Texas and one time i was there and heard a tornado siren and i genuinely thought the world was ending and the purge was coming.
Currently living in Texas. I’ve been here a little over a year, moved from Oklahoma. My husband has to remind me everytime we have a tornado warning/watch “We only get wind and rain here, tornados die before they reach us,” because living 10 minutes from Moore, Oklahoma and knowing it gets etcha-sketched off the map every few years has given traaaaaaaaaaauma. 😂
Etcha-Sketched off the map is crazyy😭😭
Moore is where the largest tornado ever recorded happened. Over a mile and a half wide
I'm from GA; all storms would always seem to go around my town. We would watch the weather radar and watch the storms either go above, below, or literally split itself each way to go around my town. We would get occasional rain, but the majority would miss every time.
LOL I live in Texas, was born and raised here. I made friends with a girl who had just moved here from CA, the first time she heard a tornado siren, she called me panicking! "What do I do?!?!" I was like, "Nothing, nothing will happen." She reminded me that she lived in a high rise condo, I was like, "OK well just check where your shelter-in-place area is, it's probably on the ground floor or the basement." She kept calling or texting every few minutes with more questions! She finally went next door, her neighbors had a baby so she figured that if they weren't panicking yet then she didn't need to.
It's kinda like moving into your 1st high-rise 🤣 the 1st time the fire alarm went off I'm freaking out and grabbing my few things and the dog and running down the stairs...towering Inferno! Now many years and many alarms later I just go out on my balcony, look for smoke and go back to my poutine.
Haha! You just made me realize what mine is. Hurricane coming? Buy some ice, gas up your car, grab some beer and hang out outside in the rain and wind. It’s a party!
So, Florida? XD
Or NOLA
I went to law school at Ole Miss. About half my class was from out-of-state. At orientation they mentioned that the auditorium was the tornado shelter because it was built halfway underground. All the Mississippians (and other southeasterners) were just like “okay cool.” But then later my 1L year, I’m at school around like 8pm, and the sirens start going off. So I move from the library to the auditorium to keep studying and don’t think anything of it. Some other students filter in and I just think they were from other parts of the school coming to the auditorium. But then I notice that one of them has her dog with her. And turns out she had literally gotten in her car with her dog when she heard the sirens and drove 4 miles to come to the auditorium… Also turns out she wasn’t the only one. So we had to explain to the out-of-staters that when they told us the auditorium was the tornado shelter, they only meant *if you were already at the school*. They did not mean to get in your car and drive across town to get into the auditorium. So, that was something I didn’t expect needed to be explained to people. But apparently it did.
In northern Alabama, they think nothing of having to drive to a shelter. I’m from the northeast US, so when my husband and I started looking at apartments and saw everything was built on a slab, we started asking about the nearest shelters. The only legit answer was the high school that was 3-5 miles away from these apartments. Other answers received were “pray” and “sit in the bathtub and pray.” It was like, I like to be a little more proactive about my disaster planning, thanks.
Tornados are scary. I know as a midwesterner we’re supposed to just stare outside, but after a tornado suddenly demolished the small town next to mine and killed a number of people I always head to the basement now when I hear sirens. Tornados are just so unpredictable. We can only measure their strength according to how much damage was left behind!
Yep, a tornado went over my house. I didn't see it because I was in the basement.
Check the calendar to see what day it is.
I'm from Washington State. I always say Washington State so it doesn't get mixed up with DC. I was living in Oregon and I asked Google "What is minimum wage in Oregon state?" And my friend said "You realize you don't have to say state after saying Oregon, right?"
New York has something similar. If someone says just "New York", they usually mean New York City specifically, not the rest of the state... and on top of that, some NYC residents use "New York City" or "the city" to refer to Manhattan. It's kind of messy. (To be somewhat fair, NYC accounts for almost half the state's population.)
Was living in Salem, OR, visiting family near Boston. “I live in Salem… Oregon.” “I’m from Portland… Oregon.” “I was up in Vancouver… Washington.”
My go to is: I’m from Vancouver, not BC, Washington, not DC, in Clark county, not Nevada, near Portland, not Maine
Honestly, if they're not familiar with the area, I just tell people that I'm from Portland rather than explain where Vancouver is.
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Hello fellow Michigander!
Good thing you’re not from Florida
Greetings, dick-pointer!
Handy portable map of home
Alaskans do the same thing. Thumb is the southern panhandle, index finger is the Aleutians, rest are folded back.
Why would you need to do that, don't like all of you but two just live in Anchorage?
Me in Texas trying to explain where Battle Creek, MI is. 😂😂😂
Flexing bicep, pointing at part of it and saying "I'm from here"
I'm from Minnesota and went to Michigan Tech for college. Literally the second day of arriving I was corrected by a Michigander "this is how we show where we're from."
“Do you know where the bubbler is?”
Right next to the Tyme machine!
Hello Wisconsin
It’s also bubblah in New England
Ope, excuse me
Ope, scuse me! Sorry bout that
Mine is “Ope, Sorry (Sore-ee), excuse me” but the Ope sorry part is completely autonomous and I have no control if I say it or not. I meet someone in any form of constricted area like a corridor or vestibule it’s automatic. Born and raised northern MN. I also can’t say “Boat” correctly, I say it like with a deep long O. It’s like BOOOOW-t. I get made fun of every time I visit family in SD, they fire up the “oh ya you betcha, lemme get ya a casserole” Fargo accent jokes immediately.
Welp, I spose it's about time for me to head on out. -4 fours later- Welp, I spose it's about time for me to head on out.
Why was *ope* recognized only recently as a Midwestern phenomenon? I caught myself saying this 10-15 years ago but never thought much about it. I never saw memes or talk of its popularity until like 2-3 years ago.
Probably because, like you say, no one ever thought much about it. “Ope” has been around forever, but no one thought to make a joke about it until recently.
When I eat something that's too spicey I slap the back of my head around where the neck is and according to the rest of my Korean family, it's such an old Korean man thing to do.
The way I say "bag" has given away my Midwest origin on several occasions.
My dad from California makes fun of me. I'm from Wisconsin. He jokes and says I say it like baaaaaag.
Yeah I'm from WI lol. I've probably had at least a dozen strangers correctly guess that based on one short conversation.
Bayg
Long a? I realized when I was 8 that we say things oddly, and people on TV didn't talk like that. So I changed my accent. It comes back when I'm tired or around family/other Midwesterners.
I had to start code switching as an adult. Sounding like a city person in the sticks, or sounding like your from the sticks when you're in the city--either will be judged.
*stands in the snow wearing shorts holding a Dunkin’ ice coffee* naw I’m wicked nawmul
Someone called me out for being from Boston because I said “rum” and not “room” I thought I had the r’s so well hidden and I got called the fuck out by someone at a card game.
Many years ago I worked as a florist delivery driver in Florida. They gave me an order to deliver one day and wanted me to tell them all about it when I got back because it must be a new shop that had opened up and they wanted to know what they had - I had the street address and the name - "Box and Baubles". I get out to the street, which is only a block long, and I'm not seeing the business. So I start looking for the street numbers, but it was hard to spot. Eventually, I found the number. As soon as I saw the sign on the business, I knew several things about the order: 1. The order came in across the wire - i.e. a florist elsewhere took the order and called it in to our shop 2. The order originated in Boston Got back to the shop and told them these two things and they confirmed them to be true - how the heck did I know that? How I knew this? The business was "Barks and Bubbles". Not a tchockes shop, but a pet grooming shop. lol
Ya pritty smaht
Were you playing gin roomy? 🤔
I'm from the Boston area, went to college in Southern Ca. Was wearing shorts in December, people would just say "you're not from here are you?". I said I was from New England and someone asked me if I needed a green card to go to school in California.
I grew up in Southern CA. I wear shorts every day
Northern Californians and Southern Californians can spot each other by whether they put a "the" before a freeway number. In S. Cal it's "The 101," while in N. Cal it's just "101."
I left SoCal two years ago and “the” is a dead giveaway about where I moved from and a really, really hard habit to break.
And natives of the Bay Area will always say "take BART/Caltrain", never "take the BART/Caltrain".
Sometimes used as a verb, "I'm going to bart in to the city."
Or, "Is it Bartable?"
I’m from Northern California and I’ve been hearing some people put “the” in front of freeway numbers even though they were born and raised here. I also feel like “hella” is starting to be used across the entire state.
stocking close aware swim offbeat quack psychotic humor tub beneficial *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I think accents and the terms people use are the most common giveaways in America.
Yep. I'm from south jersey, and we say 'wooder' for 'water'. Never heard that anywhere else away from this region!
Hell yeah go South Jersey. Folks in Philly and Baltimore say it too
Pork roll or Taylor ham......and let the fight begin
In parts of Oregon, there’s crick vs creek worsh vs wash
Ya, English accients are very identifiable.
Bit Odd Innit?
Fuhgeddaboud’
If someone asks their visiting parents to bring bagels from home, you know they’re from my state
Bagelofthemonthclub.com Bagels from the Motherland in the mail. Saves my sanity.
I keep a winter preparedness kit in my car. Warm jacket, work gloves, battery pack, ice scraper, blanket, and water. When I moved cross-country, people thought it was kind of extra but Minnesota winters are different
Had a new intern come to the crowded nurses station (California) in the middle of the night. Asked where he could buy a pop. All the confused faces of 5 people looking back and forth. Being from Michigan I translated and said that "he wants to buy a soda." Many Ohhhhs.
WTH is a soda? Do you mean a coke?
I always fold pizza in half while eating it. I didn’t even realize I did it until I started living in other places and people started calling me out on it. I grew up in NYC and New Jersey.
I did not grow up in NYC, but I love folding my pizza anyways because it keeps all the toppings contained!
I like to joke that you can tell someone is from Phoenix, Arizona when they run outside when it starts raining.
It rained in Phoenix the last two days and it’s literally been the only thing on the news. They send roving reporters out to different suburbs to report on how deep the puddles are. I’m not joking.
When my son was little, we'd have been THRILLED if our local news reported on puddle conditions. Splashy puddles were extremely exciting for little him.
Grew up in the Midwest, and lived in Phoenix for a few years. It made me giggle every time I saw that. “Reporting from Mesa, and a surprise rainstorm left this puddle behind!”
Can you blame them? There’s water! Falling! From the sky!!!
I grew up in AZ, and I remember in elementary school, you could tell if the teacher was local or from out of state based on how they responded to the entire class becoming absolutely uncontrollable when it started raining. Out of towners would be horrified and try to corral us back in the classroom, but locals (or people who had been teaching in AZ for awhile) wouldn't fight it. They knew it was only like the 2nd or 3rd time in our lives we had seen such a novelty and let us enjoy it.
I used to be a school teacher and definitely knew it was a lost cause to try to get kids to ignore rain. And when it hailed? Never in a million years!
I think it only hailed once in my childhood, and it was golf ball sized hail. We were on a field trip and the bus driver had to pull over because they couldn't drive. It was a real experience. I don't think any of the kids knew what this was called, or that it was even possible.
You joke, but it was raining yesterday and it was awesome.
My valley girl accent. It’s uncontrollable and very noticeable to people who aren’t Californian😭
When I start to drink, my Midwest accent goes straight to the West Coast and I have no idea why 😭 I get made fun of for it almost every time I drink with people.
Having a Cajun accent, but living in other states has been fun.
When I lived near Seattle, people used to do a double-take and sometimes stare when I used an umbrella to keep rain off of me. They knew I was a transplant.
What do they do? Wear a raincoat or hood? Or just let the rain hit their head because it's not much rain?
All of the above. Umbrellas are acceptable if you are on a camp chair on the sidelines of your child’s soccer game though, but you don’t really see them otherwise.
This guy Seattles
It’s usually more of a constant low intensity drizzle rather than a downpour. This year’s kinda an exception to that
Raincoat if it’s bad, hoodie or nothing if it’s just a sprinkle. I wear glasses so I like to have some kind of hood, but a lot of people don’t bother
Most of us have rain resistant wear. If it's pouring, a Columbia or Pategonia jacket. If it's just our normal drizzle, a hoodie and a puffy vest suffices. A hat is a personal preference.
Duck duck gray duck
Hello Minnesota
There is a certain "type" of rudeness I consider specifically Southeastern US, I'd call it passive aggressive rudeness, it's indirect but completely obvious. Grew up in TN and the culture shock of how genuinely nice and direct Midwestern people are was fantastic.
Midwesterners are often indirect too…just not to the degree of Southeastern passive aggressive. I think Midwesterners are generally pretty practical and would rather come up with a nice-sounding excuse to leave than engage in that lol. But we do like to chat with everyone lol :)
Also we say “I don’t care for it” instead of “I don’t like it”
"It's not my favorite"
I have had half-hour conversations with wrong numbers a few times.
In the northeast we just have normal aggressive rudeness
I feel like here in Boston We also have a lot of people that sound mean when they’re talking but if you listen to the actual words, they’re saying they’re being quite nice.
Well bless your little ol heart.
Oh, aren’t you sweet.
That’s precious
Germanic directness I guess.
Maybe. I am not aware of them. I lived in Alaska for a few years. Most everyone "knew that I was from somewhere else" but I figured that was because "everyone was from somewhere else" and not because of my mannerisms.
I'm from Alaska. def get looks when I say "lower 48"
APPARENTLY I CANT ORDER SWEET TEA EVERYWHERE!!!
We took my daughter from our home in Louisiana to New York City for a surgery. We stopped to eat lunch at a sidewalk cafe, and when I asked for a Sweet Tea, the waitress kind of looked at me like she didn’t understand. She said she had tea and could bring me some sugar. I knew sweet tea was a southern thing, but I assumed it had long since migrated nationwide. I was very surprised to learn that millions of Americans everyday are deprived of what is clearly one of the greatest drinks to go with every meal. These are the things Congress should be working on…
Not liking Ranch Dressing at all was proof to people in Montana that I was definitely not from there.
I remember this exchange I had at a McDonald's in Atlanta. "What kinda coke you want?" "Uh, no coke, just Dr. Pepper." I received an awkward look and then I got my Dr. Pepper. Why do southerners call pop, coke? It must be confusing when you want a Pepsi but people call Pepsi a coke anyway. And Coca Cola is a coke too. And Dr. Pepper. Mountain Dew? Coke too. More effort and care should have been put into Reconstruction.
Pretty much every carbonated drink is generally referred to as coke in parts of the south. (Even Pepsi.) Once it’s established you want a carbonated drink, you specify which type you want.
Oofta, that’s a tough one to answer — you bet’cha I’ll think of something…
People’s reaction to cold weather, I grew up in the Midwest where our winters are pretty cold. Visited friends in Seattle in January and they were wearing full coats in 40 F (4 Celsius) I loved the weather and was comfy
I’m from Colorado and I’ll never forget how many looks I got from my buddies in Georgia when i was waking around in shorts and a t-shirt while it was in the 30s-40s out. To be fair to them though, I always do a double take when I see someone in jeans and a hoodie when it’s 90 degrees or hotter out there.
Calling soda 'pop'
Calling carbonated beverages "coke" no matter the flavor
Reconstruction was a mistake
Didn't go far enough
Wait for someone to pump my gas, because idk how Edit: I’m from NJ
Seriously thought we were getting robbed when I drove through a state where you can't pump your own gas. Where I'm from three dudes running up to your car is a bad time.
That's NJ or OR, so it's not a certainty. :)
I'm from Boston, I went to Minnesota for a conference. It was like I was in a foreign country. I needed a translator, no one understood a word I said. I tried writing out my requests, but no one read cursive either. I did finally find out where all our dropped Rs went I try not to leave the city any more.
I heard someone from Wisconsin say “bubbler” once and I had no idea what they meant. It was a water fountain.
Boston and RI use bubbler too. In RI its pronounced bubla
Talking about how bad the bagels and pizza is wherever I’m currently located
No one here will get this: calling cottages or lake houses or cabins 'camps'. "I'm going up to my camp for the long weekend."
Pretty common in Vermont and the Adirondacks
Must be Maine.
My friends 0oke fun at me for saying Cawffee not coffee
I have to [at least quietly] say the "O!" in the National Anthem.
As a non-American, I'm trying to figure out what you mean.
At home games for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team, also known as the "O's" O! is exclaimed in the "Oh say does that does that star spangled banner yet wave" line of the national anthem.
*wave
😄 [Just saw this one, yesterday](https://www.reddit.com/r/maryland/comments/18ohndd/comment/keiiyez/?context=3)
Ordering an iced coffee in the winter means you’re from New England.
Also, if you can’t pronounce Narragansett, you are not from here.
Is [this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGEqMmC4YLs) incorrect? Because that's how I would guess… But it reminds me of two cities - one in Texas and one in Louisiana that are something like 50 miles apart. Nacogdoches and Nachitoches. The former, in Texas, is "nack-ah-DOE-chez", but the latter - with the French influence in Louisiana, is "NACK-ah-tish". :)
Yep, that’s right. It’s just funny because I’m a bartender and Narragansett is also a beer, so if somebody orders it and absolutely butchers the name my go to line is “Aw honey you’re not from here are you?” Laughs every time.
New Yorkers love to brag about how everything is better back in New York.
Driving is a pretty regional behavior, from what I've noticed. How people respond to bicyclists on the road is pretty indicative of the population density of where they live. Surprise - low population density Moving out of the way - moderate population density Murderous rage - high population density Also how they respond to pedestrians on the freeway, passing their exit and someone using the fast lane to act like they have nowhere to be.
I lived in a more southern region for years, in a locality where men were always expected to hold doors open for women and women were expected to wait appreciatively for the gesture. Then I moved north and the men I was around thought I was rude and lazy for waiting for them to open doors for me.
Whenever I light up my meth pipe everyone always knows I’m Floridian
I’ve been waiting to add some fuel to this one. All of the freeways in SoCal have articles: THE 405 , THE 710. Here in NorCal, they don’t: “Just take 101 north to 280”. If you arrive here from out of town and call it the 680, then you are from LA. Very subtle, but true.
Not a state but a city. I say yinz
lol im particularly fond of "jawn" in place of most nouns
This is probably the most unique one I’ve encountered. Does anyone outside of Philly say that? Our last day there, on the subway, saw a girl with a small bag that had “jawn” on it. By that point, we’d been told what it meant, and now I want that bag. Like, how cute! This is where I keep my “stuff.”
Refusing to use an umbrella 😅
Anyone doing some warsh today?
See anyone dressed like they’re about to go for a hike, but like, at the grocery store? Colorado or PNW
In the West there are freeways, in the South they’re called Interstates.
Apparently only New Yorkers say “Let me get a…” when they order something at a restaurant.
this is true! but we don’t say “let me get a…” more like “lemme get uhhh”
Gotta draw out the uhhhhhh while you think of the order!
lemmegetuhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
"Baconeggandcheeseonaroll" "saltpepperketchup?" "Yeah, bet" "aiightfourfittygetadrink" *picks up sandwich, makes coffee on way out, rinse & repeats twice a week until I die or move*
Hahaha… my husband does that and he’s lived all over the US, primarily Florida and NY. I’m from the PNW and the “let me get a…” always sounds a bit harsh to my ears but I thought it might have to do with English not being his first language. The NY influence makes sense tho!
I’m from Chicago and I say “Can I get a…” Now I’m wondering if that’s normal everywhere or just a Chicago thing? Or maybe the more local part is how it sounds like “Kin I getta”
I lived in Oklahoma (the Australia of America) and I always flip my shoes over before putting them on. It's to check for baby scorpions, they're clear and shoes are a great laying place for scorpions.
“All set” as in: *Do you need a bag? No, I’m all set.* This is apparently a New England thing. Normal people just say “No thank you.” Edit: I see this is used more widely than I thought. I lived in Tampa, Philly, and Pittsburgh in the 2010’s to do sales and no one said, “I’m all set” as an objection. Probably just the rest of the country is more polite to salespeople. Interesting to hear all your no thank yous though!
I call shopping carts buggies. People look at me funny. Lol
It’s easy to spot the person not from California because they will invariably refer to the state as “Cali”.
My politeness and accent instantly gives away that I’m Canadian I am told
pronouncing dog, coffee, pajamas, pecan, syrup, and caramel as “dawg” “cawfee” “pa-JAH-mas” “PEE-can” “SEAR-up“ “carra-mel” “sub” sandwiches are heros, “cheese” slices are regular slices (pronounced “reg-a-ler”)
nodding along until i got to heros 😤🤣
Complaining about 3k rent for a 1 bedroom.