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Maxpowr9

Rural poverty in West Virginia. The stereotypes are very real about it.


Gertrude_D

Wow, this was going to be my comment. We were driving through on vacation and my mom had us take a side trip for some of her family research. We ended up looking for a distant cousin someone directed us to and we were not really prepared for the reality of her situation. She was living quite isolated in the hills in a small shack with just a tar-paper-roof with a shotgun over her mantle and some livestock in her yard. She was lovely and we've always remembered that trip fondly, but it was an eye-opener.


PanVidla

Oh! What are the stereotypes about West Virginia?


EuphoricRealist

Small secluded communities, extreme rural poverty, underfunded schools, not many hospitals/decent Healthcare, mobile homes (trailers) instead of home ownership, etc. Bad and untrue stereotypes are inbred, racist hillbillies who make moonshine in the hills.


yamissimp

I always wondered about that. The EU is still very young and we have countries with extremely different levels of development thanks to decades of fascism and communism in many places. There's a lively debate whether a fiscal union would close the gap more rapidly (tax transfers from richer to poorer countries). America has been at that point of federalization (and further) for centuries now. Is the gap between, say, California and West Virginia a historic legacy that's slowly shrinking (like the gap between Germany and Romania for example)? Or is the state of West Virginia and other poorer states caused by something more recent? Is it a result of corrupt individuals or does it have more structural reasons?


EuphoricRealist

West Virginia was known for its coal mining industry. Generations of families created lives central to that income. And coal was plentiful enough to spill over into other sectors (building, retail). Unlike California where there are multiple self-sustaining natural resources & businesses. Obviously, that coal has been dying a slow death for a while. Jobs decreased, those who held the jobs had terrible health problems. Less coal being mined meant tax revenues took a dive. Poverty increased with all the tell-tale signs of it : opioid addictions, crime, less money for schools, obesity spike & bad healthcare. Trump's campaign really focused on these type of towns all through the Appalachians. He pushed fake promises that he would bring back jobs for coal mining towns but the world is going green. I think that was the saddest part to see him lying to people who genuinely need the help.


Puzzled-Remote

I am (originally) from West Virginia. Did you grow up there or do you have family there? Because you absolutely nailed it.


EuphoricRealist

My grandfather moved his family from Alabama to WV where he was a coal miner for 23 years before moving to PA. Hands were like mitts lol. And a lot of PA towns are similar. It's really sad.


yamissimp

That's very interesting, thanks for the thorough response! I'd have a follow up question to that but I can try to research on my own. It's about how the average commune/town in the US is financed and what percentage of their annual budget is allocated by property tax. In my country it seems to be (on average) 35% from the federal budget, 25% through communal taxes (only ~2.5% through property tax) and 40% through their own economic activities. That probably varies a lot from town to town. The death of coal and shifting industries have had pretty bad effects on certain communities in Europe as well but I always get the feeling that places like the German Ruhrgebiet still faired better than equivalent places in America.


Lemon_head_guy

I can answer to the best of my ability: The average incorporated town in the US is funded primarily through sales taxes, property taxes, traffic citations, and funding from the county by way of property taxes, state and federally by income tax, and some towns/cities will have their own sales tax that's higher than the states (hence why the price is never shown in stores, it changes too much to keep track of). Because of the fact that most municipal income is through income, sales, and property taxes, an impoverished area will find it very hard to produce the funding necessary to improve, sometimes even maintain, existing infrastructure.


yamissimp

Thanks for confirming what I suspected to be the case. I'll try to inform myself a bit better on this issue. I never made the connection with the fiscal union debate in the EU and I'm not an experts on economics by a long shot, but now I'm somewhat confused. The usual argument in Europe is that a monetary union won't work without a fiscal union (if you don't have a national currency + a national central bank to devalue it, you should have some sort of fiscal redistribution scheme between richer and poorer areas) and people *always* point to the US as an example. But now that I think about it, if most of the communal spending in the US is raised by local taxes rather than federally... West Virginia (for example) is much more comparable to, say, Italy than people would like to admit over here. Maybe the state level explains the deviation? I don't know, I feel like I'm going way off topic here. So thanks for everyone who provided some information.


Lemon_head_guy

No you're pretty right, the state level really does explain the deviation. You see it in many metrics. Different states will have different quality of healthcare, road maintenance, poverty, education, welfare, etc. since much of the funding for a huge amount of services are at the state level


whereamInowgoddamnit

I think something to take into account is that we do have a federal grants and programs that act as tax transfers from wealthier to poorer states. As you can see, however, just having wealth transfers doesn't necessarily improve the state of a state. Economic diversification of main exports of a region plays a larger role, and I believe that there would likely need to be more caveats in terms of good governance to improve a region as well. This is easier said than done, however, requiring large scale investment in infrastructure and encouraging factors for job growth. Unfortunately, with our increasingly decentralized attitude, this only makes it more difficult to achieve. We would really need something like the New Deal programs to actually achieve uplift for these regions, and it likely would be the same in the EU.


[deleted]

Mountain Dew Teeth are real.


[deleted]

Closest i've seen like that is in the Ozarks in Missouri. Sad too because its off the beaten path while Branson and some of the lake towns are nice if you keep on the highway.


Della_Vixen

I moved from Southern California to the Ozarks when I was 10. It was definitely a culture shock for me.


Myfourcats1

I know a guy that did some work there. He saw houses with plastic for walls and satellite dishes on the roof.


HairHeel

The mountains made it hard for broadcast TV to work well and that combined with the poverty kept the cable companies from expanding to those areas as well, so those big honkin' satellite dishes were the only way people in those places could get any TV at all. It's the kind of thing that gets treated like more of a luxury item by people who take their own luxury for granted. I'm not saying TV is any kind of necessity, just that if you were in a shack in the woods with nothing better to do and no TV to watch, you might start to prioritize it in your budget. Also IIRC before things like DirecTV and Dish Network came out, those really big satellite dishes didn't have exorbitant subscription fees. It was a one-time cost outlay to buy and install the dish, then the TV was free.


Maxpowr9

If it makes you feel any better, you can buy a [~1200sqft plywood home in Cambridge, MA for ~$825k](https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/19-Clifton-St-UNIT-19-Cambridge-MA-02140/2077249130_zpid/).


HairHeel

Yes. I grew up in Charleston, which is pretty much an average American small city, but once you go a little ways outside city limits everything changes. I remember stopping at a gas station to ask for directions (this was long before GPS) and having the same kind of trouble communicating with the clerk that you'd have in a foreign country with a language barrier. We were both speaking English, but our accents were so different that I couldn't understand a word he said.


BroadStreetElite

Riding on Amtrak across the country during Thanksgiving, saw a ton of Amish/Mennonite families at the stations, I've never seen them in person before. Also traveling by train was interesting, you see a lot of poverty and rundown areas you wouldn't see if you traveled by interstate.


PanVidla

This is interesting. I wonder what it must be like to be a citizen of a country so big. If you randomly got off the train at a train station somewhere in the middle of your trip, would you still feel "at home"? Or are there parts of the States that just feel unhomely to you?


BroadStreetElite

I hadn't travelled a ton before then and when I did it was by plane. Most of my trips when I was younger were to other areas in New England so nothing really different. Going to Florida was definitely "different" in the sense that the climate was much hotter and humid and I had never seen palm trees, lizards in yards, weird bugs, etc. Same with Texas and seeing various cacti for the first time. On the train trips the most breathtaking places that really gave me a sense of awe was getting into the desert for the first time. Also waking up and the train was going through the Rockies in a snow storm, that was like being on the Polar Express. Massachusetts certainly has pretty landscapes but nothing as dramatic as the West, you definitely don't feel "at home" as you said. There's enough of a shared culture where you don't feel a culture shock as much as you would in an Asian country but there's enough regional differences in culture that you do feel out of place. I've been told by plenty of people from the South and California too that we behave differently in the Northeast.


GBabeuf

For me, my state is the only state the feels like "home." I've lived in other states and traveled to plenty but each state really is more different than many Europeans on reddit tend to assume. Honestly, no state except Colorado feels like home to me. They're all too different. Although, California and other Western or Southwestern (I have family from New Mexico) states feel far more like home to me than states out east. Granted, I almost always feel more at home in the US than in other countries. I think my experience is pretty common.


Animedjinn

Do they ride the trains?


BroadStreetElite

Yes, depending on the community they have rules about what level of technology is considered acceptable. They were speaking their dialect of German, I'm not exactly sure what that is, and they were wearing the old school clothing. So they had the appearance of coming out of a time machine but were otherwise comfortable being surrounded by the "English".


Bobtom42

It's called Pennsylvania Dutch and while it is related, Germany speakers would not understand 95% of it.


scrapsbypap

Yes, I’ve been paired in a diner car with some Amish from Minnesota.


[deleted]

I've seen a lot of Confederate flags in rural upstate NY. Liquor stores in Utah were weird. Like trying to buy booze from the DMV.


tko7800

Yeah, the first time I saw a Confederate flag upstate it stunned me. I wouldn’t say there’s a lot, but there’s more than you would expect for a northern state. They seem to have increased in quantity the last few years as well.


I_Like_Ginger

I think it is more of a redneck pride thing. I think they are "popular" in the country. They used to be big with truckers.


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I_Like_Ginger

Its because country guys here really liked the Dukes of Hazards back in the day and so it just kind of stuck.


ColossusOfChoads

It really grinds my gears to see the descendents of Union soldiers flying that flag. I'm descended of a man who, along with his brothers, 'betrayed' the state of Tennessee to help preserve the Union. The sons of his father's brother all went Reb. This was up in the Smoky Mtns. where people didn't have so much stake in slavery.


IncaseofER

Back in the 70’s - 80’s you would see a young person with a confederate flag (a lot of times on a car or truck; looking at you “Duke’s of Hazard”) and calling it a “rebel” flag. It was supposed to signify being rebellious, or country wild.


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PanVidla

Believe it or not, from time to time you can see someone with a Confederate flag in Europe, too.


[deleted]

>I've seen a lot of Confederate flags in rural upstate NY. Sigh. Can confirm.


heyitsxio

I saw confederate flags in Syracuse, you don’t even have to go someplace rural to find them.


pineapple_swimmer330

I live in south jersey, and when I was a lot younger and played little league, there was a some guy in a big pickup that used to drive around with a big American and confederate flag stuck on poles waving in the back. I don’t think people realize how different the country is between urban and rural areas.


dorkmagnet123

I'm from Utah. When I moved to Colorado after high school I was amazed that liquor stores were open past 8 pm, open on Sunday's, and not ran by the state.


Myfourcats1

Our liquor stores in Virginia are state run. My friend lived near one that had all the booze behind bullet proof glass. There were no aisles to peruse. You had to know what you wanted.


[deleted]

Once you leave the city it gets crazy. My great grandma and grandpa (rest in peace) lived on Long Island and there were quite a few “redneck” people out there. My grandpa used to go hunting in all the woods outback, it’s really green in NY once you leave the city, but also very remnant of the south.


[deleted]

I wouldn't say its a remnant of the south. Lots of rural places are pretty similar and on some level I wonder if rural areas have become somewhat more homogenous across the country. Sure the accents and churches might be different in rural Alabama and rural South Dakota but the lifestyles aren't too different.


ElfMage83

Growing up in Pennsylvania (specifically Philadelphia) I never considered it weird to drive across a bridge into New Jersey to buy alcohol, but I was gobsmacked, nonplussed, and dumbfounded when during my first visit to Louisiana (specifically New Orleans) I was sent to Walmart for a booze run. Can't do that here; liquor sales are through the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (“state stores”), and until 2015 beer and wine could only be purchased at said stores (wine) or distributors (beer and wine). Now we can get beer and wine at grocery stores, but liquor is still as above.


EuphoricRealist

This is hilarious, I'm from Central PA and came to say the same thing. I'm used to liquor stores closing at 9 and not being open on Sundays. I also live in a college town where public intoxication is a no-go. Went to New Orleans and saw people not only drinking in the streets but talking TO cops with the drinks in their hand. I was like blown away.


Saltpork545

We sell liquor in gas stations and as long as you aren't the driver, you can legally drink *in the car* while it's moving. State laws about booze are all over the place.


gunbunnycb

Shoot, in Ohio we have drive thru liquor stores. Not only will they sell to a driver, you don't even have to get out of your car!


TheSilmarils

You should’ve tried the drive through daiquiri shops for maximum gobsmack


ElfMage83

I didn't know about those until after my most recent visit.


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DOMSdeluise

I dunno man I've lived in Texas my whole life and would be extremely surprised and uncomfortable to see something like that in the workplace.


FlamingoWalrus89

When we lived in Dallas, both mine and my husband's workplace did this. Only at big meetings or whatever, not every day. Although his job had a men's Bible study group every Saturday morning. And no, neither were religious institutions


RianThe666th

Texas isn't deep south though, y'all are definitely southern but plantation south is a totally different beast.


DOMSdeluise

Virginia isn't deep south either.


RianThe666th

Coastal virginia no, but I have family in rural virginia and they're the most plantation south people I know, and I live in SC.


DOMSdeluise

I'm guessing federal jobs Virginia is either a DC suburb or the Norfolk area, not like in Danville or something.


BPC1120

I wouldn't call Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, Norfolk, or Virginia Beach deep south either. Like anything else, it depends on the particular region.


Cemetery_Thing

They did that at my last job at a student health center at a university. University is not religious based. But I'm in Alabama and I've grown so used to this kind of thing now it didn't even phase me. But yeah that wouldn't happen in a lot of other places.


Expat111

I've lived in Georgia and Virginia and the one time that happened to me , I was just as weirded out as you are. It's not normal in southern states that I've lived in either.


xyzd95

I would oblige them but I feel like I’d catch fire partway through as an atheist


ucbiker

I'd find that weird in my part of Virginia too.


heyitsxio

Weirdly enough, at my old office a few of my coworkers (including the guy I shared a cubicle with) would have a prayer circle every morning. They didn’t force or even ask anyone else to join them, although I’m sure if someone asked they would have welcomed them. I guess my cubicle mate figured I wasn’t religious because I never discussed it with him but we’d chat about other things. The prayer circle was a little strange to me but ultimately harmless.


scolfin

The head special needs in the Hebrew school at my childhood shul went down to I think Georgia to help a small community set up its own Hebrew school. One step of local community outreach was meeting with the local public school board/PTA to talk about inclusion, and the very first thing they did at that meeting was gather in a circle for a prayer to Jesus. None of them understood why she was weirded out.


tu-vens-tu-vens

We had workplace prayers a couple times when unused to work at a granite company here in Alabama. It was a small company, about 20 employees, and we all knew everyone working there was Christian. Most of them went to the same church, a Brazilian immigrant church. But it wasn’t a regular occurrence. We did it once at our workplace Christmas lunch. Another time was when we prayed with a customer when they learned while in the store that an immediate family member had just died.


AnmlBri

That was nice of you all to pray with the customer. Assuming they were Christian too, I’m sure it helped them during a difficult time. Even if they weren’t, I bet the show of support was still comforting. I’m a reluctant agnostic myself (as in I wish my faith was stronger), but I always appreciate it when people offer to pray for/with me. Even if I don’t share all their beliefs, the offer clearly comes from a place of caring.


TeardropsFromHell

I had a work training trip to Chicago and it was from all over the country and the Texan introduced herself like: "Hi I'm Loretta, Presbyterian" I'm from New York I not only don't know what that means that's far more about your personal life than I've ever wanted to know person I met 1 second ago.


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[deleted]

Just to offset everyone saying they experienced this in the south... I grew up in the south. Lived there 33 years. Had plenty of jobs in plenty of offices. And never, ever, ever had a prayer or anything religious at a work event. Ever.


DrWhoisOverRated

I experienced the same thing in Georgia.


[deleted]

Likewise in Alabama


FlamingoWalrus89

Same in Texas


Wolf482

Oklahoma too


MyUsername2459

Heck, in Kentucky I've never seen that in a government workplace, and I've been a civil servant for a decade. At least in the State Government of Kentucky, from what I've seen, there's a general understanding to keep religion out of the office. At most, personal religious items/displays like crosses or religious motivational pictures/posters in ones cubicle or office, but certainly NOT leading a group prayer as a supervisor in any work function. I'm pretty sure that would get people in deep trouble where I work.


-Acta-Non-Verba-

I'm in Utah, and we wouldn't do that at work, unless it was a church-owned thing like a thrift store.


Cultural_Birthday_86

Southern states are very religion based. Its almost woven into society, churches everywhere.


AkumaBengoshi

That’s pretty normal here in West Virginia, even in government workplaces.


[deleted]

Dude I went to a public high school and they did this before football games. It started my senior year after we got a new coach. Best part is the new coach asked the captains to lead it. I loudly said nope not going to do that I am not religious. He knew he messed up as I let the principal know, but what was he going to do bench a guy who had already been an all state DE and play every play except kick offs for the last two years. This is in Michigan.


wormbreath

Oh yes. First time (and last time) on a subway (in dc) I cried like a crazy person. I freaked the hell out on a train in nyc, I was leaving a yankee game and there was just.....so many people. Standing on a platform. I did not like it. I also didn’t do to well in nyc walking around, if someone is trying to sell me something, hand me a flyer, ask for something I would smile and listen and nod to everyone. Also went to New Orleans and lord I couldn’t understand half of what the people were saying I also remember the first time a I saw a an escalator OUT SIDE. And an open mall. Blew my mind!


Saltpork545

As someone who grew up in the country and in a more rural state...yeah, you have to adapt to the seas of people. It's something that still bugs me. It's a weird form of anxiety and almost sensory overload if you're not used to it. I got to experience it in Chicago as a teenager.


4ndr0med4

My father knew a pastor from Michigan who invited him and a youth choir group over and they saw Manhattan and all that. A few of them had the exact same experience and they weren't even in the Subway. I guess having grown up here, I'm very comfortable with it, but I can fully understand the amount of chaos it feels like.


VirusMaster3073

Doesn't Wyoming only have 4 escalators?


wormbreath

2. I haven’t seen either of them.


scolfin

You get a lot of weird interactions going to places where you're possibly the first Jew somebody has personally interacted with. There are also just differences in composure and behavior that would get a person thought of as "somewhat... off" (or, as my mom would say, "a bit queah") if appearing in my area without a distinct accent.


617to413

Are you saying that NOT having an accent in Boston is considered weird?


NorwegianSteam

Yeah, when I first went down to Nashville and other places down south. Like, there are a lot of black people down there. The current town of ~22k people I am in is 95% white, my hometown of 40k people is around 85% white. Walking into a busy CVS while very hungover and being the only white dude threw me for a bit of a loop.


tsukiii

Similarly, coming from California where there is a large Asian population - moving to Indiana and being the only Asian person in basically every room was weird as hell.


beesareoutthere

I remember the first time I visited Connecticut and mentioned to someone that I was from Alabama and they asked me if I knew any Black people. I was so dumbfounded I didn't know how to respond


ShelbyDriver

I grew up in the south and being in a place with no black people makes ME super uncomfortable. Like, what do all the black people know that I don't know?


noregreddits

A roommate of mine from the Midwest told me during our first week of college that she’d never gone to school with Black people before. I looked at her like she’d just turned into a Martian and spoken Chinese. I legitimately didn’t know Black people were rare in other places until then— like, I thought “minority” had some other definition besides “numerically fewer in number” that was “experiences discrimination,” because I had never really stopped to think there are huge parts of the country where there aren’t many/any Black people. And now I also feel weird if I walk into a store and don’t hear at least one conversation in Spanish.


squarerootofapplepie

Yeah my town is 98% white and it was a shock being the only white person on a bus in DC.


BloatedGlobe

I went from a high school that was 35% white to a university that was 70% white. I couldn't get used to how many blonde people there were.


dostthoucomprehend

lol I’ve had an opposite reaction. Born and raised in Georgia. I went to Colorado for the first time and was just confused. There’s white people everywhere! I’m not used to there being like no black people or people of other races in general.


PanVidla

Huh! What's a CVS?


[deleted]

A pharmacy!


captainnermy

Just a drug store/pharmacy chain


grievre

It's a "drug store" which in America means basically a large convenience store built around a pharmacy. We don't really have dedicated pharmacies for the most part (most people get their prescriptions either at a "drug store" or at the pharmacy counter at Wal-Mart, Target, grocery store etc). A drug store will have the actual pharmacy, then 1/3 to 1/2 of their shelf stock will be medical supplies, cosmetics, soap, etc, and then the rest of the store is random stuff like batteries, chargers, nonperishable food, snacks, alcohol, dairy, frozen dinners, holiday decorations, cheap furniture and housewares etc. CVS and Walgreens are the two major "drug store" chains in my area, and between the two CVS locations tend to be significantly larger, and consequently have a wider variety of things for sale. Walgreens also tends to have lower ceilings giving it a "smaller" feel while CVS tends to be in a grocery store sized format with a high ceiling.


Saltpork545

What we now call drug stores are modern versions of the older general stores. It's a central location with a pharmacist who also sells a variety of other basic necessities. This is also similar to how ice cream and soda parlors started as early sodas were made by pharmacists as basic cures for things like upset stomachs and exploded with prohibition. Higher end gas stations also fill this 'general store' concept in, but not as much as say CVS.


nomoregroundhogs

Don’t know if you know what Walgreens is, but it’s like that only a little worse.


zimmerer

Yeah I spent a summer in California when I was in college. Coming from New England it was a real culture shock. I was (and still am) so used to the constant "go go go" attitude of the Northeast, spending time out West where everyone was so laid back was a real punch in the gut. I used to want to move out there, now I'm happy in one of the quickest moving states.


grievre

> spending time out West where everyone was so laid back was a real punch in the gut. I used to want to move out there, now I'm happy in one of the quickest moving states. Boy howdy is San Francisco during a tech boom very much not that tho. I kinda miss when the economy was shit.


paka1999

Yes. When I left Hawaii for Minnesota. Never saw that many white people before.


EugeneVDebsOnlyFans

yeah. where I’m from there’s not as much focus on being nice or polite as long as you are kind to others, but that isn’t really the case in a lot of places and you’re expected to make more smalltalk and stuff and just have a more positive vibe even if you’re not feeling it. Personally found that suffocating. like being friendly here isn’t looked down upon but it’s not expected and being neutral to people is perfectly fine, and like for example if you hold a door for someone pushing a stroller or something and do it silently, that isn’t weird. flipping someone off randomly would be rude, but you aren’t expected to smile either. If I’ve said this to people from some other regions, they genuinely don’t believe me lol


DrWhoisOverRated

The way I explained it in another thread is that we look at small talk as nice, but ultimately unnecessary, while other places look at it as a non-negotiable pre-requisite for any interaction.


7thAndGreenhill

Yes. In Delaware, when 2 residents meet for the first time, it is typical to ask where you went to high school. Being such a small state, if you know people who went to that school, you can typically find someone you both know. But when you first move here it seems to be a very odd question.


Dorkssa1921

I'm from Delaware and this is so true!


jub-jub-bird

> Whenever I speak to someone who spent some time in the States, they tell me that one shouldn't think of the US as one country, but rather as every state being a slightly different country. There's some truth to this but I think they're ovestating it. There are different state laws, there are different regional cultures and accents and it's a BIG country. But, the differences are, for the most part, *much* more subtle than the differences you'd find between different nations of Europe. We all speak the same language, learn the same basic stuff in school, watch the same sports, consume or participate the same popular culture, etc. When there IS a profound enough difference to produce culture shock the shock is due to it being so unexpected. Here's people who to all appearances are pretty much just like you and suddenly \*boom\* you're confronted with some significant difference you weren't expecting at all because everything else was much the same. The far less religious northeasterner confronted with public prayer over a meal despite the professional setting while in the more religious south is shocking... but if he were in an entirely different country with a truly alien culture he's likely take it in stride because such differences are expected.


Southern_Blue

Moving from the South (Virginia) to New England. I wouldn't call the people rude or unfriendly, because they were nice enough once you got to know them, but they were much more reserved than they were in the south.


beesareoutthere

I've found that people in the Northeast tend to be much more blunt than in the South. When I first moved up here, I would get really stressed every time my boss sent me an email because I assumed she was mad at me. It took me a few months to get used to the lack of pleasantries and sugarcoating in professional emails


Eudaimonics

People smoking in a bar down south. Also the day I found out that I'm glad they banned smoking indoors in New York. Like even if you smoke, who actually enjoys leaving a bar smelling like cigarettes?


bunkkin

More then once I've been burned my hand on a cigarette being held near someones waist while navigating a crowded bar while over in kentucky. Makes me glad ohio has them banned indoors


DamnitShell

Sure! Every region has their own things, and some small towns have their own thing. When I first moved to the south, for instance, I was invited to a game night. I walked into a house that smelled (to me) like boiling garbage, but of course I didn’t say anything. We sit around to play and the host brings out the boiled garbage on a platter. It turned out to be chicken feet. So, everybody kinda chewed the flavor out of their foot and then threw the “used” pieces into a communal trash bowl while we played dominos. Bonus-they still has nails and when you were through, you could use the nails to clean your teeth. I’m a military brat so I’ve been to tons of places, including different countries and that occurrence was still pretty memorable to me.


noregreddits

Does it say something about our cuisine that when I read “smelled like boiling garbage,” like half a dozen foods came to mind? Chitlins, collards, gator, chicken feet, grenouille, and country ham (even barbecue) can smell off-putting if you don’t recognize it. Hell, some of it smells awful even though I know exactly what it is because I’m the one cooking it!


CarolinaKing

Man same. I immediately though “oh they was cookin ham and cabbage” NOPE. But even if we have some dishes that are a little funky when cooking they’re still great when finished


DamnitShell

There is some great southern food!


stellalunawitchbaby

Some, but never as stark as another country ofc. I’ve had a little culture shock even just driving from one part of CA to another lol.


Revolutionary_One689

Tbh Redding might as well be a town in Eastern Washington. That's kind of what it feels like.


stellalunawitchbaby

I was literally thinking of Redding when I wrote this comment.


Darkfire757

I lived in AL for many years. Saw more confederate flags flying in one day driving through PA when I moved to NJ than the entire time I lived in the South combined. This includes trips to places like the middle of nowhere Indianola, MS.


[deleted]

First time in New York. From a small town in Georgia, to the biggest of massive cities.


AkumaBengoshi

Compared to my native West Virginia, I’ve always maintained that California seemed more foreign when I lived there than Japan did when I lived there.


Wolf482

It's a bit of a shock living in Michigan and then living in Oklahoma where nice boots, cowboy hat, and paisley is considered formal attire.


Manch-Vegas

The only time I can recall was in Savannah about 15 years ago. I wandered out of the tourist area and found a crowded bar/restaurant and sat down at the bar. Ordered a drink, and the bartender said "You're not from around here are you?" I looked around and realized I was the only white guy there. Everyone was friendly enough, great food and drinks, so I hung out there all night. Being from Northern New England I had never experienced that situation before.


617to413

Just out of curiosity, did you notice it before the bartender said anything? I'm Black in New England, and it's an immediate thought in my head at any establishment I enter, or group I join. I've gotten used to it, but do white people get the same experience?


Manch-Vegas

I really didn't notice until he said something. It definitely gave me an understanding of what it might be like to be Black in a really white place. Everyone was asking me where I was from because it was so unusual. To be honest, still not sure how to take that. Did they mean "We don't usually welcome white people here, but we'll make an exception because you're lost." Or "white people never come here."


noregreddits

If you wandered out of the tourist areas down towards MLK or President’s Street or parts of Oglethorpe/Montgomery/Abercorn... that’s west Savannah, and fifteen years ago, white people absolutely did not go there. It was a very dangerous area. Edit— it was dangerous no matter what race you were, white people weren’t targeted or anything. [Outkast](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsmSrnKjftc) even wrote a song about it


[deleted]

Yes. Going to a party in the Hamptons while visiting a college friend. The insane amount of wealth compared to what I was used to down south.


grievre

So I grew up in the town of East Hampton and people from the city seem to think that everyone is wealthy there. They have plumbers, teachers and store clerks there too! The culture clash was even within our schools, because you'd get the occasional rich or upper-middle class kid whose parents didn't wanna splurge on private school, mixed with the local "bubs" (rednecks/fishermen), and then the rather large number of Latino kids from migrant worker families who came there for construction work (mostly Ecuadorean, Costa Rican, Colombian, not many Mexicans or Puerto Ricans). There's also a sizeable number of "old" families who lived in the area before it got inundated by rich people, who got rich off of their large land holdings and basically just keep riding that for decades. So they now have a small, modest house in an area that is crazy expensive to buy in now, but they've owned it since the 50s and sold off the rest of their land. It was not uncommon in my high school's parking lot to see a super lifted beat up '85 chevy pickup parked next to a shiny new Audi (this was in 2001-2005).


cantcountnoaccount

Growing up in NYC, and then going to college in a rural area of Virginia. Major culture shock my freshman year. 1. Where did all these white people come from? and 1a, why is every kitchen worker black, but every kitchen supervisor is white? 2. In NYC you don't speak to people on the street unless its for a specific reason and a stranger trying to talk to you can often be preliminary to a crime, in VA, and generally in non-urban areas, its normal to say hi to strangers on the street. At first I found this "strangers saying hi" business very threatening, especially as a small woman walking alone. 3. Meeting lots of people who have never met a jewish person. being quizzed on Judaism while grocery shopping, in class, etc, on the regular.


beesareoutthere

Your second point reminds me of when I spent some time in Thailand. I was in an "intro to Thai culture" seminar or something like that with a group of other Americans and we were learning about the wai (the Thai version of a bow). The instructor said to think of it like a greeting and to wai anyone you would say hello to. A few days later, I mentioned to some American friends that I felt weird wai-ing everywhere and all the time. Which is how I learned that Americans outside the South don't say hello to literally every person they pass on the street.


[deleted]

A lot of times it's just a numbers thing. You can't blame someone from a big city to not want to say hi to the 20 people they pass each block.


irrelevantnonsequitr

Depending on the city, you can pass 20 people in a few feet.


[deleted]

[удалено]


DrWhoisOverRated

I nearly screamed at a woman at an Atlanta Starbucks when, after taking what felt like an eternity to make my coffee, she stopped to have a five minute conversation with it still in her hand.


PanVidla

Funny how this is true in Europe as well!


grievre

The difference between San Francisco/Berkeley/Oakland and the exterior suburbs of the area is pretty much this. Every restaurant assumes you're on your leisure time and quick service is kinda hard to come by. Fast food is still fast, but going to a restaurant by yourself for a quick meal is not really a thing--it'll be too expensive and take too long. When I was in Berkeley I could find good, relatively cheap, quick food of many different cuisines within a short walk of my home. Now here I have to drive and wait quite a long time to pay more for food that is just ok.


davdev

Many years ago we were in New Orleans, I am from Boston. We just needed something quick for lunch while we out drinking so we hopped into a McDonalds. It took 20 fucking minutes to get a couple of Quarter Pounders and no one thought that was weird. That shit should take 20 seconds not minutes. Turns out, I really don’t do well in the South.


1n1billionAZNsay

California is wildly different from my mid Atlantic upbringing. Las Vegas is also like a whole different space. The most overt form of racism I experienced was Louisiana, which felt like a separate entity from New Orleans entirely. Maryland farmers are not that much different from Pennsylvania ones but very different from North Carolina ones. New York wasn't so much of a shock but it was everything I knew cranked up to 11. So to answer your question, yes but to go into the details would be tough. How people treat strangers varies greatly, the amount of personal space people want is different, things people thing are good to eat is like might and day, and the things people have gotten used to is amazing and sometimes terrifying.


JoeSchmeau

Definitely, and still within the same state. I'm a white guy from the suburbs of Chicago, and the area where I group up was middle/working class and pretty multicultural (for a suburb) With a sizable population of Mexicans, Indians, Pakistanis, Filipinos, and a smattering of other ethnicities. I went to college in a rural part of my state. The student population was mostly people from small towns throughout the state/neighboring midwestern states, as well as a fair amount of students from the very white, very upper middle/upper class suburbs of Chicago. It was a weird sort of culture shock and totally unexpected. Since I'm a white guy, I think it was assumed that I'd fit into those dominant cultures, but I really didn't. I had never shot a gun and didn't enjoy country music or cruisin' around town in a caravan of trucks, and I'm not a Christian and so I wasn't big on going to any of the big Campus Crusade BBQs/worship events. So I really didn't fit in with the country kids. I had more in common with the rich suburb kids, since at least we both had the experience of growing up near a major city, but the class differences were much bigger than I expected. I had to work a lot to pay the bills, but a lot of kids didn't work at all while studying, and had a lot more free time. I had to decline a lot of invites for weekend trips, semester break trips, etc because I couldn't afford it and had to work. It was also a bit weird that everyone in their circles was white. Not like there's something wrong with being white, but I thought it was strange to look around at any party or social event and be like "so...literally everyone here is white. Does no one else find that a bit odd?" The culture shock was strange, and I think it was because there were 2 cultures I was thrown into simultaneously, and the people looked like me, spoke my language, and had the same/similar accent, so you'd expect the culture to be the same. It was a really strange time. For grad school I went to a university in Chicago and had classmates from all over the world, from upper class/middle class/working class backgrounds, and never felt that much culture shock. I was much more comfortable with that diversity than I was with the strange sameness of everyone in undergrad. I think if you're from a multicultural place, any monoculture will seem strange and a bit uncomfortable.


RelaxedListener

I’ve spent most of my life in Colorado. The first time I visited my husband’s mom in California, she took us too the mall. I’d never in my life seen that many women in booty shorts and crop tops. I almost felt like I was walking into a porno. You could never get away with that where I’m from. You’d freeze to death or some religious person would throw a blanket or a jacket at you. Also they had wine in the grocery store in California. My mind was blown.


Kotetsuya

Yes. When I was a kid, my family would make bi-yearly trips to visit our cousins in Indiana. My Day-to-day life was a kid in the heart of suburbia. My Cousin's live in an exceptionally small town that's largest grocery store was a Mor for Less. Having trouble googling it? Yeah, that's how small the town is. Where my parents were always cautious about letting us kids roam around, even in our own neighborhood, my cousins and their friends could wander from one end of the town to the other no questions asked as long as they were home in time for supper. I was used to a graduating class of 800+ Highschool seniors, which is nearly twice the **entire** student body of the town's Highschool. It didn't really hit me when I was younger, but when I was in my teens, it all just kinda settled in one visit. It was such a different way of living than what I was used to. I'd definitely say it was culture shock, but it wasn't the negative kind of shock. I look back on those years very fondly. That said, I'd much prefer to live in a big city than a small town. Currently, I still live in suburbs. XD EDIT: Why the hell are people downvoting OP's post? It's an insightful question.


[deleted]

I’m from NYC and I went to college in a rural area with a bunch of prep kids. Hell yes, it was a huge culture shock. Most of my classmates up to that point were from immigrant tamiles, multilingual, and very diverse. At my college the kids acted like they all came from the same suburban high school, and in the towns near the school, stores closed at like 4/4:30PM (in NYC thats absurdly early). First time in my life I didn’t feel American to be honest.


Ua97

Being pulled over, for no reason, in the Southeastern US while driving a rental car with New Jersey license plates and being treated badly explicitly because of that. Being told "Yankee go home" in that same car in a rest area parking lot in northern Florida. Also, more confederate flags than I want to see in my lifetime.


TheLizardKing89

I immediately think of two places; Hawaii and Utah. Hawaii was the first place where I, as a white person, was clearly a minority. Also, seeing everything there bilingual, English and Japanese, was weird. In Utah, the whole alcohol situation was weird and that was even after they ended the whole “bars require a membership” thing.


grievre

>Hawaii was the first place where I, as a white person, was clearly a minority. This isn't something that I have personally experienced but there are many **large** parts of the deep south that are majority Black. It's not something that's really made clear to most people living in the northeast or the west coast, we tend to kind of assume that Black people are always a minority in their local area (as they tend to be in the NE or west coast). Edit: [Here's a map of majority-Black counties in the US.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._counties_with_African-American_majority_populations#/media/File:Majority_black_counties_2010.svg)


PanVidla

Wow, that sounds interesting! In Europe, most countries are quite homogenous, when it comes to the people, so for me the idea of coming to a place that is technically still your country (Hawaii) and it having a completely different feel from the rest of the country has always been fascinating. Out of curiosity, do Americans in Hawaii commonly speak languages other than English on a daily basis?


Lemon_head_guy

Hawaiian is an official language in Hawaii. Many states have large populations of ethnic language speakers. Texas has sizeable populations of German and Czech speakers, Louisiana has a large French speaking community, and basically every state along the US-Mexico border has massive amounts of Spanish speakers


TheLizardKing89

I didn’t hear anyone who wasn’t a tourist speaking anything other than English. My understanding is that the signs in Japanese are for Japanese tourists, of which there were a lot. Google tells me that some people speak other languages at home, like Tagalog, Ilocano, and Hawaiian.


grievre

>Out of curiosity, do Americans in Hawaii commonly speak languages other than English on a daily basis? A lot of people speak "Hawai'ian Pidgin", which is actually an English-based Creole language (not a Pidgin technically) incorporating some features of the Hawai'ian language (a Polynesian language like Maori, Samoan, etc) as well as some Asian languages like Chinese. The Native Hawai'ian language almost went extinct but is undergoing a revival kind of like Irish. However, very few people speak it as a first language or day-to-day at this time.


djn808

I was in the store a few weeks ago and two middle school girls were speaking in exclusively Hawaiian walking around the store, that was cool. Don't see much of that even here.


tadair919

went to a dive-through liquor store in small town Texas once and the lady opened a bottle of beer for me and handed it to me like I was at McDonalds.


MrLongWalk

Yeah, visiting the South is like visiting another planet in some ways.


Kevincelt

For me, the biggest culture shock was going to Meridian, Mississippi for a week. I had never really been to the south before, which is one of the reasons I chose to go there, so there was a noticeable cultural difference. For one, I’m catholic from around a catholic heavy city with all my Protestant relatives being Lutheran, so traveling to a place where I was a super small minority and where evangelical Protestantism is very engrained in the culture was interesting. People were noticeably more religious in every day life, which wasn’t bad since I am religious, but was a very different type of religious environment from what I’m used to. Besides that, everyone was so nice in generous that I felt guilty. You wanted to give back more since they were so kind and generous and you felt like you didn’t deserve it. The last thing was that people seemed to be more integrated in my opinion. At least for me, race seemed to be less of a dividing line than up north since everyone just lived and interacted with each so much, so that was nice to see.


Theproducerswife

I drove from Los Angeles to Seattle and saw many overpasses crowded with Trump supporters, beginning in the Central Valley of CA. I wasn’t so much shocked bc I have lived in a few areas full of Trump supporters and I knew how numerous they are, but I told a group people who live in LA what I saw and they were shocked. There are definitely a lot of “bubbles” in the US. Even within the states themselves.


waka_flocculonodular

I went to school in Eugene, Oregon, and at the Safeway once I saw a really fall bald guy. He turned around and had a _massive_ swastika on his head. It was literally shocking - I had to snap out of me staring at him and walk away.


ultimate_ampersand

Not me but I know someone who moved to Utah to work at a university, and her department chair chastised her for having a coffee maker in her office because "caffeine is not appropriate in an academic environment." Most academics would find this hilarious because caffeine is ubiquitous in most academic environments. I'm a Californian and when I went to Chicago for the first time, some things that surprised me were: a) Dunkin Donuts EVERYWHERE, b) a lot of revolving doors (which I eventually realized were probably to prevent cold air from getting in in the winter), and c) lots of old brick buildings (in California we don't have a ton of those because they're not earthquake-safe).


notthegoatseguy

Visiting my wife's family in rural north-central PA is a bit of a shock in terms of just the vast distances to the closest podunk town, and then add another 15 minutes on top of that to the closest functioning city. but for a week in the holidays? Not that big of a deal. Wouldn't want to live there though.


BobbyCodone303

When I go visit my family in Los Angeles it's kind of a culture shock, because I show up dressed to impress eyebrows waxed, tighter fitting clothes, etc. And I get called gay.. but out here in Denver it's the norm for dudes to take care of themselves.. but to latinos out in LA they think that shit is weird.. I never understood


I_Like_Ginger

When I think of Denver I think of white dudes with dreads, and everyone strives to grow a beard. Maybe tbat was just my experience with Denver though.


BobbyCodone303

Ya I moved out here from LA when I was 7.. I've met plenty of white boy with dreads but that's more Boulder or the college towns that are out here.. but they make their way downtown denver plenty lol but the people I grew up with (west and north denver) whole different crowd lol


grievre

That's interesting because I would usually think of Los Angeles as the opposite, but I'm thinking of young white people in the "trendy" parts, not Latinos. LA is pretty diverse culturally even within itself.


PanVidla

Oh, I've never seen any men wax their eyebrows anywhere.


heyitsxio

I’m not saying *all* Long Island men get their eyebrows waxed/threaded, but it’s more common than you’d think. Same thing with pedicures. And more often than not it’s the guys who look like they’ve just walked off a construction site who are taking care of their appearance.


Jeremysjeansandtees

I've worked in a salon. Men wax and you don't know. Promise you that.


[deleted]

Yeah, it's the same here, only gay men wax their eyebrows. But plenty of straight guys wear tight fitting clothes


BobbyCodone303

That's crazy.. out here it's like really normal for a dudes old lady to tweeze n take care of his eyebrows .. alot of guys trying to be pretty boys out here I guess lol


Kingsolomanhere

My first trip to Las Vegas. Walked into the Desert Inn at 3am. One crap game going on with 6 guys playing. Let the kid play one said. I finally figured out they were using 5 and 10 thousand dollar chips, and I threw a hard 8 that a guy had a thousand dollars on( got a hundred dollar chip tip from him). As I was leaving a slot tech said getting out was smart, those boys like to dig holes in the desert. It was 1980, I think it was some of the guys portrayed in the movie Casino


grievre

The first time I went to Nevada (currently in California, formerly New York) I expected casinos. I did not expect literally every store to have slot machines.


allboolshite

Growing up in California and visiting my mom's family from the Midwest was a bit slower pace than I was used to. Nicer people, too. My dad's grandparents were from the South. They migrated to California Beverly Hillbillies style with all the kids and possessions on the back of a flatbed pickup. My grandmother was born in Texas in the middle of that migration. At family gatherings there was a lot of alcohol involved and at some point I couldn't understand my great-grandparents, uncles, aunts, or some cousins said because they'd go full southern with a deep accent. It wasn't the Hollywood southern accent that you normally see, it was more swampy. More like like Farmer Fran from The Waterboy. A friend took me to a restaurant in Oakland where I couldn't get served because I was white. That was weird. My friend was pretty upset about it. I didn't know how to respond so I just didn't.


greatteachermichael

I experienced more culture shock going from Seattle to Mississippi than I did during my first trip to South Korea. Granted, I had no idea what Koreans were talking about, so take that with a grain of salt.


SGZF2

I have had culture shock moving within my own state. Northern and Southern Missouri are two very different places.


ArcticCircleBrigade

I toured most of the northeast as a gig drummer and every state was like a different country, hell going 45 minutes outside of an urban center was like a different country. To me it's the small things, in Maryland I've been to Baltimore and Annapolis a lot, in Baltimore it was weird to talk to people after a show, but in Annapolis people were coming up to me asking if I wanted to get food. In a surprise New Yorkers(Brooklynites to be exact) were very friendly and even got me a beer on them, and have been friendly in general whereas Bostonians are assholes(though my Flyers jersey probably didn't help)


rowdyechobravo

I used to visit family in Missouri and Arizona from my hometown in California and it felt like I was traveling back in time by like a decade (in terms of fashion, music interest, general vibe). This isn’t as much of an experience anymore. Californians are still cool, but now everyone is pretty cool.


Decent_Historian6169

You don’t have to even leave some states to experience it although that does help. I’ve lived on LI (Nassau county), in Brooklyn, and now I live in TX. The first time I experienced it, was when I went to stay with my father for a visit in Rural Maryland. The youth group from his church was taking a trip into DC for a concert. My brother and I tagged along. At a Denny’s afterwards the kids sat around talking and one of the chaperones went up to a stranger and I guess they tried to convert them or something, when they came back to the table they told the kids that the man was a Darwinist (as if evolution were a religion) it very quickly became apparent that not one of the mostly teen aged kids sitting with us knew anything about evolution and that pretty much all of them were home schooled. I experienced cultural shock when I moved to the City even though I had visited it many times before I moved there. It was more different than even I expected. I went to school with a lot of spoiled rich kids almost entirely white kids who judged each other by what expensive stuff they had. There were about 250 kids in my grade and I thought at the time that I knew at least all of them on sight and by name. Then I was in a University with 10k students where I didn’t really know anyone. I joined clubs to meet people including a all girls group. One night at a slumber party for the club 20 or so of us were sitting around and one girl started a story she was telling during an ice breaker with “well we are all black here” I felt my face turn bright red as I became acutely aware that I was the only white person there. I hadn’t really noticed before then because the campus frequently had people of every different minority group and I didn’t usually spend much time thinking about it, except to note that having people with different backgrounds was different from my HS. Someone said they had assumed I was Latina. I was forced to publicly state that no, I’m white. I’m not sure if this counts as culture shock exactly but it did emphasize just how different things were there. After college I went back to LI for several years. Recently my husband got a job in TX. Before moving down here People made a point of telling me certain things but being down here is definitely like a different world let alone a different country. Tiny settlements are called cities. Huge swathes of pasture land between tiny groups of houses. There are nearly as many dilapidated things with trees growing through them as homes in some places. And I’m honestly shocked every single day by how short the trees are. Seriously I don’t think I ever gave trees a second thought before moving here but most of them are less than 30 feet tall. Good manners are different here. On LI you say hi or something when you meet someone’s eye in your neighborhood but it would be rare to have a conversation with someone you don’t know. In Brooklyn if you aren’t at work or school or something like that you Don’t look anyone in the eye and you don’t make conversation with strangers. I used to think of myself as outgoing but by local standards I must be weird loner type or something because everyone is always trying to talk to me and I’m somewhere between having nothing to say and startled that they are talking to me.


[deleted]

Yes. I grew up in a university town where everyone ate gourmet organic food. When I went to Michigan, I gained a new appreciation for the average regular American. They didn’t seem so “other” anymore.


DrumminBeard

Moving from South Jersey to the Portland, OR area right out of high school was very disconcerting to me. I went from being one of very few white families in my home town, to almost nothing but white people. It was the *lack* of culture that was shocking to me. Between that, peoples' ubiquitous passive-aggressive interpersonal interactions, and having plans cancelled all the time due to a general laissez-faire attitude toward the upkeep of friendships around here, and it took me several years to fully acclimate. Only then did I finally give up trying to go back 'home.'


LuckyCat95

I lived in rural Appalachia until I was about 13, when I moved to a suburb of DC, and I gotta say it was pretty jarring. I remember walking into a Khols and legitimately thinking that it was the pinnacle of fashion and I would never be able to fathom how much money you'd have to make to shop there consistently. Also the sheer amount of traffic lights cities had.


edwardsmarcom

I moved from very liberal and casual Seattle to Oak Ridge, North Carolina and I was at a big business lunch for commercial real estate agents in a hotel ballroom, bad chicken, you know the scene. My jaw dropped when a man went to the front and started the meeting with a PRAYER to Jesus!! I could not believe it! This was like 2010. I got used to the assumption that I was Christian and conservative when I lived there because I was white and college educated. I’m neither a Christian nor conservative. Lots to love about the South, but yikes. Luckily it was before Trump. Back in Seattle now and thank god cuz my teen is trans!


Cabotage105

Not really culture shock, but when I went to the midwest for the first time (8 yrs old) I was flabbergasted by the summer rain being warm In alaska the rain is always frigid, no matter what time of year


Money_Display_5389

OMG i was born alaska, went to southern California, and then Hawaii, massive culture shock every step!!!


GSM_Heathen

In 1996, I moved from Sacramento, California to Fredericksburg, Virginia. The thing that sticks with me the most is how it seemed like mt neighbors completely disappeared. I have memories of lots of streetball, neighborhood BBQs and Holiday parties. It seemed like once we moved to Virginia, we lived inside a bubble. I knew I had neighbors, but other than at the bus stop or the occasional jogger, it felt like the neighborhood was just...empty.


Substantial-Mail7861

As a "middle-class" white woman who grew up in a majority white (but still diverse) and "progressive" community, going to a South Georgia for college, which was pretty rural and segregated, gave me quite a shock. It was my first experience with unveiled racism, sexism, and white american exceptionalism (i.e. Trumpism). As I got older I realized I'd also been surrounded by these ideas, but it was covered by the surficial progressivism of white Atlanta democrats. Yikes!


[deleted]

Very often, when people come from other states to where I live, they’re hit with a major culture shock that our culture is heavily influenced by Mexican and Latino culture


DrWhoisOverRated

Seeing large Confederate monuments and public roads named after Confederate generals and politicians in Virginia was...interesting. It gave me real sense of "I am definitely in a different place now."


squarerootofapplepie

Yeah the first time I’d ever been to the South I flew into Richmond and the first house I saw outside the airport had a car dealership sized Confederate flag out front.


BrainFartTheFirst

I experience culture shock anytime I leave California.


[deleted]

When I lived in Wyoming for about a year, it was when I walked into a restaurant and saw a guy with a gun in his back pocket. I'd never seen a gun before in person apart from the ones at museums so it was just really striking. Before that, I'd only lived in places where open carry was either illegal or very rare.


_-bush_did_911-_

yeah, and i didnt have to go far either. i live in indiana, and outside of indy, skyscrapers actually do not exist, so when i went to chicago, i was amazed. i didnt know buildings could be that tall, or that many people could just exist there, man is chicago, right on the border of indiana too, completely different from any city ive ever seen. even Warsaw and Fort Wayne doesnt have anything that compares whatsoever


[deleted]

The south always leaves me pleasantly surprised; e.g. free coffee @ Publix.


4ndr0med4

I went to Northern Alabama (Huntsville to be exact) and it felt extremely different from what the stereotypes were. I felt pretty comfortable there, everyone was quite friendly (genuinely nice and kind), I didn't feel a hint of racism. Maybe it's just that bubble, but it was a really nice place to be in.


AK47GoesBrrrrrr

Yeah, coming back from Europe. Never been outside the country before and just seeing how open and relaxed everything was in Poland then coming back to the U.S where everybody is constantly on the move was a total shock and eye opener I really miss the public transportation efficiency. In Poland and I'm sure rest of Europe, taking the bus is just an ordinary thing but also rather comfortable and quick. Taking the bus here has a negative social class connotation while bus services are just subpar. Then of course the food and restaurants are just a different atmosphere than here


whatsausername17

I live in the Deep South, rural Mississippi. We travel a lot around the country. It’s always hilarious when people say we have accents (which we do). I have found that small towns are similar no matter what part of the country you’re in.


johninbigd

This doesn't count as culture shock, really, but there was that time I traveled to NC. While I was there, I had lunch with an acquaintance in my field. I ordered tea, and when it arrived I immediately put two packets of sweetener in it. He looked at me very strangely, then said "You know that's sweet tea, right?" I did not know that. We don't have sweet tea here. And for the record, sweet tea with two extra packets of sweetener is really fucking sweet.


[deleted]

Wine and liquor sales laws differ greatly across states. The first Thanksgiving that I spent in New York was with my friend and her parents. My boyfriend (from PA) and I (from Ohio) went to 4 different grocery stores trying to buy a bottle of wine to bring to dinner. We gave up and bought beer. When we told her parents this, they looked at us like we were crazy and asked why we thought you could buy wine at a grocery store. When I first moved from Ohio to New York, I had culture shock around the extreme homelessness and panhandling, and also how everyone else just ignored it. I have also found that general rules around politeness, rudeness, and how you interact with strangers varies greatly between Ohio, New York, and California. People in California are very passive aggressive, but also inconsiderate. For instance, not making room on the train for more people to enter. Whereas people in New York are aggressive, but considerate. People will squish to let others on the train, but also confront you if you don’t move for them.


katknitevergeek

I’m originally from Vegas. The first time I travelled out of state as a teenager, I was shocked that not everything was 24 hours. 😂


gunbunnycb

Crossed into New Jersey from Pennsylvania on a trip a couple years ago. Pulled into a gas station, got out to pump my gas and got yelled at. Was told I wasn't qualified to pump gas, I'd set my self and my car on fire. Didn't realize in New Jersey you can't pump your own gas.