s/o - Quirky regional habits in general.........

[Joanne]

Here in this part of Texas, it is common to drop the type of street. It's very common to have business cards that say 123 Main, Houston, TX.

 

People routinely leave the street, court, drive, off of written correspondance.

When I moved into this house, I had to confirm our address for some utility or whatever. They were quite upset that I didn't know if I lived on a drive, court, place or whatever!

 

 

[Joker]

When we lived in Iowa, everyone seemed to give us directions in relation to John Deere stores. Rarely would anyone give a street or highway name. It became a joke with us and dh would often ask for directions to places he knew just to see if he could find someone who didn't use John Deere as a reference.

[Greta]

Upstate New York:  the abruptly-ended phone call.  I was accustomed to "winding down" a phone call with a friend with some friendly chat like "hey, it was great talking to you.  Will I see you on Thursday?  Great, talk to you then."  That sort of thing.  The first time I spoke to a new friend on the phone in NY, we were just chatting happily along and all of a sudden: "bye", click.  I thought some sort of emergency had come up!  Then the second time it happened with the same friend, I thought she had poor phone manners.  Then when it started happening with other people, I realized that's simply the way one ends a phone call there:  say bye and hang up immediately, before the other person even has a chance to say goodbye back to you!  I guess that way there's never any pressure to talk longer than you want to - you simply don't give the other person the opportunity to extend the conversation!  :lol:

 

New Mexico:  you've never seen people (including myself now that I've lived here for so long) get so excited over rain.  We get a half an inch of rain, and FaceBook is filled with "Can you believe this downpour?  Isn't it wonderful?!?" posts!

 

Oh, and apparently carne adovada for breakfast is kind of unusual . . . ? 

[bobbeym]

Here in this part of Texas, it is common to drop the type of street. It's very common to have business cards that say 123 Main, Houston, TX.

 

People routinely leave the street, court, drive, off of written correspondance.

When I moved into this house, I had to confirm our address for some utility or whatever. They were quite upset that I didn't know if I lived on a drive, court, place or whatever!

 

Can I just say that this drives me crazy?   I work off Kirby and people look at me in shock when I'm giving directions and clarify we're on Kirby Dr.

 

According to the USPS, our street is technically South B... Street, but I know I've seen it listed in print as S B... Ave.  Last year the city decided to change the street signs so now they just say B... St. (Huh, I just realized I have no idea if the "St" is even on the signs; I'll have to check tonight.)  But the thing is that there ISN'T a North B... Street, so how can we have a South without a North?

 

[BarbecueMom]

St. Louis = "Where did you go to high school?"

 

That's probably our most well-known quirk.

[UncleEJ]

Here in this part of Texas, it is common to drop the type of street. It's very common to have business cards that say 123 Main, Houston, TX.

 

People routinely leave the street, court, drive, off of written correspondance.

When I moved into this house, I had to confirm our address for some utility or whatever. They were quite upset that I didn't know if I lived on a drive, court, place or whatever!

I have noticed this in TX also. Another thing that is weird to me is that in one small neighborhood there will be two streets with the same name. For instance, N. Hollybrook Drive and S. Hollybrook Drive. And both streets have the same address numbers. So if you don't know if its north or south you're in trouble. I have a friend in a neighborhood like this and they have had all sorts of people show up to their house accidentally. I just don't get it, how hard is it come up with road names?

 

The other thing that I am having a hard time getting used to is the numbered and named roads and the fact that State Highway 80's name changes with each town you pass through. Ugh. And sometimes GPS wants the number and other times will only find the name. (If you can't tell, I grew up in Alaska, where the roads only have names ;-)

[Luanne]

Upstate New York:  the abruptly-ended phone call.  I was accustomed to "winding down" a phone call with a friend with some friendly chat like "hey, it was great talking to you.  Will I see you on Thursday?  Great, talk to you then."  That sort of thing.  The first time I spoke to a new friend on the phone in NY, we were just chatting happily along and all of a sudden: "bye", click.  I thought some sort of emergency had come up!  Then the second time it happened with the same friend, I thought she had poor phone manners.  Then when it started happening with other people, I realized that's simply the way one ends a phone call there:  say bye and hang up immediately, before the other person even has a chance to say goodbye back to you!  I guess that way there's never any pressure to talk longer than you want to - you simply don't give the other person the opportunity to extend the conversation!  :lol:

 

 

My daughter's other grandmother does this.  It took a while to get used to.  Sometimes she doesn't even bother with the word "bye".  One second she is there, the next she is gone.

[Luanne]

I have noticed this in TX also. Another thing that is weird to me is that in one small neighborhood there will be two streets with the same name. For instance, N. Hollybrook Drive and S. Hollybrook Drive. And both streets have the same address numbers. So if you don't know if its north or south you're in trouble. I have a friend in a neighborhood like this and they have had all sorts of people show up to their house accidentally. I just don't get it, how hard is it come up with road names?

 

The other thing that I am having a hard time getting used to is the numbered and named roads and the fact that State Highway 80's name changes with each town you pass through. Ugh. And sometimes GPS wants the number and other times will only find the name. (If you can't tell, I grew up in Alaska, where the roads only have names ;-)

 

Here the thing is one street will sometimes change names two or three times and is still the same street.

[Greta]

Sometimes she doesn't even bother with the word "bye". One second she is there, the next she is gone.

Now that is abrupt!

[wingedradical]

How people refer to Interstate Highways:

 

In the midwest and some places in the east I've been (don't know about all of them), you call them either "I-70" or "Interstate 95." In the west, it's called "the 17" or "the 15." In Texas, they are called by another name. For example, in Dallas, I-35 was Stemmons  and the I-635 belt around the city was LBJ Freeway (I could have those mixed up -- I lived there in the early 80's, but you get the idea). When I first moved there, I would refer to the interstate's number and no one would know what I was talking about.

 

Maine has a weird name for roundabouts, too, but I can't remember what it is. Not circles.

[wingedradical]

Also, I never met so many people who had never ventured out of their state as I did in California.

 

I'm from Kansas originally and people called us provincial????

[linders]

When we lived in Iowa, everyone seemed to give us directions in relation to John Deere stores. Rarely would anyone give a street or highway name. It became a joke with us and dh would often ask for directions to places he knew just to see if he could find someone who didn't use John Deere as a reference.

 

We moved to a smallish town in the South, where most of the people have lived here for decades or even generations. They would give directions like, "Turn left at the building that used to be the Food Lion." Or, "It's just past where the hospital used to be." Huh? I'm new here, I don't know where the Food Lion used to be or where the hospital was-but-is-no-longer. And yes, the people giving these instructions knew I was new here.

 

What's scary? Just a while ago someone asked me where the County Auditor's office is and I answered, "It's in that big brick building that used to be the hospital." It's contagious.

[Wheres Toto]

Here the thing is one street will sometimes change names two or three times and is still the same street.

 

We have a stretch of road outside our neighborhood that is only about 2 miles long start to finish, but it has three different names in that amount of time.  When you enter a new town, the name changes without any sign or anything to indicate in any way.  And there are two River Roads off that stretch of road, only about a mile apart.  People constantly get lost coming to our house because we are off one of those River Roads.

 

Around here we have to make sure we use Rd, St, etc.  We live in a town that has the same name as a local town, but with Township at the end.  To make it worse, we don't have a post-office so our mail comes through that town (but we have our own police, courts, and government and we aren't allowed to use their library).  There are a LOT of duplicate street names with nothing but the St/Rd/Dr part being different. 

[Library Momma]

How people refer to Interstate Highways:

 

In the midwest and some places in the east I've been (don't know about all of them), you call them either "I-70" or "Interstate 95." In the west, it's called "the 17" or "the 15." In Texas, they are called by another name. For example, in Dallas, I-35 was Stemmons  and the I-635 belt around the city was LBJ Freeway (I could have those mixed up -- I lived there in the early 80's, but you get the idea). When I first moved there, I would refer to the interstate's number and no one would know what I was talking about.

 

Maine has a weird name for roundabouts, too, but I can't remember what it is. Not circles.

 

Is it rotary?  We say that in Connecticut too.

[Greta]

We moved to a smallish town in the South, where most of the people have lived here for decades or even generations. They would give directions like, "Turn left at the building that used to be the Food Lion." Or, "It's just past where the hospital used to be." Huh? I'm new here, I don't know where the Food Lion used to be or where the hospital was-but-is-no-longer. And yes, the people giving these instructions knew I was new here.

 

What's scary? Just a while ago someone asked me where the County Auditor's office is and I answered, "It's in that big brick building that used to be the hospital." It's contagious.

Luckily that one's not a habit here, but it did happen to me once. I was supposed to meet some homeschoolers at the Walgreens at a certain intersection, for the kids to watch the prairie dogs in the lot behind it. I arrived, but no homeschoolers and no prairie dogs. I hadn't noticed the word "old" in the invitation: the OLD Walgreens. I went to the Walgreens that was currently in existence, rather than the one that had been there (on a different corner of the same intersection) years before but was long gone. Silly me!

[Maus]

Here in Utah, we don't name most of our streets. Brigham Young set everything up on a grid system. Center street is always the x-axis, and Main is the y-axis, and everything else is numbered. So, the local Jr. high has the address: 650 west 700 north. (the street is named "700 North" and the building number is "650 West.") It takes new people a while to catch on, but once you have it, it's quite easy to find most addresses without directions.

[Ellie]

Here in this part of Texas, it is common to drop the type of street. It's very common to have business cards that say 123 Main, Houston, TX.

 

 

Oh, that's done in California, as well. I hated it there too, lol.

 

Oh, and we have boatloads of streets with more than one name, usually a number plus names. So from I-35 (which for some reason, people like to designate as IH-35. What's the "H" stand for???), you would take 79, except that for several miles it's also Palm Valley Blvd. Map programs call it Palm Valley. Some GPS devices call it Palm Valley...but there are NO SIGNS ON THE FREE THAT SAY PALM VALLEY. So poor unsuspecting people who are looking for Palm Valley based on signage will end up in Waco if they're not careful, lol.

 

And then there's 2244...which is also Bee Cave Rd. Except there are no signs on the freeway that say Bee Cave, which doesn't deter people from saying "Get off at Bee Cave Road." And if you manage to figure out that 2244 is Bee Cave Road and you take the exit, and you get to the end of the ramp, so that you have to turn left or right or keep going right back onto the freeway, there STILL is no sign that says Bee Cave Road. :cursing:

 

But I had the same experience in San Jose, California, so it isn't just a Texas thing. It is apparently a Department of Transportation thing. Or some other idiot government thing. Which is why I wish I were Queen of Transportation, 'cuz boy howdy I'd be making some changes, the first one being that ALL STREETS HAVE ONE NAME FROM START TO FINISH. The second one would be that THERE ARE VISIBLE STREET SIGNS AT ALL INTERSECTIONS, for crying out loud.

 

:rant:

 

There, I feel better. :lol:

[OnTheBrink]

Here in Utah, we don't name most of our streets. Brigham Young set everything up on a grid system. Center street is always the x-axis, and Main is the y-axis, and everything else is numbered. So, the local Jr. high has the address: 650 west 700 north. (the street is named "700 North" and the building number is "650 West.") It takes new people a while to catch on, but once you have it, it's quite easy to find most addresses without directions.

 

We really got lost once trying to find a hotel in SLC. We had the numbers backwards, so instead of it being 600 West 800 North, we had it as 800 West 600 North. It was crazy!

[Julie Smith]

This is just this town I live in.

 

All the boxes, cables... for TV, phone, ... go through people's backyards. The main box is in my backyard and I would routinely just look out and volia some guy was in my backyard. They would park on the street. Walk along my driveway past my kitchen window. Down the narrow path between my garage and backpatio and into my backyard. 

[MyThreeSons]

Here in the Upstate of SC, it is very common for you to be driving down a road, when you come to an intersection which requires you to make a turn to stay on the road. If you go straight through the intersection, you are suddenly driving on a different road. It drives me crazy!!

[beaners]

We moved to a smallish town in the South, where most of the people have lived here for decades or even generations. They would give directions like, "Turn left at the building that used to be the Food Lion." Or, "It's just past where the hospital used to be." Huh? I'm new here, I don't know where the Food Lion used to be or where the hospital was-but-is-no-longer. And yes, the people giving these instructions knew I was new here.

 

What's scary? Just a while ago someone asked me where the County Auditor's office is and I answered, "It's in that big brick building that used to be the hospital." It's contagious.

 

It is like that here too!  I get directions to turn where so-and-so's barn burned down twenty years ago.   :huh:  Even the directions our EI service coordinator gave us were like this.

 

Also, people will try to tell me who they know in my general area by talking about all the folks they know who died before we moved here.  "Yeah, we used to run our dogs with Old Man _____, but he died from the cancer about ten years ago." How do I respond to that? Usually I just fumble through something about how I'm sorry to hear that. Also, it's "the cancer" and "the diabetes" here.

[bobbeym]

Upstate New York:  the abruptly-ended phone call.  I was accustomed to "winding down" a phone call with a friend with some friendly chat like "hey, it was great talking to you.  Will I see you on Thursday?  Great, talk to you then."  That sort of thing.  The first time I spoke to a new friend on the phone in NY, we were just chatting happily along and all of a sudden: "bye", click.  I thought some sort of emergency had come up!  Then the second time it happened with the same friend, I thought she had poor phone manners.  Then when it started happening with other people, I realized that's simply the way one ends a phone call there:  say bye and hang up immediately, before the other person even has a chance to say goodbye back to you!  I guess that way there's never any pressure to talk longer than you want to - you simply don't give the other person the opportunity to extend the conversation!  :lol:

 

New Mexico:  you've never seen people (including myself now that I've lived here for so long) get so excited over rain.  We get a half an inch of rain, and FaceBook is filled with "Can you believe this downpour?  Isn't it wonderful?!?" posts!

 

Oh, and apparently carne adovada for breakfast is kind of unusual . . . ? 

 

 

I have a friend who spent most of her childhood in Illinois that does this.  Is it a northern thing? 

 

 

I have noticed this in TX also. Another thing that is weird to me is that in one small neighborhood there will be two streets with the same name. For instance, N. Hollybrook Drive and S. Hollybrook Drive. And both streets have the same address numbers. So if you don't know if its north or south you're in trouble. I have a friend in a neighborhood like this and they have had all sorts of people show up to their house accidentally. I just don't get it, how hard is it come up with road names?

 

The other thing that I am having a hard time getting used to is the numbered and named roads and the fact that State Highway 80's name changes with each town you pass through. Ugh. And sometimes GPS wants the number and other times will only find the name. (If you can't tell, I grew up in Alaska, where the roads only have names ;-)

 

If you have highways that only change names once you're lucky.   I-59 through Houston is both the Southwest Freeway and the Eastex Freeway, depending on which side of downtown you're on.  I-10 is the Katy Freeway, the East Freeway, and the Baytown East Freeway.   Thankfully Loop 610 is just that, although all the cardinal directions of it take a while to wrap the brain around to understand.  Streets here are even worse b/c they'll stop and start on opposite sides of town with the same name, and 4 or 5 more names in between. 

[Arcadia]

Also, I never met so many people who had never ventured out of their state as I did in California.

 

Some of hubby's colleagues who are born in California see no need to venture beyond Disneyland and the various ski resorts.  They have never been out of state.  It does take a long time to drive from the Oregon border down to the Mexico border :)

 

I have noticed this in TX also. Another thing that is weird to me is that in one small neighborhood there will be two streets with the same name. For instance, N. Hollybrook Drive and S. Hollybrook Drive. And both streets have the same address numbers. So if you don't know if its north or south you're in trouble.

Its common here too. I think the most common street name is El Camino Real.  Here for street names you have to know if it is North or South, East or West.

[Word Nerd]

My parents farm and have several different areas of land in defferent places. Some of it is rented, but even the sections Dad owns he refers to as "the Smiths' place" or "the Jones' place." I never knew any of those people and would get mixed up when I had to help him transfer farm vehicles between fields. I eventually learned.

[Cinder]

Speaking of street names dropping the Street or Drive or whatever, we have whole subdivisions here that have the same street name for all the roads and the only way to tell them apart is by Drive, Road, Way, etc. They even use the word Close as another word for street. I'd never heard of that one before. I still don't know if it's pronounced with an "s" or "z" sound.

[Ellie]

Also, I never met so many people who had never ventured out of their state as I did in California.

 

I'm from Kansas originally and people called us provincial????

 

I meet people here in Texas all the time who have never been anywhere else. And in Virginia, and on the Outer Banks of NC. At least in California there's a huge world of experiences there, KWIM?

[Scarlett]

I think this is a southern thing.....drives my CA dh nuts.

 

Decoration Day at your family's cemetery. Everyone cleans up their family members graves and then decorates them with flowers on a pre set day.....my late fils is first Sunday in May. Every one dresses up in Sunday best and visits with all the other families who have family buried there.

 

My dh thinks this is the stupidest custom every. I like it.

[AlmiraGulch]

St. Louis = "Where did you go to high school?"

 

That's probably our most well-known quirk.

 

YES!!!!  I grew up there, too.  Wherever I go, whenever I meet someone from there who finds out I'm from there, it's the first thing they ask.  It's bizarre.

 

The funnies part is almost no one has ever heard of the high school I went to.  Considering that is THE identifying factor for every human being in and around St. Louis, it confounds them.  :D

[AlmiraGulch]

Speaking of directions and landmarks, if you live anywhere in Metro Atlanta and need to get anywhere on the West side of town, you're likely to get directions that include The Big Chicken.  As in, "it's about 1/2 mile north of The Big Chicken."   It's even on commercials and billboards and things.

 

The Big Chicken, in case you're wondering, is a KFC that happens to look just like a....wait for it....big chicken.  For real.  It even has a beak that opens and closes and eye that roll around. 

[Stacia]

Yeah, we have the street names that change by the mile. It is hard for me to give directions sometimes because you have to figure out what part of town someone would be in to determine what they probably think of that road being; it also depends on how long the person has lived in the area as the references to the road names change over time.

 

Sometimes there are multiple streets w/ the same name.

 

Other times, there are streets w/ the same name (& are considered part of the same street) but sections of the street are not connected -- there are miles between the sections. So, literally, the road is in a major area of town. Completely stops at a certain intersection. Miles away (and connected to different roads), the road 'continues' again. If you're looking for a specific number location along that road, you need to know which part of town you need to be in or you'll never find what you're looking for. LOL.

 

Another thing, every soda/pop is called a Coke. I remember hearing an interview once where someone talked about this & it was so true. You can go in a restaurant & order a "Coke". The server will ask, "What kind?" Then, you answer w/ regular, diet, Sprite, root beer, etc...

[BarbecueMom]

The funnies part is almost no one has ever heard of the high school I went to. Considering that is THE identifying factor for every human being in and around St. Louis, it confounds them. :D

Same here. So we both went to Not Parkway. :-P

[beaners]

Oh, speaking of road names.  There was a Scott, West Scott, and Westcott all within a half-mile of each other in one place I used to live.  I pitied the 911 operators. 

[Lucy the Valiant]

In New England people say "when I was pregnant for ______ {child's name}" instead of "pregnant with ______."

 

And they go "down cellar"  for stuff, and often find what they're looking for in a "chester draws." The first time I saw that on Craigslist, I cracked up!

 

I've lived here nearly 15 years, but I'm still "new," because I was not born here. I will be "new" when I am 100, too. However, my children are socially accepted because their dad is from here (as in, born here).

 

The road directions are NUTS and seem to get worse the closer to Boston you get.

 

 

[Forget-Me-Not]

I meet people here in Texas all the time who have never been anywhere else. And in Virginia, and on the Outer Banks of NC. At least in California there's a huge world of experiences there, KWIM?

Yes, and one can drive for several hours and still be in CA!

 

When I lived in NE MO, I used to hear people pronounce Iowa "eye-oh-way".

 

DH is a physician and says he used to hear "the diabetes" or "the sugar diabetes" when we lived there. And they'd pronounce it with an "s" sound rather than a "z" sound at the end of the word.

[Laura Corin]

This is just this town I live in.

 

All the boxes, cables... for TV, phone, ... go through people's backyards. The main box is in my backyard and I would routinely just look out and volia some guy was in my backyard. They would park on the street. Walk along my driveway past my kitchen window. Down the narrow path between my garage and backpatio and into my backyard. 

 

Yes - some kind of control box for the local electricity wires (above ground) is in our garden.  The electricity board usually tells us if they are coming in, but they don't have to.

 

L

[Laura Corin]

Here in this part of Texas, it is common to drop the type of street. It's very common to have business cards that say 123 Main, Houston, TX.

 

People routinely leave the street, court, drive, off of written correspondance.

When I moved into this house, I had to confirm our address for some utility or whatever. They were quite upset that I didn't know if I lived on a drive, court, place or whatever!

 

I've noticed this with other speech habits more generally in the US: an orchestra will be called 'The Greentown Symphony' rather than 'The Greentown Symphony Orchestra'.  It took me a while to understand that when people said they had tickets to hear 'The Symphony' they were talking about the orchestra, which might not, in fact, be playing a symphony that night.

 

I know I had another example of this, but it's slipped my mind.

 

L

[Laura Corin]

I meet people here in Texas all the time who have never been anywhere else. And in Virginia, and on the Outer Banks of NC. At least in California there's a huge world of experiences there, KWIM?

 

When my uncle was teaching in Hong Kong, he took some university students on a field trip to the New Territories.  Some of them had never crossed the water from the island.  As far as I can make out from Google, Hong Kong island has an area of 31 square miles.  

 

L

[Shamzanne]

Yes, and one can drive for several hours and still be in CA!

 

When I lived in NE MO, I used to hear people pronounce Iowa "eye-oh-way".

 

DH is a physician and says he used to hear "the diabetes" or "the sugar diabetes" when we lived there. And they'd pronounce it with an "s" sound rather than a "z" sound at the end of the word.

In the very rural part of KY I lived in, it was just called 'sugar' as in "Mama's got sugar".

 

The thing that drove me bonkers when I lived there is that it is not required to pull over to the side of the road if an ambulance is coming the opposite direction, but it is required for a funeral procession. So if someone is already dead, sure. But if someone is dying don't bother.

[AlmiraGulch]

Same here. So we both went to Not Parkway. :-P

 

And Not McCluer, and Not Hazelwood.  :-)

[Parrothead]

In New England people say "when I was pregnant for ______ {child's name}" instead of "pregnant with ______."

 

And they go "down cellar" for stuff, and often find what they're looking for in a "chester draws." The first time I saw that on Craigslist, I cracked up!

 

I've lived here nearly 15 years, but I'm still "new," because I was not born here. I will be "new" when I am 100, too. However, my children are socially accepted because their dad is from here (as in, born here).

 

The road directions are NUTS and seem to get worse the closer to Boston you get.

The "Chester drawers" isn't a New England thing. I've lived all over and it happens in a lot of places.

 

I'm not sure why "down cellar" would be considered strange to someone. A lot of people store stuff in the cellar.

[Parrothead]

A thing I used to get when in the south was, "who are your people?" Often times I had to give an explanation as to why I appeared so alone in the world since I had no relatives within 500 miles.

[Laura Corin]

 

I'm not sure why "down cellar" would be considered strange to someone. A lot of people store stuff in the cellar.

 

I think it's just the phrase 'down cellar'.  I'd say 'down into the cellar' or 'downstairs'.

 

L

[Parrothead]

Yeah, what are chester drawers?!

It is supposed to be a chest of drawers. But gets either mispronounced misheard depending on where one lives.

[kewb]

DH is a physician and says he used to hear "the diabetes" or "the sugar diabetes" when we lived there. And they'd pronounce it with an "s" sound rather than a "z" sound at the end of the word.

 

When my dh was diagnosed with diabetes a couple of years ago my friend told me her relatives from PA always referred to it as "the sugar"  as in "Aunt Mary has got the sugar". Dh and I found this delightful and started telling people that he has the sugar or he can't eat that because he's got the sugar.  It is starting to catch on with our circle of friends.  We've got another friend referring to his diabetes as "the sugar".

 

As for the abrupt phone call ending, guilty as charged.  What is left to say after goodbye.  I may occasionally wait for a response but in my mind I have moved on to the next thing.  Everyone I know is the same so it never seemed strange until now.

[Chris in VA]

Yeah, what are chester drawers?!

=chest of drawers=bureau=dresser

[Hunter's Moon]

I haven't traveled much (living in Mass my whole life and farthest I have gone is Virginia). We say rotary here, but I know one of my teachers from California called it a round-a-bout. That sounds like too much work to say  :laugh:

 

I do know someone who grew up in New England, but pronounces 'soda' as 'soder' and 'diabetes' as die-ah-beet-is. Funny enough, she recently moved to Wisconsin, which is what I think her accent sounds like. 

 

 

ETA: Opposite of the abrupt ending phone call, it seems everyone is Massachusetts wants to get the last 'bye' in. 

 

Person 1: "Alright, well I'll let you go" 

Person 2: "Yeah, I'll see you around. It was nice talking to you"

Person 1: "Same here. Goodbye" 

Person 2: "Bye" 

Person 1: "Buh-bye" 

 

 

My friends from New Jersey say "Goodbye, love you" like 10 times at the end of a conversation. I think that is more of a family culture thing, though. 

[Hunter's Moon]

Ok, I can imagine saying chest of drawers, but not chester drawers.  I've never said chest of drawers that I can recall though.  And I don't recall ever hearing it. 

 

I have used and heard bureau and dresser. 

 

I have never said chest of drawers either. I call it a dresser, or if I am feeling fancy, a bureau  :lol:

[Cinder]

Ok, I can imagine saying chest of drawers, but not chester drawers.

 

Well, if you say "chest o' drawers" then it could be pretty easy to move from that to "chester drawers." That's how I figure it happened.

 

[Alice]

We moved to a smallish town in the South, where most of the people have lived here for decades or even generations. They would give directions like, "Turn left at the building that used to be the Food Lion." Or, "It's just past where the hospital used to be." Huh? I'm new here, I don't know where the Food Lion used to be or where the hospital was-but-is-no-longer. And yes, the people giving these instructions knew I was new here.

 

What's scary? Just a while ago someone asked me where the County Auditor's office is and I answered, "It's in that big brick building that used to be the hospital." It's contagious.

 

My parents were from the same small town in southern Virginia. It always cracked me up when we would visit my grandparents because everything was relative to the “new high schoolâ€. Almost yearly we would have to drive by the “new high school†to look at it in all its glory. Thing is by the time I was in high school we were still doing this and the new high school was 20+ years old. It was just new as in "not the high school my parents went to†new. :) 

 

I also thought it was funny that every conversation would go something like this...

“I saw John at the store today."

“John? You mean Mary’s brother?"

"Mary, the cousin of Fred who used to live behind Barbara’s people’s farm?†

“No, Mary the cousin of George who went to school with Joe’s sister."

“Oh, that Mary. I always liked her."

“So how is John?â€

“He’s good. But it wasn’t that John. It was John, Ruth’s husband."

“Ruth, David’s sister?"

and on and on....

 

Of course that’s more of a small town thing than regional, I think. 

Speaking of directions and landmarks, if you live anywhere in Metro Atlanta and need to get anywhere on the West side of town, you're likely to get directions that include The Big Chicken.  As in, "it's about 1/2 mile north of The Big Chicken."   It's even on commercials and billboards and things.

 

The Big Chicken, in case you're wondering, is a KFC that happens to look just like a....wait for it....big chicken.  For real.  It even has a beak that opens and closes and eye that roll around. 

 

Yes! We were in Atlanta last fall and we kept having people tell us things in reference to the Big Chicken. And is is awfully big!

 

 

 

Another thing, every soda/pop is called a Coke. I remember hearing an interview once where someone talked about this & it was so true. You can go in a restaurant & order a "Coke". The server will ask, "What kind?" Then, you answer w/ regular, diet, Sprite, root beer, etc...

 

I think this is true in much of the South. At least it was where I grew up in Virginia. 

[Ellie]

Ok, I can imagine saying chest of drawers, but not chester drawers.  I've never said chest of drawers that I can recall though.  And I don't recall ever hearing it. 

 

I have used and heard bureau and dresser. 

 

Mr. Ellie's mother is from the Ozarks; she and her siblings who had migrated from the Ozarks to San Diego said chester drawers, and Mr. Ellie and all of his cousins, all of whom grew up in San Diego, said it, even the two who had major college educations. Happily, Mr. Ellie married me, and I showed him the error of his ways, lol.

 

When I was teaching in my little one-room school in San Jose, "bureau" was one of the words in a R&S fifth grade spelling lesson. The children looked at me like this :blink: . I don't think it ever truly registered in their minds that they could put their clothes in a bureau drawer (or that a bureau was also a government agency. :blink: :huh: ).