We also have booya (no h) in Minnesota, especially popular around St. Paul, but it’s not chicken soup and it wasn’t introduced here by Belgians or Wisconsinites. It’s believed it was brought here by French Canadians, who once represented a substantial portion of the local population. The word is derived from the French bouillon, to boil; Belgians speaking the Wallonian dialect added the h, which is why it appears that way in Wisconsin where many Belgians settled.
Booya is a rich meat-and-vegetable stew, always cooked outdoors over an open fire in special large kettles, and making it is a communal all-day or all-weekend affair. It starts with making a rich bone broth using beef, pork, and chicken bones, in any combination… Only when the broth is ready are meat and vegetables—onions, carrots, potatoes, and whatever else the chefs deem worthy—added. It’s sold by the bowl or by the quart or gallon at a community picnic as a fundraiser for some non-profit organization, like a church, school, or fraternal organization. Traditionally community members donated the ingredients, but these days they’re more often purchased with the help of donations from supportive businesses. It’s a somewhat arduous way to raise money, but it’s also a community-building exercise, and many of those who participate in the making and selling, as well as many who purchase and consume, find it great fun, and a great meal to boot. Some take it home by the gallon, swearing it’s the best stew money can buy.
Rodeo Week=Ski Week-the week that schools are out to attend the rodeo or go skiing
Tennies=tennis shoes=sneakers
Soda water=soda pop=soda
Saltines=crackers
Doodle bugs=pill bugs=roly poly bugs
All y’all’s=All of yours
If you order sweet tea then be ready for it to be so sweet that it will loosen your fillings…order your drink in a "to go "cup and you get a free refill to take home with you…it comes in one size…the largest cup in the restaurant…
I have lived in a lot of places and had Brooklynite parents. I grew up saying “sliding pond” for slide, which I have to believe is a Brooklynism. Even though I live near Philadelphia, which has rubbernecking delays, I still use the Chicagoism “gaper’s block,” because I like it. However, I do eat hoagies and water ice now and make other accommodations to the locale. I still might wait on line sometimes and in line others. My daughter is sometimes “on” her period, so maybe that is regional here. I used to have or get mine. Both my kids say the “t” in often. I think this is weird. Some people around her say “yuz,” which is equivalent to “youse” or “y’all” but sounds worse.
Living partly in S. Jersey, I can’t get used to “water ice.” I mean, yeah. Ice IS water. I grew up farther north in the state, in the NYC influenced part, where it is “Italian Ice”–presumably it was Italians who sold it on street corners the city.
My family wasn’t Jewish, but it turned out later that my father’s family had been. Which is probably why I grew up saying “kibbitzing” meaning commenting on someone else’s card playing, on their hand or how they played it. I remember being very confused when I learned that there were places in Israel called “kibbutzes,” and what did they have to do with cards?
That was probably true in mine too, but as a kid, I only noticed it used with card-playing (which was sort of a family religion, and the only person in the extended family we spent time with who had any Jewish connections was my father the card shark, so the usage was limited.)
I grew up with a lot of Yiddish as did many of my friends in our very Jewish suburb.
That includes more well known mensch, schmuck, kibitz, and two less well known that my parents said a lot:
*hock mir nicht kein chinik ( literally “ don’t rattle my teacup” meaning stop aggravating me. )
*a shanda fur die goyim, (literally means “a shame before the nations,” describing embarrassing behavior by a Jew where a non-Jew can witness it. )
I always say all of the best slang words comes from Yiddish - good ones not yet mentioned: Chutzpah, Schmoe, Schlep, Bubeleh, Cockamamie, kvetsh, nosh, shlemiel. tchatchke, klutz, schmooze, and tuchis . Growing up in Brooklyn all of these were part of our vocabulary.
@kidde - if you havent already, please read “the joys of yiddish” (i believe the author is Leo Rosten? and there are I think 2 editions). It is HYSTERICAL.
^^^^ Also bupkis ( nothing) and my personal fave Kishinev used to describe someplace undesirably located far away in the middle of nowhere. . Akin to “Bumblef*&k”. Really far is “West Kishinev “. Lol
Bostonian here. The one word I used which got me puzzled looks once I left the region was ‘tonic’ for what I now call soda. Many used Coke as a generic term of soda too, and ask ‘what kind of Coke do you want?’ Back then, there was only one kind of actual Coke. But the answer to that question could have been ‘root beer.’
The most overused word is definitely ‘wicked.’ And, of course, ‘wicked pissa,’ which means great. But only if you say it right…wiiiiiiickitd piss-a.’
I lost my accent years ago but can pull it out again if needed. Comes in handy down the Cape when trying to get a local to give you the time of day. Pro tip: don’t try to fake a Boston accent. We can tell. None of us could watch Cheers comfortably. Still can’t.
Kiddo spent a year in Kishinev. ? It is not far off from the truth - it is the boonies. But we liked the city! Cheap tourism, great food and wine, and really friendly folks. Come and visit Chisnau!
My dainty Roman Catholic eastern European mother was once furious at our Plymouth Horizon’s rear wiper when it wouldn’t turn off. She was jabbing at it and muttering a Yiddish word I had to look up (and I was in my thirties). It was the most vulgar thing I’d ever heard her say. If I quoted her, TOS lights and sirens would commence.
Saw “neck of the woods” in an earlier post- does everyone else use it too? I go “to” someone’s house, had a rural roommate who went “by” the person’s house.
Booyah is always made with only chicken in NE Wisconsin- while the MN description of making it otherwise fits what I read about in newspapers- those Belgians do things differently than the French.