I like the term bubbler, the rest of the country could save syllables.
When I was a kid we had chocolate jimmies on ice cream, also sprinkles for Christmas cookies.
Milwaukee said soda while Madison used pop. In college a transfer from a Missouri school said they used the term soda pop there.
Of course macaroni is that short curved noodle- think mac and cheese. Gravy is of course not used in Italian dishes- it’s spaghetti sauce.
Supper is always at night. Dinner is more fancy, whether it be a midday meal or in the evening. You can have Sunday dinner and supper the same day. Thanksgiving dinnertimes vary.
Was at a Walmart the other day (Tampa- people from all over) waiting in (NEVER on- there is no physical line on the ground/floor…) line for returns. The lady near me said something about giving her carriage to her husband. I questioned her and found out they call a grocery cart a carriage in Rhode Island.
Brats are either a food or children depending on pronunciation and context.
The Lake depends on where you are- the closest one, big or small. I totally understand which one when in Chicago.
The interstates are I- number(s). Some have 2 numbers when combined in an area. You could take 43, 94, 90-94, 65… as well with no I. Coming from a tollfree state they are all highways- federal, county, state. The tollway is around Chicago, otherwise you take I-# (or just the name- I was never good at which one was which- the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Stevenson…).
Sometimes people here in CA say “looky loos” instead of “rubberneckers” when slowing down to look at an accident.
Which reminds me that we in SoCal have “Sig Alerts” which is an unplanned delay from a car accident of more than 30 mins announced by the California Highway Patrol or CHP (not state troopers) and the name comes from a local radio broadcaster Loyd C “Sig” Sigmod.
I live in Michigan now but grew up in Ohio. Or o-hi-ah as I say it but my Michigan born and bred H says, no one says it that way. But we do.
Brew thru- very Ohio thing. Drive through for beer and wine. Have to buy liquor at the state store, cash only. We ate shredded chicken sandwiches which might only be my family. Just shredded chicken on a bun. No real spices.
In Michigan, you buy your beer and liquor at the gas station. Along with your lottery tickets and in some places, ammo, deer bait and smoked fish. There’s nothing like a Michigan gas station. And pop cans have a deposit, which taking back cans might be my least favorite thing about Michigan. And everyone goes up north and of course, tells you where it is on your hand.
But in Pennsylvania, they have Wawa and Sheetz, best gas stations ever. But you can only buy liquor and beer and wine at (separate?) stores. My kids live in Pennsylvania and I can never get the alcohol rules.
My mother is pure Bostonian. Never met an R she put in the right part of the word - just move it around as needed. Jimmies, grinders, frappes, dungarees (jeans), pock-a-book (purse, pocketbook), chinos (khaki pants; ‘kah ki’? she’s probably trying to say ‘car keys’). A buggy is something you put a baby or groceries in, but groceries can also go in a wagon or ‘caaat’(cart, but the R is silent).
When we moved to Wisconsin, a lot of words changed:
tonic > pop
lollipop > sucker
seesaw > tetter todder
frappe > shake
grinder > sub
drinking fountain > bubbler
I can tell where people are from when they talk about going to that big body of water with salt in it:
Down de Ocean = Baltimore (to Ocean City)
Down the Shore= Jersey or Penns (my hillbilly cousins always meant the Jersey Shore)
To the Coast = Portland OR
To the beach = New England (or to the Cape)
What a great thread! I grew up I northern New England, went to college in Boston, lived in Maryland and am now in Upstate NY (not Westchester). Grew up with bubblahs, Jimmies (chocolate only, rainbow were sprinkles), grinders, rubberneckers, and gravy was something you put on roast chicken or turkey. One fun phrase I also heard growing up was “bang a youie”, if you needed to make a U-turn at the next intersection.
Oh @helpingmom40 I love “bang a youie” and do that at least once a week!
@melvin123 we’re in a small New England city and I had a neighbor who was also from Long Island NY. She was talking about how people around here say they’re going “into the city” and mean us, at around 40,000 people, whereas she and I always think of that phrase as meaning NYC no matter where in the world you might be.
I’m a transplant to the DC area from the NYC area.
I refuse to call the District “downtown.” The central metropolis of your area is supposed to be called “the city.” “Downtown” is the central part of the suburb you live in.
I’m on the fence about referring to our entire area as “the DMV.” There’s nothing really wrong with it except that it’s confusing to outsiders. In some states (though evidently not Virginia, Maryland, or the District), DMV means Department of Motor Vehicles.
Of course, I’m slow on the uptake. It took me a couple of years to figure out what people meant by “downtown.” And it took even longer to understand why macho-looking grown men were wearing t-shirts with little birdies or turtles on them (Baltimore Orioles. Maryland Terrapins. Duh).
@Scipio, I’d never heard the term “ice plant” either before I moved to southern CA in the early 80s and I agree that it’s widely used to describe many things planted along the freeway, whether it’s actually ice plant or not. However, I have also heard the term “freeway daisies” to describe some of the groundcover along the freeways, which do actually look kind of like daisies but are a different plant.
I grew up in the South, my mom is from Michigan, my dad was from Illinois and I went to college in Ohio, so I’ve been exposed to many of the regional terms mentioned here. Oh, and my husband is from upstate NY, near Binghamton. I grew up saying expressway for the interstates near us, but now say freeway and am well-versed in “the 5,” “the 10,” “the 405,” and all of myriad freeways in our area. I say soda now, but grew up saying pop or Coke. I’ve always said “wait in line” and used to say “y’all” when I was young, but now usually say you or you all. I used to love visiting Michigan, where most people said youse guys. I’ve always said subs, not hoagies or grinders. My husband introduced me to Spiedies, a specific kind of Italian meat sandwich (very yummy!) that’s mostly found in the greater Binghamton area. And my mom still calls the evening meal supper, which is what I grew up calling it, but now I call it dinner.
Agree with all of the California sayings above.
I need to add the worst offender:
-DUDE- every person, in California, is now, apparently, a “dude” instead of “hey you”.
-CALI- YUCK! No, please do not use “Cali”-this is something a non-Californian made up and it’s “derogatory” to the California history. You’ll stick out like a “zonie” saying that.
-ZONIE-the tourists from Arizona who come to California to escape the desert heat and stay at the beaches.
-**“SoCal” not really accepted but I’ve heard the radio traffic reports say this.
-FREEWAY-not a highway.
-The 5, 15, 405, 210, etc. in SoCal.
** California Burrito a huge burrito with potatoes. “As big as a California burrito” means it is huge.
**“Roberto’s” **a popular chain of Mexican food restaurants. “I’m going to Robertos’s” means going to any drive-through Mexican take-out in San Diego County.
@Marian we always refer to Washington, DC as simply DC, never “the city”or “downtown” IOW, I would say “I need to go into DC today to pick up my passport.” My suburb didn’t have a “downtown” just a centralized area of strip malls but that area did not have any distinctive term. The area of MD I’m in now has a true downtown and everyone who lives around here know# what you mean when you say “downtown” and it’s not DC, but then we aren’t a closein suburb to DC either.
I hate the term DMV - when did that become a thing? I only noticed local new stations referring to the DC area that way in the last couple of years. I don’t know why it grates on my nerves, but it does. It’s like they are too lazy to say DC area and have coined a text speak type of slang for the actual term. Dumbing down of the news.
Perhaps someone from a state where motor vehicle registration and driver licensing is done through a Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) wanted to suggest that getting into, out of, or through the DC area was as slow as a trip to the DMV?
I grew up in lower Delaware but have lived in Pennsylvania for about 30 years. Growing up we ate subs but here in my area of PA, they are hoagies. Same ingredients. Beer is now available at some grocery stores in PA, as well as wine, but not all. Wawa and Sheetz seem to be located in different places. That is, if you have a Sheetz near you, you don’t have a Wawa and vice versa. A common phrase here when asking if someone wants to join you is, “Want to come with?” If you want a little bit of everything, you might say, “I’ll have a little of eich”. PA Dutch slang. The Tuesday before ash Wednesday is Fastnacht Tuesday and all of the grocery stores, bakeries and many churches will sell yummy fastnachts (potato doughnuts without a hole or filling) often served with much debated corn syrup for dippy sauce. First Monday after Thanksgiving is when schools are closed for deer hunting but most people seem to use if for Amazon prime hunting. Actually, I’ve never lived a a school district that didn’t have that day off and that’s five states worth, so I guess that’s not really regional.
I always use Hero for that big sandwich and there is no “the city” except NYC (some in NJ will mean Philly.) I have heard “hang a uie” for a u-turn. I am pretty sure that no matter how many pages this thread goes on for, I am going to be the only one waiting on line.
“First Monday after Thanksgiving is when schools are closed for deer hunting but most people seem to use if for Amazon prime hunting. Actually, I’ve never lived a a school district that didn’t have that day off and that’s five states worth, so I guess that’s not really regional.”
First I’ve heard of this. Doesn’t happen in my state.
“I am pretty sure that no matter how many pages this thread goes on for, I am going to be the only one waiting on line.”
It’s pretty common among those who grew up in and around NYC.
(for “oops” or “excuse me”)