share quirks of where you live

[kylerexpop]

is that subject line grammatically correct? i just don't know.

anyway, since i've lived in a few different places in my life (denver, chicago, southern california) i'm well aware that every different place has its own special quirks and often quite unique habits and ways of doing things. since we're all a bunch spread across the world, i'm curious as to what stands out to you about the place you call home.

what brought this on? footwear! up until my 19th year, i think i owned one pair of sandals at any given point in my life. this morning, while getting dressed and figuring out what to wear (usually a 45-minute process - true confession of a twenty-something drama queen!), i realized that i now own about 10 different pairs and that i've worn shoes like maybe four times since early may. "but that's california!" i observed aloud to myself, chuckling. it's not necessary that you understand the quirky humor of my own personal situation, because it is a parable. but what's yours?

[dajaymann]

On the subject of quirky stuff where you live, in particular footwear:

I live in Florida, and flip-flops are considered business formal in some instances down here. I mean, everyone has sandals or (more commonly) flip flops. You can usually tell a true Floridian in the winter - they wear a t-shirt or sweater, blue jeans, and flip-flops.

I'll think of more quirky stuff later...

[Head Mutant]

In Michigan/Detroit...

...people always use their whole hand whenever they need a quick map of the state

...people say the word "Michigander" with a straight face

...nobody in their right mind uses turn signals for *anything*

[DocD83]

I live in a college town in Virginia. The only other two places I've lived are Maryland and West Virginia, so my basis for comparison is kinda limited. Anyway, in Virginia:

- We don't have the snow- and ice-clearing capability of a northern state, yet we never stop driving/walking/biking despite whatever ice may be on the ground. This is because 3/4 of the commuters are students, and in 30 years the college has cancelled a full day of classes maybe twice.

- A sweater, jeans, and flip flops are common enough in the cooler parts of fall and spring. Sometimes even shorts with that sweater and sandals.

- Someone carrying a sabre or broadsword down the sidewalk causes no fuss. Partly due to the ROTC and partly due to those guys who make their own armor and fight each other on weekends in the center of campus.

In Maryland:

- People build $800,000, three-story homes on 0.5 acre lots--with no trees--portioned off of former patureland and arranged in what must look (from a sufficient height) like a pale blue, lopsided stone henge.

- Everyone has been to Assateague and Chincoteague islands, but no one can spell the names. No one cares about the wild ponies either.

- The state surrounds Washington DC entirely, but no one knows it.

- We (in the central part of the state, where the resivoirs are) constantly bellyache about Baltimoreans stealing our water. And they are.

- We got crabs and we're damn proud of it.

In West Virginia:

- Mechanics are honest.

- The DMV requires regular inspections of all cars on the road and yet people still drive around in the wierdest, duct-taped contraptions imaginable.

- People actually pay attention to "No Trespassing" signs, but not "No ATVs" signs.

- Have guns. Will use them.

- Bear attacks are a real threat.

- Most middle aged men look like Red Green.

- "Hairpin mountain turn with a sheer cliff on one side and fifteen signs saying '20 mph'? Better take it easy and slow to 55."

- We have an annual water tasting festival.

[pfrsue]

Ah mighty Wisconsin
In my semi-rural area - which is to say that I live in a town of 10,000, totally surrounded by farmland and yet only 30 miles from the state capital....

-We don't have water fountains, we have "bubblers".

-There is no such thing as soda, there is "pop".

- Brats are not children, they are bratwursts on a bun - considered to be haute cuisine, particularly when cooked in beer.

- Other exciting local delicacies include smelt, lutefisk with lefse and grilling chickens that have had beer cans (full) inserted into them in a very personal way.

- Traffic is regulated by "stop and go lights"

- Yes we are cheeseheads. No, we don't consider this an insult. See our hats?

- We have a longstanding antipathy for drivers from Chicago and Vikings fans. We don't have the death penalty, but if we did...

- Everyone knows someone whose windshield was taken out in the violent demise of a wild turkey.

- Everyone with a driver's license has participated, at least once, in an automotive - white-tailed deer summit. These never end well.

- In my town, we annually celebrate the canal that used to connect the Wisconsin and Fox rivers. Granted the thing hasn't been used in over 70 years, was actually an effective means of transportation for maybe a decade (until the railroad came) and it breeds a bajillion mosquitos and is generally considered an eyesore, but we still bring in a carnival, a beer tent, historical re-enactors and rock bands that really should consider hari-kiri, so far have they fallen. (Loverboy, I'm looking at you. From huge stadiums to Canal days? Hello?!)

- It is common to own summer and winter cars. The winter cars are generally sputtering rust buckets and very suitable for the corrosive effects of heavily salted roads and sliding into ditches. Nope, we don't have mandatory car inspections here.

- Yes, if you drive, you will slide into a ditch some winter. Make friends with people who own tractors.

- If you live in the upper peninsula where Wisconsin meets Michigan, you are a "Youper" (UPer).

- You have heard the song "The Thirty Point Buck". You even understand it.

- You can pass for a native by saying things like, "Oh yah, dem boys up t'the bar tought dey was some hot stuff, you betcha hey." or "Saw Charley down t'the dump t'other day, he got himself a bum leg what got caught in one of dem big 'tainers, dontcherknow." But you have to do it with a straight face and bear in mind that Charley will be consulted shortly thereafter.

- You've probably never heard of the Jersey Devil, but it doesn't matter because the Hodag could kick its butt anyway.

- If you don't adore the Packers, you're in big trouble.

- If you're a female and don't enjoy NASCAR, fishin', huntin', drag racin', snowmobilin', da Pack and country music, you are never going to get a date.

- There are seven or eight common last names. If you do not have one of these names within the last three generations of your geneology, you are considered a foreigner.

- And as to the footwear thing, we don't wear flip-flops. Too many cows around here.

[TheLuckyOne]

-You know all those places you see in Kevin Smith movies and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind? Been there. Yes, there too.

-I pumped my own gas for the first time at the age of 20, on my way out to college for my junior year, and I had no idea how to do it. It's illegal in this state, and we like it that way.

-Most people don't know this, but Eerie, Indiana isn't the focal point of weirdness in the U.S.- it's Jersey, to the point where we have a full magazine devoted to it. (Weird N.J.) I can't tell you how many haunted houses, former prisons, and abandoned insane asylums there are within an hour's drive of me.

And just for good measure, here's that e-mail list that I periodically get:

You Know You're From New Jersey When...

-You've been seriously injured at Action Park.
-You know that the only people who call it "Joisey" are from New York (usually The Bronx) or Texas.
-You don't think of citrus when people mention "The Oranges."
-You know that it's called "Great Adventure," not "Six Flags."
-You've ordered a hard roll with butter for breakfast.
-You've known the way to Seaside Heights since you were seven.
-You've eaten at a diner, when you were stoned or drunk, at 3 am.
-Whenever you park, there's a Camaro within three spots of you.
-You remember that the "Two Guys" were from Harrison.
-You know that the state isn't one big oil refinery.
-At least three people in your family still love Bruce Springsteen, and you know what town Jon Bon Jovi is from.
-You know what a "jug handle" is.
-You know that a Wawa is a convenience store, and can locate at least 15 of them.
-You know that the state isn't all farmland.
-You know that there are no "beaches" in New Jersey - there's "The Shore," and you know that the road to the shore is "The Parkway" not "The Garden State Highway."
-You know that "Piney" isn't referring to a tree.
-Even your school cafeteria made good Italian subs, and you call it a "sub" or a "hoagie."
-You remember the song from the Palisades Park commercials.
-You know how to properly negotiate a Circle.
-You knew that the last question had to do with driving.
-You know that "Acme" is an actual store, not just a Warner Bros creation.
-You know that this is the only "New..." state that doesn't require "New" to identify it (like, try ...Mexico, ...York, ...Hampshire; doesn't work, does it?)
-You know how to translate this conversation: "Jeet yet?" "No, Jew?"
-You only go to New York City for day trips, and you only call it "The City."
-You know that a "White Castle" is the name of BOTH a fast food chain AND a fast food sandwich.
-You consider a corned beef sandwich with lettuce and mayo a sacrilege.
-In the 80's you wore your hair REALLY high.
-You don't think "What exit" (do you live near?) is very funny.
-You know that the real first "strip shopping center" in the country is Route 22.
-You know that people from the 609 area code are "a little different." [Drew's note: this is my actual area code.]
-You know that no respectable New Jerseyan goes to Princeton - that's for out-of-staters. [Drew's note #2: I grew up in Princeton.]
-The Jets-Giants game has started fights at your school or local bar.
-You live within 20 minutes of at least three different malls.
-You can see the Manhattan skyline from some part of your town.
-You refer to all highways and interstates by their numbers.
-Every year, you had at least one kid in your class named Tony.
-You know where every clip shown in the Sopranos opening credits is.
-You've gotten on the wrong highway trying to get out of Willowbrook Mall.
-You know that people from North Jersey go to Seaside Heights, and people from Central Jersey go to Belmar, and people from South Jersey go to Wildwood. [Drew's note #3: those are various areas of "The Shore."]
-You weren't raised in New Jersey -- you were raised in either North Jersey, Central Jersey or South Jersey.
-You don't consider Newark or Camden to actually be part of the state.
-You've had sex on the beach, and I'm not talking about the beverage.
-You get three 50's in a row when you play skeeball.
-You know what became of the 13th Leeds child, and claim to have seen him one time while peeing in the woods.
-You can smell and know when it's low tide.
-You can name all the flavors of salt water taffy.
-You eat at restaurants that have locations I, II, III, IV, and V.
-You've pondered, "Maybe basketball would be more popular if the Nets didn't blow." [Drew's note #4: Yeah, that one doesn't really apply anymore.]
-Because your town was founded before 1776, all the restaurants, taverns, and shops have "ye", "olde", and "colonial" in their names.
-One time, a seagull crapped on your head. [Drew's note #5: well, not mine, but my dad's, yeah.]
-You once said, "It smells like Philly in here."
-"Anyone who makes bad pizza can go to hell" is your attitude.
-You've eaten a Boardwalk cheesesteak with vinegar fries.
-You have a favorite Atlantic City casino.
-You start planning for Memorial Day weekend in February.
And finally...
-You've never, ever pumped your own gas.

-D

[TheLuckyOne]

Just like to point out that Sue's list is funny for 3 reasons:

pfrsue said:

- Brats are not children, they are bratwursts on a bun - considered to be haute cuisine, particularly when cooked in beer.

- Other exciting local delicacies include smelt, lutefisk with lefse and grilling chickens that have had beer cans (full) inserted into them in a very personal way.

My father's extremely Norwegian side of the family eats brats and fish like it's going out of style; bring anything else to our family reunions in Michigan, you're disowned from the clan. (Difficult for seafood haters like myself.) Lutefisk -- probably the smelliest, foulest-tasting fish in all the sea -- is used as a rite of passage for potential future in-laws... if they can stomach it and pretend they like it, they're in.

pfrsue said:

- (Loverboy, I'm looking at you. From huge stadiums to Canal days? Hello?!)

Loverboy was the actual main attraction at the final night of the annual Cherry Festival in Traverse City, Michigan (cherry capital of the world!) last year. I went. Dear God, what an ignominious ending... cherry festivals and "Canal Day"? Where's your dignity, guys?- just pack it in.

Aaaaaaaaand...

pfrsue said:

- You've probably never heard of the Jersey Devil, but it doesn't matter because the Hodag could kick its butt anyway.

No it couldn't.



-D, who knows nothing about this "Hodag," but unless it devoured its entire family and survived a genuine exorcism, send the bum back to the minors...

[pythianlegume]

I live in Madisonville, Kentucky, population 19,000(which, because it is the county seat, contains one (1) mall, one (1) community college, one (1) library, two (2) movie theaters, and six thousand (6,000) Cracker Barrell restaurants). Evansville, Indiana, population 120,000 and about an hour's drive away, is "the city." It has TWO malls. Madisonville teenagers daydream about how much better their lives would be if they lived in a big city like Evansville, and teenagers from tiny outlying towns like Providence, Nortonville, and White Plains daydream about how much better their lives would be if they lived in a big city like Madisonville.

Yes, you do see huge sunburned guys in overalls riding tractors. Yes, I have an ex-boyfriend whose dad was arrested for financing a methamphetamine lab (and a friend whose uncle ran one out of her garage for years, and never blew it up). I'm so sick of bluegrass I could vomit. We have five pawn shops and half a bookstore (the other half is a Hallmark card store). The Super Wal-Mart is *the* place to meet people and, if you're a bored teenager, shoplift cough medicine.

Cigarettes cost under three bucks a pack here, and the REALLY cheap brands, the ones that the white trash kids smoke in the bathrooms, are $9.99 a carton. EVERYBODY smokes; you can't walk a block in the lower-class neighborhoods without passing a hundred cigarette butts and a couple empty cans of Budweiser.

Incidentally, my favorite local writer (and one of the few who aren't, well, Barbara Kingsolver) is a young ex-punk-singer-songwriter named Joey Goebel. He published a book called "The Anomalies" last summer that is absolutely bitchen if you're a bored high school student. He used to be in a Henderson band called The Mullets.

[mysteriorockanova]

I live in a small hamlet in southern Alberta called Seven Persons where the main (almost only if it weren't for that stupid bar... Grrr...) source of economy is a Sausage Shop that my dad owns. And if you don't think it's the best sausage you've ever had, it's because you're stupid. (whoa, I said sausage twice and it wasn't an innuendo either time)

[Head Mutant]

Hey Kyle, I'm in California right now! Whee! *waves down to you from Sacramento*

[PoolMan]

Hmm... is it too late to make that sausage joke?

[kylerexpop]

justin! i . . . i love you! have fun in *snicker* sac-town! say hi to chris webber for me!

kyle
he's the guy crying in his cereal

[loulabelle]

I lived in Fiji until I was about 13, then moved to Brisbane Australia. Fiji is a completely different world all together, but I'll try to think up some interesting quirks.

- In the garden, you'd find land crabs and mongooses (mongeese?)

- Vicious dogs aren't kept tied up or behind gated properties.

- There was one TV station and TWO pay TV channels, one of them was mostly Indian television.

- Diwali (Indian festival) is a good excuse to let off illegal fireworks. There were plenty of urban legends about kids getting their eyes blown up by firecrackers.

- There were lots of scandals at my school. The principal paid for the services of rentboys before running off with the office boy, my Japanese teacher slept with a former student, and one of the fifth grade teachers tried to take money from his class.

- Tons of Fijian slang were used in everyday conversation, but I was forced to drop it once I moved.

- We ate chinese and Indian sweets a lot. One popular snack was called "mango skin" which were strips of dried mango covered in loads of red artifical colouring, salt, sugar and other stuff that can't be good for you.

- There are two McDonald's restaurants in the entire country, which I suspect is a good thing but people here are shocked when I tell them that.

- Official dress for men is a sulu which is like a sarong. Often mistaken for a "skirt." The boys at my school had to wear them, and they looked very good.

Now in Brisbane, Queensland:

- Brisbane is dubbed the "River City" and "Brisvegas"

- Queenslanders havce a reputation for being stupid, so our state government changed the car license plates from "Queensland the Sunshine State" to "Queensland the Smart State."

- In the garden, you'd find blue-tongued lizards, possums, kookaburras, bush turkeys and maybe the odd snake.

- People don't really talk like Steve Irwin, but you find some shockers every now and again.

- It's easy to pick out the American exchange students in the crowd-- they're darker, and wear summer clothes in the middle of our winter.

- The hip place to be is Fortitude Valley, which is Chinatown with all the best night clubs and all the weirdos, and where the local underworld crime is situated.

[awesomecolin]

I live in the beautiful city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. And for those of you who do know where Nova Scotia is, look on the east coast of Canada. It's the one shaped like a lobster's claw. There are certainly quite a few quirks about my province, and even more interesting history, the most notable items being:

- In my city, we have at least two homeless people who look like Charles Manson, and one who's deaf and wears an eye patch, who's I've lovingly dubbed "The Pirate". He's truely the king of all hobos.

- Shag Harbour. No comment needed.

- There's a hidden driveway in Shag Harbour that's called Shag End (again, no comment needed)

- Nova Scotia was claimed by John Cabot in 1497 and is Britain's only colony named in Latin (New Scotland).

- More Gaelic is spoken in Nova Scotia than in Scotland

- Birth place of hockey!

- Halifax Harbour is the 2nd largest harbour in the world, and has the greatest water volume of any.

- Anybody remember the crashing of Swiss Air 111? Yup, that happened about a 45 minute drive from where I'm sitting right now.

And on that depressing note, I'm going to bed. Sorry for the lack or quirkiness. Good day.

[pythianlegume]

Gaelic. Oooooooooo.