There’s a part of Massachusetts where pop/soda/coke is called tonic
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That would confuse me no end.
I’m from NJ, but for the first 25ish years of my life, almost all of my relatives called me by my first and middle names. I am terrible at recognizing people, so it was useful to have that hint. Oh, you used both my names - you must be a cousin.
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DD1 made it safely out of Iowa and back home - whew! She did say she thought Des Moines was pleasant, but doesn’t want to move there. 
Haven’t had a chance to query her on gustatory pleasures yet. She’s not a pork tenderloin sandwich sort of girl, but I am! At least once, anyway. Check, did that, but I’d have another someday…
I once taught first grade in El Paso. We were supposed to teach sight reading, but that made no sense to me so I taught phonics, as I was taught in California. One day after school, one of my girls dashed back into the classroom to report bad behavior on the playground. It seems “Bobby” was using a bad word, one so bad she couldn’t repeat it but would spell it for me. “Shi-et”. I sent her home, then ran into the adjacent second grade room and crowed to the teacher, “Mrs. Green, PHONICS WORKS!”
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I once worked with an Asian woman. At one point she mentioned a clearance “shit”. I questioned her twice thinking I had heard her wrong and then she finally exclaimed sheet I said sheet!
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I didn’t mean to reply to you. Just your thread in general.
I have an Israeli friend who pronounces a long e and a short i the same way. When it’s hot out, she goes to the bitch.
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When I was teaching English as a 2nd language in France, it took a concerted effort to not giggle when the word “focus” came into the conversation.
In my first days at the lycee, I shocked them all when I asked them to take out a sheet of paper…I quickly explained the word!
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One of my grad school pals majored in philosophy as an undergrad. He recalled having a very tough time staying straight-faced during his German-speaking professor’s lectures on Kant.
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Just seeing this. I liked the article, it was cute.
Funny NJ gas pumping story … I grew up in NJ. When I went to college I flew to CA for freshman orientation and my grandparents lent me their car to drive to school for orientation week. I went to fill up the car … and I had never pumped my own gas. Had no idea how to use the pump. Had no idea the “regular” had a number associated to it so had no idea what grade to pick. So it was a very real part of my life at 18 (long long time ago).
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Exactly. Travel outside the state at a young age, and you were all confoozled.
Sort of like kids now with landline phones. Or better yet, with rotary dial phones. LOL
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Pull the dial off and then see if they can figure out dialing with a hook flash.
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Grew up in Michigan and I can attest to the accuracy of the three listed items, though only one had anything to do with food. Now a New Yorker (Rochester, NYC and Westchester over the last 25 years) and while I know what white hots, salt potatoes and riggies are, they aren’t what I think of when I think of the food of this state. The part about the Statue of Liberty is definitely true, though.
BTW, regarding “padiddle” - I grew up playing this game, but my husband, who grew up in southern Missouri, had never heard of it. Maybe a northern Midwest thing?
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