Regional Weirdness Examples

[tsetsaf]

We are currently staying in the Phoenix area and, like many regions around the US, there are some unique customs and habits that would seem down right odd anywhere else. The single strangest thing we have noticed is:

Raking the rocks!

They take a rake and pull it through the gravel to make distinct lines and patterns. It is a weird custom but actually ends in a neat and tidy appearance that really spruces up a location.

What weird things have you spotted around the country?

[run100]

I haven't been to every city in the country, but our desert water has got to rank up there for most foul-flavored around.

[rolling_rhoda]

Sometime left lane driver here. In rural areas where traffic is light, I don't care what lane people drive in. Often one lane, rather than both, gets resurfaced. Add in seasonal frost heaves and there is often a noticeable difference in ride between the right and left lane on our divided highways. Maybe that's an upper Plains thing??

[Rice]

JAXFL wrote:
In Texas you cannot buy a sweet tea…and the water from a fountain drink machines tastes funny too.

I noticed that in the last few years, sweet tea has spread to Texas. In fact, I just read that In-N-Out serves it in their Texas locations but not anywhere else.

I've found the water tastes bad, to me, only in parts of the state. And it is truly bad, and makes iced tea taste bad, too.

However, one of those one-filter under-the-sink things makes it taste fine. It might not be cost effective for restaurants to do it, but it's a lot easier and cheaper than bottled water or even going to those water kiosks for drinking water at home.

[JAXFL]

Never did get the Coke and Peanut thing, I keep choking on the peanuts; I do like ice in my glass of milk, but also like hot milk. I also love bread and milk for a snack. Bananas and Peanut butter or Bananas with Miracle Whip is also good. In Texas you cannot buy a sweet tea…and the water from a fountain drink machines tastes funny too.

[hotbyte]

spoon059 wrote:
...Common courtesy on the road dictates that if you aren't passing anyone, you shouldn't be in the left lane...

If I'm paying taxes on both lanes, I should be able to use either one 🙂 🙂 🙂 j/k

[jessjerr1831]

Growing up in South Dakota always had Taverns, Shoe String potatoes with a bottle of pop. Grew up putting peanuts in our coke or RC cola, but not in the Sundrop. Favorite supper was fried potatoes covered
with pork & beans. Still eat them to this day. Brothers & I made money collecting pop bottles in gunny sacks from the side of highways. Made 2 cents a bottle.

[spoon059]

run100 wrote:
Another thought - if the speed limit is 65 and you're driving 100, but others behind you want to drive 120, should you continue to pull to the right to let them by? These are just crazy things I ponder.

YES!

Common courtesy on the road dictates that if you aren't passing anyone, you shouldn't be in the left lane. If you want to do the same speed as the guys in the three lanes to the right of you... why can't you drive in front of or behind one of them in the lanes to the right?

Left lane is for PASSING. Unless you are properly certified law enforcement in whatever jurisdiction in which you are driving, it is not your job to enforce the traffic laws of said jurisdiction. If you are doing 100 mph in the left lane and somebody wants to drive 120 in the left lane... move over and let the traffic cop down the road handle him.

There is a reason that you see signs such as "slower traffic keep right". It doesn't say "vehicles driving below the speed limit keep right", does it?

[bhh]

Yep, it took me a while to get used to "Please" when I moved to Cincinnati.

There is an unusual "chili" here. It's ground beef-based and the sauce includes things such as chocolate and cinnamon. It's served over spaghetti noodles and topped with shredded cheddar cheese (known as a three-way). Add onions to that and it becomes a "four-way." Add kidney beans to that and it becomes a "five-way." No onions, but beans is a "four-way bean" If you ask for any of them "dry" some of the sauce is drained off. All come with oyster crackers. A coney comes with a pinkie-sized hot dog, smothered in chili, cheese and onion and it's usually served as a "chaser." It's one of the few places in the world where you can ask your wife on a Friday night if she'd like to go out for a three-way and not get slapped.

A "Pony Keg" is a drive through building (not just a drive up window) where you can get beer, wine, carbonated beverages and snacks loaded into your car while you sit in the driver's seat.

The other interesting thing we have here is although we get winter every year, most people completely forget how to drive in winter weather. Any snowfall at all and the city is peppered with accidents and back ups.

Jim Shoe wrote:
I still get this one in my travels. I'm a born and raised Cincinnatian. When we can't hear or we misunderstand something, we say "please?" Cincinnati has a rich German heritage. Germans say "Bitte?" Its short for please repeat.
I was leaning up against a wall at Mardi Gras smoking a cigarette. A young lady asked me for a cigarette, but I didn't hear her, so I said "Please?" She said "O.K. Please?" When I explained that I didn't hear her, she said "Oh, you're from Cincinnati and I asked for a cigarette."
I find it interesting that we live in the same country but we don't speak the same language.

[Francesca_Knowl]

At last- the solution of the the mystery of how the below fine product was developed. First person who left their Coke bottle lyin' out in the grass with a few peanuts in the bottom got a nasty surprise- and a brilliant idea at the same time! :B



PestsBeGone!

[Fredzo]

Handbasket wrote:
Any derned fool _knows_ that it's Pepsi that's properly drunk with peanuts, and the peanuts have to be Lance salted peanuts in the dime pack. Anything else is a Yankee corruption of a time-honored Southron tradition!

The more rural folks a couple of counties east of here called any kind of a soda a 'dope'. I about cracked up decades back when I was working on a DOT road crew... the lead man announced in all seriousness that it was "about time for a dope break."

And the California thing about stacks of balanced rocks has leaked over into these mountains. You see them on the edge of fields and in creeks.

Jim, "What disease did 'cured ham' actually have?"

Sorry, but in GA it's co-cola or Grapette. I once bought a Grapette at the Fillin' station where I worked that already had peanuts in it from the previous user. UGH!

[bigorange]

tsetsaf wrote:
We are currently staying in the Phoenix area and, like many regions around the US, there are some unique customs and habits that would seem down right odd anywhere else. The single strangest thing we have noticed is:

Raking the rocks!

They take a rake and pull it through the gravel to make distinct lines and patterns. It is a weird custom but actually ends in a neat and tidy appearance that really spruces up a location.

What weird things have you spotted around the country?

I live where people like to rake rocks...I don't rake mine very often but I do periodically vacuum my fake grass! :B

[bukhrn]

sidney wrote:
Is it true folks don't BBQ in the lower 48 when its below zero?

I'm sure they do some where, I use my grill all year long, but then it's never been below zero, and have absolutely no urge for it to be.

[sidney]

Is it true folks don't BBQ in the lower 48 when its below zero?

[bukhrn]

michigansandzilla wrote:
Only thing I've noticed is the difference of the use of the term coke, pop or soda.

In Michigan we don't say soda at all. Unless it's baking soda. We say pop, which can be any kind, coke, sprite, pepsi, etc.

Went to Florida once and asked for a pop and the cashier didn't know what I wanted!

I've heard it differently in different areas, but I've also heard some folks call it "soda pop".