Here in the Upper Pierogi Belt, Easter is a HUGE deal. I think it’s because 75% of the residents are Catholic. In fact, 75% of our house is Catholic… but that’s neither here nor there.
Where I’m from Easter meant a basket filled with candy for the kiddies, and a better-than-average Sunday dinner, often with extended family members. Here it’s much more.
Actual gifts are exchanged, like a mini-Christmas. And I’m talking big-ticket items, like bicycles and Playstations. Before I moved to NEPA, I’d never heard the phrase, “What did you get for Easter?” It just doesn’t compute. You get chocolate, and later ham. That’s what everybody gets for Easter.
Somebody walked up to me a few days ago, with another person in tow. They wanted me to serve as a tie-breaker in an argument they were having. “Jeff, do you and your wife exchange Easter presents?” I was asked.
“Huh? Are you serious?” I answered, which caused the guy in tow to smile, and sense victory.
“Well, did you used to, before you became burned-out and old?” she said, trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. And being wildly insulting (yet accurate) in the process.
“Never,” I said. “There’s no such thing as ‘Easter presents’ outside this freaky little bubble we’re in.”
“Yes!” the guy in tow shouted, and the woman frowned with disappointment. “Every couple I know exchanges Easter presents,” she muttered, and walked away.
Hey, people can do whatever they want. It’s no skin off my scrote. It’s just strange, how certain areas of the country are so wildly different in their customs.
I know people who attribute blanket-statement stereotypes about entire sections of the U.S. My parents, for instance, believe as an absolute fact that 90% of Pennsylvanians are blowhards with an overbearing opinion on every subject. Whenever they come to visit we encounter many “normal” people along the way, but when we meet some bombastic loudmouth, they shout, “A-ha!”
I always say, “So, people who live on the West Virginia side of the border are the salt of the earth, but once you cross that line… it’s asshole city.” “Yep,” they answer. It’s sometimes infuriating, and more often amusing.
Actually, since they’ve started spending every winter in Florida — and meeting people from all over the country — they’ve softened their stance a bit. Only a bit, though.
And there are all sorts of negative stereotypes about my home state (my folks don’t care for that), the entire southeast, as well as California, etc. But I’ve lived all over, and it seems like people are generally the same. They’re just trying to get through the day, and keep the bills paid. Ya know?
However… there are customs that are unique to certain areas. And it’s slightly annoying when the people there proclaim their way as the RIGHT way. Or, worse, don’t even know there are other ways. But, differences are cool. I endorse them. It keeps things interesting. I have no problem with the folks around here throwing a second Christmas every spring. More power to ’em. Pass the haluski.
What’s been your experience with regional customs and stereotypes? Anything to report? Or confess? Use the comments link below.
And I’ll see you guys again soon.
Have a great day!
Now playing in the bunker
Treat yourself to something cool at Amazon!
damn, this sucks. i love the comments.
A toboggan is a hat. In Canada it is a sled.
Don’t they also take baskets full of baked goods to the church on Easter? Or is that some other holiday?
Baskets of baked goods (and a sample of 7 other specific foods if I remember right) and highly decorated eggs is a Ukrainian thing.
And yeah, a toboggan is a sled. What region calls a hat a toboggan?
Around these parts, any type of winter head covering that consists of knitted shit, is called a toboggan.
Here in WV – and in the South – I think.
I am a native New Yorker and we are all rude, loud mouths.
Speak for your fuckin’ self, TR. I’m not rude! No fuckin’ way.
Neither am I. I was saying that’s what most people seem to think.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3pkzyy
Oh TR, I hope you know I was only kidding!
Madz, the sarcasm in your first comment literally dripped off the screen and onto my desk.
I guess I’ve experienced them although not too many come to mind at the moment. This will give me something to think about as I sit in the dentist’s chair this afternoon.
I came from Cincinnati but have lived in Austin, TX; Phoenix, St. Louis, Gainesville FL and now around DC. Virtually everyone in those places, to whom I ever mentioned it, seemed stunned to hear I put spaghetti in my chili. (In fact, I’ve heard that such an idea can get you shot in Texas.) Fuck ’em all. It’s a Depression-era thing I think; a means to extend the meal (like cracker crumbs in the meat loaf). Hell, we all scrape the jizz off the inside of our egg shells after we crack ’em (don’t we????) and nobody thinks too much about THAT!
There’s an old chain of family restaurants in California called Bob’s Big Boy. They used to serve Cincinnati Chili (the kind with allspice and stuff in it) over spaghetti and topped it off with a square of American cheese. Dear god I loved that stuff.
The chain has since been resurrected, but I haven’t been in one since I was a kid, so I don’t know if they still serve the stuff, but they damn well should.
Mr. Q eats his chili on spaghetti, but ONLY if it’s for dinner. For lunch, no spaghetti is involved and he will look at me like I’m crazy if I suggest it.
But what does he eat for supper?
Another regional thing. What was supper in Chicago became dinner when we moved to Virginia. I can eat dinner, but my aunts continued to be “ants” and not the affected pronunciation one hears in these parts.
I can’t remember the last time I had supper. Must have been before I moved south, for sure. My aunt is also an “ant”. However, the bluetooth in my car doesn’t recognize “ant”, so I have to turn all hoity-toity when I ask it to dial “Aunt” Kathy. I feel like I need a shower after saying it.
In Alabama we eat supper. And aunts are called ants.
I’ve always known that constant “Yes/no, sir/maam” was a southern thing.
I did just find out that not only do some other regions not say that, but they also find it rude to address someone as “sir” or “maam”. Like in Minnesota and Michigan it’s a sign of disrespect, or something?
Have any of you heard of it being outright rude to use Sir/maam? Why is it rude?
What do people use if they don’t use sir or maam? Do they just say “Yes” or “Affirmative” like a damn robot? Do you say “Excuse me, you piece of lingering shit” rather than “Pardon me, ma’am.”?
I use “Miss” and “Sir” and never gotten any hostile reactions. “Ma’am” wouldn’t offend me. It’s kinda charming.
And by the way, how do YOU pronounce “nougat”?
Do you say it like “new-git” or do you say “noog-it” (sorta rhymes with ‘cook-it’). My wife uses the latter and it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard to me.
new-git.
Any other pronunciation is stupid and you’re stoopid, and your whole regions is wrong and should be carved off the country and kicked out into the open sea.
I’ll let my wife know. And the best part is: I don’t have to take ownership of the punishment. It came from an outside authority!
Nu ga, which drives my wife nuts, despite it being correct.
In France that’s the right pronunciation. Over here it’s
FREEDOM CONFECTION!!!!!!
This is wonderful.
There’s only one way to pronounce the word, and that is correctly, nu ga. Do you pronounce Chevrolet with a hard “T”? 🙂
No – but when M&M/Mars pronounces it “new-git” in their commercials for Milky Way or 3 Musketeers – I tend to follow their lead.
What about egg pocking?
Do you people pock eggs?
It’s a game people play on Easter with the boiled eggs. You take turns tapping each others eggs with your egg and the first person whose egg breaks loses. Then nobody can pock against anyone else until the winner loses. (It’s a winner stays on situation.)
There is strategy and everything. You can lightly tap and build up pressure. Or you can go straight into hitting hard and hope you don’t break your egg. There are methods of boiled and dying the eggs to make them stronger. There are rules on holding eggs.
It’s a whole big thing.
We played that when we were kids, but it didn’t have a name that I remember.
I thought that was a Greek thing.
It’s a Louisiana thing too.
When we were kids, the biggest thing about Easter was the “Easter Outfit” because my mother went all out. Hats, coats, miniature pocket books, gloves – the whole nine yards. It was probably a ploy for us to put the Peeps down and get ready for church.
So, this past Sunday I put on a nicer pair of jeans and a shirt with tiny flowers all over. Sigh.. Got Beloved 2 bags of those Ghiradelli chocolates. Had an ass kicking ham dinner. Life is good.
One custom I remember a co-worker telling me about. She moved in with a guy that had a house in the historical section of Fairfield, CT. At Christmas, you HAD to put candles in all the windows. And some other customs, too, that I can’t remember. Just pissed me off the way everyone had to conform. I guess you won’t be finding many Goldberg’s or Feinberg’s on the block.
It’s all about the kielbasa and ham. Jesus died for our smoked, cured pork product.
Good Afternoon Surf Reporters…
The Pittsburgh Parking Chair, to reserve your spot on the street after you’ve cleared all the snow away.
Don’t know any other parts of the country that do that.
Clearfield, PA – Lawn chairs lining the curbs the week before the County Fair as people reserve their spots for the Fireman’s Parade held on opening night. Seen it done in DuBois and Brockway for parades as well. It’s a Pennsylvania thing.
It’s called Dibs in Chicago. Only God can save you or your vehicle if you violate the sanctity of Dibs and park in someone’s spot that they cleared. They use all sorts of shit to let you know it’s claimed.
Yup it’s a PA thing. I am in Allentown, PA and they do that here.
Raised outside Atlanta, currently living in NE Alabama. I love that I can leave my doors unlocked (even at night accidentally). Church suppers are awesome, and all you have to do is ask for help. My neighbor just finished repairing 2 light fixtures for me. Took several hours.
I live in west central Alabama, and I wouldn’t dare leave my doors unlocked. Not if I like my stuff and want it to continue being MY stuff. Too many meth heads around to pretend it’s Mayberry. The people are definitely helpful. And church ladies can definitely cook. When the tornadoes came through a few years ago people definitely reached out and took care of their neighbors.
I feel like the “Easter as a gift giving extravaganza” thing just infiltrated us here in Michigan recently. It seemed pretty ridiculous this year. When I was a kid, we just got some candy and a cake shaped like a bunny. Plus the ham.
A regional custom here is the idea of an “open house” when a kid graduates from high school. You throw a big party with lots of food and photos of yourself plastered everywhere, and you invite everyone you know. They all come and bring cards with money. It’s almost like a wedding reception, without the dancing. Some people even rent halls. Mine was just in our backyard. But everyone has one, and it’s a big deal. When I lived in Florida I was shocked to here that people there didn’t do anything like that. They just went out to dinner or something. Weird.
And I’m shocked to here (and nearly up to here).
jtb
I could try to pass it off like I meant to write that, but instead I will just be shamed.
E…
Homophones are tricky when you’re typing fast. Scroll down and see me use “roll” rather than “role” is describing female empowerment. In the context, a much bigger fuckup than yours.
In any case, shaming is for religion. I was just flipping you some shit. You don’t like it, I won’t do it no more. But do I try not to be homophonic…
John
Don’t worry, I wasn’t offended. 🙂
Here in the far suburbs of Charleston, W.Va., late night gunfire is used to observe New Year’s Day, Independence Day and many WVU football wins.
Easter in my family has always been, basket of candy, new outfit for church, impossibly big meal with extended after church, nap. Never once did I receive a “gift” and though I’ve seen it on facebook by my friends, I won’t be participating when I produce my own short people.
I’ve also noticed this new thing of “gender reveal” parties. WTF?!?!?! Just tell me boy or girl, there’s no need to throw some elaborate party where all the guests must cut into some enormous 8-layer cake to see what color the inside is. This has to be the most self-absorbed ritual I’ve seen come about lately.
I don’t quite understand. Does the color inside the cake reveal the racial composition of the aforementioned child? I don’t want to dish anything to Alabama that is underserved, but the cake thing sounds about right.
jtb
Alabama may still have some issues, but we aren’t that bad.
Inside of the cake will be pink or blue filling depending on the gender you are expecting. It’s just another way to ask people to give you gifts…and it’s tacky.
Around here, diaper parties are starting to catch on. Basically you invite all your friends and they bring you practical gifts such as diapers and what not. Sort of a baby shower for couples.
So I get the tie-in between the gifts of the Magi (gold, frankenstein and thai stick or something like that) and giving gifts on the traditional day of celebration of Christ’s birth. I’m a little confused about the link between the torturing of someone by hanging his body on a wooden frame and the gifting of a blouse, whether it fits or not.
In my region of the country, we rarely hear, “Only ten more shopping days until Jesus pushes the big rock aside.” Everyone would rightly think the person who said that had a nail in his head.
jtb
“Only ten more shopping days until Jesus pushes the big rock aside.” Thanks, jtb. I almost choked on a jelly bean.
I just gotta say that I really appreciate the frequency of the updates lately. I need my regular dose of the WVSR!
Here’s hoping you can keep it up.
I am from Brooklyn, New York. I had never heard of a “Cake Walk” until I bought a house and moved to NW New Jersey in 1997. I cannot describe the weirdness of this “ritual” that is a part of every fair and town gathering.
So, I moved to MN in 2005 (no, not because of the Cake Walk thing). Here, I learned of another strange ritual called the “Meat Raffle”. You are at a bar, club, bowling alley (wherever) and someone inevitably comes up wanting to sell you $1 tickets/chances to win meat. Yep.
However, here in MN they think the whole (NY/NJ) children’s birthday party “goody bag” thing is ludicrous and unheard of. “Why would you give a bag of gifts to other kids for attending your own kids party?” I see there is a whole aisle at the Party City here in town for goody bags and crap to fill them with so, someone here must be doing it, too, no?!
I’m vaguely familiar with the “meat raffle” concept, although it’s been decades since I’ve been in a bar at closing time. While I’ve not lived the life of a monk, I never participated in that particular raffle, because I conjectured that at that late hour, some of the meat had spoiled and possibly contained pathogens.
jtb
My husband is a musician as are many of our friends. We go to places that these friends are playing at to show some love and support but we do not buy tickets for the same reason you have mentioned, jtb! Raffled off meat. Yech.
I live in PA and they have meat raffles and meat bingo LOL.
I think it’s high time someone with an artistic bent and experience created a graphic novel surrounding meat raffles and meat bingo at closing time in bars in Pennsylvania and Minnesota. I think of it as kind of a hard-roasted detective story.
I’d be happy to do the treatment and some of the subsequent dialog if Stephanie could do the artwork and TR could provide background information and color.
Could we sell it to a publisher? Hell, it would be a cake walk.
jtb
I have a profile of the heroine (given the roll of third-wave feminism in our society, the hero should be a female). She’s sweet and bright, but tough, and, given the iffy nature of the meat products involved, she has no gag reflex. Just some early thoughts…
jtb
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=da9p24bJCJ0
SemiSonic has the trailer music finished for the movie.
Sounds like we should sell this idea on Jeff for his next book as one of those “flip” books (his cover and book on one side and then flip the book over and our stuff on the other! Hey…it could work.
Stephanie…
I’ve had an idea for a while of Jeff publishing a companion book to his next literary foray…
A crime novel with Reporters featured as sleuths solving a crime that moves from region to region and culminates in a “high anxiety” chase in the suburbs of Scranton.
I’ve been reluctant to suggest it because Jeff seems to have a couple or twelve priorities dogging his ass across time and space already, but as long as we’re blue-skying…
jtb
I like it. I will draw the cover for FREE. Let’s tell Jeff we are on board for it…
Oh. Wait. I just did. 😉
sounds like a porn movie plot…
Here in the lower Pirogi Belt, they raffle off shot guns at the volunteer fire department fund raisers.
I always buy tickets.
In Dog River they spit on the ground whenever someone says Woolerton.
Just about everywhere I’ve lived, April 15th is Anal Fisting Day.
Hope you’re walking better by now.
Easter was all about the candy usually; any non-candy gifts that materialized were of the small trinket variety. We didn’t always have a big dinner, either, unless we were invited to a relative’s. As my sister and I got older, we pretty much grew out of the whole Easter thing, and it kind of perplexes me when I hear grown adults talk about exchanging Easter baskets.
Something else that kind of perplexes me, and I don’t know if its a SE Michigan regional thing or what, and that’s people having life-long relationships with their Godparents. I haven’t even seen my Godparents since I was about 16, and yet I’ve had co-workers, neighbors, etc. that still know and interact with their Godparents on a frequent basis. Maybe it’s just the peculiarities of my own family, maybe its a Catholic thing or something, but it seems weird as hell to hear a 45 year old woman expressing excitement because her “Auntie JoJo” (or whatever) is on the phone…
Godparents aren’t a requirement — legal or spiritual. I didn’t have any, and many of my friends didn’t either. I suppose they’re handy for that extra birthday, Christmas and graduation present, but they strike me as an extra set of luggage in a life that’s already full of shit to carry.
And if you overhear somebody talking to their “Auntie JoJo”, that might or might not be a godparent; Auntie JoJo is what I called my dealer back in the day.
jtb
Can’t add to the Easter topic but my time in New Jersey introduced me to some weird shit.
Beef and Beer: Folks would put a sign stating such on the curb and for 10 bucks strangers show up and eat beef and drink beer. Most of the time it would be a fundraiser for charity but I have heard of people doing it to help pay for a trip to Disney.
Burial traditions: Southern Jersey has an overabundance of cemeteries . I was wondering why they put thermoses on the graves? I swear these “vessels” look just like Aladdin thermoses, I thought I saw one in scotch plaid, nope candle holders. Grave blankets!!??WTF!! Jersey was one hell of an experience for a southern girl..
When I was a kid, Easter was all about the candy with perhaps a small token toy thrown in. If I had known there were gifts involved I might not have evolved into such a godless heathen, the preferred path of ex-Catholics everywhere. Oh well.
I don’t understand, or much care for, Mrs. and Mr. being used in conjunction with a person’s first name. Is this a Southern thing, or does it happen everywhere? And who said it was okay to start doing this? When I was a kid, you used a person’s last name in conjunction with a prefix, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Jones. If you’re gonna say their first name, say just their first name. Mrs. Jenny and Mr. Bob just sound stupid.
Oh, and just chocolate and ham in my world.
Thank you!! I don’t understand it either and I live in TX too. Unfortunately my kids have picked up on it from hearing their friends say it and now they address their friends parents as Mr. Tom or Mrs. Stephanie. I guess it’s supposed to be a form of respect or something but it just sounds odd.
It took me awhile to get used to the “Mr.” and “Mrs.” First Name, but now (after over 30 years) I think I get it. Younger people use it for older people, like their friends’ parents, to whom they are too close to address formally, but not close enough to call by their first name only. E.g., some of my daughter’s friends call me “Mrs. RealLastName”, especially when they first meet me, but it often later turns to “Mrs. RealFirstName” if they get to know me well. They have never, ever addressed me by solely my first name.
That’s it exactly. The relationship is not formal enough for “Mrs. Last name” but it would be disrespectful for the child to just address the adult by their first name. My job involves teaching parenting skills to young ladies, and many of the younger ones refer to me as “Miss M.” I don’t ask that of them, it’s just automatic.
Whenever my kids (early 20’s) have friends come by, we don’t get addressed by anything other then “Hey”. If I did that as a kid I would have been tarred and feathered. I guess it’s just a sign of the times..
I’ve lived all over too. Fucked up cheese on pizza in STL and here in Cleveland everything is potato and or cabbage based.
One thing you only get in Cincinnati and no where else even though it is awesome is goetta. Mmmmmmmm.
We have goetta a hundred miles north of cincy but we call it grits. And it’s not the disgusting corn crap they eat in the south.
Hmmmmm.
You’ve obviously never had properly prepared grits if you think they are disgusting. Grits are great if they have the right amount of butter and salt in them.
Most foods are improved by the addition of generous amounts of butter and salt.
.
I think I’ve only tried them once when I was a child, M. We were on vacation in Florida and I ordered them thinking I was getting meat not corn. So perhaps my bias is a bit dated. We have a Waffle House up here, do they serve a decent bowl of grits?
Sounds like haggis minus the skin.
As kids we always got exactly one gift apiece for Easter. This was in Brooklyn. Apart from that I’ve never heard of couples or anyone else exchanging “Easter presents.”
I never heard of chili on spaghetti until visiting the regional DC area chain Hard Times Cafe. It’s a little odd, but not bad. The real DC thing, I’m told, is half-smokes.
I’m pretty sure that “Mr. Bob” and “Miss Erma” bit is a southern thing; I only started hearing it after moving south of the Mason-Dixon line.
.
Here in Canada, the land of the living stereotypes, there is one myth I would like to dispel. I have never said, nor do I know of anyone who has said “oot and aboot”. We may do and say some fairly fucked up things, that is not one of them.
I live in Palm Springs California, and half of Canadia lives here in the winter.I hear LOTS of a-boot’s and oot’s.
Canada isn’t one country in linguistic terms any more than the United States is. I’ve been in western and eastern Canada, and even spent a little time in the Prairies. It doesn’t make me an expert, but some Canadians say “oot”. I’ve heard it more in the east, but it pops up in funny places.
Nothing like the diversity of English usage in the United States, to say nothing of the Americans who don’t speak English. I suspect that, even on a per capita basis, non-English speakers in the US exceed Canadian francophones, but that would just be a wildass guess.
Personally, I think we ought to celebrate our differences in dialect and pronunciation, but we’re not so good at celebrating differences any more.
jtb
Maybe it’s an Ontario thing (if perhaps you’re in another province).
But here in Detroit we have a lot of Canadians come over to work and we get CBCprimarily for Hockey Night in Canada (the only way to watch hockey) and they say aboot. Also dollar is pronounced dough-ler.
JohntheBasket, I personally TOTALLY celebrate our differences! I apologize for giving the impression that I discriminate, as I DO NOT!
I totally love all of humanity, and thoroughly enjoy ALL of our differences.
Besides, I’m a gay man and have always taken the position that, since I’m a member of a minority group, what business do I have (how dare I) discriminate(ing) against a member of another minority group?
Besides, taken as a group, there is not a more pleasant, kind, polite, literate and “proper” group of people than Canadians.
How can you NOT love them?
Hey, William, I inferred no prejudice from your comments. I was thinking of groups who believe we should all think and speak alike, like North Carolina White Pride, the Skokie chapter of the American Nazi Party, and Fox News.
It’s nice to see your thoughtful comments out here.
John.
And I’m sure that Jeff is surprised and tickled that a bonafide queer is following his blog.. . I’ve been a loyal reader since the very early days, at least 10 yrs.
Here in south east Wisconsin we are a bunch of Germans and so we celebrate St Nick’s Day. The kids wake up on the morning of Dec 6th to find a stocking of goodies and sometimes a gift or so. Then when everyone gets to school you have to compare what you got from St Nick to what the other kids got. Easter is a basket of chocolate and jelly beans and Peeps!
St. Nick’s Day? I’m surprised Bill O’Reilly and his FOX buddies let you do this, what with the war on Christmas and all.