theladyjess

What funny, odd, unique or weird words or phrases have you heard locals say while on vacation?
When my in-laws were in Maine they asked for directions to get to a town across the bay and were told "you can't get there from here".
I once had a co-worker from the south who said, "I'm fixin' to go get me some groceries" when she needed to go to the market.
When I dated a guy from Wisconsin he referred to a drinking fountian as a "bubbler".

lolly

Myrtle Beach - grocery store. I asked if they sold wine. The lady said "we sure don't."

rwilliams

People in the northeast refer to fountains as bubblers. It's not an anomalous saying if you're a resident.

What is incorrect or odd about saying "you can't get there from here" or "we sure don't"?

gypsy

while visiting friends in texas, my daughter, then @ 4 yrs. old asked where Luke (her playmate and son of people we were visiting...) was. she was told he was 'in yonder' (meaning a different room than the one we were in). she then asked, "Which room is 'yonder'?" she knew there was a living room, bedroom, kitchen, etc. and she wanted to know which room was the 'yonder room'...

traveler24

Visiting relatives in Georgia.
We were talking about going to the store. One of the relatives said that he would "carry" me there..
I love to hear different ways of expressing things. I used to think there was more of these sayings in the south but thats because I had never been much of anywhere be fore I moved to California

Jon_Eric

Boston, someone asked if I was a "taurus" and I said, no I'm a Virgo.
They actually meant "tourist" not my zodiac sign.

Baltimore, I'd left my car lights
"owen" turns out I'd left them "on".

Adelaide, Australia, Invitation to a "fancy dress" party. Imagine my surprise to learn (too late) that fancy dress is costume party not tuxedos.

Here in New Orleans we have lots of phrases that seem to exist only here.

Anonymous

LOL, Jon, hope you told the Aussies that you had come as Fred Astaire!

ilisa

I'm from the Northeast, and never, ever heard the term bubbler until a friend from Boston mentioned it recently.

dfrostnh

My English friend said she had to stop saying she was going to knock someone up (go visit) when she moved to the states.
Here in New England we were surprised that mid-Westerners didn't put jimmies on their ice cream. I grew up here but I was shocked to hear my MIL refer to putting the baby down, meaning making a child take a nap. I thought only old animals were put down. She also refers to a poor section of town as 'the pig's ear' and my fil refers to holes as big enough to swing a cat through.
A friend from Boston who went to college in Madison WI told friends she was going to the party; they thought she was saying going to the potty. While traveling some of the South Carolina islands we almost turned around because we saw a sign that said "bridge is open when lights are flashing". The lights weren't flashing so that meant the bridge was closed ... which I finally figured meant it was "open" for traffic because the draw bridge was "closed" (down).

schmerl

In Pennsylvania Dutch areas they "Outen the lights" (turn off the lights) and "red up the room" (clean up).

Dreamer2

My mother (native New Englander of British descent) always said, "Chock-a-block full." Which I never heard again until I worked in Germany with a group of Brits. Of course I grew up with bubbler, tonic, frappe, and so forth. But I was amazed at how quickly "y'all" became a part of my vocab when I lived with Southerners.

Julia

I once had a friend from Boston who referred to a trash can as a "rubbish barrel."

Arabella

Lolly, took me a while to get used to the Southern, "We sure don't." They get your hopes up with that "sure."

At an auction on Cape Cod, I bought a small outdoor statue, and someone told me I should clean it with a "shop knife." I kept asking what kind of shop knife until I realized he was saying "sharp knife."

dg

second grade student moving from New Zealand talking about her father buying her a block of chocolate... or as we call it, a candy bar -

EnglishOne

Julia - your friend from Boston called trash a 'rubbish barrel'. In Britain, we call the 'trash' rubbish. So the trash can is the 'rubbish bin'. It is called garbage as well - (that might be one we got from the USA!) but rubbish is the usual term. I wonder if other Boston words/phrases sound like our British terms?

Syv

I usually get odd looks in the U.S. when I ask directions to the "washroom". Then I remember to change it to "restroom".

Becca

I'm from Tennessee, so a lot of the phrases that have already been mentioned "we sure don't" and "fixin' to go (do something)" are part of my normal vocabulary. Traveler24's comment about relatives from Georgia "carrying" him to the store reminded me of something. I lived in rural west Tennessee for a couple of years (I now live in Knoxville - east Tennessee). People there would say "who is he going to carry to the dance" or "who does she carry", which meant "who will he be taking as his date to the dance" or "who does she date". I always thought that was the strangest little phrase. It's funny how one part of a Tennessee has completely different phrases than another.

Colette

A co-worker of mine (from Texas) ordered a glass of iced tea and the waitress brought her a glass of wine. My Texas friend said, "no ma'am, I ordered a glass of ICED TEA". The Waitress (from Wisconsin) thought she had said "Asti".

sister2

While vacation in Jamaica, I overheard a couple of Philly mentioning they were going to eat at "noon -thirty".

My New Zealand friend & co-worker once asked me, in front of the entire office, if I had a rubber. I asked what she meant ..and she pointed to her eraser on her pencil.

gypsy

Colette -
The exact same thing happened to my hubby in Denver 25 yrs ago! Pyrenees Restaurant... we're from Texas, in Denver for wedding. when he ordered iced tea, the waiter said, "Very good choice of wine, sir". we looked at each other, wondering what the waiter meant... it wasn't until a few years later (when we started drinking wine), that i realized what had happened!