roxanne207

That's funny! I'm in New Orleans, and I was just getting ready to post about going "by" someone's house. It used to drive my Dad crazy when I would say I was going by my friend's house. He wanted to know why they wouldn't let me inside. My cajun neighbor would "pass the vaacuum".

guntersville

What in the world does pass the vacuum mean?

Jon_Eric

Roxanne, I didnt know "go by" was a Southern thing and I was just getting ready to "make groceries"

I dont know if this is a Utah thing or a family thing, but when my two nephews were here last year from SLC and I ordered Pizza (I dont cook I order) the oldest announced he didnt want the "pizza bones" turns out it was the crust!

Roxanne, where in NOLA are you, I'm 3rd and Prytania. Jon-Eric

lisad

My Dad from Iowa had a lot of funny sayings.
If a building was new in town: He would say "wasn't there yesterday".

Someone/thing was ugly: "Uglier than a mud fence".

Dirty or stringy hair: "Looks like rats have been sucking on it".

This is from my Mom;
A bad outfit: " Wouldn't wear that to a dog fight".

bennie

What does the rest of the world call running shoes. Here in Boston we call them sneakers and I was told today that was unique to this area.

lscott

Anybody know what geefles is/are?? My husband's Midwest family and their neighbors are only ones I ever heard use the word. "Geefles" (hard G) is/are the scum on the top of hot chocolate, or lint found in the pocket, or a politer term for snotbuggers, or...a multipurpose term. No kidding, would like to know if anybody else has heard of geefles.

SusanM

Growing up in Wisconsin I alternately referred to running shoes as sneakers and tennis shoes, although I've never played tennis in my life!

Here in Chicago they're gym shoes. A white tank top (sleeveless T-shirt) on a guy is a Dago-T. The first time I heard the expression I thought the person was using a French word, like degotee.

Chicagoans also go "by" someone's house, and I too have wondered why they didn't go all the way in if they bothered to get that close! One more -- they don't go to the movies, but to the show. For me a show is strictly something done on a stage.

gocats2002

Mt. Rainier was out today! It was gorgious in Seattle! And everyone thinks it just rains here!

Blondie

In the South: (particularly Alabama)

*Shopping carts are called "buggies."

*People say "you might could"

*My husband told people he was from LA and they thought he meant lower Alabama.

*Flea markets or swap meets are referred to as "trade day"

Laundry mats are called "washaterias"

Instead of getting in bed, it's getting in THE bed.

Knitted ski caps are called "toboggins"(sp?)

Most sodas are referred to as "coke" until the time of ordering

This is out of the US, but while in Europe, most service people used the word "please" in place of OK, alright or thank you.

Ryan

Visitors to the New Jersey shore are still referred to as BENNIES by the locals. It's an old acronym that stood for Bayonne, Elizabeth, Newark, New York - the starting point for many daytrippers, the bane of the locals.

In several parts of New York, those with real New York accents will use the phrase "youse" and plural for more than one person and "not for nothin but" as a qualifier to mean something akin to "I'm not trying to cause trouble but I feel it my responsibility to point out..."

gracie

To Blondie: I had forgotten washateria. That brings back memories. And yep, we do call grocery carts buggies. Do you remember beauty parlors? By the way, I'm from lower AL, now in nothwest Florida.

Anonymous

I tihnk "beauty parlors" might be a time-related thing, rather than a geographic thing. We had them in Boston area when I was grwoing up, but now they're all hair salons.

We also had "cleansers" that are now all dry cleaners, except for sometime you'll see "cleansers" on old signs and "cleaners" on new ones, sometimes on the same property.

Sandwiches on a really big roll? Subs now, were spuckies (spukies?) or grinders a couple of decades ago.

suzanne

Bennie- Here in NYC they are sneakers too. My bf from Ohio calls them "tennis shoes". Which seems really silly to me, unless they actually ARE those low-tread sneakers made especially for playing tennis!

A white tank top is sometimes referred to here as a "wifebeater".

SugarPlum

SusanM,

The white sleeveless undershirt is called a "wife-beater" here in Georgia.

This is a fun thread. I've lived in the south my whole life, and from reading this, I think that we have the majority of odd sayings.

rjw_lgb_ca

I think everyone in the US now calls sleeveless undershirts "wife-beaters". Mostly thanks to shows like "COPS" where the perp in a Domestic Violence bust is always wearing one-- if he's bothered to wear a shirt at all.

The Pittsburghers who posted brought back fond memories of hearing things like "yuns"/"yins" and "dahntahn" (i.e., Downtown) and "chipped ham" and "hoagies", all said in that peculiar hard-edged accent. Good times, I guess....

SugarPlum

rjw,

True. Wife-beater/no shirt + no shoes = guaranteed trip to the jailhouse.

GoTravel

My grandmother (MeeMaw) used to say "It's comin' up a bad cloud" if a thunderstorm was looming.

Y'all is plural.

pkmg

For cassidy2002: When you were in Dallas and needed a "card" here's the reason: There are counties and municipalities that are "dry" i.e. you cannot purchase alcoholic drinks at restaurants unless the restaurant is also classified as a nightclub or bar. So to get around this, the restaurant will also set itself up as a nightclub where the "members" can then enter and buy drinks - that's where the card comes in - it's a membership card to the nightclub. Whether a city or county is "dry" or "wet" (meaning you can order drinks with your meals without all the workarounds) is a matter that the voters have decided. There aren't that many areas in Texas that are still dry anymore. I still remember a stretch of highway that led into my hometown in West Texas that was called the "magic mile" - my hometown was located almost exactly on the county line of a dry county, and the mile of highway leading into it from the neighboring county was lined with liquor stores, so that the citizens of the town didn't have to drive the 20 miles to the next town for their liquor!

A term that I've heard all my life to describe something or someone that's "low class" is "tacky"

MelissaHI

I had a client from Virginia who was making a point of how fast someone acted. he said, "That guy was on him like a duck on a June bug!" The rest of us in the room, who were mostly from West of the Rockies, looked at him blankly and said, "A whut on a whut?!"

rbnwdln

Reading about the peculiarities of Pittsburghers brought back memories of my mom who was from there. She said she was going to 'red up the house' when she cleaned and she said 'gum bands' for rubber bands and she called a paper bag a 'poke' and she said 'yuns' and greasy was pronounced 'greazy' and homework was 'nightwork'. Fond memories......