Simply John, I liked your thread about Southern idioms, but we can't be the only ones with colorful expressions. Let's hear from other parts. My dear Dad's Mother, who was from Maryland, called unopened Christmas presents that are hidden away "Yankee Doodle Tumblers" and their yankee doodle tumbler closet was a small closet under the stairs. My Dad has used that expression as long as I can remember, and I do, too. A Yankee Dime was a kiss/ hug.

In CT, a "hero/hoagie/submarine" sandwich is called a "grinder". I think it's pretty specific to southwestern CT and maybe NYC also. I was in FL and asked for a sausage grinder and the guy behind the counter immediately said "You're from New Haven!" and I said "Close, Bridgeport" (15 miles away) so I think it's pretty geographic specific, maybe it has spread since...

I had a roommate who always said Gadzooks.? Was from Malverne? NY.

Rhode Islanders have their own expressions you might not find anywhere else in New England. For example:
quahog = clams
cabinet = milkshake
milkshake = frappe
gravy = red sauce on spaghetti/pasta
coffeemilk = coffee flavored milk
clam cakes = a RI favorite in the summer (like fishcakes only with clams)
frozen lemonade = another summer favorite (but delicious!)

Something is not just good, it's wicked good.

And from the Tom Silva school of building everything's 'Buuutiful'

And don't forget the "bubbla" (bubbler=water cooler)

GBelle, I've had frozen lemonade in Oklahoma and Texas and it is DELICIOUS! They sell alot of it at baseball games. Cabinet for milkshake is similar to what I heard in St. Louis for a frozen custard milkshake--a concrete!

in the upper mid-west its "uff da". there are so many norweigians here. in norweigian it means "oh no". the area is also famous for pot-luck dinners.

Jimmies=sprinkles on ice cream
Tonic=any kind of soft drink
pissa=great

GBelle, i love the "gravy = red sauce on spaghetti/pasta". doesn't exist here in the upper mid west but surprised it doesn't.

also, nobody ever got "pregnant" until the mid seventies. it was a naughty word!

jor...Archie Bunker always said only single women got pregnant,married women were expecting.

Agree with the gravy/re sauce thing, but it's hardly limited to Rhode Island or even New England.

Italian-Americans in New York and Philadelphia say "gravy."

Also, "quahoag" is not a substitute for "clam." They're two different things.

"Bubbla" was funny. I was in a teleconference one day, and a woman from Boston (on the other end of the line) said, "A bunch of us were talking about that around the bubbla." Everyone in the room had this look like, "WHAT did she say?"

This is probably the strangest one. When I was in grade school in NH, the kids used to call the lavatory the "basement." Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Wicked good is something I always heard, too.

In northeastern Pennsylvania they never say "turn out the light" it's always "Outen the light".

In Maryland people eat french fries with gravy (and it's good). They also call jitterbugging hand-dancing.

Growing up in central Indiana, and still living here, we never had "potluck" dinners. They were always "pitch-ins."

Another oddity from my youth (60's & 70's) was my grandfather and other Hoosiers his age calling green bell peppers "mangoes." I have no idea how that started and I've not heard it much in the last 15 years. I'm curious if anyplace else used to do that.

I don't hear much about "progressive dinners" anymore. You'd have an appetizer at one house, drive to the next for salad, etc. Tighter drunk driving laws have probably stopped that and rightfully so.

Indytravel--I've heard green peppers called mangoes by friends of our who are native Hoosiers, but not very often.

When we lived in Atlanta, we used to have progressive dinners once a month, but it was in our subdivision and we all walked to each other's houses.

You aint had nuthin till yous had a ramp dinner.

I grew up in New England with school lavatory = basement, too. In the older, Victorian-era school buildings, the plumbing really was, literally, in the basement since when indoor plumbing was introduced, all the above-grade space was already spoken for. The only water upstairs was the bubblers.

All my Italian relatives say "gravy" for red sauce, regardless of where they live. Quahogs are a specific type of clam, you'll hear that term on the Cape, too.

I'm afraid my grandfather helped keep the mango misnomer alive for a few extra years. He and my grandmother used to run a greenhouse in the Acton area, the southeast corner of Marion county.

You know dln, since you live practically up the street we should meet for lunch sometime. I'd love to see your Italy pictures.

I'm supposed to be packing for France since I leave tomorrow, but I have all morning too.

Maybe we could meet in January and I'll bring my pictures from France. E-mail me if you like, it's a real address.

I am a transplant from NY.
On cape cod and in Mass...they say"IDEAR!!!!!!" what is with the "r" at the end. ????
Chowda!!! lobsta, cahhhhhh...
It sounds so tacky!!!! It took me forever to understand these people!
(uh oh here they come!;lol)