12 Dead Giveaways You’ve Lived in Michigan Too Long

If you’ve lived in Michigan a while, you might be one of many who say they’re heading up north without explaining where that is.

Many other habits go just as unexplained.

These are the dead giveaways you’ve lived in Michigan too long, and many longtime Michiganders show them without a second thought.

1. Michigan Lefts

A Michigan left is an indirect left turn at an intersection that doesn’t allow the traditional kind.

On the road with the median crossover, you drive past the intersection, turn left at the crossover, and come back to turn right onto the cross street.

From the cross street, you turn right, move to the far-left lane, and turn left into the crossover before heading the other way.

The state says Michigan lefts give an intersection 20 to 50 percent more capacity than direct left turns.

Michigan’s roads have had them since the late 1960s.

Many longtime drivers treat the U-turn as part of the turn.

2. Using Your Hand as a Map

The hand map works because the Lower Peninsula is shaped like a mitten.

Many people lift a hand when someone asks where they live.

Your thumb is the Thumb, and it outlines the east side of Saginaw Bay.

Your pinkie stands in for the Leelanau Peninsula.

A Great Lakes Echo reporter who lives in Lansing says she points to the middle of her palm.

3. Faygo Pop

Faygo is a pop many longtime residents grew up drinking.

If you trace Faygo back, you land in 1907, when brothers Ben and Perry Feigenson started bottling drinks in Detroit.

The brand adopted the Faygo name in 1921.

Faygo’s soda got its pop nickname from the sound its lid made when it popped off.

In the 1950s, the Detroit Historical Society says, Faygo was sold only in Detroit and Michigan because it had a limited shelf life.

If you pick up a Faygo today, you can choose from over 30 flavors, and Redpop remains the most popular.

4. Bottle Returns

Bottle returns are part of life for many residents.

The state’s consumer protection page says stores must charge a 10-cent deposit on eligible drink containers.

If you keep a bag of empties by the door, the eligible containers in it are worth a dime each.

Stores also have to take back clean containers of the same brand, size, and type they sell, so check what you’re hauling.

5. Coney Dogs

A Detroit-style Coney dog, as the Detroit Historical Society describes it, is a beef frankfurter in natural casing, set in a steamed bun.

If you order one, the toppings are meat chili with no beans, diced white onions, and yellow mustard.

It’s a misconception that the Coney dog came from Coney Island, New York.

Greek immigrant Gust Keros opened American Coney Island on West Lafayette Street in downtown Detroit in 1917.

His brother opened Lafayette Coney Island in the space next door.

Many longtime Detroiters pick a favorite between the two.

6. Meijer Runs

Many longtime residents make Meijer their one-stop trip for groceries and everything else.

Meijer says it began as a small grocery store in Greenville, Michigan, in 1934.

In 2015, the Michigan Historical Commission unveiled a marker at the Grand Rapids site of the original Thrifty Acres store, which opened in June 1962.

That store combined food with general merchandise.

With 18 checkout lanes, you could pay for everything in a single transaction.

7. Lions on Thanksgiving

The Detroit Lions have played on Thanksgiving Day since 1934, apart from a six-season gap from 1939 to 1944.

That’s the year the team moved to Detroit from Portsmouth, Ohio, where it formed in 1929 as the Portsmouth Spartans.

If you wonder why, the Pro Football Hall of Fame says owner George Richards scheduled that first holiday game to attract Motor City fans.

Many families plan Thanksgiving dinner around the kickoff.

8. Vernors for Stomachaches

Vernors is the drink many longtime residents reach for when they feel sick.

The Detroit Historical Society says people often use Vernors to settle stomachaches, or mix it with lemon juice and serve it hot for a sore throat.

Vernors began in 1866, when Detroiter James Vernor first served the drink to the public.

James Vernor added ginger to calm the stomach.

He left the mixture in an oak barrel when he went to serve in the Civil War in 1862.

The popular story is that he opened it when he came home.

Another claim is that he didn’t create the formula until after the Civil War.

Pick your version.

9. Pronouncing Mackinac

You pronounce Mackinac like Mackinaw, with an aw sound at the end.

The final c is silent.

Over time, people shortened Michilimackinac to Mackinac.

The spelling is Canadian French, from an Ojibwe name.

Mackinaw City uses the spelling that matches how you say it.

10. Pasties in the Upper Peninsula

When you bite into a pasty, you’re eating a pastry turnover filled with meat and vegetables.

The moment you cross the bridge into the Upper Peninsula, you’ll start to see signs for pasties.

Cornish miners brought it to the Upper Peninsula.

Many Cornish immigrants came to mine there in the mid-19th century.

Today you can find breakfast pasties, vegetarian pasties, and Thanksgiving dinner pasties.

Michigan Public describes a pasty trail of at least 13 shops on the Keweenaw Peninsula.

11. Better Made Chips

Better Made chips are a snack many longtime residents grew up on.

The Detroit Historical Society calls Better Made the lone survivor of the early potato chip companies in Detroit, where over 20 once made chips.

If you've ever grabbed a bag of Better Made, you've picked up a Detroit chip company that dates to 1930.

Cross Moceri and Peter Cipriano, two Sicilian immigrants, started out as partners in a business called Cross & Peters Company.

Their Better Made brand came along in 1934, playing off the name of Best Maid.

Those first chips came in hand-stapled bags of waxed paper.

12. Opening Day of Deer Season

Opening day of firearm deer season is a date many people circle on the calendar.

The Department of Natural Resources lists the 2026 regular firearm season as Nov. 15 to 30 statewide.

Hunters harvested nearly 180,000 deer during the two-week regular firearm season in 2024, about half of the total from all seasons combined.