12 Things Pennsylvanians Are Proud Of That No Other American Gets

America’s oldest brewery has been filling glasses in Pottsville since 1829, back when the country had just 24 states.

Yuengling is only the start of what Pennsylvanians carry like a birthright.

These are the things Pennsylvanians are proud of that no other American quite gets.

1. Wawa Runs Deep

Wawa is the first stop after a Pennsylvanian lands back at the airport after vacation and the last one before a road trip.

The chain opened its first store in Folsom in 1964, back when it still sold milk from its own dairy.

That goose on the sign traces back to a Native American word and a family dairy farm outside Philadelphia.

The name held.

Order a hoagie built to your call, grab a Shorti, and pour a coffee, and you’ve done the most Pennsylvania thing going.

Outsiders see a convenience store, and locals see the closest thing to a clubhouse.

2. Yuengling Came First

Yuengling has brewed lager in Pottsville since 1829, which makes it America’s oldest brewery.

That’s older than the Alamo, older than the postage stamp, older than more than half the states in the union.

Six generations of one family have kept it running.

Walk into a bar from Erie to South Philly and ask for a “Lager,” capital L, and everyone knows you mean the green-and-gold bottle.

You never say the brand out loud.

The lager is the brand.

3. Chocolate Built the Town

Hershey grew up around Milton Hershey’s chocolate factory, streets and all.

Drive down Chocolate Avenue, and the Kiss streetlights line the road, some wrapped in foil, some unwrapped, more than a hundred of them.

They’ve glowed there since 1963.

The cross street is Cocoa Avenue, naturally.

Kids in Hershey grow up on Hersheypark rides and the smell of cocoa drifting off the plant.

No other town in the country gives you that.

4. Sheetz Versus Wawa

Deep down, Pennsylvania is two states split by a convenience store.

Wawa owns the east, Sheetz owns the middle and the west, and a Pennsylvanian can tell you exactly which side of that line they call home.

Sheetz started in Altoona in 1952 and built its name on food ordered off a touchscreen at any hour.

Pick a side.

Ask someone in Scranton to praise Sheetz, or someone in Pittsburgh to praise Wawa, and watch the face change.

Executives shrug off the rivalry.

Their fans never do.

5. Ordering the Cheesesteak

The cheesesteak belongs to Philadelphia, and ordering it has its own grammar.

Pat Olivieri grilled the first steak sandwich at his South Philly hot dog stand in 1930.

Geno’s opened across the street decades later, and the owners have traded jabs over Passyunk Avenue ever since.

Say “whiz wit” and you’ll get Cheez Whiz with onions.

Say “provolone witout” and they’ll know you’ve done this before.

Four words, tops.

Fumble it, and the guy at the window has heard the same slip a thousand times.

6. Pierogies Race the Outfield

Pierogies are Pittsburgh comfort food, and at PNC Park they’re also a footrace.

After the fifth inning of every home game, six people in giant pierogi costumes sprint around the warning track, about 280 yards.

Potato Pete, Cheese Chester, Sauerkraut Saul, and the rest have run the track live since 2009, part of a Pirates tradition that dates to 1999.

Fans pick favorites.

Off the field, a church-basement pierogi sale draws a line down the block, and home cooks pinch them shut by hand, hundreds at a time.

Try explaining that to someone who thinks a pierogi is a side dish.

7. Fries on the Sandwich

Primanti Bros. put the french fries inside the sandwich, and locals have eaten it that way ever since.

The brothers set up in the Strip District in 1933, feeding truckers who needed one hand free to keep working.

So the fries, the coleslaw, and the grilled meat all go between two thick slices of Italian bread.

No side plate.

The James Beard folks named it an American classic, and Pittsburghers just call it lunch.

8. Crayons From Easton

Almost every crayon in America starts in Easton, up in the Lehigh Valley.

Crayola's factory there turns out about 13 million crayons a day during the back-to-school rush, billions in a year.

Wax by the ton.

Binney & Smith settled in the area more than a century ago for the local slate and the water.

Now kids tour the Crayola Experience downtown and breathe in that waxy classroom smell on purpose.

Every kid in America knows the smell of a fresh box, and the box comes from Easton.

9. Heinz and the 57

Heinz has made ketchup in Pittsburgh for over 150 years.

Henry Heinz started the company in Sharpsburg in 1869 and put "57 Varieties" on the label in 1896.

The company already made far more than 57 products.

He picked the number because 5 and 7 were lucky numbers for him and his wife.

The number stuck.

Pittsburgh called its football stadium Heinz Field for two decades, and many locals still call it that no matter what the sign says now.

10. Mister Rogers' Real Neighborhood

Fred Rogers was a Pennsylvanian through and through, born in Latrobe in 1928.

He built "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" at WQED, the Pittsburgh public television station, which ran the show from 1968 to 2001.

Same cardigan.

Same trolley.

Latrobe also gave the country Rolling Rock beer, Arnold Palmer, and, some say, the banana split.

Pennsylvanians talk about Fred Rogers like a neighbor because to them that's what he was.

11. Phil Predicts the Spring

Every February 2, the whole country turns to a groundhog in Punxsutawney.

Punxsutawney Phil has forecast the spring from Gobbler's Knob since 1887.

He never misses a year.

Thousands stand in the cold before dawn to watch men in top hats lift him from a stump and read his call.

His track record is a coin flip at best, and nobody in town seems to mind.

For one morning, a small town in western Pennsylvania is the center of the weather universe.

12. Yinz and Jawn

Pennsylvania talks in two accents outsiders practically need subtitles for.

In Pittsburgh, "yinz" means all of you, and a true Yinzer might ask you to "redd up" the room before company arrives.

In Philadelphia, a "jawn" can be anything at all, a sandwich, a car, a person, a whole situation.

One word.

Every meaning.

Nobody sits you down and teaches this, so you pick it up or you give yourself away the second you talk.