9 Maryland Habits That Make No Sense Outside Maryland

Francis Scott Key watched the bombs light up the sky over Fort McHenry in Baltimore’s harbor in September 1814, and he wrote the poem that became the national anthem.

Baltimore adds an extra syllable to that anthem before every game.

These are the everyday customs that confuse anyone who didn’t grow up in Maryland.

1. Dousing Everything in Old Bay

Marylanders reach for Old Bay before they reach for salt and pepper.

The blend goes on French fries, deviled eggs, and even ice cream, a combination some say only makes sense in Maryland.

A German-Jewish immigrant named Gustav Brunn mixed the first batch at his Baltimore Spice Company near the old fish market, and McCormick bought the recipe in 1990, five years after Brunn died.

Order a Bloody Mary in Maryland, and there’s a good chance Old Bay rims the glass instead of plain salt.

The Bloody Mary rim is just the seasoning’s latest job.

2. Picking Crabs Bare-Handed

Maryland crab feasts run on a system that visitors never see explained anywhere.

Someone covers the table in brown paper or old newspaper, dumps a pile of steamed, Old Bay-crusted blue crabs in the middle, and everyone digs in with their hands.

Wooden mallets sit nearby, but many longtime pickers treat them as a beginner’s crutch.

Kids often have to prove they can pick their own crab before anyone hands them a plate.

No skill, no seat.

The whole table strips clean before anyone reaches for a fork.

3. Yelling “Oh” During the Anthem

Marylanders can’t get through “The Star-Spangled Banner” without adding their own line.

At Camden Yards and M&T Bank Stadium, the crowd draws out the “Oh” in “Oh, say does that star-spangled banner” into a full shout.

The tradition is credited to a 24-year-old Orioles fan named Mary Powers, who yelled it on impulse in 1979 during the team’s improbable pennant run.

Other fans picked it up.

It never stopped.

It happens at Ravens games too, not just Orioles ones.

4. Snowballs, Not Snow Cones

Marylanders pile egg custard syrup and a spoonful of marshmallow onto shaved ice, and they call the whole thing a snowball.

Baltimore-area stands shave the ice fine instead of crushing it, a texture that sets a snowball apart from a mall food-court snow cone.

Egg custard, a vanilla-and-egg syrup dating back to homemade recipes from the 1800s, is the flavor regulars order first.

Egg custard wins.

Many stands finish the cup with a spoonful of marshmallow on top, a combination that’s hard to find outside central Maryland.

Kids used to chase ice-delivery trucks around Baltimore for shavings before backyard stands became a summer fixture.

Egg custard with marshmallow is the base order at these stands, not a special request.

5. Stacking Cake Eight Layers Tall

Marylanders expect eight to ten thin layers in a single slice of cake, not two or three.

Maryland named Smith Island cake its official state dessert in 2008.

The cake stacks eight to ten thin layers of yellow cake between just as many layers of chocolate frosting.

Eight layers, minimum.

Bakers on Smith Island, a tiny fishing community out in the Chesapeake, just call it a layer cake.

Order a slice at a Maryland bakery, and the layers arrive stacked thin, not thick.

6. Calling Strangers Hon

A Maryland waitress calls every stranger "hon," and nobody in Baltimore blinks.

Order coffee at an old-school counter, and the waitress calls you "hon" whether she's known you for ten years or ten seconds.

Cafe Hon in Hampden built its whole identity around the word, and the neighborhood's yearly HonFest draws beehive hairdos and cat-eye glasses by the thousands.

Hear it from a cashier for the first time, and you might mistake it for flirting.

That's not what it is.

Nobody in Baltimore hears it as anything but friendly.

7. Planning Around Bay Bridge Traffic

Marylanders heading to the Eastern Shore check the Bay Bridge before they check the weather.

The bridge's own website recommends crossing eastbound before 9 a.m. or after 8 p.m. on Fridays, and westbound before 9 a.m. or after 7 p.m. that same day.

Sunday's return trip narrows further, with eastbound clear before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m. and westbound clear before 11 a.m. or after 10 p.m.

Marylanders build entire beach weekends around those windows.

Leave at the wrong hour, and a twenty-minute crossing turns into two hours of brake lights over the Chesapeake.

Visitors who've never sat through it plan a Sunday afternoon return like it's nothing.

It's never nothing.

8. Bowling Duckpin, Not Ten-Pin

Marylanders grew up bowling with a ball the size of a grapefruit and pins that fit in one hand.

Two Hall of Fame baseball players, John McGraw and Wilbert Robinson, ran a bowling hall called Diamond Alleys, where duckpin bowling started in 1900.

A newspaper reporter said the small pins flew like a flock of ducks when they scattered, and the name stuck.

Tiny ball, big difference.

You won't find finger holes or a ten-pound ball.

Baltimore had roughly 1,200 duckpin lanes by the 1960s.

Only a handful remain, and Maryland leagues still fill them every week.

A visitor who grew up on ten-pin picks up that tiny ball and looks lost.

9. Wearing the Flag on Everything

Marylanders put their flag on more than flagpoles.

Bikinis, socks, cornhole boards, koozies, even bow ties carry the same black, gold, red, and white pattern from the Calvert family crest.

Nothing stays off-limits.

One Maryland apparel company sold 1,000 pairs of flag-print bikinis on preorder alone back in 2012.

Many state flags stay confined to government buildings and license plates.

Spot the pattern on a cooler lid or a pickup truck's tailgate, and you might assume it's a sports logo, not the actual state flag.

To Marylanders, it just reads as home team colors.

Maryland Retired Its State Song

Maryland spent 82 years singing a state song many residents wanted gone.

"Maryland, My Maryland" became the official state song in 1939, set to the tune of "O Tannenbaum," with 1861 lyrics that called Abraham Lincoln a "tyrant" and a "despot."

Lawmakers tried to repeal it as far back as 1974.

About time.

The repeal finally passed in 2021, and Gov. Larry Hogan signed it that May.