A driver who’s never set foot in Maine pulls off Route 1 in Wiscasset and asks if there’s a seafood shack up the road. The man behind the counter says “Ayuh” and goes back to ringing up coffee. That was his answer. These are the Maine words and phrases that make no sense to the…
The tailgate lots outside a North Carolina stadium fill up hours before kickoff. A first-time visitor pictures grills and coolers. What’s out there runs on rules other Americans would never dream of. These are the things North Carolinians do at a tailgate that tourists find strange. Fans Along the Team Walk UNC tailgaters claim a…
The U.S. Census Bureau counts every inch of Virginia as the South, from the Blue Ridge to the D.C. suburbs. A Loudoun County commuter would beg to differ. These are the arguments Virginians have about which half of the state counts as the South. 1. James River Line Ask Virginians where the state’s South begins….
New Hampshire’s governor invented a summer holiday in 1899 for one reason: to lure back the people who’d already left. It worked, and towns still hold Old Home Day every summer. More than a century later, the state is still handing natives a list of things nowhere else quite replaces. These are the things New…
Texas’ civilian labor force has topped 15 million, according to the Texas Workforce Commission. A single email chain can include workers born fifty years apart. And to many, a coworker’s writing style and other small habits are what give away their age. These are the workplace habits that reveal a Texas employee’s generation. 1. Ending…
Somebody’s cousin shows up to your Labor Day cookout with a tub of red slaw, and half the table eyes it like he brought it in from another state. He didn’t drive far. He came from a barbecue joint ninety minutes up the road. These are the things North Carolinians say about barbecue that start…
Memorial Stadium has sold out every Cornhusker home game since November 3, 1962. It’s a run that Omaha station WOWT calls the longest active streak in college football. That’s 410 straight sellouts. But a kid raised on those Saturdays carries more than a football habit out of the state. These are the signs someone was…
Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse hold more than 600,000 people between them, according to the latest Census Bureau estimates. That fact never survives the drive south. The same handful of questions comes up every time, from people who’ve never been north of the city’s suburbs. These are the things upstate New York residents are tired of…
Picture a breakfast burrito that shows up on a plate, buried under green chile and melted cheddar, with a fork sitting next to it. Your hands never touch it. Visitors expect something they can pick up, while their New Mexican friends are already digging in with utensils. These are the foods New Mexicans eat that…
A visitor pulls into a gas station in Manhattan, Kansas and asks the clerk why her town calls itself something that isn’t even Manhattan. She just laughs. Every local has heard the question hundreds of times, and none of them care to explain it to strangers anymore. These are the Kansas phrases that leave out-of-staters…
