Nobody in South Carolina grew up scanning a phone at checkout to unlock a lower price, or bagging their own groceries at a separate counter down the line. Lidl brought both. The German-owned grocer has spent years opening stores across the Upstate and the Midlands, and it runs almost nothing like the supermarkets South Carolinians…
A Californian steps off the curb in Nashville, mid-block, no crosswalk in sight. A pickup truck lays on the horn, and they don’t even flinch. Back in Long Beach, crossing the second the street looks clear is just what people do. These are the habits Californians carry out of state without noticing until somebody points…
Ask a small-town South Carolinian where to eat, and they won’t send you to a chain. They’ll point down a back road toward a cinderblock building with a hand-painted sign. These are the small-town diners worth driving clear across the county for. 1. Sweatman’s Bar-B-Que Follow Eutaw Road out of Holly Hill, and you reach…
Many road-trippers cross Alabama on the interstate and never get off it. That’s their loss. Pull off the highway, and you find rocket labs, recording studios, and kitchens the rest of the country would drive hours to reach. These are the things Alabamians are proud of that the rest of the country doesn’t appreciate enough….
On a Saturday in Brunswick County, Virginia, a man stirs a cast-iron kettle the size of a bathtub with what looks a lot like a boat oar. He’s been at it since before sunrise, and half the county has followed the smell to the firehouse. Tell a friend in Minnesota you spent your morning that…
A newcomer in Mount Pleasant fires up the mower one July evening and rolls straight over a nest hidden in the grass. Forty yellow jackets come up at once, and she’s stung before she even cuts the engine. Her next-door neighbor, born and raised in the Lowcountry, just laughs and points at the ground everyone…
Say “wicked” outside Massachusetts, and most Americans picture a decades-old sitcom joke or something out of the Salem witch trials. Both guesses are wrong. These are the phrases that mark someone as a true Bay Stater, whether they grew up in Boston or out past Worcester. 1. Taking the Rotary Drive almost anywhere in Massachusetts,…
An out-of-state moving truck pulls up in Cary, and the neighbors already have a name ready for whoever steps out. Nobody explains the joke to them. These are the things North Carolinians do that take transplants by surprise. 1. Clearing the Bread Aisle for Snow A winter storm watch barely needs to touch the forecast…
A Fort Worth native rattles off directions without blinking: “Take FM 1187 past the feed store, then watch for the water tower.” A transplant just nods, having no idea what “FM” even means. These are the Texas habits transplants can’t fake, no matter how hard they try. 1. Texas U-Turns A native Texan can spot…
Many downstaters treat upstate New York like one giant suburb of Manhattan. But it has its own weather, its own food, and a six-million-acre park bigger than five national parks combined. None of it runs on New York City’s clock. These are the things upstate New Yorkers are sick of explaining to downstaters. 1. Where…
