Once a Pennsylvanian, ALWAYS a Pennsylvanian!
About Pennsylvanians:
You've never referred to
"You guys" is a perfectly acceptable reference to a group of men & women and if your fromPhiladelphia its yous guys.
You know how to respond to the question "Djeetyet?" (Didyoueatyet?). (Response – “Nojue”)
You learned to pronounce Bryn Mawr,
You know what a "Mummer" is, and are disappointed if you can't catch at least highlights of the parade.
The first day of buck & the first day of doe season are school holidays.
You know how to get 'rid' of things and how to read up *(I thought it was spelled 'red').
You can use the phrase "fire hall wedding reception" & not even bat an eye.
You can't go to a wedding without hearing the "Chicken Dance," at least one polka & either an Italian song (sung in Italian,) or "Hava Nagila."
At least 5 people on your block have electric "candles" in all or most their windows all year long.
You know what a "Hex sign" is. You know what the paw prints stand for on the back of SUVs. You know exactly who Joe Pa is.
You know what a "State Store" is, and your out-of-state friends find it incredulous that you can't purchase liquor at Wawa or Turkey Hill.
You own only 4 condiments: salt, pepper, mustard and ketchup.
Words like "hoagie," "crick," "chipped ham," "shoo-fly pie," "pierogies," "pocketbook" actually mean something to you. That's PA slang for purse!
You can eat cold pizza (even for breakfast) and know others who do the same. (Those from NY find this "barbaric.")
You not only have heard of Birch Beer, but you know it comes in several colors: Red, White, Brown and Gold.
You know several places to purchase or that serve Scrapple, Summer Sausage, Lebanon Baloney and Hot Bacon Dressing. You can eat a cold soft pretzel from a street vendor & enjoy it. It almost always comes with mustard.
You know the difference between a cheese steak & a pizza steak sandwich, and know that you can't get a really good one outside PA. (Unless a native Pennsylvanian made it.)
You live for summer, when street & county fairs signal the beginning o f funnel cake season. Customers ask the waitress for "dippy eggs" for breakfast.
You know that Blue Bell , Intercourse,
Sinking Springs and Slippery Rock are PA towns. (and the first 3 were consecutive stops on the Reading RR)
You know what a township, borough, and commonwealth are.
You can identify drivers from
irritating driving habits.
A traffic jam is 10 cars waiting to pass a horse-drawn carriage on the Route 30 in LancasterCounty OR anytime you travel on the Schuylkill Expressway (pronounced Sure Kill by the natives). You know several people who have hit deer more than once.
You carry jumper cables in your car & your female passengers know how to use them. You still keep kitty litter, deicer, window washer fluid, and a snowbrush in your trunk, even if you now live in the south.
Driving is always better in winter because the potholes are filled with snow. You are also an expert at
driving on snow and ice, unlike many non-native Pennsylvanians.
As a kid you built snow forts and leaf piles that were taller than you were. Your graduating class consisted of mostly Polish, German, Pennsylvania Dutch & Italian names.
You know beer doesn't grow in a garden but you know where to find a beer garden.
You also know someone who lives "down the lane."
You actually understand all this & send it on to other Pennsylvanians or former Pennsylvanians!
YEAH ! ! THAT'S "PA" AND WE LOVE IT {sometimes}
And send it to people that never lived in PA and confuse them.
5 comments:
Steve? What did you do to the blog?? Matt, can you fix this? It seems like the Header is too large.
To an Englishman, PA is a strange and wonderful place. John never saw a deer, a skunk, a bear or a groundhog before visiting PA. He loves cheesesteaks. I had to teach him how to order eggs the first time we went out for breakfast in PA. In Britain, eggs only come one way - fried. He seemed surprised that I know how to use jumper cables and don't mind driving in snow. He's not a lover of shoo-fly pie, and he thinks birch beer is medicinal. I haven't lived in PA since 1987, but I still say "you guys." There is a hex sign hanging in my kitchen. You can take the girl out of PA...
Vell, any true PA Dutchman has got to go out and buy themselves "The Night Before Christmas...The PA Dutch version"...My cousin had a copy on xmas eve and ve vere hysterical. She got it at Barnes & Noble...If you still have some old-timer left with the accent, it vould be even better!
ve have that vun K
I live among southern belles and they still question me on things I say or talk about. It's always nice to go home and hear my Dad say, "Turn out the lights once."
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