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.
"I live in a town called Catasauqua,Pennsylvania-USA which in native translation means NEED RAIN OR THIRSTY GROUND. In this town in which i live, it borders the city of Allentown Pennsylvania as only a river separates the two places. ..."check out his blog, this level of crazy is quite something to behold...
When we arrived home early on New Year's Day, we had two unexpected visitors in our back yard. We had thought on Monday that we saw deer tracks in our front yard, in the coating of snow. But thought, "no, they wouldn't be here." That makes two nights in a row, and we're not sure what they are attracted to here, but certainly they have been roaming the streets lately. The guys from the party we were at are hunters and came up to see them. That chased them out of the yard, and they jumped the fence to the neighbors yard. Not sure where they went from there. Trisha was a bit upset because she wanted to go down and pet them. Brad is going out now to clean up the droppings, I hope! Happy New Year everyone! Did anyone do anything interesting?
