When I first moved to West Virginia, I heard people talking about when they were going to do Halloween and I was like excuse me on the 31st right? And they’re like oh no the 31st is on Wednesday. You can’t do it then. I was like why can’t you do it on a Wednesday? That’s church night. What do you mean church night? They looked at me in absolute bafflement and said church night. I was like OK. You know what they had Halloween trick-or-treating on the 30th a Tuesday because they couldn’t do it on church night. I had never lived anywhere where they rescheduled Halloween, and I had never heard of Wednesday being church night.
I live in SC. Halloween being celebrated not on Halloween is very common here. I do not understand it. It’s one night. But I grew up in the mid Atlantic which always gave Nov 1st off for all saints day. So staying up late wasn’t an issue. I do find here that since it’s celebrated on so many days kids seem to not enjoy it so much. Like it’s just TOO much. They celebrate it every weekend in October.
I don't even really see how staying up late is even really much of an issue? When I was a kid, trick or treating started a little while before dark (4 or so) for the little kids, then older kids came out when it was dark then house lights would go out by 8 or so, signaling the end of trick or treating. Go home, sort candy, go to bed. Head to school in the morning and let the candy trades begin!
I have heard of Wednesday night being “church night” for a lot of Protestant churches in my area. But I haven’t heard of Halloween being moved as a result. In fact, I’ve only ever heard about Halloween being moved (sometimes to the nearest weekend) on this sub. I’ve only ever seen Halloween celebrated on the 31st regardless of the day of the week.
Mt churches would do a fall festival with candy give aways. For some churches it was to avoid doing actual Halloween, for some it was just community outreach thing.
Yeah I grew up in rural-ish NC and they only started rescheduling it around church stuff when I was a teenager in the 2000s. Prior to that, only the weirdos prioritized church shit. Then I guess people started getting more strict or something and the churches started the “trunk ‘n treat” bullshit that’s just going car to car in a parking lot.
I feel so bad for kids these days.
Wednesday night church is extremely common here in Oklahoma. Weird that you’d never heard of it in Texas. Would’ve thought that would have been the same
I’ve never heard of church night either, but the town I grew up in always chose to have their Halloween trick-or-treating night on a Sunday- regardless of what day the holiday actually fell on. Drove my family nuts, as our “church day” was Sunday, and my parents’ religion prohibits activities like working, or things that are not quiet and worshipful, on Sundays. Literally the one day a week we couldn’t participate, and our town insisted on having it on that day. Do you know how depressing it is to watch out the window while all your friends and neighbors run around outside in costumes, with tons of candy, while your mom puts a sign on the door to tell the trick-or-treaters you’re not celebrating? They’d ring the doorbell all afternoon and evening, drive our dog crazy. It was so sad. My mom petitioned the council one year and they finally, just the once, let us do Halloween on the day it actually fell on, a Saturday I think, still the weekend. The town rioted, never again. So we always just drove a town over to my mom’s friend’s neighborhood, which did Halloween on the day of. The people there were richer anyway, which meant more king-size bars for us.
So my city has Always done Halloween on Halloween. When I joined mom groups I was Shocked come October how many transplant moms were asking when people do Halloween! Like, on the day?!? Then I learned not everywhere does that. Some even just don't on the weekends apparently.
Sure, there's trunk or treat on the weekends. One nearby country does one with county staff (police, EMS, hospital, local businesses, etc all volunteer) but that's a week before. Door to door has Always been day of though. Blew my mind.
>It must be an Appalachian thing because I’ve lived in the south and I had never heard of that.
It’s pretty common in California as well. I’ve heard the same thing about avoiding scheduling big events for Wednesday night. I’m Catholic myself and, while there is usually a Wednesday mass, Wednesday isn’t some special “church day.” But for many of the other churches nearby it is.
It's a thing in central NC as well. I don't think it's usually like full service (though it can be), but it might be like youth groups and adult Bible studies and stuff. It's a very Protestant thing.
I remember when I was a kid I noticed that a lot of Protestant churches had a service on Wednesday night (I grew up Catholic, so I did not experience it directly.) This would have been in 1980s New England.
When we have mid week programming at my Episcopal church, it’s on Wednesdays, which I assume is a vestige of Wednesday nights as “church night.”
You lived in Texas and Virginia and didn’t know Wednesday was church night?
EDIT: It’s clear to me that even the southern Reddit users aren’t churched up enough
I’m from Houston and we have a lot of Catholics and I’m pretty sure we don’t do a Wednesday night church night. And when I lived in Virginia, I lived in an army base and lived in a fairly nice suburb. I don’t think we had evangelicals.
Wednesdays are usually youth group at Houston churches, at least in my experience. That, or a make-up day for people who can't attend Sunday service.
That would definitely be a shock to me, too.
Basically lived in VA my whole life. While my super catholic grandparents maybe had some sort of wednesday mass they attended, I've definitely never heard of this as a broad thing, certainly not something that would reschedule halloween. If someone told me something was "church night" my brain would definitely not supply "Wednesday" as the obvious translation.
I’ve heard of church night just because of Catholics and Nebraska (a northern portion of the Bible Belt - kinda) but never rescheduling Halloween. I can even recall as a kid doing Trick or Treating after many snowstorms because Halloween is on Halloween and I lived in the Colorado mountains. It snows there regardless of your plans.
I’ve lived in the Deep South and heard of church night. I did not grow up Christian and grew up in Atlanta so it wasn’t like everyone did Wednesday church night but it was enough that I was familiar with the idea
I live in south central Pa now and I never know what day they celebrate Halloween. Growing up in Virginia we celebrated it on Halloween, no question at all.
I grew up in the Midwest and then lived in California and the Pacific Northwest for the first 30 years of my life.
When I moved to North Carolina and was driving through the eastern counties in peanut and cotton country, I was genuinely confused to see majority black small towns. It’s just not something you see up north or out west where rural communities are typically 95% white.
Many freeman villages came before Jim Crow. It’s good to remember that these large plantations had their own economies, neighborhoods, churches, and thus black communities. After the end of the war many stayed back at the plantation with their community as plantation culture slowly faded away or set up new communities to be with each other freely. There is a level of hope and optimism that you can see with these small black communities.
Oregon had some pretty terrible laws on the books back in the day too. It is no wonder the BIPOC community still feels reverberations of it, even today.
Sundown towns weren't near where the bulk of rural black folk lived. Then tended to be in the hill country that got a big boost of migration coming in as more indusrtry started coming in. There wasn't a realistically feasible way to have sundown towns in areas like the Black Belt.
I used to live in NC (from NYC) and stopped at a small rural convenience store and my attention was drawn to small plastic bags filled with what looked like white chalk and obviously home made. I'd heard about "dirt eaters" and it was the first time I actually saw it:
[https://www.ncpedia.org/dirt-eaters](https://www.ncpedia.org/dirt-eaters)
Evidently, it's a traditional west African food supplement and now I'm thinking I was in one of those majority black towns.
You’d be surprised at the black population concentration in Appalachia as well. A lot of city folk would expect Appalachia to be pretty much only white people, some of my extended family never knew how diverse rural areas can really be
Doesn't surprise me at all. The white settlers of Appalachia were mostly English and Irish from the borderlands between those two countries (that's why feuds like Hatfield & McCoy were a thing).
Many escaped slaves hid out in Appalachia because the landscape would make them harder to find.
Take the folk music that the English and Irish brought with them. Combine that with the music of the escaped slaves. This is the origin story of Bluegrass music.
Race was never a thing. Just lets play music. You do your thing, I'll do mine, and we'll adjust to make it all work together. Poor white folks and poor black folks not hating each other. We were doing this *before* the Civil War.
I should stop here.
Really depends on the area and timeline though. My grandparents lived on the edge of it and were Shocked when more diverse people started moving in the late 90s/early 00s.
You get a mixed bag of small towns in the south. The community my dad grew up in is half black and half indigenous population wise. Then, a town few miles north of them is mostly white. There's a town by me that has a large biracial population since the black and white populations basically intermingled.
Honestly that was something that shocked me in reverse. I grew up in the Deep South. Seeing an all white town was pretty shocking to say the least when I was in MO for a bit.
Didn’t really experience it in SoCal but that’s probably because SoCal has more Hispanic and people from all over.
When I lived in San Diego I had a girlfriend that was from Alabama. I grew up in Southwest Florida. One day she was looking at my high school yearbook and said something to the effect of "wow, there weren't many black people at your school were there?" which surprised me because I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. Like 15% or whatever the national average was. Then she showed me her yearbook, and I would say it was maybe 50% black. But on the other hand, hardly any Hispanic people.
Yep. PNW here and while we (very obviously) have black folks around here, between our distance from the south and the great migration route, the sundown laws in the entire state of Oregon and the redlining of Seattle, we don’t have a sizable black community comparative to other regions.
My dad, born and raised here, is one of those people who thinks he’s super racially tolerant because he doesn’t use the N-word but is…not. Literally the first time we stepped off the plane in the east coast to visit my brother he loudly announced “WOW! LOOK AT ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE!!!” and then wouldn’t shut up about it the entire trip. Kept imply he was going to get robbed or murdered (which, to be fair, he always thinks but it was…escalated.)
I mostly grew up in California. So when I moved to Pennsylvania, I was thoroughly shocked to find out that I had to go to an actual bar or beer distributor to grab a six pack, and I couldn't just get one from the local corner store or gas station. 😂
I’m from CA and had a friend in college from PA and she was so shocked that you could buy liquor in the grocery stores/gas stations/etc here. I didn’t even know you couldn’t in some other states!
It's crazy! I remember the first time I went to visit my parents back home after I moved here, I'd forgotten what it was like. I'd only lived here for probably 3-4 years at that time. I was hanging out at my brothers house with him and SIL, it was like 2300, and he tells me "Nik, I'm gonna go on a beer run, you coming?" I was like "OMG I FORGOT YOU CAN DO THAT HERE THIS LATE AT NIGHT!!! FUCK YES LET'S GO TO AMPM!!!" My mind was blown all over again 😂
I grew up in PA and live in NC now. The alcohol laws here are downright liberal compared to PA, and in retrospect the rules back then were ridiculous and puritanical. It’s slightly looser now; you can buy beer at only *some* convenience stores in PA, and even then it’s a 12-pack maximum (if you need a case or larger they still have beer distributors.) I was there a few months ago and my boyfriend went to three before finding a six pack.
My favorite story like this was sitting at the bar at a Tex-Mex joint before an Astros-Mariners game.
I was in boots, the group next to me were also fat Tejanos, but they were in cowboy hats, and we were all chatting it up in Spanglish.
The next group over was a couple of Seattle fans, the guy was in tie-die Grateful Dead sweatpants, and had a tattoo of a wildflower on his forearm, while his girlfriend was going with an Alice in Chains cropped-sweatshirt. It was pretty clear they had heard of maybe one of the dishes on the menu.
We bought them a miche and helped them order, and a good time was had by all. Two different cultures doesn't mean we can't have a good time.
Probably short for michelada, which is a drink made with with beer, lime juice, assorted sauces, spices, and chili peppers, and the presentation resembles a Mexican Bloody Mary.
Michelada. A Mexican beer cocktail.
The exact ingredients vary depend on region and social class, but they will always have beer, lime, and salt.
Common additional ingredients include various combinations of Clamato, Worcestershire sauce, Tajín, hot sauce, chamoy, tamarind, sesame seeds, and ice.
growing up in NJ and then moving to the Midwest as an adult, it was super weird for me to see alcohol in grocery stores, gas stations, basically everywhere since in NJ you have to sell liquor in a a separate store, especially hard liquor. Seeing fireworks for sale in stores was also wild-- you can't buy them in NJ and anyone who wants to buy some has to drive over the PA line to get some. First time ever seeing a no-concealed carry sign on a door was in IL which was another novel experience.
More niche, but after going to the Jersey shore growing up and dealing with high and low tide, it always seems wrong how close to the lake's edge people set up their stuff at the Great Lakes beaches! But since there's not a significant difference between high and low tide, it's not something beachgoers in the Midwest have to worry about
Yeah, I remember when I was on a trip with a friend to New Jersey and we stopped at a convenience store to look for some beer. Of course they didn’t sell any alcohol at all. We stopped at a grocery store after and again didn’t find any. This was way before smartphones or GPS. We ended up asking some old guy out in the parking lot
Visited the suburban Dallas metro area for work a few years back. My office was on the 2nd floor of an office building and I could not believe how far away you could see because the land was so flat.
I'm from Indiana, and before we got married, my wife visited my home town. My city's known for its churches and old art deco buildings, so I took her around town and to the top of one of the tallest buildings in town, this gorgeous art deco bank tower.
She looks out the window and goes, "Whoah, the earth really is round!"
I'm like, babe, you grew up on the coast. You've seen the horizon before.
But in her language, there's different words for "land horizon," and "sea horizon," so it was literally just only the second time she'd ever seen the "land horizon," and it kinda tweaked her brain.
My ex was from a Cajun family and I went to a seafood boil being hosted by a family friend of theirs. It wanna say it was somewhere outside of Lake Charles?
First time in my life I could not understand someone’s American accent. Seriously just had to smile and nod and rely on my boyfriend to whisper translations.
[Closest thing I could find on YouTube](https://youtu.be/eKDh9Ce5WgI?si=lfD0sBHgb9LS79dY)
I could understand it fine, but I could also see in a group of people all speaking like that while drinking and getting excited / having a good time it might become more unintelligible.
I live in the Bible Belt and that wasn’t that bad lol. I’ve met someone from my area with an accent so thick (was a mechanic) that I had to record what he said because I couldn’t understand him and I’d have to play it back later!
My proudest moment living in the south was when I perfectly understood a guy who sounded exactly like Boomhauer from King of the Hill. I rode that high for weeks.
I'm from NY and I could understand him easily. I was once somewhere in the Appalachians maybe TN, when I met someone whose accent i genuinely could not understand. a gas station cashier. had no idea what she was saying.
I lived in New Orleans for a year but didn’t meet many Cajuns there. I met a few when I was visiting a friend in Thibodaux and had no trouble talking with them. They sounded like this guy. I think it’s easier talking with someone in person than it is listening to them on line. Cajuns have an interesting history. They came to Louisiana when they were expelled from Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in Canada. Cajun = Acadian. Longfellow’s poem Evangeline has that history as its setting.
I'm from New Jersey and was on a trip to upstate New York with my boyfriend. I went to the supermarket and asked the clerk where the pork roll was.
"Pork... *roll?*"
And that's when I learned that pork roll is only a Jersey thing.
My grocery store in Texas usually has two or three hanging out in the corner of the deli case for the transplants I suppose. I’ve eyeballed it often after seeing it mentioned on Reddit. Should I buy one? And if I do, what do I do with it? Sing me the pork roll song of your people.
You don't need to buy a whole log of it. Just have the deli slice it to about the thickness of a slice of bologna. Fry it up, and use it like you would use any other breakfast meat.
I’ve lived in Atlanta pretty much my whole life but both my parents grew up in Jersey. My mom introduced me to pork roll as a kid because they actually sell it down here at Publixes. Started dating someone earlier this year who’s from upstate New York but her mom’s family is from Jersey so she knew what it was too. Only other person I’ve met that’s known that
When I lived in Los Angeles, a friend visited from Texas. When we were trying to decide where to go for dinner, he suggested that we just go out to a steakhouse, and we were at a loss. Other than high-end places like Morton’s (where there is a dress code and you should expect to spend $100+ per person) or the one rundown Sizzler remaining nearby (basically fast food prices, draw your own conclusions about quality) steakhouses were not a thing in that area.
Which is interesting, because being from South of the I-10 line in Texas, I got a culture shock that steakhouses were a thing in Illinois, because we don't really have those.
I'm from Illinois and I would have thought that a steakhouse would be a thing in Texas. What with all the cattle and everything.
When I was a tour guide in Chicago one of my fellow guides said "were known for our steakhouses" And I was like "We are?" I literally thought that was like an everywhere thing
It was my uncle from Philadelphia asking where he could find a 'deli' to get lunch from in semi-rural Minnesota for me. Like they technically exist here but I don't think it's going to be the same experience
I'm from Philly/South Jersey and I have had to teach a guy how to make a hoagie in Oklahoma (well before Subway was a thing) just so I could have lunch. Even then it wasn't "right" cause of the bread, made me sad and homesick
Longhorn Steak House is a very reasonably priced steak joint. Last year, I went there and it was maybe $35 a person? Granted, I'm not sure where it's located outside of the I.E.
But if Morton's isn't your jam, plenty of other places aren't dress code restricted. I recently went to Maestros in shorts and a T and wasn't turned away.
Every single restaurant ive encountered with 'Gaucho' in the name, including one in France and one in Austria, has been exorbitantly expensive. It's like they name it that just so patrons can make the 'Gouge-o' joke.
We were the only Asians in a grocery store in St. George, Utah. My mom, of course, chose to speak in Chinese. Cue all the white-haired old people looking in our direction. I don't think it was with malice, more unusual interest.
I've just never been stared at that much in Southern California.
We’re white but from the Balkans and we’ve definitely gotten those looks in public when speaking in our language. I’ll never forget one time about 15 years ago a middle aged couple said to each other “people need to speak English if they’re going to live in America.” Motherfucker if I’m not speaking to you and you’re not part of the conversation it doesn’t matter which language I’m speaking in. You’re just being nosy as fuck cause you can’t eavesdrop.
My mother-in-law is of that mindset and it pisses me off to no end. She was going on and on once about her nephew moving to Europe and how part of his citizenship test was proving he could speak whatever nation's national language (I want to say it was Italy). She was adamant that US should do the same for English, despite her son and I telling her repeatedly the USA DOES NOT HAVE a national language.
I have lived in Pittsburgh my entire life. I have been on vacations, but had never left the time zone until last year. For my 40th, my son and I went to Hawaii last summer. We had a layover at LAX airport and had dinner while we were there. As we are eating my son said "I thought you said we weren't leaving the United States." And I said "we're not- we can't- we don't even have passports. We're going to Hawaii!" And he said "then how come no one here knows English." This was when I realized every table around us was speaking a different language amunst themselves. Some Spanish, some German, what I guessed to be Mandarin. It really dawned on me how sheltered we are and I said to my son "no dear, everyone here probably does know English. It's you and I who are different, we ONLY know English."
The diversity of Los Angeles, CA in comparison to Pittsburgh, PA was astounding. I was certainly shocked.
Thats such an interesting cultural moment and I hope it resonates for your son similarly.
It’s interesting for me personally bc I come from a small place in New England where I can hear 3-5+ different languages in the grocery store on any given day. This country is so interesting when even that is a regional difference.
I'm from Hawaii, and outside of a few individuals, had never really been around black people.
We visited the mainland in 2006 and went to visit near where my mom's grandfather had grown up in Baltimore, which is in a neighborhood called Middle East. On the way there, we went through an area full of row houses where about half were completely abandoned, and the rest were slum level shitholes. Boarded up windows, liquor stores, all that.
There was a heatwave at the time, and there were hundreds and hundreds of black people outside on their front steps and on the sidewalk (presumably because their houses were roasting hot). That was a culture shock going from never seeing more than 1 or 2 black people at a time to that.
I'm from Baltimore (still living here). Row houses are usually poorly insulated and are super hot or cold. Just 12 years ago my neighbors in my previous neighborhood slept outside during the summer.
Now I have air conditioning, but I only use it during 88+ or a heatwave.
I remember when the first black family moved to my town. My first friend was black so it wasn’t a huge deal to me. But some of the town elders were just awful to that lovely family.
I spent a good chunk of my childhood in *rural*-farm country Ohio. Eventually we moved and I went to school where the Hispanic/Latino population was just ever so slightly larger than the White population. There was a sizeable minority of the Hispanic/Latino kids who barely spoke English or none at all.
It felt weird at first going from a school where there were maybe 3-4 Latinos in a graduating class of 40 to them being the technical majority in a graduating class of hundreds.
Speaking Spanish was discouraged as to "not leave people out", it was just assumed you were talking shit.
But in my new school, hearing Spanish in the hallways was completely normal and even some teachers would talk in Spanish with students.
I remember asking someone on my 3rd day of school for directions and he just looked at me and said "I no English." I genuinely didn't know how to react, just stood there for a moment and thought he was just fucking around. The idea that someone didn't speak English but being in school was such an unimaginable concept to me.
I spent some time time in Boston in the late 1960s and couldn’t find Mexican food anywhere. I finally found a bar in the Back Bay called Concanon and Sinnet that had what looked and tasted kind of like a Mexican plate. Also, restaurants in Boston didn’t serve iced tea in the winter. It was “out of season.” But I often saw students walking through Harvard Square eating an ice cream cone while it was snowing. The Boston experience was real culture shock for this Texas boy.
Oh the ice cream in winter thing. So back in the 90s when I was in high school I moved from Colorado to Nebraska. In Colorado you don’t let snow stop you from doing anything. If you did you would never do anything. So everyone ate ice cream and used their grills/BBQs all winter long - neither was seasonal. Moved to Nebraska and both were seasonal. The small town we were in thought we were incredibly weird for doing both. It’s better now, obviously, but it was super strange to me in high school.
Whenever I get into a new city at like 8pm and there are no restaurants open. Also when I when I went to college and there were kids who'd had their own cars for years already.
Was staying there while visiting Zion NP solo since it was so much more affordable than Springdale and only found one place where I could sit at a bar to have a meal and a drink. My meal was mini corn dogs and tacos like you'd get from the frozen appetizers section and I had a couple cans of beer. A typical sports bar where you can get a fresh made burger and fries and drink draft beer was simply not a thing there at least near where I was staying
It was jarring moving to California in terms of expected formality
Growing up in New England/Washington DC, I had a standard level of “dressing up” for holidays. I moved here right before Thanksgiving and was invited to a family friend’s thanksgiving, for which I was super grateful. It was earlier in the day than I was used to, and they advised me it was more casual than I was used to. I wore slacks and a structured top from Banana Republic. When I came, everyone was in jeans and track suits.
Very kind gesture and a fun Thxgiving (we watched crime movies and ate dinner early afternoon!), but completely different set of expectations.
Ten years later and I’m engaged to a California boy, and I think I encourage him to dress a little nicer than he used to for his family holidays (they’re in the Bay Area, so we often do holidays with him). I am still usually the most dressed up person there. It’s very cute, because his great aunts like to see what I’m wearing to see what’s in style 😂
💚
Now when I go home, my family thinks I dress very west coast, and my mom is constantly sending me “Cali” clothes (I don’t correct her, lol).
Oh, and blah blah regional pride, crabs. We can all fight about crabs. 🦀
I’m from northeast Texas. People can say what they want but the level of racism I experienced in Missouri was **staggering**. To go into further detail:
1. I have never seen so many confederate flags in my life. They were everywhere in southern Missouri
2. I was eating at a public park (which was empty except for myself). An old lady kept staring from her window across the street. She apparently called the sheriff who drove up and made me leave - a PUBLIC park
3. Quote from a guy I met - “Do you guys actually really care if you’re called African American. I mean, ‘colored’ just rolls off the tongue easier
4. My Asian American friend, introduced himself to someone and he literally led by saying he was from Dallas. After he was done speaking, the first thing the lady replied was
>“So what part of China are you from?”
>Mind you - he never brought up china at all. I think he was of Vietnamese descent.
>He replied “I’m from the Province of the Dragon.”
>She replied “oh! I’ve been there before!”
Yall…he pulled that out of his a**. It does NOT exist
Edit: spelling
You’re def not joking about missouri being a racist shit hole state. That was the only time two strangers, two young blonde women, told me to “go back to my country” and that we were “taking over the country” while giggling as I was passing by. I was initially irked but after a few moments, decided to mess with them by stopping, looking back at them, giving them a wicked smile with a gleam in my eye, and telling them “That’s right. We’re taking over. Better get used to it.” Their faces turned pale after that comment. The more mature thing to do would have been ignoring them but oh well no regrets. That was 16 years ago.
I literally argued with coworkers about what region Missouri belongs to. It was a slave state. I don’t care that it gets cold and people say Ope. The two major cities are famous for BBQ. It’s the fucking south.
The sheriff literally walked up to me and she said “we got a call and you are disturbing the peace so I am going to need you to leave.”
I was 19 and not brave enough to argue
My parents were born in the 30s. For them, "colored" was the polite/proper/PC way of describing black people. I did try telling them a few times that's not the right term to use anymore but it didn't have any effect.
I will admit, I couldn't help but be amused at hearing "colored" in a non-hateful way.
I’ve only been to MO a few times. And those times I was either in St Louis or Ft Leonardwood. The area right outside the base was a dump and I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere.
I’ve yet to go back to MO.
I’m a firefighter for a large fire department and when I promoted to captain I was assigned to a new area that had a very poor Indian reservation. My first time running a call on the res was like stepping foot in a third world nation. I have spent most of my career in very low socioeconomic places with very large homeless populations but nothing prepared me for the level of poverty that I saw over my two years there.
I’ve never been to any myself, but in Rockland County (just north of NYC) there are a few tiny communities where only ultra-Orthodox Jews live.
The cultural difference between them and mainstream American culture is astounding. People barely speak English, all of the signs are in Yiddish (I believe). Men and women walk on opposite sides of the street, there are signs and everything. Everybody wears traditional clothing always.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are one or two communities on a place called Fire Island that are extremely progressive LGBTQ hotspots. If you’re not visibly queer, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb most of the time. They don’t allow cars, so people walk everywhere on boardwalks.
Yiddish is correct. Actually a lot of words we use in English like chutzpah, schlep, schnoz, Bagel, Bupkis, Glitch, klutz, schlong, Schmuck, Schmooze, shtick, and spiel all come from Yiddish
"If you’re not visibly queer, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb", was just there yesterday and can confirm. Place is a ton of fun though even if you're not queer.
Demographic changes are always interesting.
In California there are basically no Afro Latinos so when I go to NYC I am always taken aback momentarily when black people start talking to me in Spanish.
I was attending a large national convention in Texas, there were people there from almost every state and a few people from other countries. When I would talk to other attendees I would ask where they were from. Almost every one would say their home state a few would say their city if it was a well known city in their state. Except the people from NYC, most of them would tell me the name of their neighborhood and some of them would tell me what street they lived on, often saying how far they were from some local landmark. When they asked me were I was from I told them my street name and 1.7 miles from the new Walmart.
After not living in my native South for about twenty years, went home and stayed with my brother for a week. Last night we'd be there, they asked me to cook dinner. We settled on spaghetti because everyone would eat it, and it was easy to cook for a crowd.
I visited five or six grocery stores - and found exactly no Italian sausage. Entire lowboys filled with a different brands of sausage (what not Southerners call breakfast sausage), but no Italian sausage whatsoever. It's gotten better nowadays as the town has gotten more cosmopolitan, but it's still 7-8 brands of sausage to 2 of Italian. (One national, one generic.)
I accidentally found a holler in West By God Virginia one time while camping and 4 wheeling. We came upon homes with concrete walls, gate, barbed wire, and broken glass on the top of the wall, along with cameras. Half mile down the road, someone was watching us drive by to make sure we were leaving the area. There were several homes, and eyeballs that we passed. It was as back woods, Appalachia looking as you can picture, but worse.
There’s a place in Tennessee called Lynch Hollow and there’s a pop up camper with an “addition” put on the side of cinderblocks and some fill. Yes, they added a permanent structure to a pop up camper. It’s wild.
I was talking with a friend from Texas about Philly schools and had mentioned something about how a bunch of my coworkers kids go to Friends schools instead of public schools. She looked at me super confused and asked if that was like homeschooling amongst a friends group or something.
Thats when I learned that there aren’t Friends/Quaker schools everywhere in the country (like there are Catholic schools). She also didn’t realized that Quakers still existed when I pointed out that the closest meeting house was a few blocks away
Just a small one because I haven really experienced it much. I never really left the east coast until I went to Denver for a concert. I went to check in at the hotel and someone asked where I'm from. I said Baltimore. Well I've never really noticed I sound like a dummy before until this guy is like "Where the hell is Voldemort Merlin?" I'm like shit, I'm just like the Aaron earned an iron urn guy.
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am." Says me (the Alabamaian) to my new neighbor (the Marylander).
Her, "Don't call me ma'am. I'm not that old." _The woman who has 3 daughters that are my age. She has 8 grandchildren. She has grey hair, false teeth, and wears glasses._
This was a repeated occurance with all women while I lived there. I tried so hard to not say ma'am. It's just how we identify unknown females in the south. You could be my 16 year old waitress, my same age bank teller, or the older woman walking out the door behind me. I'm gonna call you ma'am as a sign of RESPECT! Thank you ma'am as my drinks are delivered. Have a good day ma'am, after you hand me my cash. You're welcome ma'am, as I hold the door for you.
I grew up in the Deep South so to me the biggest culture shock was the climate. I absolutely loved the fact that humidity didn’t exist in SoCal when I was stationed in California.
Also SoCal is a world of its own. If I had the money I’d totally live in San Diego. Great weather, great food, great beaches. Though I will say the cold water was a bit of a shock come from the Deep South where the gulf is fairly warm.
Many years ago I was in rural northern Texas and went to a restaurant with an old friend who I helped move down there. It was funny when the waiter thought we were Canadians due to our accents\* and it was very nice when they changed the channel to hockey for us. I ordered a beer and they said "ok hold on a minute" and came back with a goddamned clipboard and some paperwork. Apparently it was a dry county and to order alcohol you had to be a member of a "club". I had no idea that things like dry counties still existed. I honestly thought of all that as some 19th century nonsense.
\*for outlanders, accents in Michigan and Canada are very different, most Michiganders will speak with some degree of Inland Northern which is part of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. Canadians are largely unaffected by the NCVS.
I moved from PA to CA and they made fun of how I said, like, every noun that's a consonant + A, like "half". It's not "haef", it's "haaaahhhve".
It really was like moving to a different country, the food is different, what's considered polite/rude in casual conversation is different, how people are treated at work and in medical settings (with respect) is different. I had to learn to read passive aggression (massive aggression) bc back east, if they don't like you, they just tell you, or call you fat. It's much simpler.
I’m from New Orleans and I get culture shock every time someone refuses to give me a “go cup” for my unfinished drink when I leave a bar/restaurant - or when I hear the term “last call”.
I'm from Florida, and every part of the US feels pretty distinct from the other.
Boston: The architecture was really old and beautiful. All brick and brownstone. It reminded me a lot of Europe. Everything in Florida that's built up is brand new, so it gives a very different vibe to the cities. Also, the nightlife was very much pub culture, which is very different from Florida. Also, how pedestrian friendly everything was in the city. Every driver stopped the second I put my foot on the asphalt, unlike back home where you kinda gamble with your life whenever you do that. The contrast was especially noticeable when we went really far on the red line and ended up in a more car centric area, and it was so uncomfortable and difficult just crossing the street.
Austin: This probably applies to all of Texas and other parts of the Southwest but God damn it was crazy for me that cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and big ass belt buckles were a legitimate fashion statement. I feel like in other parts of the US (especially the east coast) those things are viewed in a comedic manner, so they're typically only worn to be funny or ironic. In Texas, everyone, where's that stuff, and they're all very into it. I was watching this one girl show off her bedazzled black and white cowboy boots, and it was just incredibly strange to me. Also, everything looked intentionally rundown. Like using tires and sheet metal as part of the aesthetic for everything.
IMO, in Austin, everybody wears that stuff as a hipster statement, and you can wear it "ironically" pretty easily.
In the rest of the state, boots are a thing everybody wears, but a hat or a belt buckle needs to feel "earned" so to speak
I haven’t seen the earned hat as much, but the belt buckle thing I 100% have seen. For example, my best friend was incredibly proud to have won his first buckle from a Livestock show. Sure you can wear one before that, but it’s a whole sort of thing to be able to wear a buckle you won or otherwise earned, especially down here.
Colorado City AZ… maybe 20 years ago was my first time going through there. It’s still weird AF but way different now.
Check the Wiki on it if you don’t know it’s history.
Fundamentalists. Most people wouldn't have a problem living in a town that was mostly all Mormon. It's the Fundamentalist Mormons I'd never want to live near.
Growing up in the suburbs of Houston where I had a corn field behind my house and cattle in pasture across from my new high school traveling to a major city with real public transportation was a revelation.
I spent a summer semester in London and learned public transit there first then ended up in NYC.
For reference growing up I was only allowed to go where I could ride my bike to. The only location I could go to was a strip mall with a grocery store, Chinese restaurant, pizza place, comic book store and a blockbuster. I cannot fathom the people that grow up in cities with access to free museums and public transportation and do not use it. We were so bored growing up.
Many years ago, I was in college at Texas A&M. My buddy asked me to drive him to Seguin to pick up a car that his brother was giving him. We’re both from San Antonio, so this was just a short road trip. I had never been to this area near Seguin and we got lost. We walked in to a rural bar just like in a movie where you don’t know anyone. One of us was wearing an A&M T-shirt. The whole bar stopped talking when we walked in. The bar tender asked if we were Aggies - we said yes. This is just like in a movie - it went from dead silent to them buying us drinks and the music starting back up, lol!
An Aggie is a student attending Texas A&M, btw.
When I moved from the Chicago area to a small town in West Georgia, the food was all so different. Lots of BBQ joints, "meat and three" restaurants (which all have exactly the same menu - Southern). Iced tea is like syrup. You have to make a point to order "unsweet tea." And there's no root beer at the restaurants. Grits, however, are at every breakfast place.
The first time I met my then girlfriend from Alabama's parents we went to a restaurant and I asked for unsweet tea, since I can't stand just how much sugar is in sweet tea. You would think I dropped my pants and yelled I'm an atheist.
Only thing I can think of is when I moved from a small town in California to a medium sized town/city in Washington. Maybe its more of a small town vs large town thing instead of a cultural thing. But how the police treat everyone else. In my hometown, everyone knew pretty much everyone else, including the cops. So when you would get in trouble the police would often give you a slap on the wrist so to speak or do something like call your parents instead of taking you to jail. When I moved to Washington (and a larger town), that's when the police became hostile and corrupt. Was a rude surprise when I got pulled over and the cop started swearing like a sailor, belittling me, etc. Basically trying to goad me into saying/doing something so he can either take me to jail or shoot me/assault me. instead of just saying "Hey I noticed your break light was out. I'd get that fixed."
I'm Native Hawaiian. when i went to vegas, several Latino Families thought my fam was Latino and kept trying speak to us in spanish. you'd think with the large Hawaiian community in vegas, they would know we were Hawaiians.....
I grew up in California.
Going elsewhere, I started wondering why there were official stickers being placed in windshields. You just don't do that.
State liquor stores. Those are just so, so creepily overreaching to me.
Texan mega churches. New Jersey catering halls.
But the biggest one for me in New Jersey was the PBA plaque. You donate to the police, display a giant PBA badge in your windshield (again with the windshield), and it acts like a get-out-of-a-ticket-free card?? I mean, no wonder there's such a history of corruption in the state government if this sort of thing is normalized!
I am from New York state and recently visited West Virginia for a few days. The thing that shocked me the most is that there is almost no recycling whatsoever anywhere. I figured it was routine for everyone nowadays
Experiencing dry counties or, at least, not being able to buy alcohol on Sundays. I went to northern Georgia for work and visited a nearby lake for my day off. Went to buy some beer and the display case was locked. The clerk just laughed at me.
Also, in California you can buy beer, wine, liquor in any grocery store and even Costco any day of the week. Many states you can’t do that.
When I was in high school our choir got to travel to NYC and sing at Carnegie Hall. While we were up there we went to some basic chain restaurant. They asked me what I'd like to drink and I ordered sweet tea. They looked at me like I had 3 heads and said "Uh...I have raspberry tea. Or I could bring you unsweetened tea and some sugar packets?" I went with a soda instead obviously lol, but that's when I learned sweet tea is only a southern thing. Edited to say this probably isn't the biggest thing, but it was one of the first.
Going from the South to the North it was a bit of a shock how open (parts of) the North are about money.
Like openly negotiating how to split a restaurant check, or complimenting someone on something they're wearing and then asking where they got it and how much it costs.
The weird-ass alcohol laws in different parts the country always get me too. Nothing like getting yourself all dressed up and paying for an Uber to arrive at a bar AFTER last call.
The third thing was learning the difference between Southern nice, Northern nice, Midwest nice, and West Coast nice.
In a nutshell:
SOUTH:
* Formalized politeness more than niceness, expect formalized politeness back (follow the rules)
* Highly tribal, but kind to outsiders who show respect for the tribe
NORTH:
* Act brusque or distant or even rude, but will help you if you need help and treat you fairly. "Niceness" based on actions rather than words or attitude
* Lower level of tribality, especially among younger people
MIDWEST:
* True friendliness more than formalized politeness, but highly tribal. Even more tribal than the South. Suspicious of outsiders, but rarely openly hostile.
WEST COAST:
* Pretend friendliness
* Highly transactional relationships
* Almost no tribality
* Will walk right past you as you bleed to death in the street, but will smile and wave hello
Grew up in rural central Pennsylvania. I thought I knew what racism looked like until I arrived at Meridian, Mississippi for Navy A School. What I saw there made me understand the difference between bigotry through ignorance/lack of experience and true "we are better" racism.
I found back woods Pennsylvania was far more racist and had more rebel flags than anywhere in Mississippi. I lived in Mississippi twice and escaped twice. There are groups of racists, though most people in the state aren't, from what I saw as a white guy. Still, I'm sure it was worse than what I saw.
My coworker is from New York City and she moved here to southern IL. We were talking to the kids we work with about things to do during the summer and one kid said “go swimming in a pond”, and another said “go to monster truck jam”. Both pretty standard answers in my town. Her response was “we definitely aren’t on Long Island anymore”.
I grew up in Minneapolis. When I lived there, I knew people from all different backgrounds. Most of my friends were black or mixed races, and the people I knew all kinds of different religions. The areas I lived in were townhouses, so I was able to go outside and just find friends to play with. I always had something to do. I would take community classes like swimming, gymnastics, ice skating, and basketball.
Then, my parents moved to a small rural area in north central MN. We moved in the summer, so I didn't start school right away. The neighborhood was mostly old people, so I didn't meet kids until school started. The school was tiny, and some kids didn't like me because I was a "city" kid. They would often tell me stories about people they knew, and if I said I didn't know that person, they would go through the whole family tree. I finally learned to just say I know exactly who you are talking about. The demographics in my new town were pretty much all white families, mostly living on farms. I did eventually make a friend (who I am still friends with today). She lived on a dairy farm. I went to her house and helped her take care of the animals, and she even taught me to ride horses.
My experience wasn't really bad, just a huge adjustment in my lifestyle.
Not so much of a culture shock, but a landscape shock. I visited Seattle a couple of years ago, I grew up and live in the southeast. I remember driving past the trees and thinking, “I have no clue what those are.” I grew up in a rural area and can navigate nature well, or so I thought. But the difference in plants and wildlife made me feel so unbalanced and lost.
I had reverse culture shock when I was visiting my hometown. Hadn’t been there since the election. I moved away in 2013, before the election. Chicago is very very blue. I go home to Michigan to see conservatives driving around in their Trump-mobiles and then seeing DeSantis for president signs. At the wedding I was at I used the male bathroom since no one else was and there was a long line to the bathroom. This old guy got so mad.
I'm 62 and from NYS. My strangest moment was when I saw a Civil War display at a rest stop in rural Virginia and it explained that the war was fought for "state rights", never mentioning that the state right they were really talking about was the right to own other humans. Blew my mind. The 2nd strangest was overhearing an employee of a nature museum in South Carolina telling someone that they didn't believe in evolution. I'm sure I could hear both of these things, talking to someone up north, but I never have.
I’m from the northeast (NYC/NJ) and took a cruise out of Houston once. Most of the passengers were from the south or Midwest. Lots of country music at the karaoke. Sat with an older couple and they were surprised when we told them where we were from bc they met other people from our area and “they didn’t agree with our values.” I can only imagine what that meant.
I flew on a plane back to Atlanta from seeing my brother in Oakland and the guy next to me decked out in Raiders gear did a line of coke off the tray table so that was interesting. Honestly he was a pretty cool dude.
Oh one more - work trip in Chicago, someone orders pizza for lunch, I go over and it’s cut into squares. I’ve only had pizza cut into squares at kid parties lol I’m still not over it any time I visit Midwest.
I used to work for a hotel chain that has a lot of owners of southeast Asian lineage (mostly Indian). While I knew there are a lot of people of this background in the hotel industry, I never realized just how many there are until I attended the annual company conference. It was the first time ever I caught a glimpse of what it feels like to be a minority. The Asian attendees did outnumber the white attendees. To our company's credit, much of the food prepared was made to appeal to Asian taste buds - Indian cuisine, vegetarian and spicy. (There were other conference customizations made as well specifically for the Asian attendees, but the food is what sticks out most in my memory.)
Honestly, I thought it was kind of cool to be able to have the experience of not being of the dominant culture for once. It would be great if more white people could have the opportunity for this experience.
I moved from Texas, a place that is mostly German/Mexican/Czech heritage to Wisconsin for 2 years. My landlord's name was "Jan". I thought Jan was a woman as I've only heard it be short for "Janet". After a very confusing phone call, we both realized that I didn't know "Jan" was pronounced "Yawn" and that it was a man's name. Wisconsin was mainly settled by Scandinavians. A bigger shock when I moved to Boston and met people named "Aoife", "Lorcan", "Eileen", and "Ciaran". lol
When I first moved to West Virginia, I heard people talking about when they were going to do Halloween and I was like excuse me on the 31st right? And they’re like oh no the 31st is on Wednesday. You can’t do it then. I was like why can’t you do it on a Wednesday? That’s church night. What do you mean church night? They looked at me in absolute bafflement and said church night. I was like OK. You know what they had Halloween trick-or-treating on the 30th a Tuesday because they couldn’t do it on church night. I had never lived anywhere where they rescheduled Halloween, and I had never heard of Wednesday being church night.
I live in SC. Halloween being celebrated not on Halloween is very common here. I do not understand it. It’s one night. But I grew up in the mid Atlantic which always gave Nov 1st off for all saints day. So staying up late wasn’t an issue. I do find here that since it’s celebrated on so many days kids seem to not enjoy it so much. Like it’s just TOO much. They celebrate it every weekend in October.
I don't even really see how staying up late is even really much of an issue? When I was a kid, trick or treating started a little while before dark (4 or so) for the little kids, then older kids came out when it was dark then house lights would go out by 8 or so, signaling the end of trick or treating. Go home, sort candy, go to bed. Head to school in the morning and let the candy trades begin!
Yeah, they generally do Halloween like 530 to 730 or 6 to 8
I have heard of Wednesday night being “church night” for a lot of Protestant churches in my area. But I haven’t heard of Halloween being moved as a result. In fact, I’ve only ever heard about Halloween being moved (sometimes to the nearest weekend) on this sub. I’ve only ever seen Halloween celebrated on the 31st regardless of the day of the week.
Mt churches would do a fall festival with candy give aways. For some churches it was to avoid doing actual Halloween, for some it was just community outreach thing.
We were not allowed to trick or treat in my little religious town so we did trunk or treat at church. I loved it.
I grew up Lutheran and Wednesdays we had an extra service during Lent, but that's all
Yeah I grew up in rural-ish NC and they only started rescheduling it around church stuff when I was a teenager in the 2000s. Prior to that, only the weirdos prioritized church shit. Then I guess people started getting more strict or something and the churches started the “trunk ‘n treat” bullshit that’s just going car to car in a parking lot. I feel so bad for kids these days.
Wednesday night church is extremely common here in Oklahoma. Weird that you’d never heard of it in Texas. Would’ve thought that would have been the same
There’s a lot of Catholics in Houston. We don’t do Wednesday night church.
I’ve never heard of church night either, but the town I grew up in always chose to have their Halloween trick-or-treating night on a Sunday- regardless of what day the holiday actually fell on. Drove my family nuts, as our “church day” was Sunday, and my parents’ religion prohibits activities like working, or things that are not quiet and worshipful, on Sundays. Literally the one day a week we couldn’t participate, and our town insisted on having it on that day. Do you know how depressing it is to watch out the window while all your friends and neighbors run around outside in costumes, with tons of candy, while your mom puts a sign on the door to tell the trick-or-treaters you’re not celebrating? They’d ring the doorbell all afternoon and evening, drive our dog crazy. It was so sad. My mom petitioned the council one year and they finally, just the once, let us do Halloween on the day it actually fell on, a Saturday I think, still the weekend. The town rioted, never again. So we always just drove a town over to my mom’s friend’s neighborhood, which did Halloween on the day of. The people there were richer anyway, which meant more king-size bars for us.
So my city has Always done Halloween on Halloween. When I joined mom groups I was Shocked come October how many transplant moms were asking when people do Halloween! Like, on the day?!? Then I learned not everywhere does that. Some even just don't on the weekends apparently. Sure, there's trunk or treat on the weekends. One nearby country does one with county staff (police, EMS, hospital, local businesses, etc all volunteer) but that's a week before. Door to door has Always been day of though. Blew my mind.
I’m a teacher, I’ve worked in schools where we were encouraged not to give homework on Wednesdays for this reason.
So I’m guessing they do that in Tennessee as well. It must be an Appalachian thing because I’ve lived in the south and I had never heard of that.
>It must be an Appalachian thing because I’ve lived in the south and I had never heard of that. It’s pretty common in California as well. I’ve heard the same thing about avoiding scheduling big events for Wednesday night. I’m Catholic myself and, while there is usually a Wednesday mass, Wednesday isn’t some special “church day.” But for many of the other churches nearby it is.
It's a thing in central NC as well. I don't think it's usually like full service (though it can be), but it might be like youth groups and adult Bible studies and stuff. It's a very Protestant thing.
I grew up in Alabama it is very common here.
Wow, that’s crazy!!! They rescheduled Halloween because of church?! I could never even imagine that.
I remember when I was a kid I noticed that a lot of Protestant churches had a service on Wednesday night (I grew up Catholic, so I did not experience it directly.) This would have been in 1980s New England. When we have mid week programming at my Episcopal church, it’s on Wednesdays, which I assume is a vestige of Wednesday nights as “church night.”
You lived in Texas and Virginia and didn’t know Wednesday was church night? EDIT: It’s clear to me that even the southern Reddit users aren’t churched up enough
I’m from Houston and we have a lot of Catholics and I’m pretty sure we don’t do a Wednesday night church night. And when I lived in Virginia, I lived in an army base and lived in a fairly nice suburb. I don’t think we had evangelicals.
Wednesdays are usually youth group at Houston churches, at least in my experience. That, or a make-up day for people who can't attend Sunday service. That would definitely be a shock to me, too.
Lifelong Texan here and had no idea Wednesday night was church night.
Basically lived in VA my whole life. While my super catholic grandparents maybe had some sort of wednesday mass they attended, I've definitely never heard of this as a broad thing, certainly not something that would reschedule halloween. If someone told me something was "church night" my brain would definitely not supply "Wednesday" as the obvious translation.
I’ve heard of church night just because of Catholics and Nebraska (a northern portion of the Bible Belt - kinda) but never rescheduling Halloween. I can even recall as a kid doing Trick or Treating after many snowstorms because Halloween is on Halloween and I lived in the Colorado mountains. It snows there regardless of your plans.
I’ve lived in the Deep South and heard of church night. I did not grow up Christian and grew up in Atlanta so it wasn’t like everyone did Wednesday church night but it was enough that I was familiar with the idea
I live in south central Pa now and I never know what day they celebrate Halloween. Growing up in Virginia we celebrated it on Halloween, no question at all.
The Mormons do this all the time if a holiday falls on Sunday.
I grew up in the Midwest and then lived in California and the Pacific Northwest for the first 30 years of my life. When I moved to North Carolina and was driving through the eastern counties in peanut and cotton country, I was genuinely confused to see majority black small towns. It’s just not something you see up north or out west where rural communities are typically 95% white.
Yeah a lot of small towns in the south in the black belt are majority black, not just in the cities.
Given “sundown” laws during Jim Crow (and later), I guess this shouldn’t come as a surprise.
Many freeman villages came before Jim Crow. It’s good to remember that these large plantations had their own economies, neighborhoods, churches, and thus black communities. After the end of the war many stayed back at the plantation with their community as plantation culture slowly faded away or set up new communities to be with each other freely. There is a level of hope and optimism that you can see with these small black communities.
Oregon had some pretty terrible laws on the books back in the day too. It is no wonder the BIPOC community still feels reverberations of it, even today.
Sundown towns weren't near where the bulk of rural black folk lived. Then tended to be in the hill country that got a big boost of migration coming in as more indusrtry started coming in. There wasn't a realistically feasible way to have sundown towns in areas like the Black Belt.
I used to live in NC (from NYC) and stopped at a small rural convenience store and my attention was drawn to small plastic bags filled with what looked like white chalk and obviously home made. I'd heard about "dirt eaters" and it was the first time I actually saw it: [https://www.ncpedia.org/dirt-eaters](https://www.ncpedia.org/dirt-eaters) Evidently, it's a traditional west African food supplement and now I'm thinking I was in one of those majority black towns.
I’d never heard of that until now. Thanks!
You’d be surprised at the black population concentration in Appalachia as well. A lot of city folk would expect Appalachia to be pretty much only white people, some of my extended family never knew how diverse rural areas can really be
Doesn't surprise me at all. The white settlers of Appalachia were mostly English and Irish from the borderlands between those two countries (that's why feuds like Hatfield & McCoy were a thing). Many escaped slaves hid out in Appalachia because the landscape would make them harder to find. Take the folk music that the English and Irish brought with them. Combine that with the music of the escaped slaves. This is the origin story of Bluegrass music. Race was never a thing. Just lets play music. You do your thing, I'll do mine, and we'll adjust to make it all work together. Poor white folks and poor black folks not hating each other. We were doing this *before* the Civil War. I should stop here.
Really depends on the area and timeline though. My grandparents lived on the edge of it and were Shocked when more diverse people started moving in the late 90s/early 00s.
You get a mixed bag of small towns in the south. The community my dad grew up in is half black and half indigenous population wise. Then, a town few miles north of them is mostly white. There's a town by me that has a large biracial population since the black and white populations basically intermingled.
Honestly that was something that shocked me in reverse. I grew up in the Deep South. Seeing an all white town was pretty shocking to say the least when I was in MO for a bit. Didn’t really experience it in SoCal but that’s probably because SoCal has more Hispanic and people from all over.
When I lived in San Diego I had a girlfriend that was from Alabama. I grew up in Southwest Florida. One day she was looking at my high school yearbook and said something to the effect of "wow, there weren't many black people at your school were there?" which surprised me because I didn't think it was anything out of the ordinary. Like 15% or whatever the national average was. Then she showed me her yearbook, and I would say it was maybe 50% black. But on the other hand, hardly any Hispanic people.
Yep. PNW here and while we (very obviously) have black folks around here, between our distance from the south and the great migration route, the sundown laws in the entire state of Oregon and the redlining of Seattle, we don’t have a sizable black community comparative to other regions. My dad, born and raised here, is one of those people who thinks he’s super racially tolerant because he doesn’t use the N-word but is…not. Literally the first time we stepped off the plane in the east coast to visit my brother he loudly announced “WOW! LOOK AT ALL THE BLACK PEOPLE!!!” and then wouldn’t shut up about it the entire trip. Kept imply he was going to get robbed or murdered (which, to be fair, he always thinks but it was…escalated.)
Yep, this always confuses non-Southerners.
I mostly grew up in California. So when I moved to Pennsylvania, I was thoroughly shocked to find out that I had to go to an actual bar or beer distributor to grab a six pack, and I couldn't just get one from the local corner store or gas station. 😂
I’m from CA and had a friend in college from PA and she was so shocked that you could buy liquor in the grocery stores/gas stations/etc here. I didn’t even know you couldn’t in some other states!
It's crazy! I remember the first time I went to visit my parents back home after I moved here, I'd forgotten what it was like. I'd only lived here for probably 3-4 years at that time. I was hanging out at my brothers house with him and SIL, it was like 2300, and he tells me "Nik, I'm gonna go on a beer run, you coming?" I was like "OMG I FORGOT YOU CAN DO THAT HERE THIS LATE AT NIGHT!!! FUCK YES LET'S GO TO AMPM!!!" My mind was blown all over again 😂
I grew up in PA and live in NC now. The alcohol laws here are downright liberal compared to PA, and in retrospect the rules back then were ridiculous and puritanical. It’s slightly looser now; you can buy beer at only *some* convenience stores in PA, and even then it’s a 12-pack maximum (if you need a case or larger they still have beer distributors.) I was there a few months ago and my boyfriend went to three before finding a six pack.
My favorite story like this was sitting at the bar at a Tex-Mex joint before an Astros-Mariners game. I was in boots, the group next to me were also fat Tejanos, but they were in cowboy hats, and we were all chatting it up in Spanglish. The next group over was a couple of Seattle fans, the guy was in tie-die Grateful Dead sweatpants, and had a tattoo of a wildflower on his forearm, while his girlfriend was going with an Alice in Chains cropped-sweatshirt. It was pretty clear they had heard of maybe one of the dishes on the menu. We bought them a miche and helped them order, and a good time was had by all. Two different cultures doesn't mean we can't have a good time.
This is the most American thing ever
What's a miche? Google says it's a hair supply company.
Probably short for michelada, which is a drink made with with beer, lime juice, assorted sauces, spices, and chili peppers, and the presentation resembles a Mexican Bloody Mary.
Michealada is the shit, had my first one in guatamala
Michelada. A Mexican beer cocktail. The exact ingredients vary depend on region and social class, but they will always have beer, lime, and salt. Common additional ingredients include various combinations of Clamato, Worcestershire sauce, Tajín, hot sauce, chamoy, tamarind, sesame seeds, and ice.
Wow! That's a buffet all on its own.
Yeah it's kinda like a beer Bloody Mary.
I hope you were at Irma’s. Absolutely the best Mexican joint in the city - and pretty much next to the stadium.
It was Ninfa's.
Ok, I’ll accept that - but hopefully at least it was Ninfas on Navigation! Pretty decent second to Irma’s.
Good for you for knowing who the Grateful Dead is. As a born and bred American who is a Deadhead, I’m proud
Buying gas and beer in New Jersey was interesting.
growing up in NJ and then moving to the Midwest as an adult, it was super weird for me to see alcohol in grocery stores, gas stations, basically everywhere since in NJ you have to sell liquor in a a separate store, especially hard liquor. Seeing fireworks for sale in stores was also wild-- you can't buy them in NJ and anyone who wants to buy some has to drive over the PA line to get some. First time ever seeing a no-concealed carry sign on a door was in IL which was another novel experience. More niche, but after going to the Jersey shore growing up and dealing with high and low tide, it always seems wrong how close to the lake's edge people set up their stuff at the Great Lakes beaches! But since there's not a significant difference between high and low tide, it's not something beachgoers in the Midwest have to worry about
Yeah, I remember when I was on a trip with a friend to New Jersey and we stopped at a convenience store to look for some beer. Of course they didn’t sell any alcohol at all. We stopped at a grocery store after and again didn’t find any. This was way before smartphones or GPS. We ended up asking some old guy out in the parking lot
Visited the suburban Dallas metro area for work a few years back. My office was on the 2nd floor of an office building and I could not believe how far away you could see because the land was so flat.
I'm from Indiana, and before we got married, my wife visited my home town. My city's known for its churches and old art deco buildings, so I took her around town and to the top of one of the tallest buildings in town, this gorgeous art deco bank tower. She looks out the window and goes, "Whoah, the earth really is round!" I'm like, babe, you grew up on the coast. You've seen the horizon before. But in her language, there's different words for "land horizon," and "sea horizon," so it was literally just only the second time she'd ever seen the "land horizon," and it kinda tweaked her brain.
*laughs in Floridian*
You can stand on two phone books anywhere in Florida and get a view.
My ex was from a Cajun family and I went to a seafood boil being hosted by a family friend of theirs. It wanna say it was somewhere outside of Lake Charles? First time in my life I could not understand someone’s American accent. Seriously just had to smile and nod and rely on my boyfriend to whisper translations. [Closest thing I could find on YouTube](https://youtu.be/eKDh9Ce5WgI?si=lfD0sBHgb9LS79dY)
I've been here in Louisiana too long. I could understand every word he said.
I was expecting a super strong accent on that video, but it's not that bad.
I could understand it fine, but I could also see in a group of people all speaking like that while drinking and getting excited / having a good time it might become more unintelligible.
Same, I'm from southwest Alabama, and he spoke pretty clearly to me.
I live in the Bible Belt and that wasn’t that bad lol. I’ve met someone from my area with an accent so thick (was a mechanic) that I had to record what he said because I couldn’t understand him and I’d have to play it back later!
My proudest moment living in the south was when I perfectly understood a guy who sounded exactly like Boomhauer from King of the Hill. I rode that high for weeks.
I'm from NY and I could understand him easily. I was once somewhere in the Appalachians maybe TN, when I met someone whose accent i genuinely could not understand. a gas station cashier. had no idea what she was saying.
Yeah, true Appalachian folks have a really heavy accent, almost another language.
I grew up in the tx gulf coast and this accent barely registered as unusual haha
If the dude sounds like that, you know the boil is gonna be fire.
I lived in New Orleans for a year but didn’t meet many Cajuns there. I met a few when I was visiting a friend in Thibodaux and had no trouble talking with them. They sounded like this guy. I think it’s easier talking with someone in person than it is listening to them on line. Cajuns have an interesting history. They came to Louisiana when they were expelled from Acadia (now Nova Scotia) in Canada. Cajun = Acadian. Longfellow’s poem Evangeline has that history as its setting.
I'm from New Jersey and was on a trip to upstate New York with my boyfriend. I went to the supermarket and asked the clerk where the pork roll was. "Pork... *roll?*" And that's when I learned that pork roll is only a Jersey thing.
Is it like a salami? Or a sandwich?
it’s like taylor ham
This is the best answer ever lmao
My grocery store in Texas usually has two or three hanging out in the corner of the deli case for the transplants I suppose. I’ve eyeballed it often after seeing it mentioned on Reddit. Should I buy one? And if I do, what do I do with it? Sing me the pork roll song of your people.
You don't need to buy a whole log of it. Just have the deli slice it to about the thickness of a slice of bologna. Fry it up, and use it like you would use any other breakfast meat.
Yes. Buy it. I’m asked all the time what it is/tastes like. Basically, ham and bacon had a baby and created porkroll. DELICIOUS
I’ve lived in Atlanta pretty much my whole life but both my parents grew up in Jersey. My mom introduced me to pork roll as a kid because they actually sell it down here at Publixes. Started dating someone earlier this year who’s from upstate New York but her mom’s family is from Jersey so she knew what it was too. Only other person I’ve met that’s known that
When I lived in Los Angeles, a friend visited from Texas. When we were trying to decide where to go for dinner, he suggested that we just go out to a steakhouse, and we were at a loss. Other than high-end places like Morton’s (where there is a dress code and you should expect to spend $100+ per person) or the one rundown Sizzler remaining nearby (basically fast food prices, draw your own conclusions about quality) steakhouses were not a thing in that area.
Which is interesting, because being from South of the I-10 line in Texas, I got a culture shock that steakhouses were a thing in Illinois, because we don't really have those.
I'm from Illinois and I would have thought that a steakhouse would be a thing in Texas. What with all the cattle and everything. When I was a tour guide in Chicago one of my fellow guides said "were known for our steakhouses" And I was like "We are?" I literally thought that was like an everywhere thing
It was my uncle from Philadelphia asking where he could find a 'deli' to get lunch from in semi-rural Minnesota for me. Like they technically exist here but I don't think it's going to be the same experience
I'm from Philly/South Jersey and I have had to teach a guy how to make a hoagie in Oklahoma (well before Subway was a thing) just so I could have lunch. Even then it wasn't "right" cause of the bread, made me sad and homesick
Longhorn Steak House is a very reasonably priced steak joint. Last year, I went there and it was maybe $35 a person? Granted, I'm not sure where it's located outside of the I.E. But if Morton's isn't your jam, plenty of other places aren't dress code restricted. I recently went to Maestros in shorts and a T and wasn't turned away.
There aren’t any in Los Angeles, and the idea of driving 90 minutes each way for an okay steakhouse is a no thank you
Yeah, in California I have noticed a lot of steakhouses being on the high-end lately. Not just Morton's, but also places like Galpão Gaucho.
Every single restaurant ive encountered with 'Gaucho' in the name, including one in France and one in Austria, has been exorbitantly expensive. It's like they name it that just so patrons can make the 'Gouge-o' joke.
Taylor’s steakhouse fits that niche between high end bougie and Sizzlers
We were the only Asians in a grocery store in St. George, Utah. My mom, of course, chose to speak in Chinese. Cue all the white-haired old people looking in our direction. I don't think it was with malice, more unusual interest. I've just never been stared at that much in Southern California.
We’re white but from the Balkans and we’ve definitely gotten those looks in public when speaking in our language. I’ll never forget one time about 15 years ago a middle aged couple said to each other “people need to speak English if they’re going to live in America.” Motherfucker if I’m not speaking to you and you’re not part of the conversation it doesn’t matter which language I’m speaking in. You’re just being nosy as fuck cause you can’t eavesdrop.
My mother-in-law is of that mindset and it pisses me off to no end. She was going on and on once about her nephew moving to Europe and how part of his citizenship test was proving he could speak whatever nation's national language (I want to say it was Italy). She was adamant that US should do the same for English, despite her son and I telling her repeatedly the USA DOES NOT HAVE a national language.
I have lived in Pittsburgh my entire life. I have been on vacations, but had never left the time zone until last year. For my 40th, my son and I went to Hawaii last summer. We had a layover at LAX airport and had dinner while we were there. As we are eating my son said "I thought you said we weren't leaving the United States." And I said "we're not- we can't- we don't even have passports. We're going to Hawaii!" And he said "then how come no one here knows English." This was when I realized every table around us was speaking a different language amunst themselves. Some Spanish, some German, what I guessed to be Mandarin. It really dawned on me how sheltered we are and I said to my son "no dear, everyone here probably does know English. It's you and I who are different, we ONLY know English." The diversity of Los Angeles, CA in comparison to Pittsburgh, PA was astounding. I was certainly shocked.
Thats such an interesting cultural moment and I hope it resonates for your son similarly. It’s interesting for me personally bc I come from a small place in New England where I can hear 3-5+ different languages in the grocery store on any given day. This country is so interesting when even that is a regional difference.
I'm from Hawaii, and outside of a few individuals, had never really been around black people. We visited the mainland in 2006 and went to visit near where my mom's grandfather had grown up in Baltimore, which is in a neighborhood called Middle East. On the way there, we went through an area full of row houses where about half were completely abandoned, and the rest were slum level shitholes. Boarded up windows, liquor stores, all that. There was a heatwave at the time, and there were hundreds and hundreds of black people outside on their front steps and on the sidewalk (presumably because their houses were roasting hot). That was a culture shock going from never seeing more than 1 or 2 black people at a time to that.
I'm from Baltimore (still living here). Row houses are usually poorly insulated and are super hot or cold. Just 12 years ago my neighbors in my previous neighborhood slept outside during the summer. Now I have air conditioning, but I only use it during 88+ or a heatwave.
I remember when the first black family moved to my town. My first friend was black so it wasn’t a huge deal to me. But some of the town elders were just awful to that lovely family.
I spent a good chunk of my childhood in *rural*-farm country Ohio. Eventually we moved and I went to school where the Hispanic/Latino population was just ever so slightly larger than the White population. There was a sizeable minority of the Hispanic/Latino kids who barely spoke English or none at all. It felt weird at first going from a school where there were maybe 3-4 Latinos in a graduating class of 40 to them being the technical majority in a graduating class of hundreds. Speaking Spanish was discouraged as to "not leave people out", it was just assumed you were talking shit. But in my new school, hearing Spanish in the hallways was completely normal and even some teachers would talk in Spanish with students. I remember asking someone on my 3rd day of school for directions and he just looked at me and said "I no English." I genuinely didn't know how to react, just stood there for a moment and thought he was just fucking around. The idea that someone didn't speak English but being in school was such an unimaginable concept to me.
I spent some time time in Boston in the late 1960s and couldn’t find Mexican food anywhere. I finally found a bar in the Back Bay called Concanon and Sinnet that had what looked and tasted kind of like a Mexican plate. Also, restaurants in Boston didn’t serve iced tea in the winter. It was “out of season.” But I often saw students walking through Harvard Square eating an ice cream cone while it was snowing. The Boston experience was real culture shock for this Texas boy.
Oh the ice cream in winter thing. So back in the 90s when I was in high school I moved from Colorado to Nebraska. In Colorado you don’t let snow stop you from doing anything. If you did you would never do anything. So everyone ate ice cream and used their grills/BBQs all winter long - neither was seasonal. Moved to Nebraska and both were seasonal. The small town we were in thought we were incredibly weird for doing both. It’s better now, obviously, but it was super strange to me in high school.
Whenever I get into a new city at like 8pm and there are no restaurants open. Also when I when I went to college and there were kids who'd had their own cars for years already.
Restaurants closing early definitely is more common since Covid, but 8 PM is a stretch.
Downtown Sacramento on a Friday night pre Covid. Couldn’t find anywhere to eat after 8pm. Ended up having gas station snacks…
Kind of like when we went to St George, UT and Chili’s didn’t even serve alcohol. Some cities are very backwards and old fashioned.
Was staying there while visiting Zion NP solo since it was so much more affordable than Springdale and only found one place where I could sit at a bar to have a meal and a drink. My meal was mini corn dogs and tacos like you'd get from the frozen appetizers section and I had a couple cans of beer. A typical sports bar where you can get a fresh made burger and fries and drink draft beer was simply not a thing there at least near where I was staying
I could drive my dad's spare truck to school on a permit when I was 14, and bought my first car when I was 15.
It was jarring moving to California in terms of expected formality Growing up in New England/Washington DC, I had a standard level of “dressing up” for holidays. I moved here right before Thanksgiving and was invited to a family friend’s thanksgiving, for which I was super grateful. It was earlier in the day than I was used to, and they advised me it was more casual than I was used to. I wore slacks and a structured top from Banana Republic. When I came, everyone was in jeans and track suits. Very kind gesture and a fun Thxgiving (we watched crime movies and ate dinner early afternoon!), but completely different set of expectations. Ten years later and I’m engaged to a California boy, and I think I encourage him to dress a little nicer than he used to for his family holidays (they’re in the Bay Area, so we often do holidays with him). I am still usually the most dressed up person there. It’s very cute, because his great aunts like to see what I’m wearing to see what’s in style 😂 💚 Now when I go home, my family thinks I dress very west coast, and my mom is constantly sending me “Cali” clothes (I don’t correct her, lol). Oh, and blah blah regional pride, crabs. We can all fight about crabs. 🦀
> It was jarring moving to California in terms of expected formality We have daily flip flops and dress up flip flops in Southern California.
I’m from northeast Texas. People can say what they want but the level of racism I experienced in Missouri was **staggering**. To go into further detail: 1. I have never seen so many confederate flags in my life. They were everywhere in southern Missouri 2. I was eating at a public park (which was empty except for myself). An old lady kept staring from her window across the street. She apparently called the sheriff who drove up and made me leave - a PUBLIC park 3. Quote from a guy I met - “Do you guys actually really care if you’re called African American. I mean, ‘colored’ just rolls off the tongue easier 4. My Asian American friend, introduced himself to someone and he literally led by saying he was from Dallas. After he was done speaking, the first thing the lady replied was >“So what part of China are you from?” >Mind you - he never brought up china at all. I think he was of Vietnamese descent. >He replied “I’m from the Province of the Dragon.” >She replied “oh! I’ve been there before!” Yall…he pulled that out of his a**. It does NOT exist Edit: spelling
You’re def not joking about missouri being a racist shit hole state. That was the only time two strangers, two young blonde women, told me to “go back to my country” and that we were “taking over the country” while giggling as I was passing by. I was initially irked but after a few moments, decided to mess with them by stopping, looking back at them, giving them a wicked smile with a gleam in my eye, and telling them “That’s right. We’re taking over. Better get used to it.” Their faces turned pale after that comment. The more mature thing to do would have been ignoring them but oh well no regrets. That was 16 years ago.
I literally argued with coworkers about what region Missouri belongs to. It was a slave state. I don’t care that it gets cold and people say Ope. The two major cities are famous for BBQ. It’s the fucking south.
Wait how can they make you leave a public park? I mean if you were like stalking people that's one thing, but just eating?
The sheriff literally walked up to me and she said “we got a call and you are disturbing the peace so I am going to need you to leave.” I was 19 and not brave enough to argue
That's crazy. Sorry that happened to you.
Probably for the best.
My parents were born in the 30s. For them, "colored" was the polite/proper/PC way of describing black people. I did try telling them a few times that's not the right term to use anymore but it didn't have any effect. I will admit, I couldn't help but be amused at hearing "colored" in a non-hateful way.
I’ve only been to MO a few times. And those times I was either in St Louis or Ft Leonardwood. The area right outside the base was a dump and I really felt like I was in the middle of nowhere. I’ve yet to go back to MO.
I’m a firefighter for a large fire department and when I promoted to captain I was assigned to a new area that had a very poor Indian reservation. My first time running a call on the res was like stepping foot in a third world nation. I have spent most of my career in very low socioeconomic places with very large homeless populations but nothing prepared me for the level of poverty that I saw over my two years there.
I’ve never been to any myself, but in Rockland County (just north of NYC) there are a few tiny communities where only ultra-Orthodox Jews live. The cultural difference between them and mainstream American culture is astounding. People barely speak English, all of the signs are in Yiddish (I believe). Men and women walk on opposite sides of the street, there are signs and everything. Everybody wears traditional clothing always. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there are one or two communities on a place called Fire Island that are extremely progressive LGBTQ hotspots. If you’re not visibly queer, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb most of the time. They don’t allow cars, so people walk everywhere on boardwalks.
Yiddish is correct. Actually a lot of words we use in English like chutzpah, schlep, schnoz, Bagel, Bupkis, Glitch, klutz, schlong, Schmuck, Schmooze, shtick, and spiel all come from Yiddish
"If you’re not visibly queer, you’ll stick out like a sore thumb", was just there yesterday and can confirm. Place is a ton of fun though even if you're not queer.
My ex’s family served squirrel for Christmas dinner
Hopefully more than just one. Not much meat there.
“No firearms allowed” signs on business doors.
Hearing soda called "pop" in Michigan was wild to me as a kid.
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Demographic changes are always interesting. In California there are basically no Afro Latinos so when I go to NYC I am always taken aback momentarily when black people start talking to me in Spanish.
I was attending a large national convention in Texas, there were people there from almost every state and a few people from other countries. When I would talk to other attendees I would ask where they were from. Almost every one would say their home state a few would say their city if it was a well known city in their state. Except the people from NYC, most of them would tell me the name of their neighborhood and some of them would tell me what street they lived on, often saying how far they were from some local landmark. When they asked me were I was from I told them my street name and 1.7 miles from the new Walmart.
After not living in my native South for about twenty years, went home and stayed with my brother for a week. Last night we'd be there, they asked me to cook dinner. We settled on spaghetti because everyone would eat it, and it was easy to cook for a crowd. I visited five or six grocery stores - and found exactly no Italian sausage. Entire lowboys filled with a different brands of sausage (what not Southerners call breakfast sausage), but no Italian sausage whatsoever. It's gotten better nowadays as the town has gotten more cosmopolitan, but it's still 7-8 brands of sausage to 2 of Italian. (One national, one generic.)
I accidentally found a holler in West By God Virginia one time while camping and 4 wheeling. We came upon homes with concrete walls, gate, barbed wire, and broken glass on the top of the wall, along with cameras. Half mile down the road, someone was watching us drive by to make sure we were leaving the area. There were several homes, and eyeballs that we passed. It was as back woods, Appalachia looking as you can picture, but worse.
There’s a place in Tennessee called Lynch Hollow and there’s a pop up camper with an “addition” put on the side of cinderblocks and some fill. Yes, they added a permanent structure to a pop up camper. It’s wild.
I was talking with a friend from Texas about Philly schools and had mentioned something about how a bunch of my coworkers kids go to Friends schools instead of public schools. She looked at me super confused and asked if that was like homeschooling amongst a friends group or something. Thats when I learned that there aren’t Friends/Quaker schools everywhere in the country (like there are Catholic schools). She also didn’t realized that Quakers still existed when I pointed out that the closest meeting house was a few blocks away
Just a small one because I haven really experienced it much. I never really left the east coast until I went to Denver for a concert. I went to check in at the hotel and someone asked where I'm from. I said Baltimore. Well I've never really noticed I sound like a dummy before until this guy is like "Where the hell is Voldemort Merlin?" I'm like shit, I'm just like the Aaron earned an iron urn guy.
lmao thank you for reminding me of that
Paying at any gas station or convenience store in Nevada and NOT seeing rolls of lottery tickets under the cashiers glass counter
"Yes, ma'am. Thank you, ma'am." Says me (the Alabamaian) to my new neighbor (the Marylander). Her, "Don't call me ma'am. I'm not that old." _The woman who has 3 daughters that are my age. She has 8 grandchildren. She has grey hair, false teeth, and wears glasses._ This was a repeated occurance with all women while I lived there. I tried so hard to not say ma'am. It's just how we identify unknown females in the south. You could be my 16 year old waitress, my same age bank teller, or the older woman walking out the door behind me. I'm gonna call you ma'am as a sign of RESPECT! Thank you ma'am as my drinks are delivered. Have a good day ma'am, after you hand me my cash. You're welcome ma'am, as I hold the door for you.
People in Minnesota are so reluctant to call women 'ma'am' that I think I actually get mistakenly called 'sir' more often
> It's just how we identify unknown females in the south. Known and unknown, really.
I grew up in the Deep South so to me the biggest culture shock was the climate. I absolutely loved the fact that humidity didn’t exist in SoCal when I was stationed in California. Also SoCal is a world of its own. If I had the money I’d totally live in San Diego. Great weather, great food, great beaches. Though I will say the cold water was a bit of a shock come from the Deep South where the gulf is fairly warm.
Many years ago I was in rural northern Texas and went to a restaurant with an old friend who I helped move down there. It was funny when the waiter thought we were Canadians due to our accents\* and it was very nice when they changed the channel to hockey for us. I ordered a beer and they said "ok hold on a minute" and came back with a goddamned clipboard and some paperwork. Apparently it was a dry county and to order alcohol you had to be a member of a "club". I had no idea that things like dry counties still existed. I honestly thought of all that as some 19th century nonsense. \*for outlanders, accents in Michigan and Canada are very different, most Michiganders will speak with some degree of Inland Northern which is part of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift. Canadians are largely unaffected by the NCVS.
My friend is from Michigan and I used to tell him he sounded like he had a Canadian accent because of the whole ABOOT thing
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I moved from PA to CA and they made fun of how I said, like, every noun that's a consonant + A, like "half". It's not "haef", it's "haaaahhhve". It really was like moving to a different country, the food is different, what's considered polite/rude in casual conversation is different, how people are treated at work and in medical settings (with respect) is different. I had to learn to read passive aggression (massive aggression) bc back east, if they don't like you, they just tell you, or call you fat. It's much simpler.
I’m from New Orleans and I get culture shock every time someone refuses to give me a “go cup” for my unfinished drink when I leave a bar/restaurant - or when I hear the term “last call”.
I got out of my car at a gas station in Oregon and the attendant ran outside like he was going to lose his job.
Meeting a Southern guy who firmly believed that most Americans outside cities sympathize with the Confederacy.
Oh yikes
They’re definitely fringe-right wing, and very wrong
I lived in the South most of my life and never met that kind of idiot.
I think they get more vocal when they get up here
The number of churches while living in/driving through the South.
1 for every denomination while in a town and thats bare minimum
And there’s always a standard format for naming: 1st (Town name here) (Denomination here) Church.
I'm from Florida, and every part of the US feels pretty distinct from the other. Boston: The architecture was really old and beautiful. All brick and brownstone. It reminded me a lot of Europe. Everything in Florida that's built up is brand new, so it gives a very different vibe to the cities. Also, the nightlife was very much pub culture, which is very different from Florida. Also, how pedestrian friendly everything was in the city. Every driver stopped the second I put my foot on the asphalt, unlike back home where you kinda gamble with your life whenever you do that. The contrast was especially noticeable when we went really far on the red line and ended up in a more car centric area, and it was so uncomfortable and difficult just crossing the street. Austin: This probably applies to all of Texas and other parts of the Southwest but God damn it was crazy for me that cowboy hats, cowboy boots, and big ass belt buckles were a legitimate fashion statement. I feel like in other parts of the US (especially the east coast) those things are viewed in a comedic manner, so they're typically only worn to be funny or ironic. In Texas, everyone, where's that stuff, and they're all very into it. I was watching this one girl show off her bedazzled black and white cowboy boots, and it was just incredibly strange to me. Also, everything looked intentionally rundown. Like using tires and sheet metal as part of the aesthetic for everything.
IMO, in Austin, everybody wears that stuff as a hipster statement, and you can wear it "ironically" pretty easily. In the rest of the state, boots are a thing everybody wears, but a hat or a belt buckle needs to feel "earned" so to speak
I haven’t seen the earned hat as much, but the belt buckle thing I 100% have seen. For example, my best friend was incredibly proud to have won his first buckle from a Livestock show. Sure you can wear one before that, but it’s a whole sort of thing to be able to wear a buckle you won or otherwise earned, especially down here.
Colorado City AZ… maybe 20 years ago was my first time going through there. It’s still weird AF but way different now. Check the Wiki on it if you don’t know it’s history.
I'll sum it up for everyone else: Mormons
Fundamentalists. Most people wouldn't have a problem living in a town that was mostly all Mormon. It's the Fundamentalist Mormons I'd never want to live near.
Yup. “Pligs” as we call them around here. What went down in Colorado City was waaaaaay beyond just “Mormon”.
Fundamentalist Mormons whom do polygamy. Even mainstream Mormons can’t stand them.
Fundamentalist Mormons whom do polygamy. Even mainstream Mormons can’t stand them.
There is a good podcast series about this called Short Creek (old name for the town)
Growing up in the suburbs of Houston where I had a corn field behind my house and cattle in pasture across from my new high school traveling to a major city with real public transportation was a revelation. I spent a summer semester in London and learned public transit there first then ended up in NYC. For reference growing up I was only allowed to go where I could ride my bike to. The only location I could go to was a strip mall with a grocery store, Chinese restaurant, pizza place, comic book store and a blockbuster. I cannot fathom the people that grow up in cities with access to free museums and public transportation and do not use it. We were so bored growing up.
Many years ago, I was in college at Texas A&M. My buddy asked me to drive him to Seguin to pick up a car that his brother was giving him. We’re both from San Antonio, so this was just a short road trip. I had never been to this area near Seguin and we got lost. We walked in to a rural bar just like in a movie where you don’t know anyone. One of us was wearing an A&M T-shirt. The whole bar stopped talking when we walked in. The bar tender asked if we were Aggies - we said yes. This is just like in a movie - it went from dead silent to them buying us drinks and the music starting back up, lol! An Aggie is a student attending Texas A&M, btw.
When I moved from the Chicago area to a small town in West Georgia, the food was all so different. Lots of BBQ joints, "meat and three" restaurants (which all have exactly the same menu - Southern). Iced tea is like syrup. You have to make a point to order "unsweet tea." And there's no root beer at the restaurants. Grits, however, are at every breakfast place.
The first time I met my then girlfriend from Alabama's parents we went to a restaurant and I asked for unsweet tea, since I can't stand just how much sugar is in sweet tea. You would think I dropped my pants and yelled I'm an atheist.
Only thing I can think of is when I moved from a small town in California to a medium sized town/city in Washington. Maybe its more of a small town vs large town thing instead of a cultural thing. But how the police treat everyone else. In my hometown, everyone knew pretty much everyone else, including the cops. So when you would get in trouble the police would often give you a slap on the wrist so to speak or do something like call your parents instead of taking you to jail. When I moved to Washington (and a larger town), that's when the police became hostile and corrupt. Was a rude surprise when I got pulled over and the cop started swearing like a sailor, belittling me, etc. Basically trying to goad me into saying/doing something so he can either take me to jail or shoot me/assault me. instead of just saying "Hey I noticed your break light was out. I'd get that fixed."
I'm Native Hawaiian. when i went to vegas, several Latino Families thought my fam was Latino and kept trying speak to us in spanish. you'd think with the large Hawaiian community in vegas, they would know we were Hawaiians.....
I grew up in California. Going elsewhere, I started wondering why there were official stickers being placed in windshields. You just don't do that. State liquor stores. Those are just so, so creepily overreaching to me. Texan mega churches. New Jersey catering halls. But the biggest one for me in New Jersey was the PBA plaque. You donate to the police, display a giant PBA badge in your windshield (again with the windshield), and it acts like a get-out-of-a-ticket-free card?? I mean, no wonder there's such a history of corruption in the state government if this sort of thing is normalized!
I am from New York state and recently visited West Virginia for a few days. The thing that shocked me the most is that there is almost no recycling whatsoever anywhere. I figured it was routine for everyone nowadays
Experiencing dry counties or, at least, not being able to buy alcohol on Sundays. I went to northern Georgia for work and visited a nearby lake for my day off. Went to buy some beer and the display case was locked. The clerk just laughed at me. Also, in California you can buy beer, wine, liquor in any grocery store and even Costco any day of the week. Many states you can’t do that.
When I was in high school our choir got to travel to NYC and sing at Carnegie Hall. While we were up there we went to some basic chain restaurant. They asked me what I'd like to drink and I ordered sweet tea. They looked at me like I had 3 heads and said "Uh...I have raspberry tea. Or I could bring you unsweetened tea and some sugar packets?" I went with a soda instead obviously lol, but that's when I learned sweet tea is only a southern thing. Edited to say this probably isn't the biggest thing, but it was one of the first.
Going from the South to the North it was a bit of a shock how open (parts of) the North are about money. Like openly negotiating how to split a restaurant check, or complimenting someone on something they're wearing and then asking where they got it and how much it costs. The weird-ass alcohol laws in different parts the country always get me too. Nothing like getting yourself all dressed up and paying for an Uber to arrive at a bar AFTER last call. The third thing was learning the difference between Southern nice, Northern nice, Midwest nice, and West Coast nice. In a nutshell: SOUTH: * Formalized politeness more than niceness, expect formalized politeness back (follow the rules) * Highly tribal, but kind to outsiders who show respect for the tribe NORTH: * Act brusque or distant or even rude, but will help you if you need help and treat you fairly. "Niceness" based on actions rather than words or attitude * Lower level of tribality, especially among younger people MIDWEST: * True friendliness more than formalized politeness, but highly tribal. Even more tribal than the South. Suspicious of outsiders, but rarely openly hostile. WEST COAST: * Pretend friendliness * Highly transactional relationships * Almost no tribality * Will walk right past you as you bleed to death in the street, but will smile and wave hello
Grew up in rural central Pennsylvania. I thought I knew what racism looked like until I arrived at Meridian, Mississippi for Navy A School. What I saw there made me understand the difference between bigotry through ignorance/lack of experience and true "we are better" racism.
I found back woods Pennsylvania was far more racist and had more rebel flags than anywhere in Mississippi. I lived in Mississippi twice and escaped twice. There are groups of racists, though most people in the state aren't, from what I saw as a white guy. Still, I'm sure it was worse than what I saw.
My coworker is from New York City and she moved here to southern IL. We were talking to the kids we work with about things to do during the summer and one kid said “go swimming in a pond”, and another said “go to monster truck jam”. Both pretty standard answers in my town. Her response was “we definitely aren’t on Long Island anymore”.
Wait was she from the city or long island, those are different
I grew up in Minneapolis. When I lived there, I knew people from all different backgrounds. Most of my friends were black or mixed races, and the people I knew all kinds of different religions. The areas I lived in were townhouses, so I was able to go outside and just find friends to play with. I always had something to do. I would take community classes like swimming, gymnastics, ice skating, and basketball. Then, my parents moved to a small rural area in north central MN. We moved in the summer, so I didn't start school right away. The neighborhood was mostly old people, so I didn't meet kids until school started. The school was tiny, and some kids didn't like me because I was a "city" kid. They would often tell me stories about people they knew, and if I said I didn't know that person, they would go through the whole family tree. I finally learned to just say I know exactly who you are talking about. The demographics in my new town were pretty much all white families, mostly living on farms. I did eventually make a friend (who I am still friends with today). She lived on a dairy farm. I went to her house and helped her take care of the animals, and she even taught me to ride horses. My experience wasn't really bad, just a huge adjustment in my lifestyle.
Not so much of a culture shock, but a landscape shock. I visited Seattle a couple of years ago, I grew up and live in the southeast. I remember driving past the trees and thinking, “I have no clue what those are.” I grew up in a rural area and can navigate nature well, or so I thought. But the difference in plants and wildlife made me feel so unbalanced and lost.
I grew up in NH where I wouldn’t see another Black person for like a month. I moved to Philly and I’m loving my ability to just blend in
I had reverse culture shock when I was visiting my hometown. Hadn’t been there since the election. I moved away in 2013, before the election. Chicago is very very blue. I go home to Michigan to see conservatives driving around in their Trump-mobiles and then seeing DeSantis for president signs. At the wedding I was at I used the male bathroom since no one else was and there was a long line to the bathroom. This old guy got so mad.
As a California it is super weird to be in deeply religious areas such as the Bible belt or salt lake city.
I'm 62 and from NYS. My strangest moment was when I saw a Civil War display at a rest stop in rural Virginia and it explained that the war was fought for "state rights", never mentioning that the state right they were really talking about was the right to own other humans. Blew my mind. The 2nd strangest was overhearing an employee of a nature museum in South Carolina telling someone that they didn't believe in evolution. I'm sure I could hear both of these things, talking to someone up north, but I never have.
Growing up fully Midwestern, trying to keep up with the speed and self congratulatory vibe of Bostonians and east coasters was a fun treat.
I’m from the northeast (NYC/NJ) and took a cruise out of Houston once. Most of the passengers were from the south or Midwest. Lots of country music at the karaoke. Sat with an older couple and they were surprised when we told them where we were from bc they met other people from our area and “they didn’t agree with our values.” I can only imagine what that meant.
Went to a graduation party in rural Michigan. I'm white but that party was white white.
I flew on a plane back to Atlanta from seeing my brother in Oakland and the guy next to me decked out in Raiders gear did a line of coke off the tray table so that was interesting. Honestly he was a pretty cool dude.
Oh one more - work trip in Chicago, someone orders pizza for lunch, I go over and it’s cut into squares. I’ve only had pizza cut into squares at kid parties lol I’m still not over it any time I visit Midwest.
I used to work for a hotel chain that has a lot of owners of southeast Asian lineage (mostly Indian). While I knew there are a lot of people of this background in the hotel industry, I never realized just how many there are until I attended the annual company conference. It was the first time ever I caught a glimpse of what it feels like to be a minority. The Asian attendees did outnumber the white attendees. To our company's credit, much of the food prepared was made to appeal to Asian taste buds - Indian cuisine, vegetarian and spicy. (There were other conference customizations made as well specifically for the Asian attendees, but the food is what sticks out most in my memory.) Honestly, I thought it was kind of cool to be able to have the experience of not being of the dominant culture for once. It would be great if more white people could have the opportunity for this experience.
I moved from Texas, a place that is mostly German/Mexican/Czech heritage to Wisconsin for 2 years. My landlord's name was "Jan". I thought Jan was a woman as I've only heard it be short for "Janet". After a very confusing phone call, we both realized that I didn't know "Jan" was pronounced "Yawn" and that it was a man's name. Wisconsin was mainly settled by Scandinavians. A bigger shock when I moved to Boston and met people named "Aoife", "Lorcan", "Eileen", and "Ciaran". lol