Well, the Wisconsin post proved so controversial/popular, that I decided to look up similar items for other Midwestern states. I'm starting with North Dakota. The mother lode of these ND kernels of wisdom is Plainsfolk.com. Check it out....there's LOTS more than the following:
You might be from North Dakota if....
People borrow things to you.
You have as many Canadian coins as American ones in your pocket.
You refer to the blessed union of an ELCA Lutheran and a Missouri Synod Lutheran as a "mixed marriage.
Your favorite hors d'ourve is little cocktail wienies in BBQ sauce served in a crockpot.
The idea of snow in June doesn't surprise you.
Your husband thinks sexy lingerie is a flannel nightgown with only eight buttons.
Your Easter bonnet has ear flaps.
You say "headbolt heater" and even a two-year-old knows what you're talking about.
You go to Miami on vacation in July and take along a jacket, just in case...
You don't think it's cold unless your nose hairs stick together when you breathe.
You realize that lefse and tortillas look alike but all similarity stops there.
Your transplanted uncle in Oregon asks you to bring a bottle of Everclear when you visit.
You need raisins for a recipe and there is NOT ONE RAISIN IN TOWN, so you pick them out of the Raisin Bran.
You refer to hair as "hairs" ("I can't do a thing with 'em!")
Your address is 67th St SW, and you live on a farm two miles south of Carson.
You can leave your purse wide open on the bar when you go to the ladies room.
You call the Capitol and the Governor answers.
If last year's New Year Baby in your town was born in June.
If you knew how to drive a tractor before you could read.
You don't think of the Bible when somebody talks about the Great Flood.
You can get fresh fish delivered right to your door in Fargo every spring in the original water.
One of my favorite facts is that they keep loaner overcoats (eight of them) at the Bismarck airport for people who arrive there in the winter and did not realize how cold it actually gets in North Dakota.
ReplyDeletei think your father is pulling your leg!
ReplyDeleteSeriously! It was an item on Good Morning America one day. (Is that show still going?)
ReplyDeleteThese You must be from ------ are so funny, but usually appropriate. About a year ago I got one on Arizona; wish I had kept it.
ReplyDeleteI laughed out loud at the "hairs" item.
ReplyDeleteIn French, hair is literally plural ("les cheveux") and it is not uncommon here in New Brunswick to hear francophones make that translation into English. For example Husband's secretary at his old job used to greet him sometimes with, "Your hairs! You got them cut!"
For similar linguistic reasons, it is not uncommon to hear francophones say in English that a friend "just got her baby" (instead of "just had her baby") or reminding you to "close the lights" (instead of "shut off the lights").
One of the reasons I love living in a bilingual province so much.
peggy: i have not watched morning television since the 1970s! i presume GMA ia still going, but ver vaist?
ReplyDeletedarlene: oh, my...you threw it out?
ronnie: "hairs" is heard mostly in SW north dakota among the deutschen von russen (the ones the germans call russians, and the russians call germans). i don't think there is one purely french person in all of ND. there ARE plenty of people with french names, but they are descendants of folks from - tada - canaydia! i know you talk funny up there, even when it's english.
Talk funny??? Watcha mean by dat?
ReplyDeleteshammy: what am i talking aboot? eh...
ReplyDeleteLove these! Makes me realize how long it's been since I lived there.
ReplyDeleteThe D.N.