I moved to a different region for a job. On the first day the boss’s spouse asked me if I would like to join them for a shag that night and if I liked Persians.
It turns out that a shag meant a fundraising social gathering at a hall with beer, raffles and dancing (I wonder if the idiom was picked up from the other end of the blues highway, referring to a style of dancing) and a persian was a cinnamon sweet roll with fruity frosting on top.
If you had moved there from Great Britain, that could have led to a ‘Three’s Company’ style misunderstanding 
It did. Canadian and GB usage is the same when it comes to shagging.
“Upstate” in New York is anything north of Westchester County (the county just north of NYC). I don’t think any other state uses that term.
When I moved to NYC, I had to learn that “downtown” didn’t mean the center of town. but a direction, southward, toward Lower Manhattan, as opposed to “uptown.”
And I had to learn to say “soda” instead of “pop.” 25 years later, when I had to relocate back here, I had to re-learn “pop.”
And don’t even ask me about the “Mary/marry/merry” thing.
In Minnesota, Up Nort’ is anything north of the Twin Cities, primarily cabin / vacation land. Even though the family cabin is more west than north, we still say going Up to the cabin or Up Nort’.
My kid, who lives substantially south of the Twin Cities, has mentioned she now has to clarify that when she is coming up north to see me, she clarifies she’s coming to The Cities. If she says up north to see family, people presume she means Nort’ north, like Brainerd or Bemidji.
We don’t do Cheerios, either. It’s either doing donuts or doing shitties.
And we “Ope!” a lot. A lot a lot.
Same here–grew up in Ann Arbor in the 70s/80s, and “Bogue” was definitely a junior high (not “middle school”) and high school thing.
For example, if someone got in trouble at school and received a heavy handed punishment from the teacher, another kid might say “that’s booooooogue” in a low and slow voice.
About “middle school” – I think that term must be more generational than regional. I looked at Google Street View of my old junior high school and was surprised to see the name changed from “XYZ Junior High” to “XYZ Middle School”
Yes, my Junior High changed to a middle school too, right in midstream for me. I was in the last class to go to “Junior High”, which used to be 7th-8th-9th grade, then High School was a a 3-year 10th-11th-12th grade run. I did only a 2 year Junior High stint, 7th and 8th grade, then mine was the first class to do 9th grade in my high school.
I would have been very disappointed and most likely improperly dressed when I arrived.
I spent my formative first 8 years in southeastern Wisconsin, and as such, referred to any drinking fountain as a bubbler just as any normal Wisconsonian in that region did. Then we moved to Michigan in 1965, and I quickly discovered that to ask to go to the bubbler for a drink made me stand out, and not in a good way.
After I returned full time to WI back in 1983 ATMs had become a thing. The regional system named their ATMS TYME machines, for “Take Your Money Everywhere”. Going out of the state and asking at the hotel or service plaza etc I was visiting on my travels for the location of the nearest “TYME machine” got lotsa laffs.
“Upstate” in New York is a relative term, as follows:
For people in or south of Westchester County, all the rest of the state is indeed Upstate (and it’s Upstate that’s the pejorative, if there’s such a tone involved, which there might or might not be). However, if the person using the term is north of there, then the line between Upstate and Downstate is generally 20 to 50 miles south of wherever they are, and it’s Downstate that’s pejorative if there’s such a tone involved.
I’m in the Finger Lakes. Dutchess County, north of Westchester, is most definitely downstate from here; and we’re upstate [ETA: according to us] – but we’re not upstate to people in, for instance, Putnam County. [ETA: whoops, no, I don’t mean Putnam! What am I thinking of – by the time I find it the edit window will run out.]
I think so too. I never heard the term when I was the age to be there; we had grade school, junior high, and high school. High school started at grade 9; junior high was grades 7 and 8. (Pre-kindergarten, by any term, was unheard of.)
I had the same discovery when I moved to Chicago in '89. “Time machine? What’d’ya mean?” (Here, the brand name for the local ATM network was “Cash Station.”)
I was thinking of St. Lawrence; and how I turned that in my head into way-downstate-from-here Putnam I have no idea.
Around 1976, Michigan had strict laws about what meats could be used in hot dogs: Skeletal meat only. (The law was later rewritten so the people of Michigan could enjoy abattoir floor sweepings like everyone else.) Anyway - in Montreal one could buy either “regular hot dogs” or “Michigan hot dogs”.
In Rhode Island a milkshake was also called a “cabinet”, because the ingredients were kept in a refrigerated cabinet under the counter.
Hogie, 'po boy, grinder, submarine sandwich…
Anyone here familiar with the Canadianism “a gitch” for a pair of underpants? As a kid, I wore briefs (I switched to boxer briefs early in my final year of high school). I took physical education the one year that it was compulsory - in grade 9 - and some boys who saw my choice of underwear in the changeroom thought it was odd. At some point, one of the jocks mocked me for it: “Ha! themapleleaf wears a pair of gitches!” I figured it was a slang term for briefs, but didn’t think further of it. Years later, I used the term “gitches” on an Internet forum, and people didn’t know what I was talking about! Someone stated that a gitch was a kind of bird.
In fact, I only recall hearing the term “gitch” used on one other occasion, by a guy who I believe will soon be turning 60. It seems to be a Canadianism that has long lost currency (sort of like saying “chesterfield” for a sofa - people who were young in Canada in, say the 1960s and possibly somewhat later, would commonly have used this term, but I myself would never use it - I’m 41).
Oh wow. How funny. I had no idea “Cash Station” was, first, a brand name and, second, a regional term. I just thought language shifted and “cash stations” just became “ATMs.”
My first wife was from Virginia, and my first trip out there we were coming out of the market and across the parking lot was a store with just a big ABC on it. Having grown up in California I had never heard of a state liquor store and my then wife had to explain it to me when I asked her if we could buy a vowel.
South Carolina has an “upstate” which I think is usually referred to as “the upstate.” It’s the counties around Spartanburg in the far northwest corner of the state.
–Ulf, whose NY county is considered upstate by downstaters and downstate by upstaters
And as a former Chicagoan I agree completely with @pulykamell regarding Italian beef. It may not be universally known but it really oughta be. I also grew up with “come/go with” and was surprised to find it unknown in the Northeast. Did not use “gangway” though–not sure I had a word for that one.
I grew up in Madison and don’t remember hearing “bubbler”. TYME machine was ingrained into me, though, and if I’m not thinking it’ll still slip out now and then.
“Bubbler” seems to be a hyper-localized term, limited to the far eastern part of Wisconsin (along the lakeshore, and thus, further east than Madison), plus parts of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
