Because they’re trying to flap their Rs but failing?
A friend of mine from Maine calls her front yard the dooryard.
See post #60.
Ah, my apologies. I obviously missed that one.
I’ve always heard it pronounced “shuh-reese” in Rhode Island. I’ve never heard the other pronunciation.
I was thinking about the time thing before bed last night. I have a clear memory of sitting in my second grade classroom with a worksheet filled with clocks, and our task was to label them properly as quarter past, half past, and quarter of/to whatever hour the clock showed us.
Since we were taught time that way, it strikes me as strange that I could tell someone from elsewhere that it’s quarter of four and have them not understand me.
Actually - I grew up hearing my Grammy call it “birfday” - and she was well over six 
She just had a hard time translating her words into English.
As for “Grammy,” my Portuguese relations go by VoVo and VuVu and my sister-in-law goes by TiTi (aunt). They had not really heard of Grammy until they married in - just sayin’
My mother, for some reason that eludes my brothers and I, requires the much more formal “Grandmama”
shakes head then shrugs
Leda Lanes was still there last time I checked, about two years ago. Still prefer tenpin.